Wyst: Alastor 1716

Jantiff is one of the smarmier Vance protags, but this is one of the most vivid Jack Vance worlds of wonder. It's _Atlas Shrugged_ lite, but it makes me want to go there and rescue poor Tanzel. If you liked the old Woody Allen movie _Broadway Danny Rose_, you'll love the ending! Though the curmudgeon in me has to ask (ref "Last Meeting at Ouldivai Gorge" by ?), maybe the Connatic didn't do Jantiff any favor by teaching Glisten to talk!

"Wyst: Alastor 1716" is one of Jack Vance's best novellas. Vance is known for his meticulous creation of alien societies, and the dystopian world of Wyst is one of his most imaginatively realized - what appears to be a society based on the pursuit of pleasure is inexorably revealed as a ghastly world of unending exploitation and brutality. Unlike most sci-fi dystopias, "Wyst" is not based on "1984" or "Brave New World"; it's entirely original in conception. Some of Vance's most memorable characterizations can be found here as well - if you're a Jack Vance fan you'll find yourself re-reading and re-re-reading all of the arch-villainess Skorlet's dialogue - a masterpiece of the kind of arch black humor rarely found in sci-fi. The depiction of Skorlet during the climactic bonterfest is simultaneously frightening, hilarious, and heartbreakingly poignant. "Wyst" is well worth the two or three hours it will take to read it.

Many of Jack Vance's stories are decorated in passing with descriptions of strange foodstuffs that locals eat without a qualm; so must a visitor. In this story, food is central. The society is one of a vast population of near equals, with efficient feeding via standardised industrially produced and optimised meals. Humans being obstinately perverse, everyone therefore devotes themselves to acquiring 'bonter'; a group of friends and associates will arrange an excursion for a feast of non-standard and illicit foodstuffs. Our hero joins in, and learns rather too much... See also Trullion: Alastor 2262, and Marune: Alastor 933 for independent stories set in the same general background of the Gaean Reach, further restricted to the Alastor star cluster.