Search Worlds Without End

The four Planet of Adventure volumes chronicle Adam Reith's saga on the planet Tschai, under the amber glow of the star Carina 4269. Reith is a Terran first-in scout stranded on a planet which he learns is now occupied, after an ancient struggle which has come to a standstill, by three technically advanced cultures who now guardedly share the surface while the original inhabitants- the mysterious Pnume- dwell in subterranean depths. On Tschai, Reith discovers to his surprise (and disgust) Earth-derived humans whom the three off-world cultures imported long ago, who have undergone physical and perceptual modifications to closely mimic their masters. The enslaved humans retain however that most human of traits- ruthless self-interest.

In The Chasch, Reith encounters a handful of free humans ranging the face of Tschai, and begins his quest to secure a space-worthy craft with which to return to Earth. Resourcefulness is Reith's byword as his odyssey takes him among the domains of aliens, humans, and their various collateral societies.

In the final book of the omnibus, Vance introduces the Pnume, one of his most enigmatic and incomprehensible creations. Forced to live in the depths of Tschai by the long-ago surface struggle between the invading aliens, the Pnume have occupied themselves within an eternal obsession for collecting and preserving Tschai's historical oddities. Reith is horrified to discover that they seek to exhibit him in their Museum of Foreverness.

Jack Vance is at his best as he introduces the cultures and beings who make up the chaotic population of this ancient planet. Reith's path to return to Earth is thorny and fraught with constant threats. His epic tale is a masterpiece of story-telling.

alternate title (Spatterlight Press): The Chasch

When the Terran starship Explorator IV reached the planet Tschai, its crew didn't know what to expect.

Tschai was so far from Earth that the distress signal which had brought them here must have taken centuries to reach them.

Whatever cataclysm had threatened this planet was probably long past.

The starship Explorator IV is destroyed after entering orbit around the planet Tschai. Adam Reith's scout ship is en route to the surface when the attack occurs, and is damaged in the explosion; Reith crash-lands and is separated from his ship. He finds a world full of violence, where four non-human races rule: the Chasch, the Dirdir, the Wannek, and the Pnume. Humans are present, but dominated by the other races. In this volume Reith sets out to regain his scout ship, and makes his way to Dadiche, ruled by the Blue Chasch and their human servants. Along the way he finds loyal friends, and challenges social inequities with the same aplomb that he rescues fair maidens- like the lovely Ylin Ylan, Flower of Cath.

The Chasch is part 1 of 4 of Tschai. Tschai is a planet orbiting the star Carina 4269, 212 light-years from Earth. It is populated by three alien, mutually hostile species; the displaced, native Pnume; and various human races, some of whom live as slaves or clients of the aliens. Each of the four novels relates Reith's adventures with one of the species, and is named after that species.

Alternate title (Spatterlight Press edition): The Wannek

The second book of the Planet of Adventure series

Marooned on the strange planet Tschai, Adam Reith agreed to lead an expedition to return the princess Ylin Ylan, the flower of Cath, to her homeland halfway accross the globe. Reith is assured of assistance from her father if he delivers her back to Cath; but as events unfold, he is forced to make a dangerous choice. Inevitably he must risk everything against the enigmatic Wannek - and their devious human servants, the Wannekmen.

Monsters of land and sea lay before them, and beings both human and alien who might rob, kill or enslave them. Tschai was a large planet, an ancient planet, where four powerful alien races struggled for mastery while humans were treated as pawns...

Book 3 of Tschai, Planet of Adventure:

Getting back to Earth from the planet Tschai involved either stealing a spaceship or having one built to order - for Tschai was home to several intelligent star-born races, and so they had spaceyards. But Adam Reith's problem was not so simple. He'd already been lucky to escape the Chasch and the Wankh and a dozen different types of humans, and now his course led directly to the Grand Sivishe Spaceyards in the domains of the Dirdir.

Book 4 of Tschai, Planet of Adventure:

The mystery-shrouded aliens of Tschai held him captive in a labyrinth of terror.

The Pnume were an ancient race of the planet Tschai, living undergound in a vast network of caverns with their human slave-species, the Pnumekin.

The Pnume were the historians of Tschai, collecting its past with scholarly disinterest. Surface-dwellers never saw the Pnume, if the surface-dwellers were lucky.

Adam Reith was not so fortunate. The Pnume had heard rumors of a strangeman, claining to come from the planet Earth, and they needed him for Foreverness, the museum of Tschai life. Adam Reith was about to become an alien exhibit.