The Faceless Man

I haven't read a Jack Vance story for quite a few years. Since he just passed away near the end of May I felt I owed myself a look at some of what I have missed over the years. "The Faceless Man", first published in the February and March 1971 issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the first book in a trilogy was handy and looked interesting. Reading it reminded me of why I once liked Vance so much. The writing is smart, the world building is quick and good and we have little difficulty immersing ourselves in it and identifying with our young protagonist, Mur, who is about to rebel against a very harsh and unfair totalitarian community. The world of the story is a distinctly devolved group of xenophobic societies in show more the far future on another planet. Women in particular are not in a happy place. This is also partly a coming of age tale. When boys reach the age of 12 they go through a purification ceremony to become "Pure boys" and take on a new name. They must thereafter avoid the taint of women which they have just been cleansed of. Mur follows the letter of the law, but apparently not the spirit according to the religious leaders by being too close to his mother. This becomes the catalyst for Mur to break away from his birthplace.

This is as much a generic fantasy as science fiction. I liked it "OK", but my liking distinctly lessened for a time once the boy escaped and was out in the world. In fact I set it aside to read something else, but I came back to it since it kept hanging there in the back of my mind. It has some exciting moments, but it is also quite bland at times and, being part of a trilogy, a little unfinished. I enjoyed it, but it is fair to say I appreciated the story more in hindsight when I had a bigger picture of things and thought back on it. I will probably read the followup novels "The Brave Free Men" and "The Asutra" before too long.

This is by no means a great work, and since it is over 40 years old it can't help but seem a little dated. I thought it was a lot more readable than some of the experimental stuff from that era, however. Vance does not disappoint. show less

Mur (later renamed Etzwane) is from a female-phobic religious community from which he escapes. He then becomes a musician and later learns of a threat to his country in the form of ravaging mutant creatures. For some reason, the Faceless Man, the mysterious supreme authority that rules here, refuses to act against them and minimizes the threat they pose. Etzwane seeks out the Faceless man to discover why and to try to get him to take action.
This first book of the Durdane trilogy was originally published in paperback in 1971 as The Anome. It is currently available for Kindle under the original title. It is a short book by modern standards, with 224 pages and very wide margins. I found the limited 1983 hardcover editions of this trilogy show more at my local library and later learned that any print versions are now difficult to come by. I don’t know why. This first installment is quite interesting. The world-building is top notch, with enough detail to bring it to life. The imaginative setting has the feel of fantasy/steampunk, but in my estimation, the book qualifies as science fiction. The details of the story tie back to known science without resort to supernatural or mystical contrivances. It is set in the distant future, on a planet with multiple suns, colonized by humans many generations before and largely forgotten by those on Earth.
The protagonist is likeable, and he is smart and brave enough to pull up stakes and move on when he finds himself in a bad situation. I followed his exploits with interest.
As the first book of a series, many questions remain at the end. I hope they will be resolved. I’ll be reading the rest of the series, so I’ll let you know if they are. show less

Less scintillating than Jack Vance of old, in the proceeding trilogy he takes three volumes to do more or less what he did in "Emphyrio".

Remarkably uncompelling for a Vance novel, and even as things got rolling about 150 pages in, there wasn't much reason to pick it up again except to finish the damn thing.

Which is a shame, I originally tracked this one down because I've had the two sequels stalled on the to-read stack for decades.

The following is a review of the Durdane Chronicles as a whole (without spoilers):

http://speculiction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/review-of-durdane-chronicles-by-jack....

Pleasant enough, but not outstanding. The ending tails off in a lacklustre fashion. Feels like a potboiler.