Trullion: Alastor 2262

The least successful of Vance's three "Alastor" novels, this one nevertheless has plenty of color. But the ending is a bit goofy, the adventure no better than (if as good as) a Rick Brant Science Adventure or a Hardy Boys book, and it is mostly about (gasp) sports! And yet, read the first paragraph. Vance sets the scene of the story with a swirl of elegant prose. I'll probably find myself re-reading this again soon! Vance, even at his worst, is better than most other writers.

Aardig boek, met een naar mijn mening onbevredigend einde.

When I was younger I read some Jack Vance books from my dad. Although I have read a lot of science fiction this past year, and although I have his Jack Vance books, I haven’t read anything by him for years. ‘Trullion: Sterrenwereld/Alastor 2262′ is the first book I picked up, purely by chance.
It is the story of Glinnes Hulden, a man who lives on Trullion, one of the many planets in the Alastor cluster. The planet is peaceful, man doesn’t have to work much and just enjoys a simple life. Glinnes returns after ten years in the Whelm, the interplanetary army, to find that his father and brother are dead or missing, and his younger brother is not taking good care of the family estate. What follows is a story about sport, and an show more adventure with pirates, a sect, stolen money and dangerous gypsies.
I have to be honest, while the writing is alright, the world is nice, I just didn’t like this book. Too much sport (and too detailed) and an adventure that just seems to happen. The story-lines wander around, like Vance had a list of things he wanted in this book, and when he didn’t know what to put on the next page, he thought to himself “Oh, pirates!” or “Oh, a new match!”. Three out of five stars. show less

Interested read; one of those 'classic' tales that has you gnashing at the character's stupidity. You can see what they're doing and you know what's going on - but shouting at the page won't help any. I have been reading out of interest and I'm now off to read The Star King, so it hasn't put me off. Amusing and entertaining in it's own way.

Only Vance could concoct this and get away with it. It features his frequently seen "little village" social observations on closed planet societies, funneled into what is essentially a truly goofy, futuristic sports novel . The game played, Hussade, is elaborated on here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trullion:_Alastor_2262

What about that -eh? Surprisingly fun. Vance is a one off, that's for sure.

Reading Vance is always a joy. First in the Alastor series of books, this is quite an interesting adventure. And the description of the sport hussade is excellent. Next: Marune!

Less scintillating than Jack Vance of old, herein he invents a new sport but the actual story is a bit meh.