Re-Read: 'Starhammer' by Christopher Rowley
From within the tent appeared a heavyset mutant. His skin was knobbed and warted and a deep brown. His head was shaved and yellow tusks curved from his mouth. He was a head taller than Jon and considerably wider. His genital pouch had been made from a human skull and he wore little else but shaggy desert boots. In one hand he held a whip made from braided human leather.
"What do you do talking to my meat ?"
"Who are you ?" said Jon, rising to his feet.
I am Gnush Two Tusks. That is my meat. You will be my meat too unless you go away....."
"You will be my meat feast. I will force-feed you for six weeks and then we will bake you in your own juices. I can almost taste it now, hot, bubbling with fat. It will be good."
It is nearly 15 years since I first read 'Starhammer. At the time I gave it a Five Star Rating. I later listed it and the accompanying two volumes in the 'Vang' trilogy as one of the top ten sci-fi novels of the 1980s.
Recently I sat down with Starhammer (this time with the UK edition, published in 1987 by Arrow Books, with a cover illustration by Tim White). Upon the re-read I concluded that Starhammer was just as good as I remembered and a legitimate Five Star novel.
As space operas go, author Rowley does everything right with this novel. He keeps the action flowing, his chapters short, and the locales varied and engrossing. The plot moves from one star system to another, from deep space to planetary space, before, in the final third of the novel, the narrative settles onto the desert planet Baraf. Baraf is a kind of Tatooine from Hell, populated by all manner of loathsome beings, such as Gnush, excerpted above. The action on Baraf is fast and furious and the outcome by no means guaranteed.
'Starhammer' also presents with periodic little episodes of graphic violence, lending an edge to the struggle of protagonist Jon Irehard to overcome the tyrannical rule of the blue-skinned laowon and their empire of cruelty, the Imperiom.
Sadly, the Vang trilogy is long out of print and those copies of the trilogy that come up for sale are expensive. An ebook edition has yet to be issued. All I can say is that it is very much worth your while to keep an eye out for this book on the shelves of used bookstores and to snap it up if you do indeed see it !