Perfection of Joy

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Jack Vance died four years ago. Ever since back in August 2013, I have been doing Vance tribute posts every August (he was born on August 28th; last year) and May (died May 26th; last May).

Perfection of Joy
In Jack Vance's novel Araminta Station, the protagonist is Glawen Clattuc, a young policeman who is sent on a trip away from his home planet in search of the criminals who have been arranging for "Perfection of Joy" outings on Cadwal. The planet Cadwal is a nature preserve, governed by the Cadwal Conservancy. In the interest of raising money, a small tourism industry has been allowed to develop on Cadwal.

The Perfection of Joy excursions have been arranged by Simonetta Clattuc, a renegade member of Glawen's family who hopes to destroy Araminta Station. Simonetta, an outcast from Araminta Station, has taken control of the Yips, a group of 100,000 runaways and their descendants who reside illegally on an island not far from Araminta Station's location on the mainland.

cover art by Boris Vallejo

In need of cheap labor, the administrators of the Cadwal Conservancy, who reside at Araminta Station, have for centuries issued work permits to Yips. These temporary laborers can be granted six month work permits at the Station, but often these permits are extended indefinitely for the trained Yips who perform particularly useful functions.

Vance never mentions the exact population of Araminta Station, but the legal residents of Cadwal number only a few thousand. The Cadwal police are desperate for money to defend themselves against invasion of the mainland by Simonetta and the ever-increasing population of Yips. The leaders of the Cadwal Conservancy also hope to buy passage for the Yips on space transports so that they can be settled on nearby worlds.

One of the islands on Cadwal

One of the tourists who came to Cadwal for a Perfection of Joy "vacation" is a wealthy bank owner. The Araminta Station police threaten him with prosecution and extort a large sum of money from him. Vance never describes in detail the horrible crimes that are committed during Perfection of Joy excursions on Cadwal, but those illegal excursions result in the deaths of several young Yip women.

To investigate these crimes and discover who is behind the Perfection of Joy excursions, Glawen travels to the planets of origin for the tourists who have participated in Perfection of Joy excursions on Cadwal. He discovers the identity of the woman who has distributed Perfection of Joy brochures on those worlds and learns that she is the new wife of one of his own family members. Before he can report this discovery to his superiors at Araminta Station, Glawen is double-crossed by a fellow policeman and thrown into a prison. Eventually, Glawen escapes, returns to Cadwal and takes revenge.

The Sacred Shin

The Sacred Shin by Anney Fersoni
The religion of ancient aliens.

In The Palace of Love, the poet Navarth tries to hide from Demon Prince Viole Falushe in Edmonton. The story takes place about 1,500 years in the future. Edmonton has become a destination for pilgrims who want to gaze upon the Sacred Shin.

I like to imagine that Vance's stories about the Demon Princes and Cadwal reflect actual events from a previous Reality. In my recursive science fiction story A Search Beyond, the replicoid of Isaac Asimov investigates Deep Time and reveals the secret of how new human gene combinations were devised during the far future of the past Reality in which Glawen existed.

Viole Falushe became involved in a study of special gene combinations that originally existed in the Earth girl Jheral Tinzy. Clones of Jheral were constructed and studied in order to explore those unique gene combinations.

Alien Gene Transfer by Ivory Fersoni

I like to imagine that the Sacred Shin was a geological artifact containing evidence that the pek first visited Earth about 2,000,000,000 years ago. The human species arose through a long process of genetic manipulations and alterations imposed on the creatures of Earth by the pek and bumpha.

The Genetics Cluster
Some past related blog posts about genetics in Vance's universe:
Genes of Dar Sai
The Junius Revolution
Alastor Cluster as laboratory for DNA modification
August 2017 celebration of Jack Vance's Sci Fi
See also: origin of the Dead Widowers

Next: secrets of Mars

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The Palace

cover art by Philippe Druille

I recently blogged about the original version of The Star King as published in Galaxy magazine. The Palace of Love by Jack Vance was also published in Galaxy with interior artwork by Dwight Morrow. The three issues of Galaxy that held the story are available online.

Part I
I don't recommend reading the version of The Palace of Love that was published in Galaxy. It appears to have been shortened by the editor. Near the beginning of the Galaxy version of The Palace of Love there is brief mention of the planet Sarkoy, but Vance's account of Gersen's visit to that world is missing. In my copy of the DAW edition of The Palace of Love, there are 26 additional pages about Sarkoy at the start of the story that did not appear in Galaxy. With a few clicks you can buy a copy of the complete story.

bar fight with the white-eyed man spills into the
alley behind the Celestial Harmony Cafe

Much of The Palace of Love takes place on Earth after Kirth Gersen learns that Demon Prince Viole Falushe was born in Europe.

