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A review by jameseckman
The Face by Randy Broecker, Jack Vance
5.0
If you seek revenge you should dig two graves.
This series is one big novel, they just couldn't publish giant SF novels in the early 60's. So read them in order! Though to be fair, Vance did take almost twenty years to finish something that Brandon Sanderson cranks out in a single book, so if you are out of sequence, I can understand that.
First we have hero of this space Odyssey, Kirth Gersen, whose grandfather groomed to be a tool for his revenge against the five Demon Princes. Kirth has led a tough and murderous life and has trouble relating to ordinary people, his sad attempts at dating are indicative of how much damage his upbringing has caused, he has a tendency to either see women as love objects or as tools for his purposes and cannot form personal relationships, he's a closed book to everyone in his life.
Then we have what is the series real focus; the villain Lars Larque. An outcast from his clan, possibly unjustly, he takes up a life of crime with panache. (Vance invents a special word for this!) His ruling characteristic is that he never forgives a slight and pursues lavish and eccentric revenge upon his enemies.
Any Vance book of course would be incomplete without strange human societies and worlds, often explained through extensive footnotes or infodumps, for our characters to adventure in. Darsh is no exception, the men and women lead separate private lives and marry solely economic reasons. For sex, they take to the deserts, using the young adults as bait to capture members of the opposite sex. This is not the first time Vance has used this as a theme. Darsh men tend towards violence and present a macho face to the world, the worst kind of punishment is to publically humiliated, a fate worse than death.
Gersen fights his way to a most satisfying ending of his foe, showing at the end that he has more in common with Lens Larque than I would feel comfortable with. An outstanding SF classic of its time, marred somewhat by lack of decent female characters.
This series is one big novel, they just couldn't publish giant SF novels in the early 60's. So read them in order! Though to be fair, Vance did take almost twenty years to finish something that Brandon Sanderson cranks out in a single book, so if you are out of sequence, I can understand that.
First we have hero of this space Odyssey, Kirth Gersen, whose grandfather groomed to be a tool for his revenge against the five Demon Princes. Kirth has led a tough and murderous life and has trouble relating to ordinary people, his sad attempts at dating are indicative of how much damage his upbringing has caused, he has a tendency to either see women as love objects or as tools for his purposes and cannot form personal relationships, he's a closed book to everyone in his life.
Then we have what is the series real focus; the villain Lars Larque. An outcast from his clan, possibly unjustly, he takes up a life of crime with panache. (Vance invents a special word for this!) His ruling characteristic is that he never forgives a slight and pursues lavish and eccentric revenge upon his enemies.
Any Vance book of course would be incomplete without strange human societies and worlds, often explained through extensive footnotes or infodumps, for our characters to adventure in. Darsh is no exception, the men and women lead separate private lives and marry solely economic reasons. For sex, they take to the deserts, using the young adults as bait to capture members of the opposite sex. This is not the first time Vance has used this as a theme. Darsh men tend towards violence and present a macho face to the world, the worst kind of punishment is to publically humiliated, a fate worse than death.
Gersen fights his way to a most satisfying ending of his foe, showing at the end that he has more in common with Lens Larque than I would feel comfortable with. An outstanding SF classic of its time, marred somewhat by lack of decent female characters.