Customer Reviews

The Demon Princes, Vol. 2: The Face * The Book of Dreams

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This has to be one of the greatest sci-fi series ever. Shall I name the reasons, let me try to count 'em off:

1- Language: Vance's use of language is stilted, strange, peculiar, old-fashioned, even bizarre, surely a cause to complain. No! It is because of this very usage that the language is melodic, the names whimsical, charming, the characters robust, bold, hopping a' skither-and-tither with quirks and mannerisms.

2- Hero: in contrast Vance's 'hero' seems a very cold fish indeed in comparison to his outlandish foes, acquaintances and romantic partners. Yet you are slowly drawn into understanding him, liking him and hoping he succeeds in both his quest and his hope of living a normal life, not that of a hunter-killer. You also end up ever so slightly hating his grandfather, who knowingly cut off his grandson from hope of a normal human existence in his desire to exact revenge from beyond the grave.

3- Redemption: These last two volumes allow the redemption of Kirth Gersen - read 'em and see what I mean. Vance also saves the best villain for last with Howard Alan Treesong, truly a character who gives a new meaning to schizophrenia.

4- Invention: No-one, not one other sci-fi or supposed fantasy author can beat Vance for sheer scope of invention. He creates cultures from sketches and schemes, draws you in, tumbles you about and casts you back out. Yet they have an inherent life to them that makes you suspect they carry on ticking after our attention has moved on.

5- A good 'ol cop with an attitude story - the outsider, the loner, the cop-turned-near criminal - all these are wrapped up in here. It's almost too much but Gersen's character and motivations remain coherent and clear throughout.

Look these books are so good that it's they're almost worth buying for the inter-chapter tales of Marmaduke and his companions alone - little skits that make other, more 'serious' sci-fi series scene setters as found in the likes of Dune and Foundation look pompous.

Let Vance light up your world, put a smile on your face and thank the Lord that someone else has to deal with Demon Princes.

If you are a Vance fan and don't have a copy of the Demon Princes series, rush out and get this while you can. The last two volumes of the series were written some 10 or 12 years or so after the first three, and these last volumes represent some of Vance's best work. Vol. 2 details the culmination of Kirth Gersen's revenge on the Demon Princes who wiped out his family.

In "The Face" (my favorite of the 5), Kirth finally confronts Lens Larque. Larque is a person who enjoys seeking revenge on anyone who stands in his way. He evades Gersen's attempts at bringing him to justice while simultaneously tricking Gersen out of milllions of SVU ($). Gersen eventually tracks down Larque, who is busy with an ingenious scheme for getting revenge against an entire planet. In one of Vance's most satisfying endings, Gersen denies Larque his revenge, while paying back Larque (in the usual way) and everyone else who wronged him.

"The Book Dreams" is possibly one of Vance's most violent works. As Gersen relentlessly tracks down the insane Howard Alan Treesong, he uncovers a diabolical plot in which Treesong is methodically attempting to become the ruler of the entire known universe. In several confrontations, Gersen repeatedly guns down Treesong and dozens of his minions, only to have Treesong escape at the last possible second with minor injuries. Eventually, however, Gersen lures Treesong to a place where he can confront him alone. The ending is somewhat amusing, in that Gersen runs into people who are even more fanatical about killing Treesong than he. Nevertheless, Treesong is brought to justice in typical Vancian style.

"The Face", the first book in this volume, is probably the best of the five Demon Princes novels. The reasons are manifest. Villainous Lens Larque provides some of the best challenges and intimidation for our hero, Kirth Gersen. There's the usual helping of exquisite writing and fine descriptions; the menu items during Gersen's restraunt visits are particularly noteworthy. Most importantly, "The Face" is the most morally challenging novel in the series. It presents, to some extent, the best argument for Gersen abandoning his single-minded hunt for revenge in his abortive attempts at romance with two characters. Lastly, "The Face" has a killer ending, laugh-out-loud serious if there ever was such a thing.

Another notable element is the planet Dar Sai and its inhabitants, the Darsh. Dar Sai is odd even by Vance standards. Giant umbrellas of water protect folks from searing daytime heat, the women grow mustaches, food is prized for its repulsiveness and gender wars are taken to a whole new level. Vance scores particular points by showing us the spoiled tourists who visit solely to mock the backwards Darsh. An just dessert is served for them at the end, of course.

The last novel in the series, "The Book of Dreams", is competent but less biting than "The Face". The new villain, Howard Alan Treesong, is less impressively hateable than Lens Larque or Viole Falshune from "The Palace of Love". "The Book of Dreams" contains vignettes set on numerous planets, none of them particuarly brilliant. The best parts of this novel are the introductory segments to each chapter. Short paragraphs cover a wide range of ground, from the hilarious philosophical basis of the Institute to the stunning character introductions for Treesong's various Paladins.

I remember waiting, after discovering the first three Demon Princes books in the early 70s (Star King, Palace of Love, and The Killing Machine... all from the 60s) for Vance to complete the series... which he finally did in 1979-1981. Both The Face and The Book of Dreams are a little more elaborate than the three prior books. Vance's wonderful way with atmospheres and strange quirks of culture had grown even more baroque... he'd written the nowadays little known masterpiece Maske: Thaery in the meantime, as well as the Alastor books.

Both these books are vintage Vance of the highest order, especially The Face.

'The Demon Princes' was once published as five separate books, but in 1997 was reissued into only two volumes, the first volume covering the first three princes and the second volume covering the forth and fifth.

