Palace of Love

The Palace of LoveA Guest of the MargraveKirth Gerson's quest for revenge against the five Demon Princes who destroyed his home and family has one unfortunate side effect. It makes him more than a little unlucky in love. When Alusz Iphigenia finds herself dragged to Sarkovy, the poisoner's planet, to watch a man die for selling poisons to Viole Falushe at the wrong price she draws the line and Gerson finds himself alone one again. Unsurprisingly, Gerson is almost relieved at the loss.For Gerson, the thin clues discovered on Sarkovy will eventually lead him back to Earth where he must struggle to build the snare that will trap the elusive Falushe. Eventually, the trail will lead him to Navarth, a poet of unsteady demeanor and writing skills, the guardian of the young woman called Zan Zu from Eridu. Whoever Zan Zu really is, she is the double of Jheral Tinzy, the woman whose cavalier treatment launched young Vogel Filschner, later known as Viole Falushe, on the life of a dire criminal mastermind. Gerson uses Zan Zu and Navarth as the keys that will gain him access to the killer. Even if it means a trip to the fatal delights of the infamous Palace of Love.If 'The Killing Machine' was a slight letdown, 'The Palace of Love' finds Vance back in complete control of his writing powers. The book is both a facile satire of the foibles of an overly attenuated civilization and a hard nosed adventure of the fight to the death between a vicious, if overly romantic, sadist and one of his earliest victims. Irony is the rule of the day as many characters get their just and embarrassing deserts. For a reader jaded by the modern tendency to the grim and noir, Vance's use of almost comic justice is like a breath of fresh air.Vance creates his worlds in order to have full use of the people on them. Sarkovy, with its wheeled god, the archaism of Earth, and the countless quirks of the worlds of the Oikumene and beyond the Pale come to life in the footnotes and quotes with which Vance peppers his stories. You will find yourself enamored of both Vance's story-telling skills and his capabilities as a somewhat cynical sociologist. These are stories designed to fire the imagination, to stay in the mind after they are put to rest.

"Many fine things your father had planned for you: learning and useful work; a life of satisfaction and peace. All this is gone now, do you understand? But the learning you shall have - the use of your hands and mind. And useful work: the elimination of evil men. What work is more useful than this? Finally, I cannot give you peace, but I promise you ample satisfaction, for I shall teach you to crave the blood of these men more than the flesh of a woman."These are the words uttered by Kirth Gersen's (sometimes called Keith Gersen) grandfather after a raid on their homeworld by 5 super-criminals (known as the 5 Demon Princes) leaves everyone but these two either dead or enslaved. True to his word, the old man forges his grandson into an unstoppable instrument of vengeance. In fact, Gersen often seems more a force a nature than a human being, more machine than man in his single-minded quest for revenge. His fighting prowess and physical abilities are without peer; likewise, his mind is sharp and focused. This is the third book in Vance's "Demon Princes" Series. I found it enjoyable, but not as much as the first two books. In this book, Gersen - after his epic swindling of Interchange to the tune of 10 billion SVU (Standard Value Units) - is undoubtedly the richest person in the Gaean Reach (the area of space inahabited by human beings). Of course, no one is aware of who it was who cheated Interchange, but Gersen now has virtually limitless resources with which to pursue the 3 remaining Demon Princes.As in the first two books, the third Demon Prince also masks his true identity by pretending to be someone else. Half the fun of this series is seeing Gersen doggedly attempting to unearth the secret identity of the super-criminals, and that is the case here. The other half is watching him catch the bad guy.As usual, Vance's Gaean Reach is populated with a wide variety of memorable characters who etch themselves into one's memory on blocks of granite. Gersen himself, is, of course, magnetic - created in the classical hero motif but far from static or boring.