Dirdir, The-Jack Vance novel, book review

Dirdir, The-Jack Vance novel

AKA: Planet of Adventure 3 and

Tschai Book 3

The Dirdir was first published as a paperback novel in 1969.  At 125 pages it is a fairly short novel.  It has also been called Planet of Adventure 3 and Tschai Book 3.  The Dirdir is the third of four novels in the Planet of Adventure series involving the planet Tschai.  It is a haunting novel, beautifully written by a master writer and is rich in symbolism, world building and social satire.  The Dirdir and The Pnume are for me the two finest of the Planet of Adventure series, but I recommend that all four novels be read in order.

The Dirdir continues the story of Adam Reith who is marooned on the planet Tschai where four major, intelligent civilizations exist, each ruled by a different species and an enemy of the others.  They are the Chasch, the Wankh, the Dirdir and the Pnume.  Each of these considers itself superior to others and has humans as servants.  The humans try to resemble their masters by wearing costumes, headgear, and props, plus the use of surgery and perhaps genetic manipulation.  These human underlings are called the Chaschmen, Wankhmen, Dirdirmen and Pnumekins.  Each group considers itself to be the only real humans.  There are other creatures such as the crazy Phung, tall, powerful grasshopper like creatures who wear black hats and capes.  They are always alone, dangerously unpredictable and thought to be related to the Pnume.  There are also various enclaves of free humans who are not servants, but they are referred to as sub-men and are considered inferior to all others. 

In the first novel Reith interacted mostly with the three types of Chasch.  In Servants of the Wankh he engaged mostly with the Yaos in the city of Cath and then with the Wankh and their underlings the Wankhmen.  Now he encounters the Dirdir, the most unpredictable and deadliest of the four species.  In all three novels he has been assisted by two recent friends, Traz Onmale (an Emblem Man) and Ankhe at afram Anacho (a Dirdirman).  Reith's main goal (besides surviving) is to steal or build an airship to escape Tschai and return to Earth.  He wants to alert humans on Earth to the presence of the four advanced civilizations on Tschai and inform them that humans, originally from Earth, are being kept as servants and slaves.  He is also concerned about the safety of humans back on Earth because both the Dirdir and now the Chasch have spaceships and know about Earth and the humans who reside there. 

All four of the Planet of Adventure novels are difficult to review without revealing spoilers.  In The Dirdir we have almost constant suspenseful action as the Dirdirs hear about Reith and decide that they want to track him down, interrogate him and then kill him.  Reith is in a human Lokhar village but flees.  Anacho is very helpful to Reith because he is a renegade Dirdirman and has a deep understanding of the Dirdirs and their culture and behavior.  But Reith, as usual, meets danger head on by confronting it.  Not only does he decide to try to outwit and defeat the Dirdirs who are pursuing him, but he makes plans to build a space ship by purchasing parts from the Dirdirs to assemble one.  Unfortunately this will be very expensive, and he has no funds so must develop a plan for finding money or sequins.

The currency on the Tschai planet consists of different colored sequins.  Each color is worth a specific amount.  These sequins actually grow as crystal like nodes on the chrysospine plant in a large uranium enriched valley called the Carabas or the Black Zone.  Humans, human hybrids and others travel to the Carabas to try to gain wealth by locating sequins.  Unfortunately about a third who visit there are killed and eaten by Dirdirs because Carabas is the Dirdir Hunting Preserve and is used as a sports hunting grounds by the Dirdirs.  Although they are a highly intelligent, technologically advanced species, the Dirdirs are also fierce predators who love to hunt for sport and have a special fondness for human flesh which they compare to pork.  When the Dirdirs hunt they switch into the primitive predator portion of their brain and become vicious killers.  Anybody who is able to get in and out of Carabas with sequins may keep them but very few become rich this way.  Reith carefully calculates the chances and decides that he has to develop some sort of innovative plan to turn the odds to his advantage.

After being both hunted and a hunter in suspenseful engagements in the Dirdir hunting grounds, Reith has to deal with a scoundrel of an innkeeper who tries to steal from him and who betrays even his own neighbors.  Then he elects to hire Aila Woudiver, a want to be Dirdirman, who is deceitful, cruel and unethical but seems to be the only one able to coordinate the assembling of a spaceship.  Reith has the good fortune to meet an honest, industrious person, Deine Zarre, whose integrity and good deeds bring him only misfortune.  We also encounter the Glass Box hunting complex in the Dirdir city where Reith's friend, Anacho, after being captured, is to be hunted in a public sporting event.  Reith plans to enter the complex and to help his friend escape while armed with a power gun, explosives and a rope.

Dirdirs think that any living creature that is not a Dirdir is not worth consideration.  They feel that they are superior to all other intelligent species and they view humans as vermin or food.  The other dominate species on Tschai feel the same way about themselves.  Their human servants are treated as inferiors and these servants in turn think that free humans are subhuman and not real human beings.  There are times and places on Earth where one group of people considered another group to be inferior or of lesser value and all societies seem to have criteria for social status and prestige.  And humans usually treat other species differently than their own.

What would happen if we encountered nonhuman alien beings?  We might respect them and treat them as equals, but they could be thought of as subhumans or nonhumans. Their level of intelligence would probably be a major consideration, but religious beliefs, military strength, wealth or other variables could be deciding factors.  These aliens might be far more intelligent and advanced than us and consider us as inferiors or even as pets or slaves.  

Vance creates unfamiliar worlds where there are many unclear social, cultural and other boundaries among and between species.  Many different, often unfamiliar, values and other considerations are used in these worlds to make judgments and determinations.  Vance does not offer us solutions, but he does prompt us to look at ourselves and our religions, laws, customs, ethics, values, cultural biases, belief systems and social structures.

But even if anthropological, and psychological issues are of no interest to a reader, even if a reader wants pure entertainment and little to think about, Vance still creates fascinating, imaginative, engaging worlds with almost non stop action, much suspense, amazing dialog, ironic humor, dazzling linguistic flourishes and more substance in just over a hundred pages than many other writers provide in many hundreds of pages.  Of course curiosity and sense of humor will greatly enhance a reader's understanding and love of Vance's writings.

It is amazing that Vance can create so much in so few pages.  In The Dirdir he demonstrates imaginative, creative world building at its finest.  I’ve read The Dirdir twice so far and I rated it a 5 both times.  I very highly recommend both this novel and the series.