Dirdir

Dirdir (original title The Dirdir , even title in the integral version) is a novel of Science-fiction writes in 1969 by the American Jack Vance and published author in France in 1971. This novel is the third volume of the Cycle of Tschaï, after Chasch and Wankh.

Argument

Adam Reith, Land failed on the Tschaï planet, seeks by all the means to regain his native planet. After many failures, his/her Anacho companion suggests a new idea to him: to go to gather bulbs of sequins in the hunting preserve of Dirdirs. The project is certainly very risky, but could bring back to them hundreds of thousands of sequins: what to charter a spacecraft…

The novel

The world of Tschaï

Summary

Adam Reith , Traz Onmale and Anacho , the Man-Dirdir, found refuge at the Lokhar people, in the town of Smargash in Cachan. Adam Reith has toujous for project to find a spacecraft to join the Earth and it retained the idea of Anacho to go in Sivishe, a city under Dirdir control, to buy a wreck and to repair it with qualified technicians. Only the financing of the project remains problematic. Anacho then evokes Carabas, a zone of hunting of Dirdir in the north of Kislovan in which the flowers with sequins push, “chrysospines”.

The three companions then find Dirdirs tracers on their clothing and feel tracked. They thus decide to leave as fast as possible for the zone Carabas in order to collect the sequins necessary to the realization of the project of Adam Reith. The three companions use a carriage motorized to leave Smargash and move towards the west. They are made pass for from Serafs in the search of roots of asofa and penetrate in the hostile country of the pits.

Located by a Dirdir slide block, Adam Reith, Traz Onmale and Anacho hide in a putrid cave which seems to be the den of Phung. The five Dirdirs go down from their vessel and are put at their research, equipped with shields. Suddenly, Phung of two meters important fact irruption in the cave. The three companions believe themselves lost, but Phung the saving and launches out to the attack of Dirdirs which excavate the surroundings of the cave. The battle makes rage and Adam Reith joint with the fray. Lastly, Phung and Dirdirs are entretuent.

The three companions steal the Dirdir slide block, fly over at low altitude the Draschade ocean and move towards the town of Maulk, on Kislovan, with the doors of Carabas. They land in the area of the Khor people and leave their vessel under good guard. They take a transport out of mechanical wheel-barrow to go to Maust and to buy there the material which they need for their hunting for the sequins. Carabas, the zone of hunting of Carabas, is vast wide which includes/understands the southernmost Terrace, the Hills of the memory, Khusz, the camp of the hunters Dirdirs, the Forest of the Border.

Adam Reith knows that the chances of survival of human are weak vis-a-vis the Dirdirs hunters, but it warps a very clever plan. The three companions dig a deep pit on the road which borrow Dirdirs to rejoin their camping. They recover the pit of branches and Traz Onmale is used as soft food. When Dirdirs fallen in the trap were completed, the three assistants recover the sequins in their possession. They make 14 catches over three days. At the time of the last operation, they escape from little from the reprisals from the other Dirdirs hunters, but in extremis succeed in crossing the “Gantry of Clearnesses” which marks the limit of the zone of authorized hunting. With spoils of more than 200 000 sequins, they regain the town of Maulk, accompanied by Issam Thang which praises the merit and the discretion of its inn. After one night agitated during which Issam Thang tried to steal their sequins to them, but in vain, the three companions flee the town of Maulk, squared by Dirdirs with the research of the men who massacred their congeneric.

They find their slide block at Khors and shingle towards the west, in direction of the town of Siviche. Arrived on the island of Siviche, they contemplate Héï, the Dirdir city, defined by an immense central building builds entirely out of glass, called the “Box of glass” and surrounded by high towers of color, the dwellings of the Dirdirs clans. The three companions will hide their sequins in an underground and meet Aïla Woudiver which makes them visit the Building sites Astronautics of Large Siviche. Under the direction of the old man Deïne Zarre , they buy a hull and the equipment necessary to build a Dirdir spaceship. But the money has suddenly missed and Aïla Woudiver present increasingly high invoices. Adam Reith must thus turn over in Carabas to seek there the remainder of his spoils, hidden with the foot of a tree.

On its return, Anacho disappeared. After a dispute with Aïla Woudiver in connection with the myth of paramount egg, it commercial denounced Anacho in Dirdirs which immediately took it along in the Box of Glass to be used to with it as game with the Dirdir hunters. Adam Reith and Traz Onmale save their companion with great blows of explosive and return to the hangar. Deïne Zarre is in anger against Aïla Woudiver because the merchant made remove his nephew and niece, it joint with the three companions and all go to the Man-Dirdir. Fallen in a trap, Deïne Zarre dies while the three others are done prisoners. Aïla Woudiver the book in Dirdirs, but Adam Reith shouts “ dr' its dr' its dr' its ”, the Dirdir call to an arbitration. Dirdir Excellence indicates Immaculate then to be used as referee. But Adam Reith refuses the arbitration and kills the Immaculate one, which proves in Dirdirs that Adam Reith was right. Then, Dirdir requires to be able to use the three companions as game for the only benefit of the clan of Thisz which lost many hunters in Carabas. Once again, Adam Reith asks for an arbitration and defies the referee, Dirdir of high caste, an Excellence. Adam Reith kills Excellence with the general surprise and causes a rumor in the semi-alien semi-human crowd gathered around the group. In accordance with the Dirdir habit, victory of Adam Reith over his referee the innocent one, him and his/her companions. They set out again free, but take along with them Aïla Woudiver, attach it to a chain in its hangar and ask him to take care that the repair work advances normally.

Dirdir

Argument

The novel

The world of Tschaï

Summary

Main characters

Supporting characters

Comments