Book Review: Fantasms and Magics-Jack Vance

Book Review: Fantasms and Magics-Jack Vance

Vancelot: Jack Vance in Review, TJ Jones

Mayflower Books, mass market paperback, 192 pages

Release Date: 1978

Cover art: Peter Goodfellow

Contents:

·       Foreward-Jack Vance, 1 page

·       The Miracle Worker, 74 pages, novella

·       When the Five Moons Rise, 14 pages, short story

·       Noise, 13 pages, short story

·       The New Prime, 25 pages, novelette

·       Guyal of Sfere 23 pages, excerpt

·       The Men Return, 9 pages, short story

This is a mass market paperback collection of six Jack Vance shorter works that includes one novella, one novelette, one excerpt from a novel and three short stories.  Although it is out of print, used copies are readily available.  All of these stories are now available from Spatterlight Press in trade paperback editions. In addition to being in larger font, the Spatterlight releases have the advantage of being the same corrected releases that were issued under the limited and costly Vance Integral Editions.  (VIE) Below is a brief review of each story: 

The Miracle Workers-Jack Vance novella

The Miracle Workers is a 74 page novella published in July, 1958 by Astounding Science Fiction. The original inhabitants of the planet Pangborn are called First Folk.  They are the size of humans but have foam sacs that bulge from their arms with orange lipped foam vents pointing forward.  Their backs are wrinkled and loose with skin acting as a bellows to blow air through their foam-sacs.  Enormous hands end with sharp chisel like fingers.  The “head was sheathed in chitin.  Billion-faceted eyes swelled from either side of the head, glowing like black opals.”  They lived in fields of moss but were forced to move into the forests when humans arrived sixteen hundred years ago and displaced and marginalized the First Folk who now consider humans to be their enemy.  These humans once had spaceships and advanced weapons and machines but over the years they lost the knowledge and skills that supported their science and technology. The main character in this novella is Lord Faide, a human who has waged war to unite the various forts on the planet where other humans reside.  Faide’s solders are mostly foot soldiers who carry crossbows and darts and some mounted, armored knights. The only technically more advance weapons Lord Faide has are several untried cannon like device called Hellmouth and one small, single person shuttle that Lord Faide can minimally operate. But they do employ psychic warfare skills called "hoodoo" that the "jinxmen" use telepathically to frighten the opposition soldiers by causing them to have horrible visions of demons. Hoodoo can also be used to insert a demon like mentality into one's own soldiers to turn them into amazingly fierce fighters. “For over a thousand years the keep-lords had struggled for power.”  “None before had ever extended his authority across the entire continent-which meant control of the planet.”  Lord Faide, from Faide Keep, hopes to be the first leader to do so. As the story begins Lord Faide is advancing with his army toward a human fort at Ballant Keep that is ruled by Lord Ballant.  But his path to Ballant Keep is blocked by a forest that was planted by the First Folk. The forest is full of deadfalls, scythes, nettle traps and other deadly traps set by the First Folk so Lord Faide decides to negotiate with the First Folk by asking them for a guide to help them get through the deadly forest. Initially the First Folk refuse but when they hear that Lord Faide is planning to attack and kill other humans, the First Folk offer to guide them through the forest because “they are pleased to see us killing one another.” Chapters III, IV, V and VI are devoted to the imaginative battles between Lord Faide’s troops and those of Lord Ballant’s.  Lord Ballant has an ancient weapon called the Volcano and both sides have ordinary soldiers plus jinxmen who employ their hoodoo to create visions of demons and to implant magical forces into their own men to make them into fierce demon possessed fighters, many times stronger than ordinary humans.  After the battle Lord Faide and his men attempt to return home but find their way blocked by the First Folk who bear large tubes that look like weapons.  The humans are not concerned at first, however, because the “First Folk were a pale and feeble race, no match for human beings in single combat, but they guarded their forests with traps and deadfalls.” Unfortunately for Lord Faide and his soldiers, hoodoo does not work on the First Folk because their brains are not human and the First Folk have decided that they have had enough persecution by humans. They have bizarre weapons unknown to humans, including large wasp like insects that are fired out from tubes like missiles and secretions of foam.  There is a lot of fighting in the story, but I found it to be a creative and fascinating fantasy work. I’ve read it three times so far  and rated it a 4+ “Really liked it plus.”

When the Five Moons Rise-Jack Vance short story

When the Five Moons Rise was first published in March, 1954 in Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine.  It is a 14 page short story. The setting is a lighthouse in an alien ocean where two men work.  One of them tells the other not to believe any stories about what happens when five moons rise at once, something that is a very rare occurrence but about to take place.  When the five moons do rise, however, some strange things happen, including the disappearance of one of the men and things suddenly appearing when wished for.  I read this several times so far rated it a 3 or “Liked it.”

