Alastor [Paperback]

Jack Vance (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2002

Here, collected in one volume, is his Alastor trilogy: three classic SF adventure novels that are Jack Vance at his best.

Trullion: Alastor 2262 / Marune: Alastor 933 / Wyst: Alastor 1716

The Alastor Cluster: A sprawling system of thirty thousand live stars and three thousand inhabited planets, the cluster is ruled by the mysterious Connatic. He sees all and knows all, but with five trillion people contained within such far-flung boundaries, sooner or later something is bound to give.

Trullion: Alastor 2262: An idyllic world where food is bountiful, the oceans are clear, and no one is ever wanting, World 2262 of the Alastor Cluster is in for a rude awakening. The Trill, a once-peaceful race populating the waters of Trullion, are now gambling their lives away on the planet-wide game hussade. What reward could be worth such risks?

Marune: Alastor 933: Though the Connatic knows all, there is one man of whom he knows nothing, one man who knows nothing of himself. Pardero is determined to find out who he is and what cruel enemy forced him to forget his own life. But when he finally returns home to Marune, World 933 of the Alastor Cluster, the mystery only deepens.

Wyst: Alastor 1716: On Wyst, World 1716 of the Alastor Cluster, millions of people live together in harmony, work only a few hours each week, and share the fruits of their labor equally. Wyst seems a utopia. But the Connatic, knowing better than to take utopia at face value, one day decides to investigate-a decision that may cost him his life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Jack Vance is one of the truly important science fiction writers of our time.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Jack Vance’s characters dwell within elaborate structures of social and linguistic artifice, in societies as intricately elegant as Fabergé eggs.” –Locus

From the Back Cover

“[Vance has] a velvety elegance that rivals John Gielgud reciting poetry . . . . one of the treasures of science fiction.” –The Washington Post Book World

Alastor
Trullion: Alastor 2262 / Marune: Alastor 933 / Wyst: Alastor 1716

Jack Vance is one of the best-loved storytellers in science fiction. During a career that has spanned half a century, Vance has won the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, and has been named a World Fantasy Grand Master. Here, collected in one volume, is his Alastor trilogy: three classic SF adventure novels that are Jack Vance at his best.

“Jack Vance is one of the truly important science fiction writers of our time.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review

The Alastor Cluster : A sprawling system of thirty thousand live stars and three thousand inhabited planets, the cluster is ruled by the mysterious Connatic. He sees all and knows all, but with five trillion people contained within such far-flung boundaries, sooner or later something is bound to give.

Trullion: Alastor 2262 : An idyllic world where food is bountiful, the oceans are clear, and no one is ever wanting, World 2262 of the Alastor Cluster is in for a rude awakening. The Trill, a once-peaceful race populating the waters of Trullion, are now gambling their lives away on the planet-wide game hussade. What reward could be worth such risks?

Marune: Alastor 933 : Though the Connatic knows all, there is one man of whom he knows nothing, one man who knows nothing of himself. Pardero is determined to find out who he is and what cruel enemy forced him to forget his own life. But when he finally returns home to Marune, World 933 of the Alastor Cluster, the mystery only deepens.

Wyst: Alastor 1716 : On Wyst, World 1716 of the Alastor Cluster, millions of people live together in harmony, work only a few hours each week, and share the fruits of their labor equally. Wyst seems a utopia. But the Connatic, knowing better than to take utopia at face value, one day decides to investigate—a decision that may cost him his life.

“Jack Vance’s characters dwell within elaborate structures of social and linguistic artifice, in societies as intricately elegant as Fabergé eggs.” –Locus

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Orb Books (July 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312869525
• ISBN-13: 978-0312869526
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Jack Vance- highly recommended!, June 29, 2003

By 

T. Hammer "Vance_fan" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alastor (Paperback)

This collection of 3 novels shows Vance doing what he does best- creating detailed & exotic worlds with unconventional social systems, and telling an engaging story through interesting characters.

'Marune' finds a man without a memory- he slowly learns who he is, and who had stolen his mind and why. The answer leads him into Machiaviellian intrigue in a remarkable land of subtle noblemen.

'Trullion' is a water world with a mania for a competitive sport known as Hussade- and Glinnes Hulden has more to worry about than keeping his team together. All is not well among the deceptively tranquil islands.

