Vancealot: Jack Vance in Review

Jack Vance Book Collection Review: Dust of Far Suns Vancelot: Jack Vance in Review, TJ Jones DAW Books, mass market paperback, 160 pages Release Date: 1964 Cover art: Paul Chadwick Contents: ·        Dust of Far Suns , 29 pages, novelette ·        Dodkin’s Job , 40 pages, novelette ·        Ullward’s Retreat , 25 pages novelette ·        The Gift of Gab , 56 pages novella Dust of Far Suns is a collection of four shorter works by Jack Vance.   It includes three novelettes and one novella.   These stories were written between 1955 and 1962 and are all well worth reading.   For me Dodkin’s Job is the finest of the four.   The font and print size is about average for a mass market paperback. Although this collection is out of print, used copies can easily be located. All of these stories are now available from Spatterlight Press in ...

Dust of Far Suns-Jack Vance novelette AKA: Sail 25 (author’s preferred title)  Gateway to Strangers Dust of Far Suns   is a 29 page novelette that was first published in August, 1962 in the magazine Amazing Stories under the title “Dust of Far Suns.” It has also been known as "Gateway to Strangers" and "Sail 25."   Henry Bent is an irritable, unpleasant, overly sensitive, dictatorial character who seems to be "a man of a different species."   He teaches pilots to operate spaceships, in this instance it is one that has a huge sail (thus the alternative title "Sail 25"). Bent tells his cadet crew that he does not expect to be liked and that if they do like him then he has failed because, "I haven't pushed you hard enough." All pilots know Bent and respect his skills, but they also invariably dislike him.   He has trained almost every well known pilot and is about to train a new crew.   During the training flight when Bent is not...