Callisto series
Encyclopedia
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novels by Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
, of the sword and planet
Sword and planet
Sword and Planet is a subgenre of science fantasy that features rousing adventure stories set on other planets, and usually featuring Earthmen as protagonists. The name derives from the heroes of the genre engaging their adversaries in hand to hand combat primarily with simple melee weapons such as...
subgenre, first published by Dell Books from 1972-1978. They were written in homage to the Barsoom
Barsoom
Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote close to 100 action adventure stories in various genres in the first half of the 20th century, and is now best known as the creator of the character Tarzan...
and Amtor
Venus series
The Venus Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs is a science fiction series consisting of four novels and one novelette. Most of the stories were first serialized in Argosy, an American pulp magazine. It is sometimes known as the Carson Napier of Venus Series, after their fictional main character, Carson...
novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
.
Volumes
- Jandar of CallistoJandar of CallistoJandar of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the first in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in December 1972, and reprinted twice through September 1977. The first British edition was published by Orbit Books in 1974...
(1972) - Black Legion of CallistoBlack Legion of CallistoBlack Legion of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the second in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in December 1972, and reprinted twice through January 1974. The first British edition was published by Orbit Books in 1975...
(1972) - Sky Pirates of CallistoSky Pirates of CallistoSky Pirates of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the third in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in January 1973, and reprinted twice through April 1974. The first British edition was published by Orbit Books in 1975...
(1973) - Mad Empress of CallistoMad Empress of CallistoMad Empress of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the fourth in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in February 1975...
(1975) - Mind Wizards of CallistoMind Wizards of CallistoMind Wizards of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the fifth in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in March 1975...
(1975) - Lankar of CallistoLankar of CallistoLankar of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the sixth in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in June 1975...
(1975) - Ylana of CallistoYlana of CallistoYlana of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the seventh in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in October 1977...
(1977) - Renegade of CallistoRenegade of CallistoRenegade of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the eighth and last in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in August 1978, and reprinted once, in November of the same year. A tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Chessmen of Mars, the book...
(1978)
Callisto Volume 1 (2000 - omnibus including Jandar of Callisto and Black Legion of Callisto)
Storyline
American soldier and helicopter pilot Jonathan Dark crashes in CambodiaCambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
near the ruins of the lost city of Arangkhôr. Exploring the ruins at night, he discovers a well-like structure at the center that teleports him to Callisto
Callisto (moon)
Callisto named after the Greek mythological figure of Callisto) is a moon of the planet Jupiter. It was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. It is the third-largest moon in the Solar System and the second largest in the Jovian system, after Ganymede. Callisto has about 99% the diameter of the...
, one of the moons of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
– or Thanator, as the moon is known to its inhabitants. There he encounters a human civilization originally linked to that of ancient Cambodia via the well. The inhabitants render his unfamiliar name as "Jandar." On Callisto, Jandar contends with monstrous creatures, savage insect men, barbarian hordes, sky pirates in flying ships, and the dangerous Mind Wizards of Kuur while seeking to rescue and win the heart of the beautiful princess Darloona of Shondakar (a homage to the similarly named Martian lost city in Leigh Brackett
Leigh Brackett
Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...
's The Last Days of Shandakor).
The texts of the first five volumes of the series are ostensibly transcripts of first-person narratives by Jonathan Dark recounting his adventures, written with native materials and transported back to Earth via the well. These come into the hands of Lin Carter, who "edits" them for publication. In the sixth novel, Carter himself visits Arangkhôr, falls into the well, and experiences a Callistan adventure as "Lankar." The remaining volumes, again purportedly by Dark, recount the stories of other protagonists. The chess-like Callistan game of Darza, depicted in Renegade of Callisto
Renegade of Callisto
Renegade of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the eighth and last in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in August 1978, and reprinted once, in November of the same year. A tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Chessmen of Mars, the book...
, was inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
’ Barsoom
Barsoom
Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote close to 100 action adventure stories in various genres in the first half of the 20th century, and is now best known as the creator of the character Tarzan...
ian game of Jetan
Jetan
Jetan, also known as Martian Chess, is a chess-based strategy game with unclear rules. It was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs as a game played on Barsoom, his fictional version of Mars. The game was introduced in The Chessmen of Mars, the fifth book in the Barsoom series...
, or Martian Chess.
Setting
Callisto is presented as having an EarthEarth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
like, even tropical environment, capable of supporting human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
and other life. An unexplained illusion makes the moon appear an airless, lifeless orb to outside observers. The moon is tidally locked to Jupiter, always presenting the same face to its mother planet. Callisto's known civilized area is limited to this side of the moon. The unknown outer hemisphere, partially explored in some of the later books, holds the stronghold of the hostile Mind Wizards.
Physically, Callisto's inner hemisphere, illuminated by Jupiter, is lushly vegetated, its land surface covered mostly by jungle and plain which drain into two seas, one large and one small. A number of inhabited cities of largely pre-technological culture are known. Visited portions of the darker outer hemisphere are barren and mountainous.
Reception
Reviewing the first three volumes, Lester del ReyLester del Rey
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...
found the series to be "fairly entertaining reading," but noted that Carter had "copied every trick of Burroughs, including those that are faults."
To Den Valdron, assessing the books in ERBzine, the series "reads as inferior Barsoom." He views Jandar as "kind of an arrogant jerk ... a bit of an egotist ... constantly getting into trouble with half baked plans [from which he] is regularly rescued by his friends or saved by dumb luck." Valdron also criticizes the relationship of the hero and heroine, between whom he detects no chemistry. On the plus side, he calls the series's first trilogy "quite good," noting that "[t]he world and the hero are fairly vivid, the action moves quickly. It's hardly deep, but it is fun." The fourth and fifth volumes he sees as "high points" in the series, praising them as "rousing, fast paced adventure . . . filled with genuine tension and strangeness, and the cliff hanger ending as Jon Dark conceals his notes even as his pursuers close in on him is genuinely gripping." He is particularly impressed with the second of these, Mind Wizards of Callisto
Mind Wizards of Callisto
Mind Wizards of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the fifth in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in March 1975...
, which he calls "one of the best, or better of the Callisto books, with enough novelty and action, and genuine sexiness to keep things fresh all the way," though noting "for the record, not a single damned Mind Wizard actually shows up anywhere in this book." But the follow-up, Lankar of Callisto
Lankar of Callisto
Lankar of Callisto is a science fiction novel written by Lin Carter, the sixth in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in June 1975...
, he regards as "frankly embarrassing to read, what with its endless references to others' works, the obvious self consciousness and 'tweeness' of the author, and the fact that just about everything interesting happens offstage and to other people. It's an interesting conceit, but sadly it fails." He deems it "an odd novel, more travelogue than adventure, and Carter's constant references to other works of fiction are a bit annoying ... [and suggest] a painful lack of imagination." He finds the plot and action thin, and the author an inadequate action hero, pointing out that "the 'dog' that adopts him does practically all the work." The seventh volume is "[b]etter ... [and] Carter makes a real effort to keep the pages turning. But sadly, he offers nothing new and nothing remarkable, [and] the plot is thin with complications literally shoehorned in." The eighth book Valdron views as "somewhat of a recovery" from the previous two weak entries, finding it "acceptable, even good."