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[Bayley]
is Britain's great under-sung pulp philosopher." -
Interzone
Karl Krabbe
and Boris Bouche, partners, explorers, interstellar chancers, don't
care much for the law. They don't care much for anything -- except profit.
Their staff bondman nuclear engineer Roncie Northrop doesn't care much
about anything either, except that he's already tried to abscond from
the control of the rapacious and illegally operating pair once. When
K&B's exploration ship comes upon the small planet Tenacity, they
see a good business opportunity. Tenacity is waterless, a desert planet.
But it had water once, and they realize that with some adroit but spectacular
geological engineering it can be given its oceans back. That suits the
dominant lobster-like Tlixix fine. They are tired of living like aliens
in their domed refuges. Of course, the numerous intelligent species
which have evolved since the great dehydration will perish, but so what?
As for Roncie, whose part in the project is crucial, he doesn't like
it much, but what can he do? He's only a bondman. Krabbe & Bouche
strike a deal, and business is business....
""[The
novel] is probably more typical of 1950s science fiction. In my mind
it has echoes of Phil Dick's SOLAR LOTTERY." - Barrington Bayley
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