Reviews: In the Hall of the Mountain King

by Joel

Title: In the Hall Of The Mountain King

Writers: Jerry Pournelle & S.M. Stirling

Main characters:

  • Jonah Matthieson
  • Spots-Son of Chrotz-Shaa(Spots)
  • Large-Son of Chrotz-Shaa(Bigs)
Other characters:
  • Durvash(tnuctipun)
  • Harold Yarthkin
  • Claude Montferrat-Palme
  • General Buford Early
  • Ingrid
  • Minister the Honorable Ulf Reichstein Markham
  • Tyra Nordbo
Dramatis Personae:
  • Jonah Matthieson- Sol-Belter, former pilot-Captain in the UNSN(United Nations Space Navy)
  • Ingrid- Wunderland-Belter, went on mission with Jonah, on ramscoop from earth, to bomb Wunderland, by launching 1 ton balls of iron at the Kzin bases occupying Wunderland-MKW III-
  • Harold Yarthkin- owner of Harold Terran Bar
  • Claude Montferrat-Palme- former head of Police of Wunderland during Kzin occupation, cuurently trying to establish a 'democratic' [political environment on Wunderland
  • Tyra Nordbo- daughter of Nordbo, that travelled to a space anomaly, together with Ciao-Captain, and that she will save in MKW ..
  • Spots-Son of Chrotz-Shaa(Spots), Large-Son of Chrotz-Shaa(Bigs)- both survivers of the raid on Wunderland by the UNSN, they now have an overwhelming amount of kzinrettes and children, left from other officers after the war
Story: Jonah is a slob, he has been cut off all contacts and jobs by General Early, after their completed mission, and subsequent contact with the Thrint ...... Suddenly luck strikes, and he gets illegal work together with Spots and Bigs, building installations in a swamp. After that they go on an expedition to the Jtoki mountains, together with 'Hans', who has done this more frequently. They start looking for gold, and actually find a lot of it. During their gold digging they find the shipwreck of Durvash the Tnuctipun. At that time Tyra shows up, requested by Claude, to keep an eye on Jonah. The tnuctipun eventually wakes and takes control over Bigs by implanting a control device into his ear. On the way back to Munchen Bigs wants to kill Jonah(he acts under influence of the Tnuctipun, who wants to recreate his species using the techniques in his autodoc), in order to keep the artifact containing Durvash away from the Wunderland government. After Tyra and Hans have gone to help some outbackers he tries to do so, but Spots prevents this. Jonah and Spots go to the outbackers where Hans and Tyra have gone. In the meantime Bigs encounters bandits that kill him, and also kills Durvash.

In the final chapter Jonah, Claude and Harold arrange with General Early that he may share in the results of the investigation of the Tnuctipun vessel, provided Jonah gets off Early's blacklisting, given the opportunity of free space travel, and that he leaves Wunderland.