Brave Free Men, The-Jack Vance novel, book review

Brave Free Men, The-Jack Vance novel

AKA: Durdane Book 2

The Brave Free Men was first published in 1972 in digest form in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  Its draft title was Palasedra. Released in 1973 as a novel, this is the second book in the three volume Durdane Chronicles.  It is a continuation of the story begun in The Anome and should be read after that book and not as a stand alone novel. This is the third time I have read this series and I liked each of the books even better after rereading. Although the three books are not the very finest Vance has written, I found them fascinating, easy to read and entertaining and recommended them to all Vance fans. My copy is 246 pages long.

The first book, The Anome, introduced most of the characters and had interesting revelations about the government, customs and culture of  Slant.  The Brave Free Men is more action oriented, continuing the story but focusing more on getting the corrupt government to work properly and motivating the citizens to actively defend themselves against the invading Roguskhoi.

In The Brave Free Men the main protagonist, Gastel Etzwane, now has control over the Faceless Man and the government. He and his supporters must mobilize the entire country to defend themselves against the Roguskhoi who keep increasing the frequency and intensity of their attacks on the people of Shant. The Roguskhoi invade towns, killing all men and children and kidnapping the women to rape and use as incubators for their offspring.  The citizens of Shant do not know where these monstrous humanoid creatures came from but suspect that a neighboring country might have created them from cloning and are using them as a weapon against the Shant.

A single Roguskhoi can physically handle ten equally armed men in combat, but the Roguskhoi have only simple weapons such as clubs and scimitars so the challenge for the citizens of Shant is to invent and manufacture new more technologically advanced weapons that can turn the odds in the fight against the Roguskhois. Shant has also been without any wars for over a thousand years so has no military or combat trained citizens.  The whole country must now mobilize to defend against the invading Roguskhoi.

Rallying the citizens proves to be very difficult, however, because the people are extremely passive and have only known the dictatorial, highly centralized and controlled government of the Faceless Man who had total control over their lives but also protected them and kept things peaceful and crime free. When scientists, for example, are asked to invent new more advanced weapons to supplement their swords and crossbows, the scientists want to know exactly what weapons the Faceless Man wants.  They are not used to thinking independently or being innovative or creative and expect detailed instructions on how to proceed. The citizens are use to the total control and protection of the Faceless Man and do not know how to take initiative, organize or defend themselves.  Many of them are in situations similar to indentured servants with such low wages and high expenses that almost no workers ever pay off their debts to earn their freedom.

The Brave Free Men is enjoyable to read, interesting and bristling with action. There is enough resolution at the end of it that the third volume, The Asutra, could be considered optional reading.  But I found The Asutra to be an intriguing continuation of the story and the most satisfying of the three books so advise reading it next.  I think the Durdane Chronicles are underappreciated by some Vance fans probably because Vance created some marvelous works of genius that tower over almost everything else in the genre. The Durdane Trilogy is not the best of Vance but it is still quite good and well worth reading. I’ve read The Brave Free Men three times now and I rated it at a 4 “Really liked it.”