Would the Lord Hero consider a Sea Dragon Conqueror beneath his dignity?
Inspired by recent conversations on IFmud, I've been tearing through my collection of Jack Vance stories in an orgy of rereading. Vance doesn't seem to be widely read nowadays, but I've always been fond of his work. He was successful and indeed decorated in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery-one of only three writers I know of to win both a Nebula and an Edgar Allen Poe award. †
The Cadwal Chronicles
Comprising Araminta Station; Ecce and Old Earth; and Throy
A number of Vance's science fiction stories share a setting he calls "the Gaean Reach," the far-flung collection of worlds colonized by humanity expanding from Old Earth. This trilogy, published late in his career, is widely considered the best of his SF. It follows the life of a young man named Glawen Clattuc from his sixteenth birthday through into adulthood. Set on the planet-and-nature-preserve Cadwal, the core plot involves machinations by various factions to subvert the legalities of the planet's "conservancy" status, opening it up for unlimited exploitation.
Vance's novels usually involve wide travels, and these are no exception. Glawen (and later the Conservator's daughter Wayness Tam as well) journeys to several different planets and each of the continents of Cadwal over the course of the story. Some of Vance's characteristic themes are prominent: personal identity and expression conceptionalized as a struggle against society itself; bizarre societal mores; and of course the clever competence of the hero(s) triumphing over adversity.
The plotting is as good as any of Vance's books. There are several main actors, with goals sometimes aligned and sometimes at odds. The treatment of these threads clearly draws on his experience writing in the mystery genre - they are well paced in parallel, with the reader following along as Glawen and his allies unravel their adversaries' doings bit by bit, and the climaxes are satisfying. The one criticism I'd make is of a fault Vance seems prone to making: he walks the reader gradually through a rich and varied story for nearly the whole book (or series, in this case), then suddenly finds that a great deal of open plot threads must be resolved in the last ten percent of the book. It's not quite disappointing, but it does feel a bit abrupt.
Finally, of course, there's the diction. Almost no-one who reads him finds Vance's writing to be unnoticable; it's definitely love-or-hate. Hyperbole, declamations, precise and unusual word choice... his prose is unmistakeable: "Aha! You omit the area between the third step and the last-which is to say, the garden at Fair Winds and the Niger River, which lies across the Sahara Desert. Along the way you might be given wrong directions, or robbed, or fall into a ditch, or be attacked or married or divorced."
Planet of Adventure
Comprising City of the Chasch; Servants of the Wankh; The Dirdir; and The Pnume
This tetralogy of short science fiction novels is also one continuous story, nowadays published as a single-volume omnibus. The name is apt: the structure is a nearly classical adventure story in the Robinson Crusoe tradition. The hero, Adam Reith, is a scout on a mission investigating a radio signal that had apparently been beamed towards earth from the star Carina 4269 some two hundred years before. Just as his ship has arrived at the planet Tschai and Reith's scout craft is detached to land, a torpedo from the surface destroys the main ship, leaving Reith the sole survivor with no way back home. Over the course of the novel Reith must deal with threats from all four of the intelligent alien races found there while attempting to build or steal a spacecraft in which to depart.
The plotting here is more random and episodic than in the Cadwal series. It reads like a serial potboiler collected into a single volume, although it was never published as one. Plot threads are dealt with as they arise and are then laid aside. It's not his best, but it's still a rollicking fun ride.
Anacho gave a patronizing shrug. "They are Yao: a fervent race addicted to ritual and extravaganza, prone to excesses of temperament. You may find the intricacies of Cath society difficult to cope with."
Reith frowned. "I hope it won't be necessary. The girl has vouched for her father's gratitude, which should simplify matters."
"Formally the gratitude will exist. I am sure of this."
"'Formally'? Not actually?"
"The fact that you and the girl have formed an erotic accomodation is of course a complication."
Night Lamp
Night Lamp is a gem. It's another late Vance SF novel, written next after he'd finished the Cadwal trilogy, and it shares that work's close plotting. He indulges in a couple of his favorite formulae - one's first romantic interest coming to a bad end, and social class struggles being rigidly formalized and overt - but this sort of thing is expected. It wouldn't be Vance without it.
Again the protagonist is a young man coming of age, but this time the scope of his efforts is narrower: to determine his true history after his adopted parents are killed. This proves to be hazardous: his birth-mother's death was by no means accidental, and motives can persist for decades. The sinister tones are more prominent in this novel than in most of Vance's other works, although it never takes on an aspect of true horror fiction.
This is a delightful read. It would also make a good introduction to Vance: it's accessibly short compared to his other top-rank works.
Skirlet nodded thoughtfully, as if Jaro had corroborated one of her own deeply felt convictions. "The years go past. I used to think of them as slow tragic heartbeats." She turned her head, looked down the Prospect. "I remember a handsome boy from long ago. He was very clean and neat; he had long eyelashes and a face full of romantic dreams. One afternoon, on an impulse, I kissed him. Do you remember?"
"I remember. My head was in the clouds. I'll become that boy again, if you'll kiss me some more."
† Jack Vance, Harlan Ellison, and Avram Davidson