The Demon Princes (Omnibus)

THE DEMON PRINCES is an anthology of five related science fiction novels written by the Grandmaster Jack Vance between the years 1964 and 1981, set about 1500 years in the future. The hero of the stories, Kirth Gersen, is a kind of "James Bond/Sherlock Holmes in Space"; who, as a young boy finds himself and his grandfather witnesses and sole survivors of a town massacre perpetrated by five "Demon Princes". Kirth's grandfather grooms him to seek revenge, and enrolls him in an elite Intergalactic Police Training Academy, where Kirth excels, and sets out to "The Beyond" to locate and extract revenge against the Demon Princes. As is always the case with Jack Vance books, be sure to keep a dictionary handy and prepare to improve your vocabulary. I find myself looking up a new word on average of once every 4 or 5 pages... and I rarely have to look up a new word when reading books produced by most modern-day authors. Following are brief reviews of each of the 5 stories contained in THE DEMON PRINCES: THE STAR KING **** (1964, 170 pages) - A nicely interwoven tale of mystery, intrigue, action, courtship, and alien worlds. "They just don't write `em like this any more". THE KILLING MACHINE **** (1964, 165 pages) - Somewhat similar to THE STAR KING in that Kirth ends up having a hard time telling what the "bad guy" Kokor Hekkus really looks like. The alien world that Kirth traces Hekkus to is something out of the Middle Ages, with castles, princes and princesses, but also includes huge dreadful centipede-like man-killing beasts. Kirth manages to come into quite a bit of money by the end of this story. THE PALACE OF LOVE **** (1967, 185 pages) - After the princess from THE KILLING MACHINE ends up taking a walk because she can't live with Kirth Gersen's single-mindedness, Kirth tracks the oddball Demon Prince Viole Falushe to his secret "Palace of Love". Interesting subplot regarding the plight of typical slaves on the lawless planets "beyond". THE FACE ***** (1979, 222 pages) - Fantastic story, it is my pleasure to say that this is one of the best stories I've ever read. It has it all; action, mystery, romance, believable situations, innovative alien worlds and cultures - all leading up to a superb ending. This particular story is so good that it single-handedly brings the entire anthology (which is otherwise made up mostly of 4-star offerings) up to a 5-star rating. THE BOOK OF DREAMS ***** (1981, 222 pages) - Another top-notch story, which starts out with Kirth Gerson using a ruse somewhat similar to that described in A. Conan Doyle's THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE, in order to attract the interest of the last remaining Demon Prince, H.A. Treesong... he then chases him from one bizzare future human culture world to another - including one funny/wild scene where he buys his way into a high school reunion garden party band as a beginner flute player, to get a chance to kill Treesong. I only have two negative comments regarding this anthology; 1)

'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 first of the five demon princes. The Star King, first of the five books, (or long chapters, if you will) is the story of Kirth's hunt for Malagate The Woe. In a neutral, off-world tavern called Smade's, Gersen meets Lugo Teehalt, who tells him a fantastical story about a beautiful planet he has discovered. Gersen learns that Attel Malagate is after Teehalt's monitor in order to find this world, so Gersen uses the monitor's filament as bait to lure Malagate out. Shaking off assassins and bargaining with influential Institutes, Gersen brings about his encounter with Malagate, culminating on Teehalt's fantastical world. The second part, The Killing Machine, is about Gersen's hunt for Kokor Hekkus, better known as The Killing Machine. From filthy out-worlds to the renowned institution called Interchange, Gerson is off on another chase. Located far out on a desert planet, Interchange exists for the expedient and safe exchange of kidnaps, acting as liaison for hostage and monetary demands. Freeing two innocent children and a contractor for Hekkus, Gersen finds more than he was looking for when he himself is kidnapped and held for ransom at Interchange. Guessing at a connection between Hekkus and a beautiful woman held for a phenomenal amount of money, Gersen finds himself on the mystical planet of Tamber and smack in the middle of a confrontation with The Killing Machine. In the third part, Gerson takes on demon prince Viole Falushe at Falushe's Palace Of Love. Getting to the Palace isn't easy. Gersen begins with a visit to the planet Sarkovy, a dismal place famous for its many poisons. Then he flies to earth, to take up with a crotchety old poet named Navarth and his young daughter Zan-Zu. When Navarth discovers that Gersen intends to exact revenge on Viole Falushe, the man who ruined Navarth's young lover, the old poet joins the assassin on a trip to Falushe's Palace Of Love, where Gersen must first identify Falushe before he can eliminate him. While all three tales contain a bit of mystery over who the real identity of the villain is, the majority of their intrigue and charm come from Vance's imaginative worlds; worlds complete with custom, foods, dress, environment, law (or lack of), flora and fauna, even planetary statistics. There are twenty-six planets in the 'Concourse' around the sun Rigel, and many more in the 'Bey

