Ports of Call & Lurulu

Ports of Call #1-2

by Jack Vance

Two Books in One: Ports of Call & Lurulu

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera

404 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Aka John Holbrook Vance, Peter Held, John Holbrook, Ellery Queen, John van See, Alan Wade.

The author was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, he contributed widely to science fiction and fantasy magazines. His first novel, The Dying Earth , was published in 1950 to great acclaim. He won both of science fiction's most coveted trophies, the Hugo and Nebula awards. He also won an Edgar Award for his mystery novel The Man in the Cage . He lived in Oakland, California in a house he designed.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the voyages of Myron Tany. "Ports of Call" was my first Jack Vance experience, and I must say that I was impressed. It's not so much the plot or Myron's adventures that I found to be impressive, but simply Vance's prose alone. His vocabulary is exquisite, as are his philosophical musings, propounded through the vehicle of his characters.

My only complaint is with the secondary novelette, "Lurulu", which is a sequel to "Ports of Call". The beginning of it was a bit frustrating. It was as a rereading of the beginning of "Ports of Call", only not as impressive as one. I actually suspect Vance started out with "Lurulu", put it aside, started over with "Ports of Call", and then stuck "Lurulu" on the end, using it as a means of resolution.

I was neither pleased with how Myron's problems with his aunt Hester Lajoie resolved. It was a bit depressing, though logical. I could not help but feel the anxiety that Myron himself felt, as did his parents. How did he deal with it? He again struck out for the stars. This brings to mind the "call of the sea" spoken of in so many classic novels of sailing the seas.

I could not help but conclude that Myron's adventuring will eventually lead to his demise. I'm sure his integrity will erode, and that he will end up murdered or imprisoned. What is the alternative for Myron? A mundane career which follows in the footsteps of his estranged father. What is it that Myron is searching for? What are his shipmates searching for?

Myron's philosophy of life remains secret. He admits that he is both fearful and confused. He is best friends with an agnostic - Schwatzendale, an aesthete with spiritual yearnings - Wingo, and a seeker - Maloof, who is obsessed with finding Lurulu by means of his ship, the Glicca. All are intellectuals, and all are cynics who pass the time with beer and vainglorious musings which are witty and entertaining, yet void of meaning.

I do believe they all need to meet women. It is obvious that all but Schwatzendale pursue the metaphysical, yet this is somewhat of a paradox since his favored company to engage in conversation with are metaphysicians. He seeks to dominate them with rationalism in the secret hope that they can provide a true challenge to his own faith - which is his faith in rationalism.

I hope they eventually come upon a convent of neo-Platonist Calvanist shepherdesses who effectively dissolve their appetites for nihilistic adventuring. Ironically, I believe it would be Schwatzendale who would find the most food for thought in such a place - the Calvanists are great and engaging apologists who would clear the air of their rambling wisps of pluralistic ideological phantasms which blindly deny absolutes. There would also be tremendous sexual tension between these groups - hermetical nuns and seasoned space men.

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ports of Call was first published in 1998 near the end of Vance's writing career. It is still in print in paperback and Kindle through Spatterlight Press. My out of print hardcover copy is 225 pages long, and this is the second time I've read it in recent years. I rated it a 3 both times. It is a novel that will probably be of interest mostly to Vance fans. Readers who are new to reading Vance are advised to begin elsewhere.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...

Ports of Call begins in the Gaean Reach on the planet Vermazen with our main character, Myron Tany. As a boy Myron was obsessed with stories of space exploration while growing up in a country village where everything was tranquil and soporific. His parents wanted him to become a financial analyst like his father and take a post at the Exchange. When Myron enrolled in the College of Definable Excellences he tried to compromise by taking some math and economic courses but also some classes in cosmology, space propulsion and Gaean anthropology.

Myron's path to becoming a financial analyst is interrupted by his great aunt, Dame Hester Lajoie, who is a wealthy widow with an eccentric, independent and flamboyant personality. Dame Hester wins a legal judgment for slander and is awarded a space-yacht named Glodwyn. At first she has no interest in the Glodwyn and plans to sell it saying she has "neither time nor inclination to go hurtling through space in an oversized coffin." One morning Dame Hester decides to at least visit the ship to see what it looks like and brings Myron along with her. After inspecting the space-yacht Dame Hester at least considers the idea of visiting another nearby planet to watch some festivals.

While reading the journal Innovative Salubrity, Dame Hester encounters an article by a person using a pseudonym describing advance research on aging that the author encountered on a planet called Kodaira at a clinic named Place of Resurgent Youth. A second article in the same issue by a Dr. Maximus discusses his research and the Exxil Waters that he discovered while doing research as a biologist on newt like creatures that seemed extremely long lived. He claims that after trying the water himself and on some volunteers, he found that it had regenerative powers so he opened a clinic. When Dame Hester has Myron investigate Kodaira, he finds there is no such planet. Dame Hester decides to contact the publisher to find out the real name of the author of the article. After considerable effort and much cunning she tracks down the author and cleverly discovers the real name of the planet. She, of course, wants to visit the planet in her new space-yacht and partake of the treatment that this clinic offers to the few persons who can find it and afford it. Naturally Myron is extremely enthusiastic and, after providing so much help in locating the planet, he hopes his great aunt will invite him to join her.

