Catch Hold Of As The Green Star Rises (Green Star, #4) Narrated By Lin Carter Readily Available As Leaflet

one pushed even my limits of pulp fiction silliness, It wasn't horrible, but it was unnecessary, “As The Green Star Rises” is the fourth and penultimate volume of Lin Carters aptly named “Green Star” series, My standard disclaimer is to steer you away from this as a starting point for the books, You cant come in at this point in the tale without extensive knowledge of what has come before, You can catch up on my reviews of the previous volumes here:

sitelink goodreads. com/review/show

And here:

sitelink goodreads. com/review/show

And finally here:

sitelink goodreads. com/review/show

If youve been with me this far then you already know the basics of what author Lin Carter was trying to accomplish with this series, For the most part he was pretty successful in dredging up the ghost of Edgar Rice Burroughs in a tribute to the classic “Barsoom” stories, Carter was smart by choosing not to mimic the classic Burroughs style, and the “Green Star” books always seem at once familiar and yet strangely original,

Lin Carters biggest strength was as an editor and anthologist, It was here that his talents and contributions to the field of speculative fiction really stood out, He also wrote some excellent critiques of other authors which provided depth and historical significance to their respective works, I recommend “Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings,” and “Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos” as standouts among his contributions to literary criticism, Carter may not have been a particularly original writer of fiction, but he had an immaculate understanding of the intricate mechanics of how great fantasy and sciencefiction should be constructed from a classical point of view.


“As The Green Star Rises” takes place in sequence with the events of the last volume, The cliffhanger ending is resolved nicely and the adventure continues on! Karn and his sidekick Klygon the Assassin are rescued by ship from their barren strip of sand only to be thrown into slavery at the hands of the “Blue Barbarians,” a warlike assemblage of tribes that has become a power under the command of a mysterious “Warlord” who seems to have an intelligence greater than that of the average barbarian.
But Karn and Klygon manage to turn the tide of their predicament around, as they discover hidden allies aboard the vessel that saved them, The standing Prince of Komar and his retinue take back their stolen ship, though Karn is washed away during the battle, He finds himself adrift in the sea, but as fate would have it he is not alone as a castaway, Karn, still blinded after the events of the previous book, is marooned on an island with a young female, Feelings are aroused, but this is familyfriendly fare so the narrative is justly chaste, . . and you get no more spoilers from me at this juncture, You can hit the Wiki article if you want the CliffsNotes version of the plot, but its better to just read the damn book,

Carter takes the action in this installment from the treetops to the land below, as Karn and his friends discover that the world of the Green Star possesses an immense inland sea.
Trees and other flora and fauna are more humansized in this region of the planet, and it turns out that there are kingdoms and other societies scattered about on the islands of the massive waterway.
This is a refreshing break from the treetops and allows Carter to bring some of his more Lovecraftian influences to the forefront, As such, this volume plays more along the lines of traditional swords amp sorcery when compared to the other books in the series, Carter even manages to bring a genuine Wizard to the party, so you KNOW you are in familiar SampS territory by the time that the book wraps, There is still another cliffhanger ending to contend with, though, .

Ill state for the record that I believe Carter got a bit sloppy by this time in the narrative, He makes a couple of continuity mistakes and just generally seems like hes getting tired of the whole thing at this point, He repeats himself a LOT and pulls a couple of plot stunts that are just TOO coincidental, even for a series that requires a high suspension of disbelief in the first place.
As such, its probably my least favorite of the books thus far,

On the plus side, you still get the great cover and interior art by Roy Krenkel and Michael Kaluta, Yes, THAT Michael Kaluta. Oh, man. . I was GEEKING OUT when I saw that Kaluta had contributed some of the interior line art in this volume, You can check out the mans work on his website, but be prepared to spend some time there looking at his excellent artistic vision,

sitelink kaluta. com/

Bottom line Not the best book in the series, but not too shabby when all is said and done, I liked the creepy Lovecraft elements and the battle scenes are written with Carters typical enthusiasm and flair for descriptive passages, “As The Green Star Rises” is still a good example of pulp fantasy written by an author who knew the form inside and out and thoroughly respected the art form.


