Green Star Series
The Green Star Series is a set of five science fiction novels written by Lin Carter for DAW Books, published from 1972 to 1976. In this novel, the concept of soul-projection (introduced by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his John Carter Series) is central. The series is written from the viewpoint of an anonymous, rich, crippled 30-year-old who seeks adventure—and finds it on a planet revolving around a green star.
Storyline
An anonymous, rich, crippled American gets books from the Tibetan monastery at Qanguptoy, from which he learns the art of soul projection. Longing for an adventure, and restricted by his earthly body, he looks at the sky one night and sees a green star (referred later as The Green Star) and projects his soul to a cloud-covered planet revolving around it. The texts of the five volumes of the series are ostensibly transcripts of first-person narratives by the anonymous author recounting his adventures: the first after he took the (preserved) body of Chong The Mighty, and returned to earth after Chong was killed by a brigand; the rest, in his second incarnation as Karn The Hunter (where the author had taken over Karn's just-dead body). Through a bequest, these come into the hands of Lin Carter, who "edits" them for publication.
Setting
The surface of the planet revolving about The Green Star is largely covered by a tropical forest of multi-mile-high trees in whose tops are the main cities including Phaolon, Ardha and Kamadhong. The human inhabitants of these arboreal cities, known as Laonese, use large moths (dhua) to draw carriages, and dragonflies (zaiphs) for individual transport. Other (than Laonese) races of humans include:
- the savage albino troglodyte dwellers among the huge trees' roots (near the forest's ground level)
- the Blue Barbarians, a nomadic race who at unpredictable intervals are afflicted by an insanity (the entire race is affected) causing them to destroy and pillage whatever cities are in their vicinity
- the Komarians and Tharkoonians, basically similar to the Laonese, but dwelling on islands in an inland sea (for which the Laonese use the word zand, though they generally think it legendary) known as the Sea Of Komar
- the black humans of Calidar, who think of themselves as the only humans and of the Laonese as mere beasts with human shape; Calidar has many captive Laonese (and their descendants) whom the ebon men use for experiments
- the Kaloodha, an ancient race of winged humanoids who are almost extinct (the one survivor is over a million years old) due to foolish experiments to make them immortal
The planet is closer to The Green Star than the earth is to the sun; it is protected from being seared by a thick, almost unbroken cloud-cover. However, the cloud-cover does not protect the planet from tidal effects (observable in the Sea Of Komar).
In all of the novels, it is assumed (by the author) that humans retain terrestrial size; he confesses at two points in the series that he does not know if this is the case, or if humans are miniaturised with other creatures retaining terrestrial size (in one of the two places, he believes this may make more sense).
Novels
The novels are:
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| | | | | The Mysteries of Mars |
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| Novels |
- The Flame of Iridar (1967)
- The Man Who Loved Mars (1973)
- The Valley Where Time Stood Still (1974)
- The City Outside the World (1977)
- Down to a Sunless Sea (1984)
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| Short works |
- "The Martian El Dorado of Parker Wintley" (1976)
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| | Zanthodon series |
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| Novels |
- Journey to the Underground World (1979)
- Zanthodon (1980)
- Hurok of the Stone Age (1981)
- Darya of the Bronze Age (1981)
- Eric of Zanthodon (1982)
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| | Zarkon series |
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| Novels |
- The Nemesis of Evil (1975)
- Invisible Death (1975)
- The Volcano Ogre (1976)
- The Earth-Shaker (1982)
- Horror Wears Blue (1987)
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| | Minor SF series |
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| Great Imperium |
- The Man Without a Planet (1966)
- Star Rogue (1970)
- Outworlder (1971)
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| Hautley Quicksilver |
- The Thief of Thoth (1968)
- The Purloined Planet (1969)
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| | Thongor series |
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| Novels | |
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| Short works |
- "Thieves of Zangabal" (1969)
- "Keeper of the Emerald Flame" (1970)
- "Black Hawk of Valkarth" (1974)
- "Diombar's Song of the Last Battle" (1975)
- "The City in the Jewel" (1975)
- "Black Moonlight" (1976)
- "Demon of the Snows" (1980)
- "The Creature in the Crypt" (2012)
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| Collections | |
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| Novels | |
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| Short works | |
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| Short works |
- "Exile of Atlantis" (1967)
- "Black Abyss" (1967)
- "Riders Beyond the Sunrise" (1967)
- "Wizard and Warrior" (1967)
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| | The Gondwane Epic |