Much to his disappointment, Myron is not invited on the trip and the captain his great aunt appoints will not hire him as a hand on the Glodwyn. But Myron does not give up easily, and after he is able to expose the new captain as a fraud, Myron himself is given the position as ship's captain. They quickly hire a crew and begin their trip to visit this planet that is reported to have a fountain of youth clinic. But it is a long, tedious journey and Dame Hester becomes bored and decides she wants to land on other planets on the way. She is use to being entertained and wants to see some sites and visit exotic markets to relieve the boredom. Ideally she would like to visit "a world that is amusing, with beautiful people, appetizing cuisine, interesting entertainment, and very good shopping opportunities." Myron has no choice except to try to please his aunt. When visiting one of the nearby planets they encounter in a restaurant a friendly outgoing space traveler named Marko Fassig. Dame Hester finds him charming and entertaining so she hires him as a purser even though they do not need one.

Myron soon finds that Fassig is more interested in socializing and charming his aunt than in working so upon arrival at Port Tanjee on the planet Taubry he tells Fassig he is fired. Fassig goes to get his things but does not return. But Dame Hester learns about Fassig being fired and decides to fire Myron instead and to keep Fassig because he is the more entertaining of the two. Myron suddenly finds himself standing alone at a terminal on a planet to which he is a stranger. Fifty one pages into the novel and Dame Hester leaves the story. But she is a very interesting character and much of the initial humor and lively, witty dialog was related to her comments and interactions. The beginning of the novel might even remind some readers of the comic writings of P. G. Woodhouse. While the rest of the novel is certainly not without humor; it does not have the same type that Dame Hester's character provided.

Myron is left in Port Tanjee which is noted for its Museum of Non-motile Amphibian Carapaces and its hanging cages where prisoners who violate local rules or laws are displayed for public ridicule. After a brief conversation with a man in a hanging cage, Myron visits the Owlswyck Inn where he meets the crew of the cargo ship Glicca. When one of their crew members is arrested and jailed after a comical dance scene, Captain Maloff finds he is short a worker and hires Myron as their supercargo.

The Glicca travels from port to port on different planets picking up and delivering cargo, packages and sometimes people, and they take aboard a group of eleven religious pilgrims. In the novel Vance often develops clever conversations about religion, philosophy and the meaning of life. Many of these are humorous or satirical but some are deceptively serious. Often this involves the pilgrims or different crew members, especially Wingo, who is interested in "comparative metaphysic." During one such conversation Wingo comments, "I might well recommend mystics and zealots to caution, lest after decades of fasting and penitence they are allowed Truth, only to find it to be some miserable scrap of information, of no more account than mouse droppings in a sugar bowl."

The novel also has some fascinating and often humorous descriptions of eating and drinking scenes at taverns and restaurants on different planets where exotic cuisines are sometimes described in detail. At times the descriptions seem over the top, however. In one scene, for example, the waiters deliver to the restaurant customers a grilled dinner that is, "an enormous armored sea-worm, a foot in diameter, eight feet long, fringed with twin rows of small jointed arms. The waiters cut away the forward proboscis and the frontal process, as well as the terminal organs, from which exuded a yellow froth." The passage continues on in a similar very graphic vein with the guests eating "the pungent white flesh as they might devour slices of watermelon..." Readers will vary in their appreciation of these different epicurean descriptions.

Waiters, shop owners, innkeepers and others are usually portrayed as dishonest cheats who insult the customers while trying to fleece them. There is one restaurant, for example, where customers have to pay extra for a clean plate in order to compensate the dishwashers. These are often amusing encounters, and Vance clearly had fun with some of these descriptions.

Myron's travels to different planets are also interesting because of the strange customs and odd people he frequently encounters. One of the more dramatic scenes was when they visited a planet where human skins are the main export from the planet and are sold to other planets as expensive pelts, mostly for elaborate art projects. Myron has to literally fight to save his own skin. Vance, of course, is a master at describing and creating bizarre worlds with their unusual people or creatures.

Additionally the novel has many detailed descriptions of various gambling games. Some involve Moncrief the Mouse-rider and his entertainment troupe of two large, stern Klute women and three younger acrobatic women called Flook, Pook and Snook. They offer games and entertain for gambling purposes in theaters, at inns, etc. Moncrief encourages audience members to place bets with him which he usually wins. There is also gambling on the Glicca, usually involving Moncrief, Chief Engineer Schwatzendale or some of the pilgrims. These include card games and games that are invented en route. I found some gambling scenes to be entertaining but others seemed to continue too long.

