The Fugitive Worlds by Bob Shaw

The Fugitive Worlds by Bob Shaw (Italian edition)
The Fugitive Worlds by Bob Shaw (Italian edition)

The novel “The Fugitive Worlds” by Bob Shaw was published for the first time in 1989. It’s the third book of the Land and Overland trilogy and follows “The Wooden Spaceships“.

Toller Maraquine II is following in the footsteps of his famous grandfather and has become the captain of an airship but traveling between Land and Overland has become routine or at least it almost always is. The only hope of glory is in Queen Daseene’s will to return to Land to try to repopulate it.

However, those projects must be put aside when a strange object is detected in the sky. Initially, scientists are puzzled because it doesn’t resemble anything that they know but over time it approaches Land and Overland bringing possible dangers. Is the appearance of a kind of barrier between Land and Overland connected to the strange object?

As happened between the first and the second novel of the Land and Overland trilogy, there’s a gap of several years between the end of “The Wooden Spaceships” and the beginning of “The Fugitive Worlds”. Lord Cassyll Maraquine, the son of the first two novels’s protagonist Toller Maraquine, had a son as well and named him Toller after his father.

Queen Daseene is old and her last ambition is to return to live on Land, thee twin planet separated from the Overland by a few thousand kilometers so their atmospheres are mixed. On Land there seems to be no trace of survivors who years earlier had threatened Overland’s inhabitants.

For the young captain Toller Maraquine II it’s an opportunity to look for a bit of the glory of the past he has heard so much about in his family but things don’t go as he hoped. Toller Maraquine also inherited a difficult character from his grandfather and during a mission collides with a fellow captain who, however, isn’t a captain like all the others but is the Countess Vantara, the Queen’s granddaughter.

The relationship not always idyllic with the royal family is put into the background when strange events threaten Overland’s inhabitants. A sort of strange disc of unknown origin is detected between Land and Overland and its growth threatens to form a barrier between the two planets. Meanwhile, a celestial body is detected approaching in the sky and soon turns out to be another planet.

On these foundations, Bob Shaw creates another adventure set in this fictional universe. Once again, the people of Overland are facing more technologically advanced aliens but I think the story doesn’t match the level of the previous novels.

Bob Shaw’s stories are generally characterized by a high level in character building but for exactly for this reason that seemed to me one of the elements lacking in “The Fugitive Worlds”. Toller Maraquine II seems in some ways his grandfather’s bad copy and overall character development is superficial compared to the previous novels in the trilogy.

The author also seems to revert to a period in his career where the female characters in his stories were negative. In particular, there’s Vantara, who in some ways is Toller Maraquine’s antagonist but between the two there’s also something else. If normally I have a little interest in the romantic side of a story , with these characters any possible interest faded very quickly.

The only thing I found interesting in “The Fugitive Worlds” is the contrast between Overland’s inhabitants and in particular Toller Maraquine and the wandering planet’s inhabitants. They’re in some ways really aliens compared to the protagonists, who instead are very similar to humans.

Unfortunately I found in “The Fugitive Worlds” more flaws than merits, as if Bob Shaw was urged to write another sequel to form a trilogy even if he had no new ideas. I don’t know if it really went that way, in any case my impression is that the author reworked ideas from the previous novels adding a final twist. I found the result quite disappointing so I think it’s worth reading if you want to finish this trilogy.

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