Star King

by Jack Vance

Paperback, 1988

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Series

The Demon Princes (1)

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Grafton Books (1988), Paperback

Description

Five intergalactic criminal masterminds raid the tranquil world of Mount Pleasant, leaving behind only ruin and slaughter-and the orphaned child Kirth Gersen, who comes to manhood swearing to take bloody revenge. Now Gersen roams the galaxy, bringing vengeance to the Demon Princes one by one, in Jack Vance's classic series of hardboiled space opera. In a seedy tavern on Smade's Planet, Kirth Gersen picks up the trail of Attel Malagate, a member of an alien species called Star Kings, who masquerade as humans. Malagate maintains anonymity behind a screen of sinister henchmen, but Gersen will combine subtle guile and stark violence in a strategy to bring him face to face with the first of the Demon Princes.

User reviews

LibraryThing member sgarnell

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.

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LibraryThing member clong

This is a very well crafted mystery/suspense in space novel. The Star Kings are an alien race who who look enough like humans to pass undetected. Both as individuals, and as a species they thrive on competition, and have not the slighted scruple about killing or enslaving humans to help them gain

power. As a boy our protagist Gerson saw his family slaughtered by a group of Star Kings who wanted to make a point, and has spent his entire life training to deliver revenge and searching for the culprits. In this book Gerson runs across the trail of one of the bad guys, and sets out to determine the star king's hidden identity and deliver his revenge. On the way he muses about what he has missed in his life, and falls for an innocent young woman (who he subsequently has to rescue from the clutches of the star king's sadistic henchman). The characterisation is effective, if not particularly deep, and the plot moves along quickly. We visit several interesting and varied worlds. If you are looking for an old fashioned, scifi adventure book by all means give this one a try.

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LibraryThing member www.snigel.nu

Sadly, I cannot remember much from this book, except that it focuses around a personal vendetta and something about an unspoiled, beautiful planet.

LibraryThing member hailelib

In Star King Vance begins each chapter with quotes from various documents, speeches, etc. from the history of the Oikumene and the Rigel Concourse, some more obviously connected to the chapter than others. The actual story begins with Kirth Gersen's arrival at Smade's Planet and his meeting with

Lugo Teehalt. From this meeting Gersen picks up a clue to the real identity of a notorious criminal named Attel Malagate that Gersen has sworn to destroy. And the action begins.

Although I'm sure that I read some of Vance's books years ago, I have no memory of ever reading this one. I must have acquired it at a time when my reading switched to (mostly) other genres for a while. It was pretty good for a sixties space opera type SF story. I think one of the things I liked, aside from the adventure, was the way Gersen carefully followed the clues and plotted his next move thereby (mostly) staying ahead of the "bad guys".

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LibraryThing member lisa.isselee

I feared this book would be to boy-ish for my taste, but strangely it wasn't.
A real page turner, with a classic 'damsel in distress' and some wonderful descriptions !

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