Vancealot: Jack Vance in Review

Anome, The-Jack Vance novel (author’s preferred title) AKA: The Faceless Man and Durdane Book 1 The Anome is the first book of the three part Durdane series. It was initially published in February, 1971 under the title The Faceless Man as a two part serial in The Magazine of Science and Science Fiction. It was released om 1973 as a book under the title The Anome. The Anome should be read first, followed by The Brave Free Men. It does not work well as a stand-alone novel.   There is no resolution at the end of The Anome so the two novels should really be considered one work with The Asutra as a sequel.   I do not find The Anome (or the Durdane series) to be among Vance’s really great works.   But the Durdane series novels are well worth reading by Vance fans. Those who enjoy reading about the customs and cultures of unusual societies and alternative worlds might also want to explore this series.   For readers unfamiliar with the writings of Jack Vance this would...

Araminta Station-Jack Vance novel AKA: Cadwal Chronicles Book 1 Araminta Station is a 554 page novel by Jack Vance that was first published in 1987 by Underwood Miller.   It is much longer than most of his novels and is a later work written when he was at the peak of his talents.   It is also the first novel of three that comprise the Cadwal Chronicles.   This the second time I've carefully read this novel and have found it to be the best of the three in the series and one of Vance's finest.   It is fascinating and intriguing novel, a masterpiece and one of Vance's greatest works.   Araminta Station was nominated in 1988 and 1989 for the Locus award for the Best Science Fiction Novel. The setting is the distant future, mostly on the planet Cadwal.   Old Earth continues to exist and can be readily visited.   Cadwal is a planet in the Gaean Reach that was discovered by the Naturalist Society of Earth 900 years previously.   Now it is managed b...

Asutra, The-Jack Vance novel AKA: Durdane Book 3 The Asutra was first published in digest form in The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy in May and June of 1973.   It was released as a 204 page paperback novel by Dell in 1975.   It is currently available in an excellent trade paperback edition from Spatterlight Press.   The Durdane Series is not the very best series Vance wrote but Vance fans should find it well worth reading, especially if is read carefully and multiple times. This is the third volume of the Durdane Chronicles and it builds upon the first two novels.   The two initial books in the series (The Anome and The Brave Free Men) should be read one after the other because they are really one novel in two books. The story line continues in The Asutra so it is best read after reading the other two, but I read it the first time as a stand-alone novel, and it made sense by itself because the beginning of The Asutra briefly summarizes the previous two...

Bad Ronald-Jack Vance mystery novel Bad Ronald was written in 1955 but was not published until 1973 when it was issued under the author’s actual name John Holbrook Vance.   It is a 171 page “mystery” novel that reads more like a short horror novel.   The draft title of the book was "Something Awful."   It is a difficult book for me to review because, although it is fairly well written, it is not only improbable but involves a main character who is a detestable, sociopathic, racist, cruel, arrogant, seventeen year old boy who rapes and murders young girls when he is not obsessing about food or busy creating his fantasy world of Atranta. Ronald is completely selfish and has no sense of empathy toward others.   At one point he wonders if it is wrong to rape but decides that since it is so much fun it must be a good thing.   He also sees himself as being very special.   "He deeply resented the terms 'sex offender', 'deviate', 'murderer' when used ...

Big Planet - Jack Vance novel Big Planet is a 155/211 page, very early, planetary adventure, science fiction novel by Jack Vance that will probably appeal more to Vance fans than the general reader. It was written in 1947 and first published in the pulp magazine Startling Stories in September of 1952. It was reissued in book form by Avalon Books and in an Ace Double in 1957 and by Gollancz in1978. Fortunately Big Planet was also released 2017 in a Spatterlight Press quality trade paperback edition that is still in print. Big Planet is much larger than Earth and has been colonized by people and groups that left Earth, often to avoid persecution or prosecution. These diverse people, including many misfits and cultists, are not ruled by the government on Earth and are not at all united. All laws are highly localized and various groups, towns and tribes often are often in conflict or even at war with each other. There is no planetary government or leadership. There is also no met...

Bird Island - Jack Vance mystery novel AKA: Isle of Peril and Bird Isle (author’s preferred title) Bird Isle was written by Jack Vance in 1947 and had a draft title of Forbidden Island.   It was first published ten years later in 1957 by Mystery House publishers with the title Isle of Peril under the pseudonym of Alan Wade.   This written date of 1947 makes it the first mystery novel Vance wrote, or at least the first written mystery novel that was not lost.   (Although Bird Isle is really more of a comic novel than a mystery.)   In the 1988 Underwood-Miller release the title was changed from Isle of Peril to Bird Isle with Jack Vance listed as the author.   The 2002 Vance Integral Edition the title was changed again, this time to Bird Island.   The 2018 Spatterlight Press release reverted back to the title of Bird Isle.   Bird Isle has about as much plot as a Marx Brother's movie with a plethora of odd characters and strange events. ...

