A brilliant success at being the type of story the author obviously wanted it to be. That's a criterion I always try to keep in mind when evaluating a story. There have been times when I thought a book was pretty well-written except that when I finished the final chapter, I had the very strong suspicion that the author honestly believed he had given us a happy ending - which would be great if I didn't have an entirely different opinion on just how much happiness the hero could now look forward to.
In this case, what Matthew Hughes obviously wanted to write was a light-hearted Jack Vance novel. And I swear that's exactly what he did. (Admittedly, noticing that the book was dedicated to Jack Vance gave me some inkling of what to expect.) Of course, I think I've only read a couple of dozen Vance novels and at least three or four story collections, so what do I know? If you've never read any Vance, I suggest you remedy the lack when you get the chance. Don't worry about it too much if you find yourself looking at something that's allegedly the second book of a five-book series, for instance. Vance, more than most writers, took trouble to make each novel in a series pretty self-explanatory, with one or big problems that were encountered and resolved within the pages of a single volume. But moving back to his imitator . . .
The story is written in a rather flowery style, with frequent dashes of humor. The plot focuses on the experiences of Filidor Vesh, the indolent nephew of Dezendah Vesh, the Archon who is the putative ruler of "those regions of old Earth still inhabited by human beings." As the nearest living relative of the mysterious Archon, Filidor is vaguely aware that one of these days he is expected to inherit the title and the associated responsibilities, but prefers to avoid that idea as much as possible in favor of enjoying the self-indulgent lifestyle available to a young gentleman of high social standing in the Archon's capital city.
As you might guess, he won't get away with that attitude for much longer after the novel starts. Three or four pages, perhaps. Filidor finds himself accosted by a dwarf called Gaskarth who bears a ring marking him as the Archon's agent and gets a deathgrip on Filidor when the young fop tries to dodge the summons of his uncle. It appears there is an errand they need to run. This errand ultimately entails visiting a variety of strange regions, each with an odd cultural fixation that might serve as a satirical look at a trend already visible in modern industrialized societies. The plot is thickened by Gaskarth's insistence that the Archon requires them to render some service to each culture they encounter before they move on with their quest. Such services are often rendered accidentally, at least as far as Filidor can tell, but Gaskarth always explains the benefits of their actions to him afterward.
The book says "Fantasy" on the spine, which is a fair label. In theory, this story is set many eons in the future, on planet Earth, with most of the strange special effects being achieved by pieces of technology from one or another of the great civilizations that have risen and fallen throughout history. But there is also some mention of sorcery, and even the technological aids are prone to do whatever the author wants them to do, rather than having him commit himself to rigorous specifications for the exact capabilities and limitations and operating principles behind any particular device. The emphasis here is on linguistic style, character interaction, descriptions of oddball societies, and the gradual maturity of Filidor, rather than on hard scientific extrapolation. All of this is perfectly consistent with the tradition of Jack Vance, who was generally more interested in describing exotic cultures than in justifying the existence of any exotic technology they had laying around.
In the end, it turns out that the mission they are pursuing requires they be in a certain place at a certain time . . . to save the world! Gaskarth supposedly knows how to pull it off, but what with one thing and another, he never would have succeeded had not Filidor been around to pull his fat out of the fire a couple of times. More adventures are in store, however (an ad at the back of this recent reprint mentions a sequel coming in hardback in August 2001).
One possible problem with the ending of this novel is the risk of creating inflated expectations. If this novel were meant to be all we ever learn about the protagonist, having him save the world in the final scene would be all well and good. But if it's only the first of a series, what do you do for an encore in the grand finale of the second volume? And third and fourth volumes if it comes to that? Have him save the world every single time? Have him work his way up to saving solar systems, saving stellar clusters, saving galaxies, etc.? Or have him accomplish something less than a world-saving feat in the second book, leading people to worry that he's losing his touch? L. Sprague de Camp once ruefully commented that he wrote a short story in the 1940s in which the brilliant young scientist invents something that saves the world. Problem was, he ended up writing a total of four stories about that brilliant inventor, and by the fourth one the guy was reduced to inventing something in the nick of time to save his boss's job! De Camp swore that if he had been in the habit of planning ahead in those days, he would have had the hero save his boss's neck in the first story and only gradually work his way up to saving the entire world in Story #4, his last hurrah!
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