The main character, Myron, is perhaps not the most exciting or fascinating Vance main character and his adventures did seem relatively tame compared to those in other Vance novels. But Myron is more likeable than many Vance protagonists. Also, he is not the only character that is portrayed, and I found some of them to be quite interesting. Many readers also mention that the plot is very thin (which is true), but Vance is a storyteller and his stories and adventures can often engage readers despite their lack of a highly structured plot. Individual readers will have varied reactions to this emphasis on travel and adventure over plot. As mentioned above, the novel involves many descriptions of different gambling games, exotic cuisines and metaphysical conversations. Again readers will probably respond differently to these sections, and some readers might find the pace slow at times.

Ports of Call also does not have a real ending. Instead, the story suddenly stops during flight to one of the ports. The storyline continues in the a subsequent novel Lurulu that was published six years later. Lurulu is a word from myths and legends that represents a mysterious search or yearning for something meaningful, a wistful longing for a real reason for living. In the follow up novel Lurulu devotes the first two chapters to summarizing what happened in Ports of Call. The book I own had both novels included in one book so it was easy to read them as one novel. Overall Ports of Call is well written and worth reading but is not one of Vance's better novels and will probably only appeal to Vance fans. Readers will probably respond differently to this novel, but those who are unfamiliar with Vance's writings are advised to begin elsewhere. I've read this novel three times so far and rate it a low 4.

Lurulu was the last novel Jack Vance published and was released in 2004. It appears to be currently in print in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions. My out of print hardcover copy has 167 pages of text. Lurulu is a continuation of the novel Ports of Call that was first published six years earlier. This is the second time I've read the book in recent years and continue to rate it a 3. Lurulu is recommended to Vance fans who are familiar with his writing.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...

Lurulu is a word from myths and legends that represents a mysterious search or yearning for something meaningful, a wistful longing for a real reason for living. The first two chapters (17 pages) of the novel summarize what happened in the novel Ports of Call that ended suddenly in mid flight. At the end of that novel our main character, Myron Tany, was on the spaceship Glicca with three other crew members and some passengers and were on their way to the spaceport of Coro-coro on the planet Fluter. The Glicca is a cargo ship that flies from planet to planet stopping at ports to pick up or deliver cargo and sometimes passengers. At each port the crew and passengers have a new experience and encounter different cultures and people.

In Lurulu we learn about Captain Maloff's history and that he is searching for his mother who left her home planet of Traven just a few days after her husband died in a suspicious boating accident. She had some dementia and seemed to need constant entertainment so had taken up with a much younger man who called himself Loy Tremaine. She was infatuated with him acting "like a moonstruck girl." Her family noted that while Tremaine was with her he "made no effort to hide his boredom." Maloff suspects that this younger man wanted his mother's money and that he might even have been involved with the death of Maloff's father. His only lead was that Tremaine had an unusual tattoo and had mentioned to others that he was originally from the most beautiful planet in the Gaean Reach. Maloff consulted with an expert and was told this planet was most likely the planet of Flaut. Maloff visited Flaut once but officials were very uncooperative with him and he could find no leads. Maloff wants to visit the planet again to do a more intensive search and Myron asks to assist him. This leads to three more chapters of a fascinating search and rescue effort.

Adventures continue when the Glicca arrives in Port Palactus to drop off some freight. The people on the planet are famous for their handmade rugs (the main export of the planet) and even have the custom that if a man openly admires a woman's rug he makes a commitment to marry her. The adhesive that binds the rugs is called Schmeer and is highly valued on the planet. The cargo being delivered by the Glicca is Kasic one of the ingredients that is required to make Schmeer. Their cargo is therefore very valuable. But no one is available to unload the cargo or to transport it to its final destination. A crew is on its way to pick it up the Kasic and to deliver handmade rugs as cargo for the Glicca so the crew needs to wait for a few more days. But they will also need to be wary of the tribes of thieves called Lallankars who roam the area and often try to steal cargo. The Lallankars present another encounter and adventure.

There are other adventures including a great business opportunity selling rugs, encounters with hairy, wild acrobats called Futin Putos and a search for Myron's great aunt who was on her way to the planet Naharius to visit a rejuvenation clinic. All of these are fairly interesting and, unlike in the novel Ports of Call, in Lurulu we eventually have some resolution and a real ending.

Lurulu is not one of Vance's really great science fiction novels. (I've read every one of them at least once, including all of his short stories, novelettes and novellas.) Lurulu is a novel that should appeal mostly to Vance fans or those who are very familiar with his writings. But it needs to be read after Ports of Call. Readers who are new to reading Jack Vance are advised to begin elsewhere. I've read this novel three times so far and rate it a low 4.