Noise-Jack Vance short story (author’s preferred title) AKA: Music of the Spheres

Noise was published initially in August, 1952 in Startling Stories magazine.  It is also known as “Music of the Spheres” and is a 13 page short story.  A man crash lands on a distant planet and begins sending out distress signals, hoping to get rescued.  He gradually begins to see and hear strange seductive things and is not sure if his senses have become more responsive or if he is hallucinating. It is a strange, moody, psychological, fantasy piece that is rather fascinating.  I’ve read this several times and rated it a 3 “Liked it.”

The New Prime-Jack Vance novelette AKA: Brain of the Galaxy (author’s preferred title)

The New Prime was first published under the title “Brain of the Galaxy” in the February, 1951 issue of the magazine Worlds Beyond and is a 24/25/29 page novelette. It consists of five vignettes with different characters and settings. In the first vignette a man from the twentieth century finds himself naked at a 19th century Boston social coming out party where he is surrounded by 300 guests in formal evening wear.  His memory is fogged so he has no idea how he got there but he must now cope with his situation. In the second setting a different character is in the midst of a losing battle with insect like creatures called Brands.  He has only thirteen soldiers left and must decide what to do.  One option is for him to order his men to attack the main hive of the Brands. In the third setting a man is in an ancient city of ruins seeking a Crown and Shield Parchment that can save his lord’s life.  Otherwise the authorities will nail his lord to an air-sled and send it off to the west.  The parchment could be in “the town’s Legalic, or the Mosque, or in the Hall of Relicts, or possibly in the Sumptuar.  He has eight hours to search before his lord is executed. In the fourth setting a person finds himself in competition to mentally project imaginative images on to a screen using an imagicon but he does not understand his situation or the process. In the fifth and final scene our main character, a soldier is captured and tortured by his enemy, The Racs.  He insists he is not a soldier but is Ervard, “an honest trader in pearls.”  When he is left alone momentarily, he tries to eat straw to choke himself to death.  Later the Racs offer to let him live if he will cooperate with them. It is unclear how these five vignettes are related until toward the end, in the last six pages of the novelette, where it all comes together. I’ve read this novelette five times so far and rated it a 3 “Liked it.”

Guyal of Sfere-Jack Vance chapter from the novel Mazirian the Magician, AKA: Mazirian the Magician, chapter 6, The Dying Earth, chapter 6, Tales of the Dying Earth, Book I, chapter 6

Guyal of Sfere was first issued as chapter six in the 1950 Jack Vance novel Mazirian the Magician also known as “The Dying Earth” and “Tales of the Dying Earth, Book I.”  It is 42 pages long.  Since then Guyal of Sfere has appeared as an excerpt in a number of collections of shorter works.  ISFDB labels it as novella length (17,500 words) but I have not listed it as a novella because it was first published as a chapter of a novel and not as an independent work.  There is also a 2005 revised version that is listed at the end of this review. Guyal irritates his parents and others by constantly asking questions.  Such questions have included "Why do squares have more sides than triangles?" and "What is beyond the sky?"  Guyal's father finally decides to send Guyal to find the Museum of Man where he can meet the Curator who reportedly has the answers to all questions.  He provides Guyal with magical protection so that Guyal is safe as long as he stays on the trail and does not leave it.  Guyal encounters a strange man who plays the flute but turns out to be something other than what he appears.  Later he meets some men from Saponce who coax him off the trail to welcome him.  He is warned not to touch a sacred section of land.  Guyal's horse is spooked, however, and accidentally steps on the sacred area.  The other men tell him he has violated a strict Saponid law and arrest him despite his appeals.  They quickly convict Guyal of "impertinence, impiety, disregard and impudicity."  As penalties he has to swear never again to repeat his crime and to judge a beauty contest called the Grand Pageant of Pulchritude.  The third penalty will not be disclosed to him until he has complied with the first two.  It is the third penalty, however, that ends up being dangerous to him.  The rest of the story is humorous and entertaining.  This was my favorite story of the six, and I especially enjoyed the quirky twists and the ending. This is a dense story with much symbolism and mythology that improved for me with repeated readings.  It also works better as part of novel The Dying Earth than as a stand-alone story, although it certainly can be read alone.  I’ve read it six times so far and rate it 5.

The Men Return-Jack Vance short story

The Men Return was first published in July, 1957 in the magazine Infinity Science Fiction and is a 9/11 page short story.  In the story two universes are overlapped after the law of causality, physics and reality on Earth is rendered somewhat inoperable and matter now fades in and out of existence.  Humans evolved into two different creatures, one rooted in the laws of science and the other having developed in the coexisting world of randomness and surrealism where nothing seems real.  Both groups spend all their time seeking food and are not above eating each other.  As food becomes scarcer, the groups become more desperate.  It is all very bizarre, but I found it rather fascinating. I’ve read it 7 time so far rated it 3 or “Liked it.”