Last week, I finished reading the wildest sci-fi book, “A Planet So Strange.” It has a ridiculous amount of back story, but it picks up at the action-packed part and the history is skillfully woven back in. Purportedly based on two after-action reports (one by an improbably named “Exchequer Albert Cowshead”), the tale is so bizarre that this short synopsis really doesn’t give anything away, so I won’t burden anyone with a spoiler warning.
The back story is that (yet again) Western civilization has crashed. Militant Moslems filled the power gap and ruled things for over half a millennium in the new dark age, but were ultimately beaten back by a resurgent West that finally shambled back onto its feet. Then, as fate would have it, just as the key victories over the Caliphate were being consolidated, a crude interstellar drive was developed by the West. A few nearby star systems have been colonized, and some high-value resources have begun trickling back to replenish Earth’s war-depleted stocks, but the prize, the real prize, is in sight – a world peopled by seemingly barbarous natives, who may have the goods the West is after.
As a side-note, Earthmen have trouble pronouncing the indigenous name of the planet, about the only constant between different groups’ pronunciation being some variant of the consonant “X.” Naturally this leads to the unfortunate appellation “Planet X," later shortened to just “X." Well, this is science fiction, after all.
The explorers sent out from Earth are not in the Neil Armstrong “we come in peace for all mankind” mode, nor are they of the James T. Kirk non-interference mindset. No, in the wake of the brutal re-conquest of the West over the Caliphate, they most definitely do not come in peace, and fully do intend to interfere. And following a rash but very, very lucky first expedition to X, it is clear that the place is teeming with resources. Resources for a war-impoverished West, yes, and wealth beyond dreams for successful explorers. A second colonization expedition is launched, this time to the far side of X. Naturally in order to make an interesting story, things have to go very badly for the second expedition, beginning with a rookie interstellar navigation mistake. In the end, of the initial contingent of 300 explorers, four survivors (now barely distinguishable from the natives, due largely to radiation from the star X orbits) link up with Earth forces after nearly a decade of warfare, wandering, and – get this – running a traveling faith-healing medicine show.
OK, sounds like a ripping tale, but it’s probably too far-fetched to keep the suspension of disbelief thing going, right? Think again. It’s a history book. It’s already happened. (Yeah, well, I fudged the part about the warp drive, they just used sailing ships.) Two more hints: 1528, not the future. Mexico and Texas, not “Planet X.” And the real title? “A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca,” by Andres Resendez.
Folks, if you think history is boring, your professor’s doing it wrong.
Folks, if you think history is boring, your professor’s doing it wrong.
BTW, here's a short-short take on the whole story, at Wikipedia: Cabeza de Vaca.
