hilemon Abu Dhubhai, better known as Phil, teaches mathematical physics at Feliss Academy, a second-rate educational institution on the backwater planet of Earth in the year 2457 A.D. Burned out and embittered by years of teaching second-rate students, and more than half-convinced of his own second-rate status, Phil drifts through a convenient but loveless affair with Gretchen Kinnderboom, a rich idler from a nearby town, while alternately dreaming and despairing of one day doing something, anything, that matters. Phil's dissatisfaction is shared by fellow faculty members and drinking companions the Steel Caryatid (who teaches magic), Myoko Namida (psionics), Sir Pelinor (swordsmanship) and Sister Impervia (spiritual instruction and martial arts, not necessarily in that order).
This bizarre curriculum is one result of the impact of the League of Peoples on Earth's future. Composed of various seldom-seen alien species so technologically advanced as to be, from the merely human point of view, indistinguishable from gods, the League rules the universe with the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove. Its one inflexible law, enforced with Draconian severity, is that only sentient beings may enjoy the benefits of interstellar civilization; non-sentients—whom the League defines as beings capable of murder—are restricted to planets, where they are more or less free from League interference as long as they don't try to go off-world. On Earth, for example, murderers are dealt with by local law enforcement or, in especially nasty cases, the Spark Lords, human agents of the League who have all sorts of cool technology at their disposal. If, however, a murderer attempts to escape the consequences of his crime by fleeing the planet, or, indeed, tries to go off-world years or even decades after having committed a murder, then the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent League snuffs him instantly.
When one of their students is murdered in a particularly gruesome fashion, and another disappears, leaving only a note in which he writes of having eloped with the dead girl, Phil and his friends, plus the girl's music teacher, Annah, become involved in solving the mystery and tracking down the murderer. Because the victim's mother is a notorious international gangster known as Knife-Hand Liz, there is no shortage of suspects ... beginning with the missing bridegroom. But the chancellor of the Academy, Opal Quintelle, who has been involved with the League and the Spark Lords as a member of the off-world military branch known as the Expendables (this group, whose name pretty well sums up its purpose and philosophy, has been featured in previous novels by Gardner), believes the real culprit is a Lucifer, a member of a species of shape-changing aliens so evil and powerful that even the Spark Lords fear them. She believes the Lucifer has not just murdered the girl but taken her place.
Matters are further complicated by Myoko's revelation that the boy, Sebastian, quite possibly possesses the strongest psionic talent ever to exist. It seems the Lucifer means to make use of this talent, but for what purpose? The answer waits in Niagara Falls, where Sebastian and his bride are heading for a never-to-be-forgotten honeymoon. Phil and friends follow, crossing paths with Knife-Hand Liz, the Spark Lords and the League of Peoples ... not to mention the aforesaid Lucifer. Along the way, our six second-rate heroes discover, much to their own surprise, that they are not quite so second-rate after all.
Fast, funny and surprisingly moving
Of the five previous novels that Gardner has set in his Expendables universe, four take place far from Earth and sport snappy one-word titles: Expendable, Vigilant, Hunted and Ascending. These books are fun, fast and often surprisingly moving space operas. Gardner's second novel, Commitment Hour, is the only one to actually take place on Earth ... as well as the only one with a title longer than a single word. It is also the least successful of the series. Although Gardner returns to Earth in Trapped, his new novel possesses in abundance all the virtues of its off-world predecessors; indeed, it's his best book yet. He might do well to stick to one-word titles in the future!
Gardner is the kind of writer, like Roger Zelazny, whose prose is so effective in doing everything that good prose is supposed to do—convey character, build suspense, communicate information, describe action—that readers overlook the heavy lifting going on behind the scenes. Here, every word seems to come directly from the pen of the witty yet agreeably self-effacing first-person narrator, Phil. Phil's voice speaks so clearly to his character that we sense instinctively what a good teacher he must be, notwithstanding his own doubts on the issue. Thus we allow him to sweep us along on his adventure, not looking too closely or questioning too deeply some of the underlying assumptions, such as the whole sentient/non-sentient business raised above. This is no criticism; like magicians, authors succeed by distracting readers, and Gardner does it exceptionally well. And when explanations are called for, Gardner provides them: His take on how magic and psionics work is completely satisfying ... not to mention very cool.
Trapped is chock-full of fun secondary characters and memorably outlandish aliens. There is Dreamsinger, the imperious and more than slightly mad Sorcery-Lord of Spark. There is Oberon, the noble alien servant of Gretchen Kinnderboom, who resembles a giant lobster. There is Gretchen herself, who, like so many of the others, proves to be full of surprises. And there is the Lucifer, who more than lives up to his namesake.
Gardner tackles larger questions as well. In a universe run by the godlike League of Peoples, is there room for free will? Has the murder of an innocent girl and everything that follows, if not all that went before, been orchestrated by the League for reasons that none of the characters involved are or ever will be smart enough to understand? In exploring these questions, Gardner adds intriguingly to our understanding of the Expendables universe and the place of human beings within it.
