[PW] Kid's SF book

[Dennis Lien]

At 01:55 PM 7/17/2008, you wrote:
>If it's not the Edgar Rice Burroughs _Lost on Venus_ or _Pirates of
>Venus_,

<snip> From the description, it's not -- ERB's Venus, like his other
fantasy settings, tended to be crawling with life, peoples, races,
lost civilizations, forgotten cities and so on, definitely a planet
habitable all over.

I don't have the Mary Patchett title you suggest, which does sound
promising.  Another not-too-long shot might be FIVE AGAINST VENUS,
which (a) has a mostly light-yellow cover; (b) was published as part
of the Winston SF juvenile series, which were well-destributed in
their day and frequently available in libraries and such; and (c)
which seem to have been well-remembered by those who read them in
youth.  (I've read a few, but not this one; someone on Loganberry
"stump the bookseller" a few months ago was looking for a book
which turned out to be this.)  I gather it's a "Swiss Family
Robinson on Venus" sort of plot, which a family crash-landed
on a cloudy Venus and monsters involved; I don't know if only
part of the planet was habitable or not.  If I recall correctly,
the Winston series books were indeed illustrated with line
drawings.

The author was Robert L. Richardson, writing as "Phillip Latham."
Cover of the Winston hc edition (which I believe is the only
edition ever published) can be seen here:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/philip-latham/five-against-venus.htm


>It had a light green or yellow cover. ;-)  (The one I read had no dust
>jacket.)  It took place on Venus; I'm pretty sure that most of the
>planet
>was supposed to be uninhabitable, except for a small area--a jungle, a
>valley, something like that--which had a cave in which a giant
>serpent-like
>monster lived.  The book was illustrated with line drawings.  No idea
>who
>the author was or anything else.
>
>Metta,
>Ivan



Dennis Lien / U of Minnestoa Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu