Tama of the Light Country
Series: Light Country 1
Reviewed date: 2025 Apr 26
Rating: 2
124 pages
A book of contradictions
Tama of the Light Country is a book of contradictions. It's got a basic aliens steal Earth's women plot, but it's also a book about women's rights and collective action. It's a book where Hill City is located at the bottom of a valley. It's a book where much of the action is set on a tidally-locked Mercury where there are no days or nights—but the Mercutians nonetheless organize their lives around day-cycles and night-cycles, and routinely speak of doing thing "tonight." It's a book that straddles the genre line between science fiction and planetary romance.
I enjoyed it. It doesn't have quite the imaginative setting of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom books (notably, Tama of the Light Country introduces only a single native Mercutian animal, and that only briefly. Compare to the panoply of creatures in A Princess of Mars, or any ERB book.) But it makes a valiant attempt at social commentary, and succeeds more than ERB ever did. (In my opinion. Your opinion may vary.)
Plot synopsis
Raiders from Mercury kidnap Earth girls from sleepaway camps in Maine. Millionaire investor J.G. Bolton takes a crew in his Cube spaceship to follow them. In his crew are Jack Dean, a reporter (and our narrator) and Rowena Palisse, whose brother Guy Palisse disappeared ten years ago when his rocket to the moon went off course. The Cube's crew recovers a cylinder in space, which contains a message from Guy.
Guy's rocket landed him on Mercury, in the Light Country, where he fell in love with Tama, a winged Mercutian girl from the capital, Hill City. Mercutian women (but not men) are born with wings, but the men clip their wings as a way to control them. Guy helps Tama lead a revolt against this practice. In response, some of the powerful men decide to steal girls from Earth instead—they have no wings to begin with.
There's a battle in space. The good guys win. The bad guys lose. Jack falls in love with Rowena.
Characters
Jack Dean, reporter and narrator
Jimmy Turk, police officer and helicopter pilot
J. G. Bolton, millionaire investor who built the Cube spaceship
Rowena Palisse
Guy Palisse, Earth explorer who ended up on Mercury
Tama, a winged Mercutian girl from Hill City
Toh, her brother
Roc, antagonist and powerful Hill City leader
Croat, Roc's father. A giant of a man, banished from Hill City and now a leader in the Cold Country.
Places
Mercury, tidally locked (as was thought at the time the story was written)
Light Country, in the zone of half-light along the terminator line
Hill City, the capital of the Light Country
Cold Country, on the dark side of Mercury
Fire Country, on the light side of Mercury
Things
Guy's moonrocket
Cylinder, invented by Guy to send a message back to Earth
Cube, or Flying Cube, a spaceship built by Bolton Metal Industries
Dragon, Jimmy's light airplane
brue, a large insect-like beast of burden
Bolton Astronomical Research Society
Bolton Metal Industries
antigravity
Heat ray, short-range handheld Mercutian beam gun
Death ray, a large, long-range beam weapon thought to have been lost to history but rediscovered by Croat
Chapter-by-chapter summary:
Chapter I: Screams in the Night
The narrator, newsgatherer Jack Dean, responds to a call from his friend Jimmy Turk, an officer of the Interstate Flying Patrol, to come report the biggest story of the year: during the night unknown assailants have snatched ten girls from the White Summer Camp for Girls near Moose Head Lake in Maine. Worse, two girls and three adult employees were killed, and Professor White himself was mortally injured. Dr. Grenfell, Head of the Bolton Astronomical Research Society, expects the kidnappers to strike again, so he sets a trap. The bait is Rowena Palisse, an orphan and ward of Professor and Mrs. White. Rowena's only relative, a brother named Guy Palisse, disappeared ten years ago when he blasted off in a homemade rocket to the moon.
The bait works. Assailants armed with beam weapons attempt to kidnap Rowena, but Jack, Jimmy, and Dr. Grenfell are armed with automatics and thwart the attack. In the process they shoot a short, stocky man-like creature and "fluttering white thing" in the air; a much larger, giant creature escapes into the dark woods. The fluttering thing falls to the ground. It is a winged flying girl, and as she dies she says in English: ". . . warn you . . ."
