The Prisoner of Zhamanak

(Krishna #5)

Paperback

English language

Published April 16, 1983 by ACE.

ISBN:
9780441679379
Goodreads:
2543305

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3 stars (1 review)

Percy Mjipa, diplomat-adventurer, and Alicta Dycknan, interplanetary runaway, both aliens on the alien world of Krishna, are swept up in wildly treacherous – and wildly funny-imperial intrigue.

2 editions

Really quite a fun read, but many issues make it hard to like the book

3 stars

Though Lyon Sprague de Camp was clearly fascinated by the diversity of peoples around the world, he was certainly not a racist. His vocabulary was not modern, and might sometimes appear offensive to today's tastes, but he always had an affection for all his characters that makes it easy (or at least possible) to forgive any inappropriate word choices.

However, the same is unfortunately not true concerning his view of women. While he tries to treat the female main character fairly, he has undeniable problems with the idea of "modern" women. Alicia Dyckman has zero regard for other people's lives (especially if they are alien) and demands somebody be killed more than once. She is a detached scientist without any sexual drive (but really just hasn't met the right man yet) and with a confused concept of men who should sometimes be more masculine and sometimes less. Of course, this …