Category Archives: Jack Vance

RIP, Jack Vance (1916-2013)

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The science fiction and fantasy world is saddened to learn that Grandmaster Jack Vance passed away on May 26 in Oakland, California.  Vance was 96.

Locus Online has an obituary that summarizes Vance’s life, plus there’s the Wikipedia entry linked to in the above paragraph.  I’ll not repeat what they’ve written.  Rather, I want to make this a more personal reflection.

I’ve read a bit of Vance’s work over the years, but I’ve never really jumped in with both feet. No particular reason, really, other than there were so many other books competing for my attention.  I started reading the Planet of Adventure Series a couple of years ago and examined the first and second of the four volumes in that set.  It was my intention to finish the series later this summer.  It still is.  Since most of my reading of his oeuvre has been science fiction, I’m posting this tribute here rather than on the main blog.

I read “The Last Castle” and “The Dragon Masters” in high school, as well as a few other titles here and there.  Subterranean Press has published a number of omnibus editions of Vance’s work as well as his autobiography over the last few years.  Most of these titles are out of print.  I’ve got all of them, and have dipped into them a little.  They’re not slight volumes.

The series Vance wrote that has most stuck out in my mind isn’t The Dying Earth.  I’ve not read that one yet.  It’s on the list.  What really impressed me was the five novel sequence known as The Demon Princes. 

The backstory is that a group of five intergalactic criminals wipe out the population of a colony planet to prove what badasses they are and that they aren’t to be messed with.  The five are known as the Demon Princes because they’re so evil.  One man and his nephew survive.  The man raises the nephew to be the ultimate hunter and killer.  In each of the five books, he goes after one of the Demon Princes.  The first three books were written in the 1960s, and they’re quite good.  As good as anything being written at the time, and better than most space opera that’s been written since then.

But the last two volumes, The Face and The Book of Dreams, were written in the late 70s and early 80s, and they’re the real standouts in the series.  They’re completely different from anything that was being written then or now.  And they’re completely different from each other.  Each of them has an ending that has stayed with me for decades.  It’s a rare book that can do that.  Usually the ending is the first thing I forget while the opening of a book is what sticks in my mind.  Of the two, I prefer the ending of “The Face” a little more simply because of the joke that Vance has spent a goodly portion of the book setting up, and setting it up so that it’s a natural extension of what’s happening all along.

The Demon Princes series was reprinted a while back by the SFBC in a two volume edition. Tor did the same around that time as well.  It’s a series worth tracking down.

Jack Vance was unique, a one of a kind writer, a master of the English language.  We shall not see his like again any time soon, a conclusion others will no doubt reach in a more elegant manner than me.  Rather than what I had planned to work on, I’m going to read some Vance this evening to honor his memory.

Rest in peace, sir.

Over the Horizon

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Things have been rather hectic for the last couple of weeks as the semester has started up and I’ve assumed new responsibilities in the land of dayjobbery.  My reading rate has slowed down, and I’ve hardly made any progress on my own personal fiction writing.  Blogging has diminished as well,

This week will be the first “normal” week.  I’m hoping to post at least one or two reviews here every month in addition to smaller posts.  I’ve got a a number of eARCs and one or two paper ARCs publishers have sent me, but they’re all fantasy, so those reviews will go up at Adventures Fantastic.  If I start getting any science fiction eARCs/ARCs, the rate of posting here will increase.  As I’m doing with fantasy/historical adventure, I’ll try to review indie published books on a regular basis.

So what’s in store of the next few months?

I’ve got an indie published novel by Mary Sisson that will probably be the next thing reviewed unless I decided to look at some short fiction first.  I’ve also got a couple of novellas in ebook format.  The recent Solaris Rising anthology has been sitting there calling to me for about six weeks; I need to answer the call. 

I’d like to finish Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series.  I’ve looked at the first two, and have two to go.  Those would be good tie-ins to the John Carter film. Sword and Planet stories are a little tricky.  Are they science fiction, or are they really fantasy in sf drag?  Depends on how you squint at them.  Although I’m trying not to do much of this, I may cross post anything related to John Carter to both blogs.

ConDFW is in a few weeks, and I’ll be attending that.  (Probably cross post the con report, since the con will have both fantasy and science fiction.)  While I’m there, I’m going to try to do some more interviews.  Hopefully I can get my first interview up on this site.  All the previous ones have been posted at Adventures Fantastic. 

Between what I’ve listed here and all the fantasy I’ve got to review, I have plenty to keep me busy.  Thanks to everyone who follows this blog, and to everyone who has recently starting following, good to have you along.

