Kragen, The-Jack Vance novella

Kragen, The-Jack Vance novella

The Kragen by Jack Vance was first published in July, 1964 as a 62 page novella length work in the magazine Fantastic Stories of Imagination.  Most of "The Kragen" was incorporated into Vance's novel "The Blue World" which was published in 1966 and was 192 pages long.  In "The Kragen" the complex, interesting and highly structured society of the people who live on the Blue World is only hinted at.  "The Kragen" is more of an adventure story while “The Blue World” involves world building and has much more psychological, sociological and anthropological material.  (See my review under that title.) Each work deserves to be read alone.  In both stories the residents live on small lily pad like islands on a planet that has no dry land and was settled over a hundred years ago by their ancestors.  Both stories also feature a long lived squid like sea monster creature called King Kragen. 

A kragen is a giant, fairly intelligent, squid like sea creature that is featured in both works, but in the novella almost the entire focus of the story is about King Kragen and how the people relate to and cope with him.  Although there are many kragens, there is only one giant kragen called King Kragen who dominates the residents and is even worshipped by some of them.  Each person is a member of a caste that performs certain duties, some related to feeding, worshiping or communicating with King Kragen.  Among these castes are the Bezzlers (priests who worship King Kragen, the top ranking caste) and Incendiaries (those in charge of secret methods of communicating with King Kragen).  The Bezzlers and Incendiaries consider themselves superior to other castes and carefully guard their hidden knowledge about King Kragen and their means of communicating with him.  Our main character, Sklar Hast, is a hoodwink who sits in a tower winking hoods as a means of communication between islands. 

When King Kragen fails to appear to protect his sponge garden from another invading kragen, Sklar Hast wants to handle matters himself by chasing away or even killing the kragen that is eating all of his sponges.  The Bezzlers and Incendiaries forbid such action, saying that it will offend King Kragen who is their sole protector and must be obeyed.  The general population takes various sides and there is a confrontation between the two factions.  The story about King Kragen is essentially the same in both stories, but in "The Kragen" there is much less focus on the rivalries, interactions, manipulations and internal struggles of the people.  It is simpler but not at all inferior, just a different type of story, more adventure focused than psychological or sociological.  I liked them equally and recommend that Vance fans read both of them.  I’ve read the Kragen several times and rated it a solid 4 “Really liked it.”

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Wild Thyme and Violets, Other Unpublished Works (2012)