Now its on the final volume of the series: “In The Green Stars Glow, ” Fun fluff Nice SiFi series, If you are a fan of the John Carter Planetary Romance or Swords and Planets if you prefer that category title style stories then you will enjoy this one as well.
Good enjoyable quick read. Recommended Immediately resolves the cliffhangers in the previous entry in the series, then everything unravels, and all of the principal characters become separated and get into further cliffhangers, Most bizarre is when hero Karn who is in his late teens or earlys, blinded by an explosion, spends most of the book unable to see anything yet manages to tell the story in full detail he regains his sight at the end.
He is rescued by a young boy in the open ocean, and they make it to a desert island where Karn strips naked to dry himself, He senses that the boy is uneasy but dismisses it, Later it is revealed that the boy is really a preteenage girl the exact quote from pageof the book: "And I felt not the smooth chest of a young boy but the firm, pointed, shallow breasts of an adolescent girl.
", and he later falls in love with her, All of this was edgy giving me an uneasy feeling with the hints of pedophilia however, the target audience for this genre is teenage males so the author probably had to cater to them.
There are myriad loopholes and missing pieces, but the author has an epilogue where he tries to explain things and resolve the plotlines, But all in all, this is a belowaverage story, At best, Lin Carter was an uneven writer, and even having read an unreasonably large quantity of it, I can't say if this is because of a short attention span or because the minimum level of diligence was sufficient to fulfill the task at hand.
This series is evidence that he was capable of producing better than his usual, Faint praise, perhaps, but there it is,

Unfortunately this book felt like it was batting cleanup after the more interesting events of the previous one, Where book three had a flying technological city of racist supermen and wormriding subterranean troglodytes, this one was tasked with the elimination of a surplus villain and the regrouping of the heroes, only introducing as a new complication a port city conquered by piratical barbarians.


Which, after flying cities, troglodytes, science magicians, assassin's guilds, and robot armies, is a radical shift to the mundane for the series, honestly,

Though, equally honestly, with the port city, Carter is playing in some interesting material: a city conquered by a barbarian horde without the ability or inclination for rulership, where the infrastructure and people are slowly being pillaged and destroyed by the malice and indifference of the occupiers.
I've seen this situation variouslyits grandpappy is likely Hour of the Dragonbut never developed to my satisfaction,.Originally posted at FanLit.
sitelink fantasyliterature. com/revi

I picked up As the Green Star Rises, fourth in the fivebook GREEN STAR series by Lin Carter, only because it was cheap at Audible, The last book, By the Light of the Green Star, was mildly entertaining but I didnt feel compelled to go on, At this point, probably nobody is reading further in this review, but for the sake of a sense of closure, Ill go on just a bit, After all, it is possible that readers looking for a mindless audio adventure series might be enjoying GREEN STAR,

In As the Green Star Rises, our hero gosh, I forgot his name, who has been blinded and separated from his friends and the princess he loves, is pulled out of the sea by pirates and turned into a galley slave.
He makes new friends and enemies and pines for his lost princess, A string of various adventures occurs: daring escapes, near drownings, unexpected rescues, encounters with frightening animal life and weird pseudohuman races, etc, Some of it weve seen before,

This installment simply feels like a stepping stone from book three to book five, I feel like Lin Carter is dragging us around, making up little sideadventures, just to prolong the romantic tension: Will our hero ever find the princess, will she know him, and will she love him Im sure.
Because nothing seriously bad ever happens to our hero, Every other page he is sure hes going to die, but then some amazing miraculous event occurs which saves him, I see how it is,

Some of Lin Carters plot, when not repetitive, is actually creative and slightly exciting, though I never felt the urgency and danger of it, Some of it is just silly, such as the tiny knife called “The Avenger of Chastity” which noblewomen have sewn into their intimate undergarments, If a woman is forced to suffer “the ultimate indignity” she “unsheathes this hidden blade with a ritual gesture and sheaths it again in her own heart, ” I snickered at this and wondered how long she practiced the “ritual gesture, ”

Lin Carters writing style is also a bit silly, This tale is so lowbrow, yet if theres a big word that can do half the job of a more perfect small word, Lin Carter will choose it, For me, this added to the entertainment, though Im sure that wasnt Carters intention,

Theres another cliffhanger at the end of As the Green Star Rises, I actually have book five, the final GREEN STAR book, because it was also cheap when I bought book four, Its been a month or two and I havent started it, but I will eventually simply because I bought it, its short,

and itll be nice to be able to review the entire series.
I feel like I already know whats going to happen, though,

Im listening to GREEN STAR in audio format, narrated by Joel Richards, Hes doing a fine job with what he has to work with, .