the novels. Finally, the name of the planet Kukulkan violates the nomenclature previously established for the planetary system of Epsilon Eridani in the introduction and title story of The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, according to which the planets take their names from Norse gods like Thor, not Mayan gods like Kukulkan. The first two issues are explicable. Since the novels' activities take place entirely on-planet and Kukulkan's well-established settlements are not dependent on extra-system support, there is no need for the Viagens to play a role. The ethnic make-up of the settlements presumably results from the well-known tendency of depressed economies rather than prosperous ones to supply emigrants. The problem of nomenclature can best be laid to error. Regardless of all such issues, an explicit reference to the key Viagens planet Krishna in the second Kukulkan novel, The Venom Trees of Sunga, definitively places Kukulkan in the Viagens universe. Reception Danny Low in Other Realms calls the book "a typical de Camp adventure story" filled with his characteristic "satirical humor," and Salazar "a typical de Camp hero, self-deprecating but very competent." He gives it "a slightly more Monty Pythonish flavor than de Camp's previous stories" in which "the protagonist has to maintain a calm front while the world is turned upside down around him." Over all he rates it "a well done book which is a treat from an Old Master such as de Camp," with his "only criticism [being that] one of the problems, the invading nomads, is solved in too much of a deus ex machina style." Don D'Ammassa finds the book "similar to the Krishna stories, though set on the planet Kukulcan [sic]." The novel was also reviewed by Fritz Leiber in Locus no. 340, May 1989. References 1988 American novels 1988 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Fiction set around Epsilon Eridani Novels by L. Sprague de Camp Novels about dinosaurs Novels set on fictional planets