50 pages • 1 hour read
Ruby DixonIce Planet Barbarians
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “Vektal”
Vektal is confused as to why Georgie is uninterested in sex and worried that he cannot communicate his intent to take care of her. He attempts to tend to her injured foot, but she lashes out, striking him in the face. When he instinctively snarls, she recoils in terror, making him horrified that he has frightened her. He grows angry at the thought that someone must have harmed her in the past.
Vektal is fascinated by Georgie and wishes to engage in further sexual acts but recognizes that Georgie does not feel the same. He attributes this to her nonexistent khui and decides that this is a divine sign that he needs to learn patience, something he knows he lacks. Through gestures, they manage to exchange names, though Vektal pronounces her name “Shorshie,” and he notes that she pronounces his like “Huptal.”
Vektal is puzzled, as the sa-khui are the only intelligent species living on the planet. He deduces from the fine leather of Georgie’s boots that she must come from somewhere far away. He worries over her missing khui, which is necessary to survival on the planet. He vows to protect her using any means necessary.
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary: “Georgie”
Georgie is grateful for the fire that Vektal has made but worries about how cold the other women must be. Vektal paces, making her nervous. She mimes being hungry and then waits warily as Vektal begins shedding layers of clothing. To her relief, he doesn’t get fully naked, instead producing a packet of rations from a small satchel. Starving, Georgie jams meat into her mouth, only to find that it is so spicy that it is inedible. Vektal’s gestures indicate his worry over her bruises and refusal to eat. He covers her in his fur cloak, and Georgie, overwhelmed by the day’s events, begins to cry. Vektal comforts her, which makes her feel safe enough to sleep.
When she wakes, Vektal has cuddled close, keeping her warm. She feels surprisingly safe and comfortable even after realizing that Vektal has an erection. She mimes her hunger. As he begins to dress, she notes his strange form, including ridged plating on certain parts of his body and a tail. She is so dizzy from lack of food that she lets Vektal carry her through the snow despite finding it “humiliating” (50). She’s astonished at how quickly he can move through the snow and chides herself for enjoying his warmth and scent, considering this a sign of “Stockholm syndrome.” She urges him to travel in the direction where she knows they will find the crashed ship, but he refuses, as there is food in the other direction and the snow is deeper toward the ship. She reluctantly gives in, hoping that she can bring better news or food back to the other women soon.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “Vektal”
Vektal enjoys the physical contact with Georgie even as he worries that she will soon be too weak to take a lifesaving khui. He remains determined to save her. He uses his hunting experience to keep her safe and find her suitable food. When he attempts to leave her near a boulder, Georgie panics, relaxing slightly when he gives her a knife. He kills a “quilled beast” and brings her “the choicest parts” (53). Vektal is confused by Georgie’s distaste for raw meat, but he insists, fearing that she will grow even weaker, and she eats reluctantly.
Vektal takes Georgie to a warm stream, watching to see what she knows about survival and what he will need to teach her. When he grabs her arm to stop her from approaching the deadly fish-infested waters, she winces as he touches her crash injury. He scolds himself for not noticing her injuries. He shows her how certain berries will cause the fish to flee a portion of the warm stream and then how those same berries can be used for soap. They undress and get into the warm water. Vektal enjoys the way Georgie looks at his body, hoping that this is a sign that she wants to “encourage mating.”
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “Georgie”
Georgie finds herself staring at the unfamiliar anatomy of Vektal’s genitals, which includes ridges along the penis and a small protuberance above it. She is curious but not aroused. She gets into the water, pleased at its warmth. Vektal helps her use the berries to wash herself, which she allows, as his actions are practical rather than sexual. She coaches him until he can say “Georgie” correctly. He says their names together with a sa-khui word that Georgie doesn’t know, but his expression and the way he touches his vibrating chest make her think that it’s important.
Georgie decides to make sexual advances toward Vektal, as she thinks that his “sweetness” toward her gives her best chance of survival. He is shocked when she kisses him; she concludes that his people do not kiss. Still, he seems to like it, and she indicates that she will engage with him sexually if he takes her back up the mountain to the other women. Georgie admits to herself that this is “mercenary” but decides that the life-and-death circumstances make this permissible.
Now clean, Georgie laments being forced to wear her filthy clothes. She grows more painfully cold now that she is wet. To her irritation, Vektal heads for another cave instead of up the mountain. She stomps away from him, not willing to leave the women for another night, and falls down a crevasse. Vektal shouts from above as she realizes that she is surrounded by creatures.
Part 2 Analysis
The second portion of the novel offers increasing insight into Vektal’s perspective as his character’s narrative becomes equivalent to Georgie’s. This equivalence helps to further the novel’s pairing of them and augment the “fated mate” trope. The two perspectives also help the novel explore the differences and similarities between the two characters, the nature of alienness, and the complex relationship between their intentions and ability to communicate these effectively. As Vektal’s worldview becomes increasingly important, the novel establishes the third theme of Advancement and Societal Morality.
Vektal’s single-minded desire to protect and care for Georgie stands in opposition to Georgie’s increasingly conflicted feelings about her attraction toward him and her guilt over experiencing comfort and pleasure with him while the other women suffer in the crashed spaceship. Her worries over having an “unfair” or disproportionate amount of comfort ultimately wanes in the face of the importance of remaining strong to help her friends through their ordeal. In this transition, the novel shows Georgie gradually appreciating the importance of collective action that characterizes the sa-khui way of life and their survival. This section shows Georgie adapting to the limits of her available choices, exploring Consent and Autonomy in Strange New Worlds.
This part of the novel increasingly focuses on Vektal’s care and protection of Georgie, and his inner monologue reveals his good intentions. His anger over the idea that someone must have hurt Georgie in the past illustrates his gentleness in contrast to the “basketball heads” and suggests that the idea of gender-based violence is anathema to him. This builds on Dixon’s establishment of Vektal and the sa-khui as alien in a more familiar and less frightening way. The novel here avoids generalization about the nature of alien species and alienness: The sa-khui are framed as distinctly different from the “basketball heads” and “little green men,” clearly arguing that not all aliens are alike. Vektal expresses horror at the idea that a woman would be afraid of a larger, stronger male who approaches her sexually, as he views this as an unnatural response. His shock suggests that the notion of gendered violence or sexual violence is baffling to him because they are nonexistent in his culture. He does not just think it strange that Georgie is alarmed by him; he thinks it is strange that she would assume a man would commit violence against her at all. This encourages readers to make similar deductions about wider sa-khui attitudes, which makes the narrative a hopeful one. Even if readers do not yet know the individual sa-khui males who will be the romantic heroes of those subsequent installments, Vektal’s response primes Dixon’s readers to trust these future heroes and see them as the potential partners of the human women, especially in the romance genre, which presents romantic pairing as a positive solution.
These elements explore the theme of Advancement and Societal Morality by setting up comparisons between the different alien cultures of the novel and between human and alien cultures. Crucially, the novel suggests that there are ways in which sa-khui culture is more morally advanced than human culture, especially regarding normative male violence against women, turning the eponymous notion of “barbarianism” on its head. Though the word “barbarian” is used by Georgie as an instinctive reaction to Vektal’s fur-clad form, this characterization changes as she comes to know him further. She does not abandon the term (which is in the title of the book and the series), but rather refines it. This transition is the beginning of the novel’s increasing focus on the moral sophistication of the sa-khui: By the end of the book, “barbarianism” will refer to technological absence only, not to social refinement or moral goodness. Rather, the book increasingly suggests that this “barbarian” simplicity is part of what creates an honest, moral society.