Kirth Gerson is just a boy when his village and planet are ransacked in a joint venture by the five most evil, most powerful criminals ever. They called themselves The Demon Princes. Kirth survives, along with his grandfather, who then raises the boy to become the ultimate revenge maker on the ruthless princes. After the death of his grandfather, Kirth finishes his training and is ready to take on the five demon princes. Volume Two covers the last two princes, Lens Larque (The Face) and Howard Alan Treesong (The Book Of Dreams).

The Face has to be my favorite story of the five tales. Gerson hears rumor of Lens Larque, and begins to suspect that Lens is Darsh, from the planet Dar Sai under the Coranne sun. The Darsh are unattractive, heavy boned and often corpulent, and have a foul odor from the unpalatable food they prefer.

Kirth begins his hunt on Aloysius, where he begins to suspect Lens is the owner of a worthless company called Kotzash. Gerson begins to secretively purchase stocks of Kotzash, trying to gain controlling shares. His interests soon take him to Dar Sai, a searingly hot planet where the Darsh live underneath huge umbrellas. Here, he meets a girl from Dar Sai's neighboring planet, Methel. The Methlen are a cliquish folk, arrogant and refined. Kirth falls in love with Jeridan Chanseth, and follows her to Methel while still attempting to uncover Lens Larque. The Face, spanning these three planets, is filled with gripping adventures, close calls, and an ending that will leave you rolling on the floor laughing your hinder off.

The second tale in Volume Two is The Book Of Dreams, and Gerson's pursuit of Howard Alan Treesong. Using trickery and ostentatious foppery, Gerson attempts to lure Treesong out of hiding by circulating a possible photo of Treesong in a contest through his magazine.

Treesong is not only heartless and ruthless but completely insane, and proves to be quite slippery. Gerson uses a pretty girl named Alice to establish communication with the elusive Treesong and bring him out of hiding. Treesong has a strange illusion of several Paladins as part of his personality, and often speaks in different tones and styles.

You will love the ending to The Book Of Dreams almost as much as The Face, where we meet Otho and Tuty Cleadhoe, an older couple with a personal vendetta against Treesong that rivals Gerson's motives.

'The Demon Princes', both Volume One and Two, are the best of Jack Vance's works that I have read to date. If you love vividly strange worlds as much as I do, then you can't go wrong with Vance. SciFi with a touch of humor, and some of the most imaginative worlds and societies in writing, Vance books always seem to satisfy me. Enjoy!

The first three novels in this series were published from 1964 to 1967, after which Mr. Vance lost interest in the series and might not have completed it had it not been for the efforts of Donald A. Wollheim. Mr. Wollheim, a huge fan of Vance, left Ace Books in 1972 to start his own company, "DAW" books. DAW reprinted the first 3 novels and Wollheim was able to talk Vance into completing the series. Thus, the fourth novel, "The Face" appeared after a 14 year hiatus in 1981, and "The Book of Dreams" quickly followed.

All five novels in the series are representative of Jack Vance's genius as a writer, and are stylistically quite similar. But the character development and tone of the last two are remarkably different from the first three. It seems that in the intervening 14 years, Mr. Vance had learned to add a depth and pathos not found in his earlier work.

Everyone has their own opinion, but I've always considered "The Face" to be technically the best of the lot, while "The Book of Dreams" is the oddest. In that last work, the fifth Demon Prince is treated with an uncharacteristic sympathy, and, unlike the previous 4, even acquires a sense of nobility.

A nice, short biography of Vance is available at: [...]

The Face in particular is one of my single favorite Vance stories.

Rather than regurgitate the many positive and helpful reviews here, I will let my review be a random walk of my thoughts on my 4th rereading of The Face and The Book of Dreams.

1) How can this guy make me wonder what Darsh food smells like? Years after my first reading of the story, I still wonder.

2) The Hadout (bel ruk's) has stayed in my mind every time I think of this story. Vance can create games inside his story and capture the reader in them, this is a prime example. In this case, the already-great dramatic prose was given some extra tension with the addition of the bewilderment of Gersen's Menthel lover being present and, in vancian style, quite bewildered about what the banker Gersen was doing...

3) The Book of Dreams seems slower to me. Some added mystery is brought to the story with H.A. Treesong's apparent ability to vocalize multiple voices at once, which is clearly meant to leave some doubt about whether in fact he DID have his paladins with him, as he believed. This ties into the close as well.

No matter how many miles in empty space you go, if humans (or humanoid) creatures are found, Jack Vance can create a new world so real you'd swear he had been there. This series, of which this work is but a fragment, chronicles the growth of young Kirth Gerson and his quest for justice after losing all his family to the fabled monsters, the 'Demon Princes'--are they real? And is there life after revenge? An incredible journey into the human condition, by a true master of fantasy and science fiction, Mr. Jack Vance.

For a Science Fiction writer, Vance uses damned little science in his novels. What he does use is language; so beautifully that he has created Vance addicts all over the world.

The Demon Princes novels are a rich mine of his wonderful prose and mordant humor. If you have not read Vance, they are a good place to start.

This is some of the best "old school" sci-fi out there. It's fast paced, and Vance does a great job of describing the necessary technologies, political situations, and character motivations.

This book is a pretty fast read, even though it contains more than one story. My favorite story is "The Face". If you're like me, you will discover that you are thinking like the main character by the end of the story. That is, before the "suprise" ending, you will know exactly what the surprise is. And because of the way the story is told, the ending is even better!!

Jack Vance has written other sci-fi novels, and they all make for great airplane or subway reading. If you are serious about the "sci" part of the sci-fi, you might want to check out Neal Stephenson, or Michael Crichton. But for people who can appreciate the "fi" side, spend a few hours on this--you won't regret it.