The novel “The Void Captain’s Tale” by Norman Spinrad was published for the first time in 1983.

Void Captain Genro Kane Gupta is given command of the starship Dragon Zephir. Generally Void pilots remain isolated from the rest of the crew, though formally they have all the privileges of the ship’s officers. However, the Captain soon discovers that Dominique Alia Wu is a really out of the ordinary pilot.

The Captain quickly becomes obsessed with Dominique Alia Wu and her strange way of conceiving her task. Between the two of them begins a complex sexual relationship which is at the same time strangely spiritual. Dominique Alia Wu keeps on performing regularly the jumps that allow the starship to cross interstellar distances but tries to convince the Captain to perform a blind jump against all the rules.

Norman Spinrad is an author often the center of controversy for the themes that tend to the extreme of his stories. “The Void Captain’s Tale” is the story of a journey through space of a voidship, which can cross interstellar space. As indicated by the title, it’s in particular the story of the Captain, who narrates it in the first person.

The basis of the story is in the form of propulsion which allows to obtain a jump from one point to another in space. It wasn’t invented by human beings but by a previous species which at some point disappeared in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind this technology.

Through trial and errors, human scientists were able to exploit the alien technology to travel into space, overcoming the barrier of light speed, but only some people can pilot these voidships. That’s because this form of propulsion requires not only technological elements but also the pilot’s psychic energy.

Due to the peculiar nature of the Void jump, only women can be pilots and for them the jump involves literally having an orgasm. The Captain of the Void starships and his officers prepare the jump but eventually it’s the pilot who performs it, for a while merging her mind with a field created by the starship’s machine.

The jump is extremely tiring for the pilots, who take days to recover. Traditionally, they remain isolated from the rest of the crew and the passengers but in “The Void Captain’s Tale” the situation on the Dragon Zephir is different. Dominique Alia Wu is an out of the ordinary pilot. Arrived to that position accidentally, her purpose goes far beyond the normal journey and she gets Captain Kane Genro Gupta involved in her plan.

A particular choice of Norman Spinrad is to reveal almost the whole plot of the novel in the first two pages. The Captain tells how he started a sexual relationship with Dominique Alia Wu and how she persuaded him to make a blind jump. The rest of the novel recounts the details of the story and the consequences of that act.

The erotic element is crucial in “The Void Captain’s Tale” but it’s not pornography, rather there’s a strong spiritual component linked to the sexual one. For pilots, the orgasm felt during a jump is inextricably linked to a spiritual experience.

It’s no coincidence that often in “The Void Captain’s Tale” there are explicit references to tantras, the indian discipline with religious roots linked to Hinduism and Buddhism that also originated a variant that includes sexual practices. Terms related to tantric sex are used on several occasions by the Captain in his tale.

The sexual relationship, but also in part spiritual, between the Captain and his pilot is the most important part of “The Void Captain’s Tale”. A man who until then had always served by following rules and traditions tells how an obsession that led him to go against them started.

The starship Dragon Zephir is the future equivalent of a cruise ship with passengers who want to have fun during the journey. again, there’s a component of erotism, which is far less spiritual than that regarding Dominique Alia Wu’s story. Through the Captain, Norman Spinrad gives us an idea of ​​how rich people live in the future and how they spend these luxurious interstellar trips.

The search for a cosmic transcendence by Dominique Alia Wu and the involvement of the Captain of the Dragon Zephir makes “The Void Captain’s Tale” a unique novel. The story is complicated by the language, full of terms taken from various languages which meaning is sometimes explained and other times is understood from its context.

The story is told in first person but Norman Spinrad provides us through the Captain many information about other characters who are important in the novel. There’s a lot of attention on Dominique Alia Wu because she’s at the center of the events so her desires and her motives are crucial but some other characters are also well developed.

“The Void Captain’s Tale” isn’t a novel for everyone. The erotic / spiritual theme isn’t trivial and the story of the Captain’s sexual urges may become tiresome, also because of its verbosity. In my opinion the novel isn’t completely successful but if you find its basic idea intriguing I think it’s worth reading it.