This is really a review of both volumes One and Two, which belong together, although each one is long enough that a single book would be unwieldy.There are five novellas collected here, three in the first volume and two in the second, that make up the episodic story of Kirth Gerson, who has devoted his life to revenge on the five Demon Princes, who are galactic super-criminals, for a massacre they all cooperated on when he was a child that left him bereft of family, friends, and home. Since then they have all pursued their imaginative evils independently.Gerson was raised by his grandfather to be a revenge machine. He has perfected the arts of killing in all their variety, and cultivates a bland and harmless appearance so as to pursue, undetected and undeterred, the deaths of these (mostly) men.But they will not succumb easily. Gerson's greatest weapon is that these enormously clever and ruthless criminals are not aware of him, or of his mission. They are, however, preternaturally vigilant (as befits those extravagantly beyond the law), masters of disguise and misdirection, and playful in ghastly and terrifying ways. They assume they have enemies, and each time Kirth Gerson draws near his quarry the roles of hunter and hunted become less clear.The premise is gripping, the prose luxuriant and witty, and the action a tasteful mixture of violence and elegant repartee. Vance's inventiveness never flags, and he clearly enjoys the implausible colorful worlds he constructs with so much attention to the details of diet, costume, architecture, and custom. And what could be more appealing than innocence avenged, and dangerous evil decisively defeated?These stories appeared in the old Galaxy magazine (I think!) back in the sixties, over a period of years. I remember getting hold of new ones in college after having gotten hooked by the first two stories years earlier. So, just as it took Kirth Gerson a long time to fully effect his revenge, it was a long time before we readers had his whole story in hand. But this two-volume collection replaces that years-long suspense with more-or-less instant gratification. The stories are long, but they are all there, in the proper order. It would be cruel indeed to give volume One as a gift without supplying volume Two as well. But Vance's prose is a rich diet, and it's likely that after these books a reader will be ready for some leaner fare for quite some time.

A classic criticism of SF is that the characters are thinly-drawn caricatures. Often there is more than a grain of truth in this, and Mr. Vance himself can have been considered guilty. However, this is the 'Scream' of SF literature, in that it is a knowing response to the critique, whilst staying as fast-paced, rollicking swashbuckler, with colourful characters, inventive prose and fantastic (in the traditional sense of the word) names, giving depth to the entertainingly-realised worlds. Kirth Gersen himself, the lead character, is often caught questioning his own lack of personality depth beyond his mission, whilst displaying a not insignificant range and subtlety of emotion. Still surprising on re-reading, with great sophistication and wit, it is a fine testament to a top author.

I was much younger when The Star King first appeared in Galaxy. I think the last of the five books (not included in this volume) appeared within the last ten years. John Holbrook Vance's style of writing is oddly stilted, but charming in these five books; the best of them, The Killing Machine, is included here, and the worst of them is no worse than very good. The Killing Machine includes fighting, killing, counterfeiting, kidnapping, theft by misdirection, and deliberate insult by the protagonist of long-established institutions (at least long-established in the future depicted), and is a story I told my children on a camping trip. Vance is now in his late 70's or 80's, and I'm not sure how many more of these treasures we may expect out of him; this makes the current volume all the more valuable. It is a collection of old friends, finally back in print; I will send the book to my fifteen-year-old daughter, who heard the story before she was ten from her father. The Demon Princes series is a set of five novels about Kirth Gersen, whose home planet was invaded and whose inhabitants were massacred remorselessly by five arch-criminals known as the Demon Princes. His grandfather sees to his training as an assassin, and then turns him loose to find and kill each of the five. Each novel is the story of his action against one of the five. I haven't yet laid my hands on a copy of this new volume, yet I am already looing forward to its successor