Customer Reviews

Vandals of the Void (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series)

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

 

 

_Vandals of the Void_ (1953) by Jack Vance was originally an entry in the Winston science fiction line for young readers. It has been ressurected in an expensive edition by Gregg Press. Perhaps the first thing to be said about the book is that it is a novel about space pirates. This means that it is a piece of unabashed blood-and-thunder space opera. In an introduction, Vance toys with the idea that some young readers may actually live to see an age of space piracy. "I hope that none of you serve with the pirates," he says with a poker face. "If you do, I'm sure you'll regret it. The pay might not be so good in the Space Navy, but you'll live longer" (vii). But Vance knows perfectly well the real reason that young readers will be drawn to this book is not for moral edification. The real reason is that space pirates are fun. They are fun because they are so ruthless and violent. And so we eagerly follow young Dick Murdock from the Devil's Citadel on Venus to an interplanetary rocket in the Graveyard of Space to the caverns of the Moon to the sands of Mars as he pits his wits against the pirates of the mysterious Basilisk.

Ah, but who is the Basilisk? Not the talkative Mr. Kirdy, who quickly dies under Suspicious Circumstances. But what about the bluff, bulldoggish Captain Henshaw? Or could it be the enigmatic Mr. Sende with his knife-slash mouth, who turns up in all sorts of odd places? Or could it be Crazy Sam Baxter, the lunar prospector who claims that there are aliens living in the moon? Or is it one of the astronomers on the luna base? John Teranabe, the good-humored Japanese-- who doesn't always tell everything he knows? The dark-eyed and haughty Professor Frederick Dexter? Or Dick's father, Dr. Murdock? No, no. Surely not. And yet...

There follow adventures with a killer telescope, an abandoned citadel, lunar caverns, various spaceships, and an elaborately ingenious code before the villain is finally revealed.

Vance is one of the best stylists in science fiction. Here is a sample of his writing as Dick makes a discovery on Luna:

A stratum of denseblack stone angled down across the porphyry. At the plane of intersection he noticed that the porphyry seemed stained, soft, almost like old putty. With the sharp end of his pick he pried at a chunk of the metamorphosed porphyry. It came loose, dropped down to the ledge, slow as a baloon under the weak lunar gravity. Dick started to turn back toward the raft, but first gave the chunk a rap for luck. It broke open like an egg. Colored fire, a flash of pure purple, caught Dick's eye. Slowly, in wonder and awe, he bent over, picked up the jewel, a perfect, many-sided crystal, twice as large as his thumb nail and glowing with purple as rich and intense as Tyrian dye. (65)

_Vandals of the Void_ has movement, color, wit and style. It is one of the very best of the Winston juveniles, and it deserves further life as a paperback reprint.

Vandals of the Void
Jack Vance, 1953

Not bad for early 1950's young adult soap opera 3*

Let's be up front about it -- this book is almost painful to read at points. The real question is "why?", since Vance is certainly a good, even stylish, writer. First off, this is one of his earliest works, although I don't recall that some others of the same vintage (e.g. 1950's The Dying Earth, 1952's (in serial form) Big Planet, 1958's The Languages of Pao) are as crude; on the other hand it's been decades since I've read those. Most of his best known work was from the 1960s through the 80's, giving him a decade to hit his stride. Another factor is that "Vandals" is a definite departure from the norm for Vance -- as far as I can tell, he wrote no other juveniles, as they were called then, and few if any other hard science fiction works. Trying to write in the juvenile mode seems to make his language somewhat stilted, alternately gushing and talking down to the reader. And hard SF -- by which I mean dealing with the nitty gritty details of the space environment, near future space transportation, living in vacuum, orbital mechanics, etc. -- is definitely not his forte'. Although one has to make due allowance for the state of knowledge at the time (it was still a matter of debate whether the Moon's craters were caused by volcanoes or meteors, for instance), and a general lack of experience with and exposition of even projected space travel, the book has a few downright howlers, but more uneasy moments where you feel Vance just doesn't get it, as if he had poorly absorbed whatever popular accounts of space travel were around at the time, but didn't have the math and physics background to really "grok" them. (Much to my surprise, I learn from his Wikipedia bio that he did study mining engineering and physics, as well as journalism and English, at UC Berkeley in the 1930's and early 40's.) This ain't Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones," for instance, with its careful use of orbital mechanics, published a year earlier. On the other hand, few of those 50's juvies were, and this is about par for the course.

