The Continent Makers: Difference between revisions

▲Geophysicist '''Gordon Graham''' is a participant in the '''Gamanovia Project''', whose mission is to increase the land area of the overpopulated twenty-second century '''Earth''' by creating new continents through the manipulation of geological forces. The project's initial goal is to raise a new land mass to be called '''Gamanovia''' around the existing '''[[Ascension Island]]''' in the '''[[Atlantic Ocean|South Atlantic]]'''. The name of the proposed new continent was chosen to honor fifteenth century [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] navigator [[Vasco da Gama]], the first European to navigate the region's waters, and for [[João da Nova]], who discovered Ascension Island a few years later.

▲A sinister group concealing itself under the mask of the bogus '''Churchillian Society''', supposedly dedicated to proving that the works of twentieth-century dramatist [[George Bernard Shaw]] were actually written by [[Winston Churchill]], is attempting to discover the secrets of the project. The Churchillian Society's "cover" purpose is a spoof on the present-day body of thought similarly dismissing [[William Shakespeare]]'s authorship of the Shakespeare plays on the grounds that he, as a commoner, could not possibly have written great literature.

▲When Graham becomes involved with '''Jeru-Bhetiru''', an alien women from the country of '''Katai-Jhogorai''' on the planet '''Krishna''', the society attempts to blackmail him into serving them by kidnapping and threatening to kill her. Instead, Graham allies himself with World Federation constable '''Reinhold Sklar''' and Jeru's fiance '''Varnipaz bad-Savarun''', a diplomat from the Krishnan kingdom of '''Sotaspe''', to thwart the plotters.

▲The enemy is gradually revealed as a rogue band of '''Thothians''' from the [[Procyon]]ic star system, hoping to seize the new continent by claiming Ascension, which currently lacks any sovereign government. Graham and his cohorts find themselves in a tight race against time, in which the labyrinthine bureaucracies of the future Earth prove almost as much an impediment as the enemy, and the hypnotic powers of the reptilian alien '''Osirians''' bring about treachery within their own ranks.

▲An added problem for Graham is that the rescue of Jeru will gain nothing for him personally, but rather benefit only his rival Varnipaz; though Graham and Jeru love each other, people in her country wed on the basis of interest and advantage, considering love to have nothing to do with marriage.