Science Fiction Book Review: The Demon Breed by James Schmitz

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I just happened to pick this book up from the charity shelf in one of my local supermarkets a few weeks ago. The cover stood out to me, I don't think I've read this author before. It's a pretty decent science fiction adventure thriller, first published in 1968, although the edition I've got is from 1979. It's set sometime in the reasonably distant future, on the planet Nandy-Cline, which was colonised by humans several centuries before the story starts. Nandy-Cline is a generally Earth-like planet, but it's mostly covered by ocean, with just one small continent. Constantly drifiting on the ocean currents are very large floating forests, which are complete ecosystems, supporting plant and animal life that can be both dangerous and useful. There are two human nations living on this planet, one one the sole continent, and a nomadic sea-dwelling people. The planet as a whole comes under the authority of a loose-knit Federation of human-settled worlds. There are two main characters in this story. One is a young woman called Nile Etland, an executive in a pharmaceutical company - she's also a scientist, navive to Nandy-Cline, and knows the floating forests well. The other main character is Ticos Cay, a biochemist and Nile's former university instructor. Nile is now technically Ticos' line manager, as her company now sponsors some research that Ticos is doing on one of the floating islands. He has a complete laboratory set up there, and is researching the local plant and animal life in the hope of developing drugs that can be used for life-extension techniques. Although working for Nile's company, Ticos is alone in his lab and organises his own work, reporting his findings by radio to Nile at regular intervals. Unknown to Nile, Ticos has been taken prisoner by the alien Parahuans, who have secretly infiltrated an invasion force onto the island. The Parahuans lost a war with the Federation decades before, and have never been able to accept that. The Parahuans have an extreme belief in their own racial and cultural superiority and were baffled when the human race defeated them. To reconcile their defeat with the unshakeable faith they have in their own superiority, they've developed a theory that there is a hidden caste of genetically-superior humans running the Federation from behind the scenes. The invasion force's immediate purpose is to test whether this theory is true - if it is, they'll withdraw, if not they'll attack and try to conquer Nandy-Cline. Despite being subject to extemely-painful, scientifically-applied torture on a regular basis, Ticos has managed to concoct a story that not only does this hidden group of superhumans exist, but Nile is a member. Some of the Parahuan leadership group believe him, but the one in charge of interrogating him is more sceptical, and they don't make decisions without reaching a concensus. They develop a plan to capture Nile and torture her to establish whether or not she is superior. Meanwhile, Nile, having been out of contact with Ticos, flies to the floating forest, where her communications are cut off and her aircraft brought down by alien weaponry. Surving the landing, she takes advantage of her knowledge of the floating forests to evade capture and investigate what's happened at Ticos' laboratory. It's not long before she discovers the aliens and a message that Ticos has managed to leave for her explaining his plan. With the aid of three genetically-engineered talking otters she not only avoids capture, but makes plans to rescue Ticos, bluff the aliens into thinking they're up against an unbeatable enemy, and alert the outside world. The story's a pretty good runaround, with a small number of characters to follow and enough action to avoid being boring or repetitive. What makes it particularly interesting is that it keeps the reader guessing as to whether or not there is any truth to the Parahuans' theory of a secret group of superior humans - because both Ticos and Nile display abilities that I would describe as being close to the edge of human potential. Ticos is able to keep a clear head and tell the aliens a consistent story, playing on their fears and prejudices, and waging a campaing of psychological warfare, even while enduring torture. And Nile is able to react to changing events really rapidly, grasps the situation the moment new data is presented to her, is handy in a fight and seems to be in superb physical condition. Although the story that Ticos is telling the aliens is at least partly fiction, maybe there is a core of truth in there. Whatever, it's a pretty good adventure story and I'll have to watch out for more from this author.