Jack Vance: 120 books

For 700 years the Meks served without complaint; they were indispensable, for no gentleman would demean himself with toil. But now they turn against the strongholds of civilizationCastle Halcyon, then Sea Island, Morninglight, and Maravalone by one the proud castles of Earth fall; last standing is Castle Hagedorn.Winner Nebula Award 1966, Hugo award 1967.Cover art by Todd Tennant

At the remote end of Mircea's Wisp, far out on the galaxy's Perseid Arm, is the Purple Rose System- containing the three stars Lorca, Sing and Syrene. Around Syrene swings the spectacular planet Cadwal, which the now defunct Naturalist Society of Earth long ago chartered to forever protect from exploitation....

Time and technology will change the role of the modern literary private investigator. Rather than don a trench coat, engage in snooping, interrogation, prying, and producing disheartening snapshots, detectives of the future will by necessity command stealth and a variety of arcane techniques to satisfy...

The Conservancy of Cadwal has a new Charter- thanks to the courage of Glawen Clattuc and his beloved Wayness Tamm. But this has not brought peace to the people of Cadwal- instead, it has polarized them. Led by exiles, anti-Conservancy forces continue work to open Cadwal to commercial exploitation, while...

The starship Explorator IV is destroyed after entering orbit around the planet Tschai. Adam Reith's scout ship is en route to the surface when the attack occurs, and is damaged in the explosion; Reith crash-lands and is separated from his ship. He finds a world full of violence, where four non-human...

Adam Reith has failed twice to acquire a spaceship. He decides to build a ship from scratch, but this requires vast resources; his only hope is to win valuable sequins away from the terrifying realm of the Carabas, hunting preserve of the Dirdir. Even then, his greatest adversary is the cunning, monstrous...

The Pnume are native to Tschai, living underground in a vast network of caverns with their human slave-species, the Pnumekin. Historians of Tschai, the Pnume collect its past with scholarly disinterest; they hear rumors of Adam Reith - a man who claims to come from another planet, named Earth - and they...

Trullion - world 2262 of the Alastor Cluster - is a water-world of fens, mists, and idyllic islands set in clear oceans whose teeming richness provides food for the taking. The Trill are a carefree and easy-living people, but violence enters their lives during raids of the Starmenters, freebooting galactic...

Far across the galaxy on the planet Maske, young Jubal Droad leaves home to make his fortune. Droad attaches himself to the powerful court of Nai the Hever, and is made an interplanetary economic spy. Jubal courts Mieltrude - the cold-blooded, beautiful daughter of the house - and becomes the rival and...

Kirth Gersen tracks Lens Larque across several worlds, most notably Aloysius, the desert world Dar Sai and the more temperate Methel. He eventually learns that Larque is a rachepol Darsh, born Husse Bugold, who became a notorious criminal renowned for his magnificent, if often grotesque and horrifying, jests.Cover art by David Russell

King Kragen has ruled a sea-covered world since human colonists arrived twelve generations before. A monstrous water creature with gluttonous appetites, King Kragen demands a payoff in return for protection- and to appease him has become a way of life. To anger King Kragen means certain death, but Sklar...

Having brought arch-villain Malagate the Woe to justice, Gersen now sets his sights on Kokor Hekkus, another of the Demon Princes. The name Kokor Hekkus, which means "killing machine" in the language of the planet Thamber, does not refer to Hekkus's own predilection for homicide, but to...

Kirth Gersen sets his sights upon the mysterious Viole Falushe. After several false leads, Gersen backtracks the villain to his point of origin - Earth! Then the trail moves outward again, to the starworlds and a place back of beyond where there is actually a Palace of Love.Cover art by David Russell

The planet Cadwal has an ecosystem unique in the human-explored galaxy. A thousand years past it was set aside as a natural preserve, protected by law and covenant against colonization and exploitation. But there is a conspiracy to open the planet and its rich resources to commerce. Glawen Clattuc must...