Further Adventures on the Planet of Adventure: Jack Vance’s Servants of the Wankh

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Servants of the Wankh
Tschai:  Planet of Adventure 2
Jack Vance


In the second installment of the Planet of Adventure series, Adam Reith and his companions Traz Onmale and the Dirdirman Anacho set out to return the Flower of Cath to her homeland and while there receive help in building a spaceship to return home.  Due to a convoluted standard of shame that I’m not sure I ever completely understood, she ends up jumping overboard during the voyage.

Much of the first book was a sword and planet adventure.  It may have been because I was constantly being interrupted while reading Servants over a period of days, rather than finishing it in a single day, but it seemed to me that this was more an adventure of wit and manners.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of adventure.  Our hero is stranded on the Planet of Adventure, after all.  Much of the conflict was cultural rather than physical, with wit and cunning being two of the weapons employed.  That’s especially true after they reach Cath. 

While in Cath, a contract is taken out on Adam Reith with a guild of assassins.  Instead of simply letting the assassin do his job, Reith resists.  One of the companions he’s picked up helps, resulting in a scolding from a woman passing by.  Seems they were interfering in the assassin’s making a living.  The result of all this is a nasty letter and a fine being levied against Reith by the guild.  (The contract had been cancelled by this point.)

It’s this type of humor, looking at different cultures and the strange rules they have, that makes a Jack Vance book such a fun thing to read.  If you haven’t experienced it, you owe it to yourself to do so.

Receiving no help in Cath, Reith and friends decide to steal a starship from the Wankh, one of the most unfortunate choices of a name for a race in all of science fiction.  I doubt I will be spoiling much if I told you they aren’t successful.  That would make the two remaining books in the series sort of pointless, wouldn’t it.

In spite of the fact that it took me way too long to finish this one, it’s not a long book.  The DAW edition is only 157 pages long.  There was an earlier edition from Ace, but I don’t know how many pages it had.  And it’s too late and I’m too tired to look it up.  My point is that this is a short novel and a good way to while away a lazy afternoon or evening.

They Don’t Write ’em Like That Anymore: Jack Vance’s City of the Chasch

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City of the Chasch
Tschai, Planet of Adventure:  1
Jack Vance
This is the first book in a tetralogy.  I picked it up along with books 3 and 4 when I was in high school, but couldn’t find the second volume.  This was in the pre-intenet days.  I eventually did come across it, but never got around to reading it at the time.
I’m at a conference this week, and needed something to read on the plane when I had to keep the Nook turned off.  (Preparing for the conference is why I haven’t posted anything here lately.)  I had only read this book in the series, and that was…a long time ago.  I couldn’t remember a thing about it and decided to give it another try.
I loved it!  This is an old fashioned planet story, about an Earthman on a lost world trying to make his way home through all sorts of exotic alien races.  It’s the sort of stuff that’s in far too short supply these days. 

The story goes like this.  Adam Reith is a scout on a ship from Earth that has been sent to investigate a distress signal that was sent over 200 years previously from the planet Tsachai, which until now was unknown humans.  Just as his scout ship is leaving to visit the planet’s surface, a missile destroys it and damages his scout vessel. 
He survives the crash with injuries, and is taken in as a slave by a tribe of humans.  It seems there are humans on this world, along with a number of mutant human races, and four aliens.  The Chasch, and there are three varieties of them, are lizard-like.  The Dirdir are tall and thin.  The Wankh aren’t described much in this book, but they’re the focus of the second volume.  Fourth are the Pnume, which are the ony native race.  They live underground and are feared by the other three races.  Each of the races has a subspecies of human that works as their slaves.  Each subrace of human has a different story of how humans came to the planet.
Shortly after he crashes, the Blue Chasch find and carry off his spaceship.  Since repairing it is his only chance of getting home, the book focuses on his quest to recover the ship.  Throughout the course of the book, Reith travels across the planet, picks up several companions, rescues a gorgeous woman, and fights a number of battles. 
One of the things about this book is its use of classic sword-and-planet tropes, such as swords alongside advanced technologies.  What makes it rise above being a standard sword-and-planet tale is that it contains plenty of the Jack Vance wit and exoticism.  There’s a scene where Reith and his companion Traz, formerly the chieftan of the tribe that found him, are watching a Dirdirman (human servant of the Dirdir) sleeping in an abandoned city.  The Dirdirman is being watched by a Phung, which is related to the Pnume.  The whole description of the Phung’s behavior reads like a description of a mime.  It was hilarious.
This was an enjoyable book on many levels.  Not just the adventure, but the imagination Jack Vance displays.  I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series and reporting on it here.  This wasn’t a long book.  The DAW edition, shown at the top of the page, is only 156 pages long.  If you like fre-wheeling adventure with a bit of wit and depth, and you haven’t read these books, you should check them out.