This seventh book in the series is new territory for me, not that I remembered much of what went on during these 'Interplanetary Adventures' from previous reads, because I haven't touched them in probably forty years. However, I only had the first six, because only they, as far as I'm aware, got reprinted in paperback, courtesy of Piccolo. To finish up with the last four, I have to go back to the original hardbacks. Well, I would if I could afford them, but I can't, so I'm reading them as e-books instead. So be it.

The first note is that, while 'Kings of Space' came out in the relatively primitive time of 1954, this arrived in a far more space-aware era of 1960. Another year and Yuri Gagarin would begin the age of human beings in space and it seems like Capt. Johns knew that the times were a-changin'. That prompted him to write an author's note in which he talks about some of the current achievements and suggests that, as they're showing up "at such a speed, are we advancing along a road towards enlightenment or extinction. It could be either. Well might we wonder what the next few years will bring."

Now I'm sure he was fascinated by this advancement just like so many others at the time, but I'm sure he was already wondering how long he could continue this series. After all, he hadn't merely put Prof. Brane on the sands of Mars; he'd had him spark a sort of rejuvenation project in which a population of Martians, now living on the planetoid Mino, are restoring their old home to livable form. We've been checking in with every book and the project is proceeding nicely. For now, I have to say with eyes rolling that Johns once again explains that Earth simply hasn't noticed these vast changes on Mars yet but it's only a matter of time. How much longer can he get away with that?

Of course, this sort of thing is why he had largely already shifted his attentions from our own solar system, which was getting notably smaller and more scrutinised, to farther flung planets and now entire numbered regions of space progressively farther out still. I remember when we were led to believe that the Second Region was notably distant, home to Ardilla and their deadly rays. Then it was Terramagna in the Third Region, which has become something of a frequent stop. Here, we go not only to an even more distant planet in the Third Region, Lila, but then skip on into the Fourth Region to visit Romunda and Parvo. Even at the speed that the Minoans travel, we're getting into serious distances here. No wonder they go into self-imposed hibernation to pass the time.

Before we start looking at those, we make a couple of shorter trips. The first is to a new unnamed planetoid that's drifted into nearby space on an unusual trajectory, but it's another quick stop. It's there mostly to point out how the Minoan Exploration Fleet and its experienced explorers have no real understanding of risk. Sure, they only tend to land on most planetoids because Prof. Brane has an extreme curiosity, but they soon fall prey to new dangers again. This time, it's highly primitive locals who have at least mastered knots, who tie up our travellers and invade the Tavona, only to fall prey to Toby's medical cabinet. Morphine tartrate tablets for the win! They knock them out so our friends can free themselves and retake their ship.

Then it's an organised trip, with the Earth contingent—Prof. Brane; Tiger Clinton and his son Rex, who's now seventeen; and his friend Toby Paul—accompanying a new Minoan character, Pavlo, on an expedition to a planetoid called Golcana. It's a strange place, as we might expect, but for a new reason: everyone there has an identical twin. It's also a dangerous place, as they find when a huge lightning storm destroys Pavlo's ship. Of course, the Tavona comes to their rescue, thus explaining why we needed the other ship to begin with. That's cheap.

Eventually, it's off to the Third Region and to the most fascinating planet yet. This particular trip stemmed, as they so often do, from a conversation with Rolto, the sneakiest of the Minoans, even if his concerns are often pretty valid. He's the one who sent them to Ardilla and it's he who piques their interest in Lila. For a start, he believes that it was populated from Earth after a great flood. A visiting spaceship had taken some "wise men and their wives to show them their moon and their own world from above". After the disaster, they provided them with a new home, dropping them off on a "small but pleasant uninhabited planet", and, while they promised to return one day, they never did.

Just in case you haven't guessed what Rolto is suggesting, he explains that they're light brown in skin tone and they speak Hebrew, the same name they use to describe themselves. He knows this, because he's been there. When Rex passes on the story, the Professor is naturally keen to visit and so they go. I'd tell you more about the place but, other than discovering that Rolto was inevitably up to no good there, which doesn't bode well for them when they namedrop him, they don't stay there long enough to satisfy me, or indeed the Professor. I want more from Lila and I hope we get it in a later book. After all, there are only three more to go.

They're torn away from Lila because of an emergency. The Fourth Region may be an incredibly long way away but they're seeking all assistance possible for the planet of Parvo, whose large moon is about to crash into it, destroying their civilisation in the process. The only solution left to them is evacuation and they need every ship they can muster to manage that task. So they leap to it and a decent amount of tension results as they tackle such a dangerous task.

If you're wondering how viably this book is structured, then it isn't really structured at all. I would bet money that Johns was a pantser rather than a plotter and he took these stories wherever they felt like going. As such, we get a couple of short trips to knock out some chapters and build to Lila, where the rest of the book will clearly unfold. Why he chose to back out on that, I have no idea. It's as if he felt like there should be a gap between the first visit and the second, perhaps to cater to a collection of artifacts to bolster a relationship or a revelation with Rolto to scupper it, but he went with a disaster movie instead and that was it for the book.

It means that Lila is the story here and Johns wasn't ready to tell it. Let's see if he's willing to tell it next time out, in 'The Quest for the Perfect Planet'. ~~ Hal C F Astell

For more titles by Captain W.E. Johns click here