Bird Isle - Jack Vance mystery novel (author’s preferred title) AKA: Bird Island and Isle of Peril Bird Isle was written by Jack Vance in 1947 and had a draft title of Forbidden Island.   It was first published ten years later in 1957 by Mystery House publishers with the title Isle of Peril under the pseudonym of Alan Wade.   This written date of 1947 makes it the first mystery novel Vance wrote, or at least the first written mystery novel that was not lost.   (Although Bird Isle is really more of a comic novel than a mystery.)   In the 1988 Underwood-Miller release the title was changed from Isle of Peril to Bird Isle with Jack Vance listed as the author.   The 2002 Vance Integral Edition the title was changed again, this time to Bird Island.   The 2018 Spatterlight Press release reverted back to the title of Bird Isle.  It is 136 pages long. Bird Isle has about as much plot as a Marx Brother's movie with a plethora of odd characters and stra...

Blue World , The- Jack Vance novel The Blue World is a 183 page novel that was written by Vance in 1963 and first published in 1966.   It is a major expansion of the 62 page novella called “ The Kragen ” that Vance had written earlier in 1963.   “The Kragen” is well worth reading on its own but focuses mostly on the giant sea creature called King Kragen and has much less world building and satire.   The Blue World should appeal to many general readers and not simply to Vance fans.   It would also be a good novel to begin with for those who are not already familiar with the amazing writings of Jack Vance. Vance is often at his very best when he creates new worlds, sometimes futuristic ones, and often on other planets.   They might involve a traveler who visits various planets or different cultures on the same planet.   Sometimes, as in the case of The Blue World, it involves people whose ancestors came from a technologically advanced society who are no...

Book of Dreams, The-Jack Vance novel AKA: Demon Prince Book 5 The Book of Dreams was published in 1981 by DAW Books and is the fifth and final novel in Vance's The Demon Prince series.   My copy is 190 pages, making it the second longest novel of the group.   All of The Demon Price novels continue to be in print.   The Book of Dreams is my favorite of the five novels, and I rated it a five every time I read it.   But the whole series is highly recommended as being enjoyable, entertaining and interesting.   Although some of the novels in The Demon Prince can be read alone, I have found that enjoyment can be greatly enhanced by reading them in order and by repeated readings. We learned in the first novel of the series that when Kirth Gersen was a child the colony where he lived was attacked by five demon princes who killed almost everyone, including his family members, destroying the entire colony.   Kirth and his grandfather were able to flee and wer...

Brave Free Men, The-Jack Vance novel AKA: Durdane Book 2 The Brave Free Men was first published in 1972 in digest form in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.   Its draft title was Palasedra . Released in 1973 as a novel, this is the second book in the three volume Durdane Chronicles.   It is a continuation of the story begun in The Anome and should be read after that book and not as a stand alone novel. This is the third time I have read this series and I liked each of the books even better after rereading. Although the three books are not the very finest Vance has written, I found them fascinating, easy to read and entertaining and recommended them to all Vance fans. My copy is 246 pages long. The first book, The Anome, introduced most of the characters and had interesting revelations about the government, customs and culture of   Slant .   The Brave Free Men is more action oriented, continuing the story but focusing more on getting the corrupt gove...

Chasch, The- Jack Vance novel (author’s preferred title) AKA: City of the Chasch Planet of Adventure 1 Tschai Book 1 The Chasch , also known as The City of the Chasch, was first published as a paperback novel in 1968. My copy is 141 pages long. It is the first of four novels in the Planet of Adventure series about the planet Tschai. It is in print in paperback along with the other three novels under the title Planet of Adventure by Orb books and is also available in a trade paperback edition by Spatterlight Press. Each of the four novels in the Planet of Adventure or Tschai series includes the main character, Adam Reith , and the same basic storyline. There are four main civilizations on Tschai. Each involves an intelligent, scientifically advanced species. Three of them originally came there from another planet. Each seems to hate the other species and use humans as servants. The series is more science fiction than fantasy but with the emphasis on fiction rather than scie...

City of the Chasch-Jack Vance novel AKA: The Chasch (author’s preferred title) Planet of Adventure 1 Tschai Book 1 City of the Chasch, also known as The Chasch, was first published as a paperback novel in 1968. My copy is 141 pages long. It is the first of four novels in the Planet of Adventure series about the planet Tschai. It is in print in paperback along with the other three novels under the title Planet of Adventure by Orb books and is also available in a trade paperback edition by Spatterlight Press. Each of the four novels in the Planet of Adventure or Tschai series includes the main character, Adam Reith , and the same basic storyline. There are four main civilizations on Tschai. Each involves an intelligent, scientifically advanced species. Three of them originally came there from another planet. Each seems to hate the other species and use humans as servants. The series is more science fiction than fantasy but with the emphasis on fiction rather than science. Mu...