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2.0 out of 5 stars
The Tenth Planet, April 8 2003
When I describe this novel as "juvenile", I have to make sure I'm being clear. I don't mean it's like one of Robert A. Heinlein's "juveniles", geared for young readers and still appealing to older fans too; No no...I mean the book is rather hackneyed, trite, and, especially, immature in its depiction of women. If, after reading the above, you are still interested in the plot of this forgotten and forgettable bit of minor 70s SF, then just know it's about Idris Hamilton, whose spaceship is blown out from under him thanks to sabotage, and is left to float, alive but frozen, in space, until he ends up on the tenth planet of our ever-surprising solar system--a planet called Minerva. Hamilton does not fit in well with the Minervans' advanced, peaceful culture...not surprising since he slept in space for five thousand years, making him, in the Minervans' eyes, a barbarian-flavoured popsicle, one that many of them would just have soon seen not thawed out. Yes, Idris becomes a problem within his new society on a new world. He courts two women, but that's okay, that's normal on the tenth planet; but punching out rival suitors is not. Neither is linking his lot with underground rebel troublemakers (who operate in groups that could contain government spies anyway). The more Idris fights to change what he sees as a repressive, stagnant world, the more enemies he racks up. He dreams of fleeing back to distant, abandoned Earth, where once upon a time at least humans had chutzpah, gumption, all that.This book is halfway engaging and somehow fun during the reading of it. But Idris and his plight are not original. This is Thomas More's Utopia for Dummies meets Cheesy Nudie SF Late Night Movie, where women strip on command for Science's sake ("so I'll humour the barbarian; maybe I'll learn some valuable psychological information--oops, now I want to sleep with him"). It's a shame that The Tenth Planet is such a routine stop, because I have enjoyed an Edmund Cooper effort, called Five To Twelve, much more than this. But then, it actually had something to say.
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