Chapter II: From Another Planet
Professor White dies. The group examines the dead man—short, thick, "ape-like" but pale and hairless—and winged girl—thin, fair, and, well, winged. Dr. Grenfell explains that observatories and Navy pilots have tracked objects moving from space to the earth's surface. Because Mercury is currently at "inferior conjunction" (its closest point to Earth) he deduces the invaders are from Mercury. He also predicts another attack the next time Mercury reaches inferior conjunction: in one hundred sixteen days.
Chapter III: The Ascent of the Flying Cube
Weeks later, observatories track a small cylinder through space as it heads for Earth. Jimmy takes Jack to see the new spaceship built by Bolton Metal Industries: it's an enormous metal cube, fifty feet in each dimension. It operates not with rockets, but by means of gravity plates. Rowena Palisse is there; her friendship with Dr. Grenfell and the late Professor White, along with her desire to go to the moon and ascertain the fate of her brother, gave her an intense interest in astronomy and space. She has been part of this secret project for years.
Jack is taken with Rowena. He notes how at-ease she is among the scientists and lab workers. Jack, Jimmy, Rowena, Dr. Grenfell, and five assistants board the Flying Cube and lift off into space to intercept the mysterious cylinder..
Chapter IV: The Mysterious Cylinder
They maneuver the Cube next to the cylinder and bring it into an airlock. It's about two feet long. Written on the outside are the words: "FROM GUY PALISSE". The cylinder contains a written message and a warning from Guy Palisse to Earth.
Chapter V: The Warning From Mercury
The letter from Guy Palisse starts with a warning that "Earth's women--particularly our young girls--are in deadly danger." He explains: for the last ten years he has been castaway on Mercury--not the moon. He has lived in Hill City, the capital of the Light Country. Mercury being tidally locked with the sun, there is no day or night here. The Light Country exists in a zone of half-light. The landscape is bleak, rugged, and abundant with copper and other metals. In the Light Country there are deep valleys overflowing with lush, tropical vegetation.
Hill City: Interestingly, Hill City is in a deep valley. Also it is on a high plateau in the rugged mountains. Oh, and there's a river that flows out of Hill City through a flume tunneled through the mountain. So Hill City is simultaneously high in the mountains, in a bowl-shaped valley, and has a large river flowing out through a tunnel. This is nuts.
Never mind that though. The men of the Light Country are heavyset and short. The women are small and winged. They can soar through the sky in the light Mercurian gravity. Unfortunately the men find this threatening, so every woman has her wings clipped at marriage as a means of control.
There is a revolutionary "no clipping" movement, and Guy Palisse falls in love with their leader, Tama, who he compares to Joan of Arc. His rival for Tama's affection is a young Mercutian named Roc, whose father Croat once tried to overthrow the Light Country government. Croat was banished to the Cold Country. Roc has become an influential leader in Hill City.
Guy taught Tama and her brother Toh to speak English.
Chapter VI: The First Murder
One evening "after the last meal of that day-cycle" Guy is alone in his bedroom in Hill City. Yes, this "evening" and "day-cycle" directly contradict the previous chapter where Guy explained that there is no day or night on Mercury, and that the Light Country exists in a "zone of half-light" with no change in brightness except due to large storms.
Speaking of storms, there is a large one brewing.
Toh arrives and tells Guy that Tama wishes to meet him outside the city. Toh has killed the guard outside Guy's house--the guard he says was sent by Roc to keep Guy prisoner "until this is over." Guy chooses to trust Toh and Tama. Guy helps Toh get rid of the body, then they flee.
Chapter VII: Revolt of the Winged Virgins
Toh and Guy meet Tama on a crag high above the city. Tama asks Guy if he can get into the government armory and procure weapons. He says no. This is unfortunate because the people have only knives, feathered arrows, and catapults, but the government has "electronic weapons and defensive electro-armament." These are small short-range hand-rays. The knowledge of the long-range death ray has been lost to history.
Tama explains that for the past two months, the virgins of Hill City have been protesting the wing-clipping laws by refusing marriage. In response, Roc has persuaded the government to pass a law to clip the wings of every girl over sixteen years of age--married or not. At this very moment Roc's minions are going door-to-door clipping girls' wings.
So the protest has become a full-fledged rebellion. All the marriageable young women of Hill City, and five other cities, are fleeing into the mountains to found their own city. Tama asks Guy to join them.
