A review by vitalbeachyeah
The Star King by Jack Vance

4.0

This is, by Vance's standards, a straightforward adventure story. In fact, it's comfortably the most coherent Vance novel I've read. My introduction to him was the beautifully weird Lyonesse, in which he started writing a conventional fantasy adventure then got bored a quarter of the way in and took a series of sharp left turns until he was left writing something more akin to Alice in Wonderland. The Cugel books, too, are essentially a series of linked short stories rather than conventional novels.

So, The Star King is straightforward, and as a result lacks some of the shocking oddness that made me love, say, Lyonesse; but it's still a great book, an exciting and inventive sci-fi adventure (with a Kill Bill-style revenge storyline) told in Vance's sardonic, dry manner, and with touches of his cold cruelty. One of the better books I've read recently.