Miro Hetzel, Effectuator-Jack Vance collection, book review

Miro Hetzel, Effectuator-Jack Vance collection

AKA: Galactic Effectuator

Miro Hetzel, Effectuator is a new title for the same Jack Vance two pieces that were previously published together under the title “Galactic Effectuator.”  This title was changed to “Miro Hetzel Effectuator” in the 2005 Vance Integral Edition and in the 2018 Spatterlight Press release.  It consists of two Jack Vance works involving the same protagonist, Miro Hetzel.  Each piece is described below:

Dogtown Tourist Agency-Jack Vance novel

The Dogtown Tourist Agency is a 144 page novel that was written by Jack Vance in 1973 and was first published in 1975 as part of an anthology called Epoch.  In 1980 it was released as "Part One" of the book titled "Galactic Effectuator."  It is currently in print, along with Freitzke’s Turn, in a trade paperback release by Spatterlight Press.

The Dogtown Tourist Agency stands on its own or may be read along with Freitzke's Turn.  They are different stories but involve the same main character, Miro Hetzel, who contracts work as an effectuator, an interstellar private investigator who must also resolve the problem after investigating it.  There are some similarities between Hetzel and an earlier Vance protagonist named Magnus Ridolph.

Hetzel agrees to meet with Sir Ivon Hacaway, the chairman of the board at Palladian Micronics.  Hacaway's company produces very intricate, technologically advanced products such as robot brains.  Six months ago an unknown company called Istagam began marketing similar items at prices far below market.  Hacaway wants Hetzel to investigate to determine how this company is able to produce these high tech products at such a low cost.  The ships delivering Istagam products pick up their cargo from a planet called Maz which is inhabited by three distinct civilizations residing in different areas of the planet.  These are the Liss, the Olefract and the Gomaz. 

Hacaway wants Hetzel to visit the area called Dogtown in the Gomaz territory.  This is an area beyond Gaean Reach authority and is a refuge for criminals.  The main native inhabitants are the large insect like monosexual Gomaz that live in castles and are constantly at war.  They obsessively battle with other Gomaz tribes in bizarre combat that involves ritualistic movements, reproduction by implanting spawn into the dead foe's thorax and then eating a gland in the back of deceased opponent's neck.  The Gomaz are so violently aggressive that they are not permitted to have any guns or other more advanced weapons because they would, and indeed once tried, to conquer other species and planets.  Gomaz communicate telepathically with each other, view themselves as part of a colony rather than as individuals and have absolutely no fear of death.

After arriving in Dogtown, Hetzel visits the Dogtown Tourist Agency where he meets a young woman who works there.  He eventually strikes up a relationship with her and she later joins him on his adventure.  Hetzel needs permission from the Gaean Triarch, Sir Estevan, before he can rent an air car to travel, however.  When Hetzel arrives at a meeting with Sir Estevan he finds that the Liss and Olefract Triarchs plus two Gomez visitors were just murdered in a shooting spree where Sir Estevan himself narrowly escaped being shot.  Hetzel notices a man quickly leaving the area and follows him to later confront him.  He learns that this man, Gidion Dirby, was present at the shooting and is now the main suspect. 

But Dirby insists that he is totally innocent and has been set up.  Dirby tells Hetzel a very bizarre story of having been kidnapped and tortured while being held hostage in a nightmarish place where he was given fake food, a chamber pot was poured on his head and naked women would sometimes crawl around on their hands and knees on the floor in front of him while wearing only dominoes.  He was also poisoned, gassed and tormented with psychedelic lights, dancing birds and strange events that seemed like hallucinations.  One day Dirby woke up to find himself released.  He went immediately to report the incident to the Triarch where he unexpectedly encountered the shooting incident.  His story is so vividly detailed and far-fetched that Hetzel believes Dirby and offers him temporary sanctuary in his hotel room.  Hetzel offers to assist Dirby to clear himself after he returns from some travels he has planned to conduct his investigation of the Istagam company.

Hetzel's investigative adventures lead to fascinating, ironic and, at times, humorous encounters with a bizarre alien culture where values and behavior are at odds with the interplanetary government that regulates them.  We also encounter clever investigative detective work with mystery and intrigue.  Dogtown Tourist Agency is well written with good dialogue, strange alien creatures, and a suspenseful plot.  It is more interesting and better written than the other Miro Hetzel piece, the novella Freitzke's Turn.  I have read it twice now and continue to rate it 4 "Really liked it."

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Dream Castles: Early Jack Vance, vol. 2 (2012)

 

Freitzke's Turn-Jack Vance novella

Freitzke's Turn is a 77 page novella that was written by Jack Vance in 1974 and first published in 1977 in the book collection titled Triax.  In 1980 it was combined with the story Dogtown Tourist Agency as part 2 in the collection "Galactic Effectuator."  Both works involve the same protagonist, Miro Hetzel.  It is currently in print combined with Dogtown Tourist Agency under the title “Miro Hetzel, Effectuator” in a high quality trade paperback edition by Spatterlight Press.

Although certainly not one of Vance’s finest works, 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 novella, 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 many mysteries in addition to science fiction 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 probably want to read this work although it is not one of his very best.  I rated it a 3 “Liked it.”

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Dream Castles: Early Jack Vance, vol. 2 (2012)