Emphyrio

I have little to add to those who've commented that this little Classic of Vance's Gaean Reach novels is haunting, and Vance in the top of his form. This little passage always stays with me as an example of writing that could ONLY be Vance: (It's a backward world, far from Earth, a thousand years in the future... where artists and artisans are exploited by a commercial cartel. This is a conversation between the protagonist as a little boy who's just seen a puppet show, and the peripatetic puppeteer Holkerwoyd): "I was born beside a star so far that you'll never see its light, not in the sky of Halma." "Then why are you here?" "I often ask myself the same. The answer always comes: because I'm not somewhere else. Which is a statement more sensible than it sounds. And isn't it a marvel? Here am I and here are you; think of it! When you ponder the breadth of the galaxy, you must recognize a coincidence of great singularity!" "I don't understand." "Simple enough! Suppose you were here and I elsewhere, or I were here and you elsewhere, or both of us were elsewhere: three cases vastly more probable than the fourth, which is in fact our mutual presence within ten feet of each other. I repeat, a miraculous concatenation! And to think that some hold the Age of Wonders to be past and gone!"

The one flaw I find in this engrossing book is that Vance seems to have decided, at that stage of his career, that it needed a little more structural emphasis than his previous books had displayed. This led him to the calamitous device of an opening, "framing," chapter. If this opening chapter should be torn bodily from the book -- and would we might see Vance's own explicit authorization for such a deed! -- it would then be perfect, in all respects.

Jack Vance is at the top of his form in _Emphyrio_. The novel tells the story of Ghyl, a fey youth who questions the solidified, authoritarian society in which he is growing up. It is in effect a socialist or capitalist dystopia (depending on how you define the terms), and Vance does a great job presenting the superiority of individualistic liberty vs. monopolistic rule by a class of exploiters in a non-didactic, dramatized form. The ending presents a surprise to the reader that has been well prepared. This is Vance at his best.

Jack Vance is one of the most underrated scifi writers. His works demonstrate a mastery of language, a remarkable realism found in very few other scifi compositions, and a rich imagination in both the technology and society he fabricates for the equally rich characters of his stories._Emphyrio_ is one of his finest works, and, in general, one of the finest scifi works anyone has written. In it, Vance demonstrates a vision for a marvelous, yet haunting, future for humanity. But instead of writing this vision in a clumsy, grandiose and falsely sweeping manner, as would be reminiscent of lesser scifi works, Vance focuses on the particulars. For example, in his choice of the protagonists, Ghyl Tarvoke and Amiante, Vance carves out a finely detailed father-son relationship. Through their eyes, the reader is then led to an understanding of complexities of the socioeconomic structures of the city of Ambroy, and even the planet of Halma. The entire story is tightly knit together by the mythology of Emphyrio, which serves as a backbone to the progress of the entire story. It is sufficiently vague as to be believable, but sufficiently inspiring as to guide the protagonists forward in their search for truth.And even though the particulars may seem foreign, and though the societies may seem alien, the underlying conflicts are entirely human- from social rehab to exploititative economics. Vance leaves the reader with the feeling that perhaps each man, in his own way, can find the strength to bring about vast social improvements.

One of my favorite books of all times, and one of my five favorite fantasies. A woodworker is gradually forced to transend himself in order to overcome the contradictions of his society. An epic that actually involves only one minor act of violence by the hero. This book may haunt you. Vance puts more color in print than most painters can daub on acres of canvas