The Dirdir
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| Author | Jack Vance |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Tschai, Planet of Adventure |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1969 |
| Preceded by | Servants of the Wankh |
| Followed by | The Pnume |
The Dirdir is the third science fiction adventure novel in a tetralogy entitled Tschai, Planet of Adventure. Written by Jack Vance, it tells of the efforts of the sole survivor of the destruction of a human starship to return to Earth from the distant planet Tschai.
[edit] Plot summary
Adam Reith is stranded on Tschai, a distant planet shared by four alien, mutually hostile, advanced species (the Chasch, Wankh, Dirdir and native Pnume). On his quest to get home, he acquires two human companions, Traz Onmale, a teenage barbarian chieftain, and Ankhe at afram Anacho, an outcast Dirdirman.
Reith has failed twice to acquire a spaceship, first his own scout-boat from the Chasch (as recounted in City of the Chasch), then a stolen Wankh ship (in Servants of the Wankh). The latter exploit brings him the unwanted attention of the Dirdir, nominal enemies of the Wankh. As Anacho explains, his former masters are rarely subtle: they want to question and then kill him. Reith manages to wipe out the first "Initiative" sent after him, but sooner or later, there will be a second.
He decides to build a ship from scratch, a task requiring vast amounts of sequins, the universal currency of Tschai. The only way to raise that much quickly is to brave the Carabas, the Dirdir hunting preserve, where sequins grow as crystalline nodes. Men prospect for the nodes, and the Dirdir hunt men. Those they catch, they eat.
Reith decides to turn the tables on the Dirdir. He ambushes their hunting parties and takes the sequins they acquired from their victims. When the Dirdir finally take notice, Reith and his friends barely manage to escape, but they have amassed a fortune; in fact, they have so many sequins, they have to leave the less valuable behind in a hidden cache.
They journey to the cosmopolitan city of Sivishe, where there are shipyards. The metropolis is run by an administrator who answers to the Dirdir, but the trio go unnoticed. After careful inquiry, Anacho determines that the man they must deal with is Aila Woudiver, an enormously obese man with monstrous appetites.
The building of the spaceship progresses satisfactorily, but Woudiver demands ever more money, threatening to turn them over to the Dirdir if he is not paid. Finally, Reith has no choice but to go back to the Carabas to retrieve the hidden sequins, leaving Traz and Anacho behind to keep watch.
When he returns to Sivishe however, he finds that Woudiver, who desires to be accepted as a Dirdirman, has betrayed Anacho to the Dirdir. His friend is sentenced to be prey for a Dirdir hunt. Reith risks his life rescuing Anacho. Then he goes to confront Woudiver, but the arch-criminal is too clever for him and all three are turned over to the Dirdir.
Fortunately, Anacho had taught Reith a tradition too strong for the Dirdir to gainsay, even from a "subman". He demands arbitration, and when the judgment goes against him, challenges the Dirdirman arbitrator. By Dirdir custom, the victor of hand-to-hand combat wins the case. Reith dispatches his foe, only to face a second set of charges. This time, he has to fight a Dirdir. He forces the creature to concede, without having to kill it. As a result, Reith and his friends are cleared of all crimes and freed. Needing Woudiver to complete the ship, they do not kill him, but take him captive.