Chapter VIII: The Flying Platforms
Guy agrees to join the rebel virgins. The girls will meet at a rendezvous point in the mountains, then find a valley to live in. A few men—perhaps twenty or thirty—have agreed to join them. Guy sees himself as a natural leader of these rebel girls, and realizes their plans are doomed to fail. They need allies. So instead of joining them immediately, Guy decides to return to Hill City to retrieve his cylinder: a device he's been working on which will carry a message back to Earth.
Chapter IX: Madman's Gamble
Guy returns to his rooms and finds Roc. Guy's greater Earth strength wins the day and he leaves Roc unconscious. He gathers his cylinder and runs. Armed guards pursue him and shoot arrows at him. As he nears the lake in the middle of the city a brue—a large insect-like beast of burden—blocks his way forward. Guy throws a boulder and smashes the grue, then leaps into the flume that drains water out of the valley, through a tunnel, and out into a rocky wasteland.
Chapter X: Besieged in the Metal Desert
Tama and Toh retrieve Guy, and they make their way to the meeting point in Fire Country. They take refuge at the bottom of a cauldron. There is no soil or vegetation, but they find caves for shelter. There are about 1000 young women, a handful of men, and woefully few supplies.
Roc's army attacks on the second day-cycle, raining arrows from the cauldron's rim-top. (Once again, day-cycles on a planet with no day or night. How odd.) Guy and Tama make a foray up to the rim-top to kidnap Roc. Once there, they see a spaceship. Peering inside, they see Roc and a seven-foot-tall giant. The giant is Croat, Roc's father. Guy and Tama listen to the conversation between Roc and Croat. They are nearly caught, but they escape back to the cauldron floor.
Chapter XI: The Plot Against Earth's Women
The overheard conversation reveals a great deal. Croat now leads a Cold Country government. They have a death-ray projector and small hand-held heat rays. They have built a spaceship. Originally Croat's plan was to steal women from Hill City, but when Roc informs him about Earth, they decide to steal women from Earth instead. Roc abandons the Hill Country government and throws in with Croat. Without Roc's influence, Hill City will reconcile with the rebel virgins, so the rebels decide to return home. Guy launches his cylinder to warn Earth.
Chapter XII: Night-Prowling Giant
Dr. Grenfell decides that at the next conjunction—in about three months—they will take the Cube and head for Mercury, hopefully heading off the Mercutian attack before it starts.
Meanwhile, the giant that Jack, Jimmy, and Dr. Grenfell observed in the Maine woods was indeed Croat. He's been stranded on Earth since that time. Croat steals a flyer from the Reverend Dr. Arthur T. Hoskins and forces Hoskins to teach him how to fly it. Croat also learns English, and he learns from radio broadcasts that Dr. Grenfell and his Cube are preparing to go to Mercury. He determines to kidnap Rowena Palisse.
Chapter XIII: In the Airlock
The Cube heads for Mercury. Jack and Rowena kiss and declare their love. During the night Rowena vanishes from her cabin. She's been abducted by Croat, who stowed away on board. Croat holds her at ray-gun point in the airlock.
Chapter XIV: Human Projectiles
Croat has signaled his spaceship, which had not returned to Mercury but had waited for him near the moon. Croat and Rowena don spacesuits. So does Jack. Jack rushes into the airlock just before Croat opens the airlock outer door. All three are blown out into space.
Chapter XV: The Combat in Space
Floating in space, Jack watches the approaching Mercutian ship. There is fighting on board, between Mercutian men and winged girls—stowaways, presumably. A great flash, and then the ship explosively decompresses, instantly killing all aboard. A silver ball ejects from the wreckage.
Jack drifts close enough to Croat to grab him and kill him with a knife. The Cube moves in and recaptures Jack and Rowena into the airlock.
Chapter XVI: Falling Stars
Jack and Rowena reboard the Cube. The silver sphere approaches the Cube. The sphere contains Guy, Tama, and eight of the kidnapped Earth girls. It turns out Guy and Tama stowed away in Croat's ship, and seized an opportune moment to seize control of the ship. They escaped in the silver sphere tender just in time.
Croat and the remains of his ship burn up as they re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
Jack, Rowena, Guy, and Tama all live happily on Earth. But they miss their friends in the Light Country.