Freitzke's Turn-Jack Vance novella

Freitzke's Turn-Jack Vance novella

Freitzke's Turn is a novella that was written by Jack Vance in 1974 and first published in 1977 in the anthology titled Triax.  It was later released in 1980 along with the Vance novella Dogtown Tourist Agency as "Part Two" of the book "Galactic Effectuator."  Both novellas involve the same protagonist, Miro Hetzel.  "Galactic Effectuator" was reissued in 1980 by Underwood-Miller, in 1981 by Ace Books and in 1983 by Coronet.  In 2005 Freitzke's Turn was published as part of the Vance Integral Edition.  In 2012 it was released in a Subterranean Press collection of Vance works titled Dream Castles and as e-books by Gateway/Obrian and Spatterlight.  In February of 2018 it was issued by Spatterlight Press under the title "Miro Hetzel, Effectuator" along with The Dogtown Tourist Agency.  This is a new title for the same two novellas that were initially issued under the title "Galactic Effectuator" but with all of the corrections that were included in the Vance Integral Edition.

Freitzke's Turn is fairly well written with good dialogue and an odd but suspenseful mystery.  It involves the protagonist Miro Hetzel, a self reliant and practical man, who contracts work as an effectuator, an interstellar private investigator who must also resolve the problem after investigating it.  It can be read on its own or as a sequel to "The Dogtown Tourist Agency."  Although it is not as richly imaginative and engaging as “The Dogtown Tourist Agency” it is still engaging and worth reading.

Hetzel decides to meet with a man named Conwit Clent who offers to hire him for an unusual investigation.  Clent had been in love with a woman named Perdhra who was adored by another man named Dacre.  Dacre was a strange, self serving, but brilliant surgeon who seemed obsessed with Perdhra.  But Perdhra preferred Clent and broke up with Dacre.  Dacre threatened Clent, telling him to leave, but Clent ignored the threat and married Perdhra.  Just prior to sailing away on his honeymoon, Clent was knocked unconscious.  When he awoke four days later he found a cut on his scrotum.  After consulting with a physician he was informed that that his seminal glands had been removed.  Clent now wants to contract with Hetzel to locate and return his seminal glands.  He is especially eager for Hetzel to accept the contract because Hetzel had gone to the same high school with Dacre and had known him fairly well.  Clent wants two things, "I want back my missing parts.  Perdhra and I both intend a family.  This is not impossible under the present conditions."  "Secondly, I want Faurence Dacre punished.  Legally or illegally, one way or another."  Hetzel, who recalls many unpleasant memories of Dacre, readily agrees to accept the contract.

Vance wrote fourteen mystery novels in addition to science fiction and fantasy and this novella has a good deal of mystery in it as Clent searches for Dacre who has disappeared and does not want to be found.  During the investigation Hetzel discovers many amazing things about Dacre who has left a very unpleasant trail behind that eventually leads to a bizarre climax with an even stranger outcome.  Vance fans will probably want to read this work.  I’ve read it several times and rated it a 4.

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Galactic Effectuator, (1980, Underwood-

Miller)