I recently finished reading all of Jack Vance's fantasy and SF novels that I could lay my hands on. Annoyingly, there were a few I couldn't track down - The Five Gold Bands, Vandals of the Void, To Live Forever, and The Languages of Pao. But I TRIED, DIDN'T I? GODDAMIT, AT LEAST I DID THAT.
It serves no real purpose to do this, but nonetheless I thought long and hard about how one might create a taxonomy of Vancian fiction. Vance is sometimes said to have been largely telling the same story over and over again; it would be more accurate to say that his work repeats a relatively small number of central themes. You can therefore readily group his novels by theme thusly (many novels cover more than one theme and are thus placed in more than one taxon):
The Pure Comedies - Vance's books almost always have a streak of wry humour and are wittily written, but he was capable at times of writing for sheer laughs. For what it's worth, these may actually be those of his books I enjoy the most, though they are rarely mentioned as being among his 'best'.
Space Opera
The Magnificent Showboats of the Lower Vissel River, Lune XXIII, Big Planet
Ports of Call
Ecce and Old Earth
The Planetary Romances - Vance is sometimes said to have invented this genre (although it clearly predates him); I suppose you would describe these as novels in which the action mostly revolves around one particular planet, whose cultural and geographical features have an important influence on the plot.
Big Planet
The Blue World
Maske: Thaery
The Domains of Koryphon
Night Lamp
Slaves of the Klau
All of the Durdane series
All of the Cadwal Chronicles
All of the Planet of Adventure series
All of the Alastor series
The Episodic Novels - these, as the name suggests, are books whose plots are largely (if not entirely) a sequence of discrete events (often taking place on different worlds), loosely connected by an overarching narrative.
The Eyes of the Overworld
Cugel's Saga
Ports of Call
Lurulu
Space Opera
The Magnificent Showboats of the Lower Vissel River, Lune XXIII, Big Planet
The Green Pearl
The Bildungromane - Vance loved a good coming-of-age story, and many of his novels incorporate elements of this kind of plot.
Night Lamp
Emphyrio
Ports of Call
Araminta Station
The Anome
Wyst: Alastor 1716
Suldrun's Garden
The entire Demon Princes series can be understood as one long bildungsroman
The Revenge Plots - Revenge is a big feature of Vance's work; these are the novels which have it as their main focus.
Night Lamp
All of the Demon Princes series
Maske: Thaery
Araminta Station
The Domains of Koryphon
Marune: Alastor 933
Trullion: Alastor 2262
The Stranger in a Strange Land - Vance's most successful plots often feature a clever protagonist adapting to an alien environment and taking advantage of its flaws to make off with wealth, fame and/or a beautiful woman. In some of these books, the 'stranger' is actually a native of the setting in question, but is marked as an outsider (which he, again, deploys to his advantage).
All of the Planet of Adventure series
All of the Demon Princes series
Marune: Alastor 933
Big Planet
Emphyrio
The Durdane series
Night Lamp
Trullion: Alastor 2262
Araminta Station
The Multipart Epics - Vance loved a good multi-volume story; while some of his books have sequels or come in loosely connected sequences (like Alastor, the Cugel books, Big Planet/The Magnificent Showboats..., and Ports of Call/Lurulu), the true epics are:
The Planet of Adventure series
The Cadwal Chronicles series
The Demon Princes series
The Durdane series
Lyonesse
The Philosophical Novels - When the mood struck him, Vance was capable of writing philosophical novels that are at least the equal of a Henry James or Joseph Conrad, and usually much more entertaining to boot.
Emphyrio
The Blue Planet
Wyst: Alastor 1716
The Palace of Love
Ports of Call and Lurulu
I would probably also put The Domains of Koryphon in this category, although it is one of his weaker efforts.
There are also some less common themes into which one could group certain novels; I am thinking, for example, that 'Woman of Substance' could be its own category (Ecce and Old Earth, The Domains of Koryphon, Night Lamp), as could 'Memory Loss' (Night Lamp and Marune: Alastor 933), and even 'Psychological Consequences of Long-Term Captivity' (The Star King, The Pnume, Araminta Station, and Night Lamp).
In my next entry, I'll attempt the equally purposeless but enjoyable feat of ranking the books.
The Languages of Pao (read many, many moons ago) is essentially a Planetary Romance.
ReplyDeleteTo follow up, The Languages of Pao would also qualify as a Bilsdungroman with a Revenge Plot.
ReplyDeleteVance's Dying Earth book (with Turjan, Mazirian, Guyal of Sfere, etc.) is not mentioned. Surely an oversight? It's one of my favorite books!
ReplyDeleteNot a novel - a short story collection. I have read it though.
DeleteSuperb stuff
ReplyDeleteRhialto the Marvelous? I think it's a revenge story.
ReplyDeleteAgain, not really a novel per se.
DeleteI would say that Madouc (3rd chapter of the Lyonesse trilogy) is a bildungroman.
ReplyDeleteGood point.
DeleteI have LOVED following your deep dives into Vance and other authors. Even though I have not read much Jack Vance, and I'm not likely to read much more of his stuff during my remaining lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether you do requests, but what I would REALLY love to see, given both your your deep analytical skills and your clear inclination towards completism, is a rereading of the Viriconium stories. In fact, ideally all of M John Harrison's stories, including the final chapter and last word on Viriconium/Uroconium/Vrico "Jack of Mercy's", contained in Mike's short story collection You Should Come With Me Now.
Apart from giving me delight, I feel like you would enjoy it too. I personally have read and listened to Viriconium many times, and each time I have found so more than I realised was there. I genuinely believe that Mike is one of our greatest living authors, overlooked by all the big awards etc, and what reassures my in my belief is that many truly great authors, from "genre" to "literary" and beyond. Anyone so highly regarded by folks like Iain Banks, Ursula le Guin, Neil Gaiman and Robert MacFarlane has got to be onto something.