Trappers of Venus - the Fourth Dig Allen Space Explorer Adventure

Four books in, and this one, by far, is the best one yet!  I was actually caught by surprise as to how much I really enjoyed this story.  The author, Joseph Greene, has definitely got a much stronger feel for his main characters in this book, and he focuses less on back story and more on the actual adventure, which starts right on page one.  This is the second of Greene's planet-hopping books, with the previous one taking Dig and his friends to Jupiter - now they head to Venus, before journeying to Saturn in the fifth book and Uranus in the sixth, and final, book in the series.  With each book better than the last, I can only imagine just how good the stories will be in the last two entries.

 

Trappers of Venus begins with Dig sneaking out for a clandestine meeting with an unknown person (well, unknown to the reader, anyway). Once meeting his contact, Chips, Dig learns he has been asked by an old space pirate friend of his to assist a trapper from Venus named Tim Buckle.  Dig saves Tim's life, after they find him attacked by some hunters, but Tim turns out to be far from grateful.  As Dig is getting ready to blast off, taking Tim back to Venus, Tim wakes up and takes over the ship, blasting off with too much speed and force, sending them way off course!   Dig manages to gain Tim's trust and gets the ship back on track, learning that he, as a Space Explorer, needs to help Tim and his friends on Venus protect the lives of an indigenous species known as the Kohoolies.

 

Meanwhile, twin brothers Ken and Jim Barry are visiting their father on the asteroid science center, where they meet the business man, Linton Wells, and his prideful, egotistical son, Chuck.  It seems Wells needs some Space Explorers to come to Venus with him to determine that an indigenous species there is nothing more than another animal species, not as intelligent as man, and therefore open for hunting.  The brothers, while not particularly liking Wells and his son, see no issue with going to Venus to make a determination of the alien species' level of intelligence and humanity, so that a report can be made to the scientists who will give authorization for hunting or protection of the animals.

 

Can you see where this is headed?

 

Greene goes beyond just your typical adventure story with good guys vs. bad guys.  In addition to that, we get the misunderstandings that cause a rift between Did and the Barry brothers; we get the mystery surrounding the Kohoolies and whether they are intelligent life forms; we get the question of who are the real good guys and who are the real bad guys; we get some very intense life-and-death scenarios; and we get a story of real redemption for one, if not two, of the characters in the tale.  There is a strong human nature element to the story that causes you to suspend your disbelief over the idea that Venus no only has a breathable atmosphere for humans, but also has a thriving planet of fauna and life forms.  In reality, we know its closeness to the sun would prohibit life as we know it; but hey, this book was published back in 1961, back before man ever actually reached the moon and not long after all of those wacky space films from the '50s. 

 

The rotation of artists for this series continues with this book.  Walter Dey, who provided both the cover and interior art for the third book returns to provide the cover art for this book.  Honestly, the art is not quite as crisp and defined as his cover for Journey to Jupiter was, but it is definitely superior to that of the second book.  The interior illustrations, however, are provided by Charles Beck - who, as it turns out, was an artist for Fawcett Comics, illustrating the first Captain Marvel (a/k/a Shazam!) stories!  When he severed his ties with Fawcett, Beck moved for Florida, where he became a freelance illustrator.  This was the only book in the series that Beck illustrated.  (One disappointing thing I have noticed about this series is that the further it goes, the less interior illustrations each book seems to have!)

 

The back cover for this book (my copy, at least) features the same design as that on my copy of the first book; however, my copy of Venus is obviously an earlier printing that my copy of Forgotten Star, as the series all list fewer books than the earlier novel - and Vicky Loring is listed as "Coming Soon" rather than the three titles shown on the first book.  

 

This book definitely cemented my enjoyment of this series, and I'm now really looking forward to the last two books.

 

RATING:  9 deadly scorpion lizards out of 10 for science fiction, space adventure with a strong dose of human drama and good vs. evil!