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| Novels |
- The Warrior of World's End (1974)
- The Enchantress of World's End (1975)
- The Immortal of World's End (1976)
- The Barbarian of World's End (1977)
- The Pirate of World's End (1978)
- Giant of World's End (1969)
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| | Terra Magica |
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| Novels |
- Kesrick (1982)
- Dragonrouge (1984)
- Mandricardo (1987)
- Callipygia (1988)
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| | The Chronicles of Kylix |
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| Novels | |
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| Short works |
- "Vault of Silence" (1970)
- "The Higher Heresies of Oolimar" (1973)
- "The Curious Custom of the Turjan Seraad" (1976)
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| | Tara of the Twilight |
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| Novels | |
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| Short works |
- "For the Blood is the Life" (1984)
- "The Love of the Sea" (1984)
- "Pale Shadow" (1985)
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| | Simrana the Dream World |
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| Short works |
- "The Gods of Niom Parma" (1966/70)
- "The Whelming of Oom" (1969)
- "Zingazar" (1971)
- "How Sargoth Lay Siege to Zaremm" (1972)
- "The Laughter of Han" (1982)
- "The Benevolence of Yib" (1987)
- "The Thievery of Yish" (1988)
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| Short works |
- "The Red Offering" (1997)
- "The Dweller in the Tomb" (1971)
- "The Thing in the Pit" (1980)
- "Out of the Ages" (1975)
- "The Horror in the Gallery" (1976/97)
- "The Winfield Heritance" (1981)
- "Perchance to Dream" (1988)
- "Strange Manuscript Found in the Vermont Woods" (1988)
- "Something in the Moonlight" (1980)
- "The Fishers from Outside" (1988)
- "Behind the Mask" (1987)
- "The Strange Doom of Enos Harker" (1989/2001)
- "The Bell in the Tower" (1989)
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| Collections | |
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| Short works |
- "The Tired Tailor of Oz" (2001)
- "The Awful Ogre of Ogodown" (2004)
- "High TImes on Tip Top Mountain" (2004)
- "The Wooden Soldier of Oz" (2004)
- "No Joy in Mudville" (2004)
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| Collections |
- The Merry Mountaineer of Oz (2004)
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| | Other speculative fiction |
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| Novels |
- The Star Magicians (1966)
- Destination: Saturn (1967)
- Tower at the Edge of Time (1968)
- Lost World of Time (1969)
- Tower of the Medusa (1969)
- The Black Star (1973)
- Time War (1974)
- Found Wanting (1985)
- The Black Pharaoh (2007)
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| Short works |
- "The Castle beyond the World" (1950)
- "Masters of the Metropolis" (1956) with Randall Garrett
- "The Slitherer from the Slime" (1958)
- "Uncollected Works" (1965)
- "Crown of Stars" (1966)
- "Owlstone" (1969)
- "Keru" (1969)
- "Harvey Hodges, Veebelfetzer" (1969)
- "Under the Eaves" (1969)
- "A Guide to the City" (1969)
- "Azlon" (1969)
- "The Mantichore" (1969)
- "The Seal of Zaon Sathla" (1970)
- "Shaggai" (1971)
- "The Sword of Power" (1971)
- "The Double Tower" (1973)
- "The Utmost Abomination" (1973)
- "The Scroll of Morloc" (1975)
- "In the Vale of Pnath" (1975)
- "The Tower of Time" (1975)
- "The Twelve Wizards of Ong" (1976)
- "People of the Dragon" (1976)
- "The Stairs in the Crypt" (1976)
- "The Pillars of Hell" (1977)
- "A Farmer on the Clyde" (1978)
- "Rhian and Garanhir" (1979)
- "Zurvan's Saint" (1980)
- "The World Beneath the World" (1980)
- "Dreams in the House of Weir" (1980)
- "The Descent Into the Abyss" (1980)
- "The Light From the Pole" (1980)
- "The Offering" (1982)
- "The Vengeance of Yig" (1983)
- "History & Chronology of the Book of Eibon" (1984)
- "The Necronomicon: Concerning Them from Outside" (1984)
- "Confessions of the Mad Monk Clithanus: The Incantation of the Elder Sign" (1984)
- "The Feaster from the Stars" (1984)
- "The Goblinry of Ais" (1985)
- "Geydelle's Protective" (1985)
- "The Acolyte of the Flame" (1985)
- "The Stone from Mnar" (1985)
- "Papyrus of the Dark Wisdom" (1988)
- "From the Archives of the Moon" (1988)
- "How Ghuth Would Have Hunted the Silth" (1988)
- "The Secret in the Parchment" (1988)
- "How Her Doom Came Down at Last on Adrazoon" (1988)
- "Black Stars in the Skulls of Doom" (1988)
- "Dead of Night" (1988)
- "Carcosa Story about Hali" (1989)
- "Terror Wears Yellow" (1989)
- "A Bottle of Djinn" (1989)
- "Sweet Tooth" (1989)
- "The Necronomicon, Book II: The Book of Preparations" (1990)
- "The Necronomicon, Book III: The Book of the Gates" (1990)
- "The Necronomicon, Book IV: The Book of Dismissals" (1990)
- "King in Yellow: A Tragedy in Verse" (1993)
- "Cthulhu & Co." (1997)
- "The Light in the East" (1997)
- "Curse of the Black Pharaoh" (1997)
- "Khymyrium (excerpt)" (1997/98)
- "The Demon Star" (1998)
- "The Life of Eibon According to Cyron of Varaad" (2002)
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| | | | | | Poetry |
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- Sandalwood and Jade (1951)
- Galleon of Dream (1955)
- A Letter to Judith (1950)
- Dreams from R'lyeh (1975)
- The Intelligent Child's Own Book of Interesting and Instructive (1987/88)
- Limericks from Yuggoth (1983/88)
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