Ecce and Old Earth

Perhaps a bit of a letdown after the first book (which I had found to be quite good), but not nearly as bad as a fair number of highly negative reviews had suggested. Having said that, I would agree that neither the climax, which is a long time coming, nor the denouement, are really up there with Vance at his best.

While the book spends some time recounting the next round of adventures of Araminta Station's protagonist, Glawen Clattuc, the story primarily focuses on Glawen's love interest, Wayness Tamm, as she tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to the Cadwal Charter. It's worth your time if for no other reason than the oddness of Vance's efforts to provide a feminine version of his prototypical male protagonist.

This continues the story from Araminta Station. The first part deals with the unfinished plot from that book involving Glawen's father, and the second part follows Wayness in her investigations looking from Cadwal's chart.

Jack Vance has a witty way of writing dialogue, but the plot started to become too repetitive for me. Wayness gets information from someone and goes to a new place and tries to get information from someone else... Then, the writing is very old-fashioned, not just from today's perspective, but also from when it was written. I mean, it feels like it was written in the 60s, not in the early 90's. No computers, people writing letters on paper, no cellphones, no modern technology at all, except interstellar travel. Not that show more I mind, I like old SF, but it's strange given that it's relatively recent. Socially, it's also old-fashioned. This is a late work by Vance and it's not among his best.

On the plus side, Vance's writing is entertaining, and he imagines interesting new planets and societies, which makes it a pity that most of the book is set on Earth. show less

In a sense, Ecce and Old Earth continues the trend of its predecessor, [b:Araminta Station|40892|Araminta Station (Cadwal Chronicles, #1)|Jack Vance|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330487708s/40892.jpg|2705034], in that it's more directly a detective story than most Vance books. Its protagonist, Glawen Clattuc, is, after all, a policeman, and the book traces his search in parallel with that of his love interest, Wayness Tamm. But where Araminta Station focused mostly on the planet Cadwal, here we're treated to Vance's gift for creating weird and wonderful landscapes as the two protagonists pursue their separate searches. Unusually for Vance's SF, we spend a fair amount of time on Earth itself, and while some of it is changed past show more recognition, it's fun to see places such as Trieste through a Vancian eye.

The result of all this is a book that's entertaining and colorful, and the best in the Cadwal Chronicles series. While the series as a whole doesn't match Vance's best, it's still good, and this book is very good.

CVIE edition show less

Almost unspeakably awful in almost every way.

Uit de brief die Floreste enkele uren voor zijn terechtstelling schreef, leert Glawen Clattuc dat zijn vermiste vader Scharde waarschijnlijk nog in leven is en gevangengehouden wordt in de dodelijke wildernis van het continent Ecce. Glawen probeert Bodwyn Wook ervan te overtuigen om een reddingsactie op touw te zetten, maar dat kon weleens een riskante onderneming worden...

Intussen is Wayness Tamm op de Oude Aarde aangekomen waar ze haar oom Pirie Tamm opzoekt, de secretaris van het Genootschap van Natuurkenners. Twee belangrijke genootschapsdocumenten zijn al tientallen jaren spoorloos: de Akte van Eigendom en het originele Handvest van Natuurbehoud dat de hele planeet Cadwal met haar unieke fauna en flora de status van natuurreservaat show more verleent.

Wayness besluit om met de steun van haar oom op zoek te gaan naar de Akte en het Handvest. Maar er zijn ook andere partijen die wat graag de hand willen leggen op de oude documenten. Julian Bohost met zijn politieke idealen van vooruitgang en verandering, en Smonny Clattuc die Yipton in haar macht heeft, willen niets liever dan de controle over Cadwal verwerven. Er begint een meedogenloze klopjacht, zowel op de decadente Oude Aarde als ver daarbuiten... show less

Secondo capitolo de le cronache di Cadwal, romanzo invero piuttosto lento e noioso con numerosi capitoli veramente insulsi. Non è certo il solito Vance, uno dei suoi peggiori capitoli, francamente.