Transit to Scorpio
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Transit to Scorpio is a science fiction novel written by Kenneth Bulmer under the pseudonym of Alan Burt Akers, volume 1 in his extensive Dray Prescot series of planetary romances, set on the fictional world of Kregen, a planet of the Antares star system in the constellation of Scorpio. It was first published by DAW Books in 1972.
The Dray Prescot series is made of several cycles of novels, each cycle essentially forming a series within the series. In addition to being the first volume in the series as a whole, Transit to Scorpio is the initial volume in the Delian Cycle, which introduces the reader to a number of different Kregen locales as Prescot struggles to find his place in this strange new world and to win the hand of Delia, the love of his life.
The novel features the story of Dray Prescot, an English sailor of Lord Nelson's navy, and his miraculous teleportation to the planet Kregen. There he is trained as an agent for the mysterious Savanti, an apparently benevolent secret society devoted to improving the lot of humanity among the many intelligent species of Kregen. He falls from grace and is banished back to Earth for supplying forbidden aid to Delia, princess of the island empire of Vallia, an injured supplicant to the Savanti.
Returned to Kregen through the agency of the Star Lords, an even more mysterious rival group of unknown motivation, he becomes a pawn in their schemes, sent willy-nilly to various locations on the planet to serve their ends and capriciously returned to Earth when his task is done or he manages to offend them. Despite this handicap he usually rises to a position of power in whatever society he is thrust into, and is able to renew and further his relationship with Delia.
Important locales introduced in this novel include the hidden city of the Savanti, the northern plains of the continent of Segesthes, and the city state of Zenicce on the same continent.
[edit] Trivia
Bulmer's choice of the setting for the series is a subtle tribute to the Martian series of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the prototypical Sword and Planet romance. The star Antares, similar in brightness and hue to the planet Mars in the night sky, was given its name (meaning "opposite Mars" or "equal to Mars") by early astronomers to compare it to and help distinguish it from the planet. Bulmer is signaling that his series both similar to and different from that of his model.[citation needed]
During Prescot's sojourn among the Savanti and offhand reference is made to a continent in the opposite hemisphere of Kregen from that in which his adventures take place, whose distasteful customs are an obvious dig at another series of planetary romances, the Gor series of John Norman.
[edit] See also
- The Suns of Scorpio, the next book in this series.
