Ports of Call (Vance novel) explained

Ports of Call
Author:Jack Vance
Cover Artist:Vladimir Nenov
Country:United States
Language:English
Series:Gaean Reach
Publisher:Tom Doherty
Release Date:April 1998
Media Type:Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages:294
Isbn:0-312-85801-9
Dewey:813/.54 21
Congress:PS3572.A424 P67 1998
Oclc:37513050
Followed By:Lurulu

Ports of Call is a 1998 science fiction adventure novel by American writer Jack Vance. Followed by the novel Lurulu, it tells the story of a young man named Myron Tany on a picaresque journey through the Gaean Reach.

Plot summary

Myron's family intended for Myron to follow a staid and respectable career in economics; however, when his wealthy and eccentric great-aunt Dame Hester came into possession of a space yacht, Myron suddenly found his long suppressed dreams of adventure within reach. Serving as Dame Hester's nominal captain on her journey to find a clinic reputed to restore lost youth to wealthy clients, Myron soon finds that his aunt is capricious as she is flamboyant, and after an argument, finds himself cast away on a remote planet. With no resources to return home, he obtains the position of supercargo on a tramp freighter, which enables him to travel further across the Gaean Reach to exotic lands.

Reception

F&SF reviewer Elizabeth Hand praised Ports of Call as "delightful," declaring that "one enjoys Ports of Call as one does a Restoration comedy, for the sheer outrageous of its characters and the precision of Vance's often lunatic descriptive powers."[1]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hand . Elizabeth . Books: Ports of Call . . August 1998 . 13 August 2011.