'Wyst' is a look at a perfectly egalitarian society that is by no means a Utopia. "The trouble with Utopia is people".

This book is worth the price for the settings alone- Vance is the best creator of imaginative and vibrant worlds. The plots are interesting as well- icing on the cake. Vance is a master science-fantasy stylist.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, September 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Alastor (Paperback)

Alastor is a compendium of three novels set in the same science fiction universe: Trullion:Alastor 2262 (first published in 1973), Marune:Alastor 933 (1975), and Wyst:Alastor 1716 (1978). The name Alastor refers to a political entity of 3000 worlds comprising trillions of humans all ruled by the Connatic, a benevolent autocrat. Each story is centered on a particular world of Alastor, each with its own peculiar customs, a staple of Jack Vance's writings.

Trullion is the weakest of the three stories. Unlike most of Vance's stories, this one never captures the attention of the reader. The wrap up of the murder mystery that is central to the plot is unconvincing as are some of the more arcane plot twists.

It should be mentioned that the plot outline of Trullion in the book description above, as well as on the back of the book itself, bears little resemblance to the actual plot. Trullion is about a man who leaves his home to serve in the Connatic's space navy and returns years later to claim his rightful inheritance.

Marune is a typical Vance story. The protagonist is a sympathetic character and the world of Marune contains all of the bizarre social conventions that one expects from Vance. My only complaint is that he pulls a deus ex machina to resolve the story.

Wyst is a blatant critique of communism. Vance has a grand time ridiculing the inherent contradictions of a society that attempts to enforce a radical brand of 'egalism'. One aspect that makes this story unusual is the personality of Jantiff Rovenstroke, the protagonist. For much of the story Jantiff is a weak willed, unsympathetic, character. Towards the end, he is forced to fend for himself and surprisingly demonstrates much ingenuity and self-reliance. This transformation makes Wyst the best of the three Alastor stories.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Three worthy tales from Jack Vance, August 13, 2009

By 

not4prophet (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alastor (Paperback)

Jack Vance is the author of over fifty novels plus scores of short stories. With an output like that, there's guaranteed to be some variation in quality. The Alastor books are not masterpieces like the Demon Princes series or the Cadwal trilogy, but they are still good in their own right. In this trio Vance aims less for thematic elements than for entertainment. The Alastor novels are definitely crowd-pleasers. Each one features a hero struggling for justice against a swarm of criminal scum and triumphing in the end.

"Trullion" follows the adventures of Glinnes Hulden, the middle child in a family of three boys, as he briefly serves in the interplanetary starfleet known as the Whelm. He returns to his native Trullion and finds a host of problems waiting for him. His father and older brother have disappeared, his younger brother has betrayed the family, and a nasty band of backwoods locals have settled on his property. Circumstances lead him to become an athlete in the sport of Hussade. While the dialogue is often raunchy and funny, the Hussade sequences are difficult to follow, making the middle of the book something of a chore. The action picks back up at the end, as the various competing forces meet in the a series of showdowns.

"Marune" is a very different story, set in the same universe but having nothing else in common with "Trullion". A man with no name and no memory arrives at a remote spaceport. Experts can reconstruct only a small portion of his memory, enough to find his home planet but nothing more. Arriving home at the planet of Marune, he finds himself heir not only to a castle, but also to a endless series of mysteries and intrigues. "Marune" is certainly the weakest of the three Alastor novels. The language is often complicated to the point of distraction, and the plot has relatively few surprises.

"Wyst" shows us Vance back in peak form. This novel follows a young protagonist named Jantiff, who immigrates to the planet of Wyst in search of easy living and new vistas for his art work. Wyst turns out to have a centrally run economy aimed at maximum leisure. Everyone works only 13 hours per week and has the rest of the time off for whatever they choose. While superficially looking nice from the outside, Jantiff starts finding problems shortly after he moves in. Signs of social rot are everywhere, as young people grow obsessed with sex and violence and blind to intellectualism and social responsibility. (Sound familiar?) Among Vance's oeuvre, "Wyst" is unusual for its lack of fighting and big action sequences, and it's focus on social satire and ordinary daily life. (Ordinary being relative, of course.) Among short science fiction novels, it is one of the best ever written.