Brian Aldiss once described Jack Vance as a "gaudily painted coelacanth washed up on SF's shore," and a writer barely conscious of what's happening in the real world. Despite these seemingly disparaging remarks, Aldiss comments favorably on Vance's work, as has many other critics and writers, including Robert Silverberg and John Shirley. Yet Vance's fan base, while fervent, remains relatively small.
Like much of his work, Ports of Call relies on the picturesque style, with generous sightseeing trips linked loosely by a plot less interesting than the characters and scenery. Vance straddles many genres with an easy disregard for advances in the field. Science fiction traditionalists may wonder at the absence of hard science, the gadgets and sharp ideas. Fantasy readers may admire the landscapes and cultures found in Ports of Call, but quail at the cavalier attitudes of his characters, whose motives more often than not stem from deep within their own psyches, and whose empathies rarely extend beyond their own skin.
Myron Tany, a young, sensible man, yearns to travel the stars. Without money, this is a dream not mentioned in good company, as star travelers are either rich fools or quite disreputable. By sheer chance, his aunt, the eccentric and elderly Dame Hester, is one of the former. When she acquires a space yacht she embarks on a plan to find a mythical planet with "the real Fountain of Youth." Myron manages to wrangle himself onto her yacht, but despite his position as favored nephew, his tasks are menial, and when Dame Hester comes under the sway of a charming con-man, Myron is dumped on a distant planet. Here he meets up with a freighter and its crew, and succeeds in attaining a post on the vessel. Revenge now is equally as important as exploring the galaxy.
While good, Ports of Call will probably win over few new fans. The form and content are true to the title. A sequel is already being written, and Ports was written with that sequel in mind. To some readers this book will seem incomplete, chopped off before its conclusion.
Aldiss' comments about Vance are largely true. You step into another time and place when you read Vance. He blends casual space travel and quaint cultures as easily now as he did fifty years ago, with nearly complete disregard for subsequent events in the "real" world. The strength of Vance lies in his ability to show the many flavors of life, each controlled by strong egos, and the aspects of human nature we share in common: greed, love, lust, generosity, and all the rest. Ports of Call is an appetizer, a smooth pre-dinner whisky. It is to be savored, and the reader will marvel at the skill of its making. And then there is the long, hungry wait for the sequel.
Go to the main Nova Express Home Page
Go to Lawrence Person's Home Page
After almost drowning in a deluge of Korean Spam, I'm now munging my e-mail address, so please remove all the "H"s from the following to e-mail me: lawrencehh@hiho.com
Like every other web page in the universe, this one is Under Construction.