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This was the situation when the HOODED SWAN landed on its information-seeking mission for the vast interstellar libraries of New Alexandria. Grainger, man of the double-mind, realized early that there was something odd about the truce between the xenophobic colonists and the docile natives.

It took a fleeing wide-eyed native child to bring the Promised Land suddenly to critical mass. What was there about this little girl that could so take an entire planet to the edge of Kingdom Come? That was what Grainger's minds had to find out and quickly.

Cover art by Kelly Freas

Published by DAW in February 1974.

Those descendants were not about to welcome interference from the galactic community, and were bitterly resentful of outsiders who wanted to trespass on the world which they regarded as so completely their own. But the Promised Land was inhabited already, by the enigmatic Anacaona, and the galactic community could not stand by and watch the aliens subjected to the will of the colonists.

Into this hostile and mysterious world comes Grainger, pawn of the New Alexandrian scientist and politician Titus Charlot, in pursuit of an alien girl who may hold the key to the puzzle of Chao Phrya. The search takes him deep into the rain forest, whose dangers he must face without weapons or knowledge. And there comes a time when even the resources of his mind-parasite, the wind, must run out...

Cover by Bob Marchant

Published by J.M. Dent in September 1975.
ISBN:0-460-04280-7

J ealous of their territories, resentful of outsiders, the descendants soon began to subject the alien Anacaona to their own will.

Into this hostile and mysterious world comes Grainger aboard his starship Hooded Swan, in pursuit of an alien girl who could hold the key to the enigma of Chao Phyra ...

Cover by Angus McKie.

Published by Pan in January 1978.
ISBN:0-330-25267-4

In a galactic culture that extends from quasi-Utopian worlds like New Alexandria and New Rome to vermin-infested slums like Old Earth, the Star-Pilots of the star-ships that link the cosmos together are the great heroes of the day. Grainger, who has become a legend in his own lifetime, is drafted to fly the prototype (the Hooded Swan) of a new ship that could revolutionize space travel.

The rain forest of Chao Phrya seems, at first glance, to be a far more hospitable environment than the distorted surface of the world in the Halcyon Drift where the Lost Star crashed, or the Stygian underworld of Rhapsody. Unfortunately, the crazed colonists are stubbornly hostile,the delicate indigenes deeply enigmatic, and the long journey that Grainger has to make through the jungle can only be accomplished on foot. The Star-Pilot's mission seems awkward, hazardous, and doomed to failure, even without taking the giant spiders into account—and when the hefty arachnids make their appearance, the problem of staying alive suddenly becomes extremely acute!

Published by Wildside Press in March 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4344-3501-9

In a galactic culture that extends from quasi-Utopian worlds like new Rome to vermin-infested slums like Old Earth, the Star-Pilots are the great heroes of the day, and Grainger has become a legend in his own time, flying the revolutionary ship, Hooded Swan.

The rain forest of Chao Phrya seems a more hospitable place than the Halcyon Drift or the underground world of Rhapsody, scenes of Grainger’s previous adventures. But the colonists of the jungle planet are crazed and the indigenous population enigmatic; and Grainger must must undertake a mission that requires a lengthy journey on foot through the dense forest. His quest seems awkward, hazardous, and doomed to failure – and that’s before the giant spiders make their appearance!

Published by Orion (ebook) in May 2018.
ISBN: 978-1-4732-1952-6

In omnibus Swan Songs.
Translated into French as: Terre Promise; also in omnibus Grainger des Étoiles: L'intégrale — tome 1.
Translated into German as: Die Welt der Verheisung; also in omnibus Die Saga vom Raumpiloten Grainger.
Translated into Japanese.

Review by Ian Braidwood

Cast of Characters:
Grainger, Eve Lapthorn, Titus Charlot, Linda Petrosian, Max Volta - Tartaglia, Danel, Mercede, the wind, Michael and Alyne.

This story starts with Grainger on New Alexandria, waiting for a new assignment from Titus Charlot.

Bored of drinking and reading, he borrows a car and goes for a drive in the country, where he rescues a young Anacaonaian girl from the two men chasing her; only to be picked up by the police.

The next day the girl is kidnapped and Grainger is guiding the Hooded Swan to Chao Phyra, where the girl's people originally came from. However, the descendants of the crew of the generation starship Zodiac have settled the planet and they guard their rights jealously. They make it difficult for the crew of the Hooded Swan to do anything. Under-manned and under-equipped, Grainger is forced to journey through the hazardous Chao Phyran jungle in search of the abducted girl.

These books really fly past and they are so easy to read that they barely touch the sides.

Thematically, this centres around how vanity can mislead; Charlot, the human Chao Phyrans and Grainger are all mislead by their expectations about the nature of the Chao Phyra's indigenes.

One criticism is the most of the story is taken up with the journey through the jungle with the plot exposition squeezed, deflatingly, into a single conversation.

The Brian Stableford Website