Ports of Call-Jack Vance novel, book review
Ports of Call-Jack Vance novel Ports of Call was first published in January, 1998 by Underwood-Miller Books near the end of Vance's writing career. It is still in print by Spatterlight Press in a high quality trade paperback. My hardcover copy is 225 pages long. Ports of Call was nominated in 1999 for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction novel. Ports of Call begins in the Gaean Reach on the planet Vermazen with our main character, Myron Tany. As a boy Myron was obsessed with stories of space exploration while growing up in a country village where everything was tranquil and soporific. His parents wanted him to become a financial analyst like his father and take a post at the Exchange. When Myron enrolled in the College of Definable Excellences he tried to compromise by taking some math and economic courses but also some classes in cosmology, space propulsion and Gaean anthropology. Myron's path to becoming a financial analyst is disrup...