F/SF

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Two down and three to go… In order to exact revenge on Viole Falushe, the third Demon Prince, Kirth Gersen must first discover who Mr. Falushe is, and then find and infiltrate his famous Palace of Love.

The actual plot, while just as brisk and fun as usual, isn't the most entertaining aspect of The Palace of Love. This volume is particularly charming because of Jack Vance's exquisite characters — three in particular:

1. Vogel Filschner was rejected by the prettiest girl in school when he was a pimply 14-year old geek. His retaliation feels just like what school psychologists are warning us about these days. He's a fascinating villain!

2. Navarath is a washed-up poet who lives on a houseboat. We're not sure if he's a genius, a fake, crazy, or just drunk. Whatever he is, he's amusing and Vance has lots of fun with Navarath, giving him an eccentric artist personality. He talks dramatically and emphatically, gestures extravagantly, seeks attention, drinks a lot, and broods. When he got on a spaceship for the first time he "simultaneously became afflicted with claustrophobia and agoraphobia, and lay on a settee with his feet bare and a cloth pulled over his head." He even constructs absurd (but somehow ingenious) poems, including one whose stanzas end with lines such as "But Tim R. Mortiss degurgled me" and "But Tim R. Mortiss peturgles me."

3. Zan Zu, the girl from Eridu, is a dreamy dirty adolescent misfit with no name. (Since Kirth asked for her name, Navarath introduced her as "Zan Zu from Eridu.") Vance can't help but use her entire title nearly every time she's mentioned (and I can't either), so Kirth thinks of her as Zan Zu, the girl from Eridu, and we regularly encounter the words "Zan Zu, the girl from Eridu" in the text. It just trips off the tongue so nicely and somehow made me smile every time I saw it. (I read somewhere that Jack Vance chose his characters' names this way — by saying them over and over to see how they sound.)

These are three of Vance's best supporting characters, all packed into about 150 pages. That's enough reason to read The Palace of Love.
www.fantasyliterature.com ( )

More than anything, its Vance's writing that keeps me captivated. The soft flowing nature of his prose takes the reader into a fantasy SF world, rich with charm and adventurous plots. There are few writers like Vance. However, I suppose he's not for everyone. If your looking for Hard SF, I don't think you'll be satisfied. Still, Vance is classic SF. A good read for anyone who loves the classics. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2022/07/review-of-palace-of-love-by-jack-vance.... ( )

Van http://mom.biblion.nl/ :
Jack Vance is een SF-grootmeester. Zijn stijl en thematiek zijn uniek en zijn lezersschare is groot. Hij mengt graag SF- en fantasy-elementen, en een geliefd thema is het reizen door het heelal om vreemde planeten te bezoeken. Dit komt goed naar voren in zijn beroemde Duivelsprinsen-serie, bestaande uit vijf, op zichzelf staande boeken. In het eerste deel - "De sterrekoning" - wordt bijna de gehele bevolking van Fraaibergen vermoord door de vijf Duivelsprinsen. Kirth Gersen wil wraak en in ieder deel achtervolgt hij een van de prinsen. In dit derde deel is dat de Prins van de Misdaad, die verblijft in het Paleis van de Liefde, ergens in de ruimte. De stijl is zeer verzorgd, bloemrijk en beeldend. De vreemde volkeren krijgen een eigen cultuur. Meulenhoff heeft deze serie in de jaren zeventig al uitgegeven, waarbij dit deel in de omnibus "De Duivelsprinsen" (a.i. 86-49-191-1) zat. De serie wordt nu in een goedkope heruitgave in vijf deeltjes uitgebracht. Het lettertype is klein. Soortgelijke auteurs zijn Fritz Leider en Jim Ballard. - René van Rossenberg.