So why even 3 *'s? And who might want to get one of the outrageously priced copies of this book floating around? In spite of the awkward writing and the rather loose "science," the plot is pretty good for a juvenile of the period and does keep one going. And primarily, for those of us old enough to have read it in the 50's or even 60's, when it was fresh and not hopelessly out of date, it can be a fun trip down memory lane. I especially enjoy my copy, a discard from my old town library with the original "library binding" which has the dust jacket design imprinted on a heavy duty cover, possibly the very copy I checked out (repeatedly I'm sure) so many years ago. Without this nostalgia, or at least a sense of its historical context, I might even give this one 2*'s. Someone with a hard-core fan, or scholarly, interest in Vance might be interested in Vandals to see the development of his style, but the everyday fan of Lyonesse, The Dying Earth or the Demon Princes series would likely be disappointed (especially at $50 or 100 and up!).

I won't give any plot summary. That has been been well done by other, more enthusiastic, reviewers.

I read Vandals of the Void back in 1963, when I was in 5th grade. Several kids in my class read it, and we all loved it. We talked about it for weeks, calling teachers we didn't like "Basilisks" and so on. Over the course of my school years I read it five more times. I do not remember doing this with any other book. About three years ago I thought about this book, and made a request for it at our local library. It took some weeks, but they finally located an obtainable copy from another library. I sat and read it one evening. Sure, as a much older adult, I recognize this book was written for young readers, but I still loved it. Along with other early sci-fi meant for young readers from the 1950s-1970s (by such authors as Lester DelRey, Ben Bova, Andre Norton, and of course Isaac Asimov), Vandals of the Void was an exciting, imaginative read that sparked yearnings for space travel and adventure. Yearnings today's young people seem to have lost.

Dick Murdoch, a 15 year old teenager, is leaving Venus to meet his Father, Paul, at Moon. In the space ship, unexpected events cause captain to stop and examine the wreckage of sister ship American Star. This is the zone called Graveyard of Space. No one knows what attacks the space ships in this area. Some say it's Basilisk. But who is he? Dick's adventures in ship and in the Moon base, with his father, starts to pay off as he find more and more clues.

One (1) star for the adult reader. Target group is young adult (10-13). Written in 1953 this is among the first stories of Vance. He later published 11 more mysteries and 60 other books; mostly science fiction. This particular book was written to fulfill the contract requirement of the publisher. The characters are fond of using extensive vocabulary and the hero, teenager, has amazing ability to construct elaborate plans and schemes to get where he wants. As a detective story in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, it does not make reader to expect the next event because the twists are coming like clockwork: every 5 pages. A product of its time in a good sense, if you like horses and carriages, the past, but otherwise wooden read.

This review is of the VIE version of the story.

People familiar with Vance's normal style in his fantasy and SF may be taken by surprise to find little of the humor or irony present here at all. The tone reminds me much more of his detective work.

The story itself is pretty straightforward and simplistic, with many plot devices clearly telegraphed in advance. I did not catch who the antagonist was, but did see all other clues as they were presented.

Honestly, if this weren't an early Vance story I had never read, I never would have bothered. There is nothing here remarkable or even particularly entertaining, and even more oddly, it is hard (impossible?) to find Wodehousesque voice Vance later uses in virtually all his Sci-Fi and Fantasy (possible exception, the first Lyonesse book, which was very serious in tone).

In any event, if you are curious to read this very early vance story, and can find a copy, then good luck! If you are looking for another Big Planet, Space Opera, Emphyrio, etc., then pass.

One of the first space science fiction novels I ever read way back in 1969 in 8th grade. It ushered a love for space science fiction into my life. I still regard the book as one of the best. Love to see it placed on Middle School reading lists today. Should be made into a movie.

Regarding Jack Vance, people call me an extreme fan. When I finally found this book on sale at a price under $100 I went for it.

Being an avid Jack Vance fan, I was sadly disappointed.

What I like about Jack Vance:
Elegant prose
Excellent character development
Erudite use of the English language, including inventing of new words, phases terms, and concepts
Characters that speak the queen's English in novel ways
A surprising and interesting story line

In this book, I found none of these things. Instead I found a traditional space opera, with predictable plot, and characters with cardboard depth. The only interesting thing I got from this book is seeing the course of development of the Jack Vance writing style.

I probly wuddna even finished the book except that I am such a Jack Vance fan.

Then there was the condition of the book. It was an old library obtained from "who knows where". I had to reglue the binding before I could read the book to keep it from falling apart while I read it. I don't blame the seller, who did not misrepresent the product. Initially I was excited to get the book at any price.

If you are thinking about shelling out $100 to get a copy of this book. Forget it.