Book of Dreams, The-Jack Vance novel, book review

Book of Dreams, The-Jack Vance novel

AKA: Demon Prince Book 5

The Book of Dreams was published in 1981 by DAW Books and is the fifth and final novel in Vance's The Demon Prince series.  My copy is 190 pages, making it the second longest novel of the group.  All of The Demon Price novels continue to be in print.  The Book of Dreams is my favorite of the five novels, and I rated it a five every time I read it.  But the whole series is highly recommended as being enjoyable, entertaining and interesting.  Although some of the novels in The Demon Prince can be read alone, I have found that enjoyment can be greatly enhanced by reading them in order and by repeated readings.

We learned in the first novel of the series that when Kirth Gersen was a child the colony where he lived was attacked by five demon princes who killed almost everyone, including his family members, destroying the entire colony.  Kirth and his grandfather were able to flee and were the only survivors.  His grandfather arranged that Kirth be trained for many years in hand to hand and weapons combat so that he could avenge his family.  No romance or other attraction has yet turned Gersen away from his monomania, and his stealthily acquired wealth only further enables him in his pursuits of the demon princes. 

Here in the final novel Kirth Gersen continues his quest to track down and kill the five demon princes.  The final one Gersen seeks is the elusive and grandiose Howard Alan Treesong, Lord of the Overmen.  Several years ago, in his attempt to consolidate power and perhaps become the first ruler of the Gaean worlds, Treesong almost succeeded in having himself appointed as Chief of the Interworld Police Coordination Company (IPCC).  The IPCC has not heard anything about him lately, though, and a major problem with tracking him down is that nobody knows what he looks like and there are no known photos of him in existence. 

Gersen obtains a photo of a group of seven men that was sent anonymously to his Cosmopolis Magazine company.  A note was written on it says "HA Treesong is here".  They do not know who sent it, who else is in the photo or where it was taken.  Gersen decides to publish the photo in a free inaugural periodical called “Extant” that he creates.  He includes it as part of a contest that offers a reward to the person who can identify the most people in the photograph.  He hopes to at least narrow down which man in the photo might be Treesong. 

One of the people who eventually responds to the photo is Treesong's father so Gersen visits his planet to learn more about Treesong.  He learns that there is an upcoming 25 year high school reunion that Treesong might be attending.  In order to be part of the reunion ceremony Gersen hires a band for the reunion on the condition that he be allowed to be one of the band members.  He cannot play any musical instrument so takes intensive flute lessons, enough to be able to barely play.  The reunion turns out to be much more than expected when Treesong turns up with hired thugs, takes control of everything and begins to take acts of revenge against former bullies, teachers, would be girl friends and others who humiliated him when he went to high school there.  Treesong, a trained musician, notices that Gersen can't really play the flute so asks his hired men to take Gersen to the river and toss him in.  When they arrive at the river Gersen overpowers the two men, takes their weapons and stalks back to the reunion with the intent of killing Treesong.  But Treesong is only wounded, and Gersen is only barely able to escape the planet alive.

Gersen learns from Treesong's estranged family that Treesong murdered his own best friend, Nymphotis Cleadhoe, when in high school because he thought his friend had stolen his fantasy world writings he titled “The Book of Dreams.”  Treesong's brother, though, was the one who hid the book, and this book is still where he tossed it.  Gersen realizes how important this book is to Treesong so he buys it from Treesong's brother.  Next Gersen devises an elaborate scheme to allow Treesong to learn about the existence of the book to try to lure him to retrieve it.  He contacts Nymphotis Cleadhoe's parents who now reside on a jungle planet where they are caretakers on the Bethune Preserve.  (Note the similarities to the later Cadwal Chronicles.)  The Cleadhoe couple know that Treesong murdered their child many years ago so gladly cooperate with Gersen in attempting to kill Treesong.  Gersen cleverly sets up the trap.

The Book of Dreams is suspenseful, unpredictable, and elaborately plotted with vivid portraits of odd places and inhabitants such as the religious fanatics in the Maundish area on the planet Mouderveldt, the residents on the planet Pontefract who are obsessed with hats and have developed elaborate customs regarding the wearing of hats, and the Bethune Preserve with its bizarre creatures.  The novel is so descriptive and detailed that I was even more enthralled after rereading it a second and third time and look forward to reading The Book of Dreams and the entire series again in the near future.  This is Jack Vance at his finest and is very highly recommended!  Rating 5.