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A review by kynan
Deathworld 3 by Harry Harrison
3.0
TL;DR: Another of Mr Harrison's ludicrous action adventures but without the lectures. A redemption for the series and well worth reading, especially if you read the first!
TL: Wow! I really hated [b:Deathworld 2|2173076|Deathworld 2 (Deathworld, #2)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327946044l/2173076._SY75_.jpg|2222126] when I re-read it and I did not have high-hopes of (re-)finishing the series. Deathworld 3 is redemptive for both the series and the characters and I'm somewhat torn on how to rate it. It's definitely 3-stars...is it 4? Let's see if I can talk myself into it!
Deathworld 3 starts out with a hook: the John Company has elected to create a mining outpost on the planet Felicity. Unfortunately, the natives are not entirely cool with this plan and murderise the entirety of the colony that can't bail off the planet in time. Now, if you've read the other Deathworld books you know where this is going. Cut back to Pyrrus, all of our favourites from the first book are present: Kerk, Rhes, Mehta, Brucco, Griff and pretty much everything is as it was at the end of book 1 (it's almost like we're trying to forget that the second one ever happened).
Rhes continues to lead the post-anger Pyrrans outside the city, Kerk continues to cajole the people who can be cajoled out and he's pretty much down to the core of the city-dwellers who just aren't going to leave. Jason presents a plan that he hopes will be the kind of thing that will lure a bunch of Pyrrans off-planet: He proposes to take up the mining lease on Felicity, and pit the Pyrrans against "the most life form ever discovered": the Felicitans.
I assume that the post-reformation galactic (?) human civilisation frowns upon just killing all the humans that live on Felicity, so Jason has to come up with a plan simpler than "bomb them from orbit" (because that's the obvious answer, and the one which would obviate the entirety of the plot). Anyway, Jason comes up with a very complicated plan and the rest of the book is the unfolding of that plan and its consequences.
The most important thing is that Jason's character reverts to the one from the first book and the bizarre and utterly unlikeable character from Deathworld 2 is gone! Jason is no longer an expert at everything, he's fallible, he has explicable talents, it's almost like he's human again! I don't want to get into the plot too much more because I think it's actually really good and although it has minimal twists and turns, the ones it has are on the surprising side and I totally missed the Chekhov's gun. Apart from Jason, the supporting cast also received a pretty epic upgrade. Temujin, the main protagonist, is surprisingly nuanced. Despite the fact that this was only written in 1968 the tone and moralising is so much more nuanced and palatable in this book than in the previous one (and also more so that a lot of the subsequent Stainless Steel Rat stories). The usually heavy-handed moralising that Mr Harrison does so love is replaced in this book by some relatively subtle references and surprisingly poignant moments. There's also some straight up ham-fisted sentimentality, but at least both male and female characters are reasonably portrayed this time around (although Mehta essentially is the female characters...).
Finally, this is still a Harry Harrison action/adventure book! It's a lot of fun, there are quite a lot of people who don't make it out the other side and there's more than a few by-the-skin-of-their teeth escapes.
Definitely worth reading, it's a solid 3-stars and I'd give it half-more if that was a thing, but it isn't, so 3 it stays!
TL: Wow! I really hated [b:Deathworld 2|2173076|Deathworld 2 (Deathworld, #2)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327946044l/2173076._SY75_.jpg|2222126] when I re-read it and I did not have high-hopes of (re-)finishing the series. Deathworld 3 is redemptive for both the series and the characters and I'm somewhat torn on how to rate it. It's definitely 3-stars...is it 4? Let's see if I can talk myself into it!
Deathworld 3 starts out with a hook: the John Company has elected to create a mining outpost on the planet Felicity. Unfortunately, the natives are not entirely cool with this plan and murderise the entirety of the colony that can't bail off the planet in time. Now, if you've read the other Deathworld books you know where this is going. Cut back to Pyrrus, all of our favourites from the first book are present: Kerk, Rhes, Mehta, Brucco, Griff and pretty much everything is as it was at the end of book 1 (it's almost like we're trying to forget that the second one ever happened).
Rhes continues to lead the post-anger Pyrrans outside the city, Kerk continues to cajole the people who can be cajoled out and he's pretty much down to the core of the city-dwellers who just aren't going to leave. Jason presents a plan that he hopes will be the kind of thing that will lure a bunch of Pyrrans off-planet: He proposes to take up the mining lease on Felicity, and pit the Pyrrans against "the most life form ever discovered": the Felicitans.
I assume that the post-reformation galactic (?) human civilisation frowns upon just killing all the humans that live on Felicity, so Jason has to come up with a plan simpler than "bomb them from orbit" (because that's the obvious answer, and the one which would obviate the entirety of the plot). Anyway, Jason comes up with a very complicated plan and the rest of the book is the unfolding of that plan and its consequences.
The most important thing is that Jason's character reverts to the one from the first book and the bizarre and utterly unlikeable character from Deathworld 2 is gone! Jason is no longer an expert at everything, he's fallible, he has explicable talents, it's almost like he's human again! I don't want to get into the plot too much more because I think it's actually really good and although it has minimal twists and turns, the ones it has are on the surprising side and I totally missed the Chekhov's gun. Apart from Jason, the supporting cast also received a pretty epic upgrade. Temujin, the main protagonist, is surprisingly nuanced. Despite the fact that this was only written in 1968 the tone and moralising is so much more nuanced and palatable in this book than in the previous one (and also more so that a lot of the subsequent Stainless Steel Rat stories). The usually heavy-handed moralising that Mr Harrison does so love is replaced in this book by some relatively subtle references and surprisingly poignant moments. There's also some straight up ham-fisted sentimentality, but at least both male and female characters are reasonably portrayed this time around (although Mehta essentially is the female characters...).
Finally, this is still a Harry Harrison action/adventure book! It's a lot of fun, there are quite a lot of people who don't make it out the other side and there's more than a few by-the-skin-of-their teeth escapes.
Definitely worth reading, it's a solid 3-stars and I'd give it half-more if that was a thing, but it isn't, so 3 it stays!