Asutra, The-Jack Vance novel, book review

Asutra, The-Jack Vance novel

AKA: Durdane Book 3

The Asutra was first published in digest form in The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy in May and June of 1973.  It was released as a 204 page paperback novel by Dell in 1975.  It is currently available in an excellent trade paperback edition from Spatterlight Press.  The Durdane Series is not the very best series Vance wrote but Vance fans should find it well worth reading, especially if is read carefully and multiple times.

This is the third volume of the Durdane Chronicles and it builds upon the first two novels.  The two initial books in the series (The Anome and The Brave Free Men) should be read one after the other because they are really one novel in two books. The story line continues in The Asutra so it is best read after reading the other two, but I read it the first time as a stand-alone novel, and it made sense by itself because the beginning of The Asutra briefly summarizes the previous two novels. The Asutra was for me the most interesting of the three Durdane but I did not appreciate this the first time I read it.  (I’ve now read it three times.)

In The Asutra the main character, Gastel Etzwane, has withdrawn from public life to devote himself to playing music, but he becomes restless for some new adventures.  Gastel again encounters Ifness the mysterious man from Earth whom he met in the first novel, The Anome.  Earth is a much more technologically advanced world than Durdane.  Ifness is a Research Fellow for the Historical Institute on Earth. He is assigned to the planet of Durdane where his role is to observe the people and events like a cultural anthropologist but not to intervene in any way unless there is some threat to Earth and prior permission is granted. But Ifness finds that never getting involved is not always the ethical or prudent thing to do.

After meeting Ifness again Gastel learns more about the Asutra, an intelligent, alien creature that controlled the Roguskhoi soldiers who had attacked Shant. It appears that the Asutra, a technologically advanced species, could have used very sophisticated weapons but were experimenting by using the Roguskhoi with their primitive weapons. The location of the home planet of the Asutra and their reason for their experiments are unknown. 

Etzwane hears rumors from mariners that on a continent called Caraz a large horde of Roguskhoi have reportedly appeared. He and Ifness decide to use Ifness’ power vehicle from Earth to visit Caraz to investigate.  Nine thousand years ago when humans from Earth first came to Durdane it was settled mostly by “fugitives, recalcitrant and dissidents.”  “The wildest and most irredeemable had fled to Caraz to lose themselves forever.”  After arriving in Caraz a new adventure begins involving nomadic desert tribes, strange kidnappings, fighting spaceships, creatures called the Ka, and a risky rescue attempt that involves advanced alien cultures and other planets. It is difficult to discuss anymore without giving too much of the adventurous story away. 

Although some readers have written that they like The Asutra the least of the three Durdane novels, I found The Asutra to be the most intriguing and complex of the three, although it took repeated readings before I appreciated this.  Each time I read it I liked it even better and noticed new details that made it more fascinating. The Asutra also brought a more satisfying conclusion to the Durdane Chronicles.  What seemed like an ending after The Brave Free Men was actually only an intermission before the storyline took some twists and continued to develop until the underlying mysteries were finally revealed and we arrived at a more complete resolution.  A number of readers wrote of disliking the ending in The Asutra, but I found it very satisfying.  Etwane’s two major interests or loves in life were playing music and engaging in adventures and he needed to choose between the two.  The choice, however, was not necessarily up to him.

I am also aware that some Vance fans think the Durdane Chronicles are not among his very best writings.  I won't argue with that because some of Vance's novels reach pretty lofty heights.  But I have found the three books in this series to be well worth reading and I liked them even more upon slow and careful rereading them.  I wouldn’t recommend the Durdane Chronicles, though, as a starting place to readers new to Vance’s writings.  I rated The Asutra a 4 the first time I read it but rated it a 5 the second and third time I read it.