Pnume

Pnume (original title The Pnume ) is a novel of Science-fiction writes in 1970 by the American Jack Vance and published author in France in 1971. This novel is the last volume of the Cycle of Tschaï, after Chasch, Wankh and Dirdir.

Argument

Whereas the repair work of its spaceship continues, Land Adam Reith, failed on the Tschaï planet, worries about the presence of small obscure beings, vêtus of broad black capes, which épient it once the fallen night. His/her Anacho companion reveals to him that it is about Gzhindras, of Pnumekins to the service of Pnumes, a mysterious race which lives under the surface of planet. One night, Adam Reith dreams that it is removed by from Gzhindras…

The novel

The world of Tschaï

Summary

Aïla Woudiver , Man-Dirdir and merchant of Siviche, is always connected in its own hangar. Adam Reith supervises the progress of the work undertaken by the head mechanic Fio Haro for the repair of the Dirdir spacecraft which will have to be used to him to join the Earth. But the insistent presence of creatures noctures wrapped in their houppelandes black worries the Land one. Anacho explains to Adam Reith that it is about Gzhindras, of Pnumekins outcast which lives on the surface of Tschaï: they are intermediaries between Pnumes and the other creatures of the world of Tschaï. The three companions realize soon that Aïla Woudiver, their prisoner, fact of the signals of light in Gzhindras.

By one night agitated, Adam Reith dreams that it is removed by a couple of Gzhindras and is carried in a bag in fabric, far from Siviche. When it awakes, it notes with fear that it is locked up in a large bag, prisoner of two creatures of the night which carry it, then reduce it in a well at the end of a cord. On the ground, Adam Reith succeeds in tearing the thick fabric of the bag with the tongue of the loop of his belt and hides in the darkness. He follows some Pnumekins then which had come to seek it. The corridors of the underground world of Pnumes are papered cut crystals of all the colors and of which some are used as mechanisms of opening with secret doors. After having succeeded in hiding in a cupboard containing of the hoods of Pnumekin, Adam Reith learns that Pnumes intend it for “Perpetuation”, but without including/understanding what it acts. He then succeeds in stealing a chart of the undergrounds in Pnume and thinks of easily being able to regain surface.

Unfortunately, it cannot decipher the writing of Pnumes and is lost in their tortuous underground galleries, which it constrained to seek of the assistance. Under the constraint, a Pnumekin young woman that Adam Reith met in the refectory of the children the assistance to reading the charts in his possession. Both borrow tortuous galleries, but they are followed and during their effreinée escape, Adam Reith kills two Pnumes, a quiet Guard and Critic. After having studied the chart once again, Zap 210 , the Pnumekin woman, notes that the best solution to leave the galleries of Pnumes consists in taking a boat and to sail on an underground lake. After a crossing of several days under vaults lacerated of stalactites, Adam Reith and Zap 210 arrive at Bazahn-Gahaï, a commercial center located at the borders of the Pnumes Surfaces.

They are engulfed then in a gallery which finally leads them to the free air and they are found on the sides of a hill which overhangs the sea. For the first time of its life, Zap 210 sees the sky and the surface of Tschaï. While going down from the hill, Adam Reith realizes that the way which leads to the shore crosses a crowned wood of the Khor people. Whereas they took refuge in a Khor hut to escape a violent one storm, of Khors penetrate in the wood crowned for the ritual of exchange of the hearts, a sexual rite. After having struck two Khors and to have stolen their money to them, Adam Reith involves more deeply Zap 210 in the forest, while this one observes with astonishment and indignation frolicking in love with Khor. They arrive soon at Fauzh, a Khor village, where they steal a boat under a rain of metal darts launched by the villagers. By the sea, they reach soon Zsafathra, a city made of houses on pile surrounding a small lake. Cauch , Zsafathrien, accommodates the couple of fugitive, then the conduit at the city Thang d' Urmank. In way, it warns Adam Reith against Thangs d' Urmank which never fails to swindle the foreigners.

Enturbanés and disguised, Adam Reith and Zap 210 visit the places, in the search of a means of financing their return voyage in Kislovan. Cauch shows them a tent where games of chance are organized. Adam Reith is interested particularly in a play of race of coloured eels to which nobody gains large sums. After having ventilated the cheating, it saves in Cauch a large amount of money that Zsafathrien divides then with the Land one and their accomplices. During this time, Zap 210, which wanted to put a belt at the mode of the prostitutes of Urmank, is made enivrer and to remove by Otwile , a fighter of more than two meters. After having once more helped his/her Pnumekine partner, the two fugitive ones go up on board the Nhiahar , a boat which carries them for a voyage one month towards Sivishe. During their long crossing, after having escaped with of Gzhindras which followed them, Adam Reith and Zap 210 become lovers.

After the Channel of Death, the ship accosts in Kazaïn, a seaboard town of Kislovan. Adam Reith and Zap 210 travel by then a tank with eight wheels to rejoin the town of Sivishe. Adam Reith discovers his deserted hangar of repair and its spacecraft disappeared. An old man deadened in the office of Aïla Woudiver asks him to be identified before revealing to him the hiding-place of his friend Anacho. The Man-Dirdir tells him that the once finished vessel was led by Traz Onmale in a secret place and that the merchant Aïla Woudiver finished his days like game for Dirdirs in the “Box of glass”. The only evidence left by Traz to find the vessel is word “ONMALE” engraved on the gate of the hangar. When it returns to the hangar, Zap 210 disappeared.

Adam Reith then decides to go to see Pnumes to find Zap 210, because he suspects Gzhindras of having removed it. He calls Gzhindras with light signals and follows them until in undergrounds where wait of Pnumes of high ranking for “Perpetuation”. Adam Reith requires to see Zap 210 and Pnumes makes it cross the “Monumental Field” where he discovers statufiés specimens of all the people which lived or colonized Tschaï during his history. After having recovered his partner, Adam Reith launches an ultimatum in Pnumes: to give up Pnumekins and to return freedom against the insurance to them which their secret charts will not be transmitted to Dirdir which await only that for gazer the underground galleries of Pnumes. After dialog, Pnumes accept the terms of trade and Adam Reith sets out again in company of Zap 210. Adam Reith, Zap 210 and Anacho leave then out of slide block for the steppes Kotan, where the three companions met for the first time. They find there Traz Onmale which hid the vessel of Adam Reith at the place even where its old land shuttle had been crushed. After the last review full with nostalgia, all go up on board vessel and fly away for the planet Ground.

Pnume

Argument

The novel

The world of Tschaï

Summary

Main characters

Supporting characters

Comments