Big planet

The planet is close to the Earth under conditions, and a person can live on it. The diameter of the planet is about 40 thousand kilometers, close to the diameter of Uranus and Neptune. However, the planet consists of light materials, there are almost no metals on it, so iron there is a huge deficit and the most popular currency. The planet’s population is made up of the descendants of its first colonists from various groups who moved there: primitivists, anarchists, sectarians, misanthropes and others who wanted solitude. The territory of the planet consists of huge undeveloped spaces and tiny groups and states. The land set an embargo on the production and sale of modern weapons. There is a Territory of the Earth on the planet: a representative office, a technical school, a university for those who want to get an education and return to Earth.

A spaceship with a commission of specialist scientists is sent to the Big Planet. One of the main goals of the commission is to investigate and possibly nip the activities of Charlie Lissider, who bears the title of Badjarnum Bujuleys (leader of the Grossgart empire), who is expanding his empire, constantly breaking the embargo on the import of weapons and metals. Since clandestine production of weapons is almost impossible, his people obtain weapons by thefts from Sistema's plants or by robbing ships and stations. Bujuleis is active in the slave trade, selling people to the Kingdom-for-One (small worlds captured by the wealthy kings).

The ship crashes near Grossgart due to the conspiracy of several traitors. The chairman of the commission, Claude Klaistra, decides to go to the Territory of the Earth, located 40 thousand km from the crash site. With a sudden blow, scientists disarm the detachment from Grosgart, who went to intercept the earthlings, expose and kill two traitors in their ranks. Having strayed from the attack of the Gypsies, a roving nomadic tribe, and having crossed the river Ust, controlled by the Wizards of Edelweiss, the travelers reach the monorail - a local cable car that extends over great distances. Having paid for the fare, they reach Christendale, a city inhabited by cristas - the descendants of earthly millionaires. Having rested there for several days, scientists unravel the secret of the Cristas - they live like aristocrats, in turn, each hour of power is paid for by several hours of labor or service to the aristocrats. One of the travelers decides to stay in this civilized city, but the rest set off on an almost hopeless journey. They meet with merchants who add a sleep potion to them and rob travelers. Fending off the nomadic ribs, travelers cross the mountains, they manage to get sabers from the ribs. The squad reaches the Fontana Temple in Myrtliss, but at night the inhabitants of the temple kill the anthropologist Bishop and steal Nancy, the girl of Kleistra.

For his sabers, which are fabulous wealth, Klaistra hires the son of a local merchant Nimester and penetrates the Fontana Temple. He witnesses a disgusting ritual in which a prisoner is injected with a concentrated solution of four victims from the digested brain glands, which turns him into an oracle. The unfortunate soothsayer answers five minutes to the questions of Lord Voevoda, who paid for the rite, and then dies of exhaustion. Kleistra finds Nancy and tries to start the radio transmitter in the temple, but he is seized by the security guards raised by the alarm. The abbot of the temple promises to turn him into an oracle for the newcomer Charlie Lysidder. Remembering how Bishop avoided drug poisoning by taking vitamins, Clistra asks his friend Elton to bring him vitamins, so he remains alive. Mocking during the divination of Lysidder, who turned out to be their companion on the ship, the merchant Arthur Hidders, Klaistra portrays his death and escapes from the temple mortuary pit at night. Heroes capture Lysidder’s car and take him captive, leaving him with his close ones in the middle of the vastness of the Big Planet.

• List of publications at JackVance.com.
• Positive review en: Nick Jeverse
• A More Critical Review : John Grant
• Mono Rail quotes on Technovelgy
• Big Planet in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database