Having stolen 10,000,000,000 SVU in The Killing Machine, Gersen uses some of his vast wealth to buy Cosmopolis magazine. He uses his credentials as a writer for Cosmopolis to carry out his search for Falushe. In one of many humorous scenes, without revealing that he now owns the company, Gersen visits the headquarters of Cosmopolis magazine in London in order to get his Cosmopolis identification card.

Gersen bar hopping with Navarth and Drusilla.

Gersen's investigation of Falushe's past leads him to the "mad poet" Navarth and his ward, Drusilla Wayles. Navarth knows how to contact Falushe and he arranges for a meeting at the Celestial Harmony Cafe.

After an evening of bar hopping, Gersen is at least half drunk by the time they cross paths with Falushe, first glimpsed as a man standing along the bar. Gersen won't allow Drusilla to go to Falushe and he gets into a fight with Falushe's body guard, the "white-eyed man".

Part II

Navarth's party

I feel sorry for the readers Galaxy who had to wait two months for the next part of the story. Navarth arranges for a party that will attract Falushe and allow Gersen another chance to confront the Demon Prince.

The guests at the party must all wear disguises. There are naked serving girls at the party, who Vance described as "young girls". I've always imagined them as prepubescent, but the illustration by Morrow depicts them as full figured.

fun on Sogdian

At Navarth's extravagant party Gersen has another confrontation with Falushe which is interrupted by the arrival of a squad of police. After the party, Falushe kidnaps Drusilla. Gersen and Navarth receive an invitation to visit Falushe's Palace of Love on a far planet.

travel to the Palace of Love

When Gersen and Navarth arrive on planet Sogdian, they are given a wild ride into town by a surly driver (see the image to the right). They are then flown through space to the secret world where the Palace of Love is hidden away. First they spend a few days in "City 10", waiting for the arrival of all of the guests who will visit the Palace of Love.

source

At each step of the journey, Vance is having great fun depicting annoyances large and small for the travelers, particularly Navarth who would have preferred to remain at home on Earth.

After their ordeals, Gersen and Navarth are pleasantly surprised when Drusilla arrives. Now assembled, the guests set off for the Palace of Love.

Part III
Gersen suspects that one of the male guests is actually Falushe, but neither Gersen or Navarth knows for sure. Arriving at the Palace of Love, the guests scatter to different parts of the park-like environs and Drusilla again disappears. Gersen searches for and eventually finds Falushe's hidden headquarters.

Gersen penetrates the hidden headquarters of Viole Falushe, but he is knocked unconscious and ejected.

source

After sneaking into the headquarters of Falushe, Gersen is not made welcome. Still playing the role of a writer for Cosmopolis, Gersen escapes with his life after learning that Falushe is conducting experiments on a group of people who he holds as prisoners, including several clone sisters of Drusilla. Drusilla is a clone of Falushe's childhood love, Jheral Tinzy. Now, having rejected Falushe's advances, Drusilla is to give birth to a new generation of Jheral clones.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Stephen Fabian

Falushe is obsessed with his goal of winning the love of "Jheral", even though she is long dead. Since this is only the third of 5 Demon Prince novels, it need come as no surprise that Gersen defeats and kills Falushe and liberates the prisoners who Falushe held in the Palace of Love.

I like to imagine that there was a greater purpose behind the Palace of Love and Falushe's secret experiments. According to Zeta, in the Ekcolir Reality there were additional stories published that provided details about human breeding experiments on Sogdian using the clones of Jheral Tinzy.

Next: looking back at The Gods Themselves

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Sirneste Cluster

David Russell's ebook illustration

Two years ago I blogged about the glorious cover art for Trullion by Jasper Schreurs. Today I was lamenting the disintegration of my copy of The Palace of Love, another Jack Vance novel, so I flipped over to the collection of high resolution ebook cover art at www.jackvance.com.

David Russell has made cover art for the Demon Princes novels. His illustration for The Palace of Love depicts a scene on planet Sogdian, in Sirneste cluster.

Kirth and Alusz

One of the things that I like about The Palace of Love is how long it takes us, as readers, to actually get to the Palace. The first part of the novel shows Kirth Gersen dealing with old business that is left over from The Killing Machine. First, Kirth wraps up his romance with Alusz Iphigenia, former resident of the planet Thamber.

Viole Falushe?

The other item of old business is much more business-related. As told in The Killing Machine, Kirth managed to appropriate 10,000,000,000 SVU worth of cash from Alusz. Then, with the help of his financial adviser, Jehan Addels, Kirth invests the money.

One of the first uses Gersen has for the money is buying a small fleet of spaceships. Kirth and Alusz take his new Pharaon across space to the planet Sarkoy, a world where the residents specialize in creating poisons. There, Kirth gets a clue that puts him on the trail of Demon Prince Viole Falushe. However, their time together on Sarkoy makes it clear to the "honerable, generous and kind" Alusz that she can't make a new life for herself by following Kirth on his adventures while he hunts down and murders the remaining three Demon Princes. Kirth and Alusz part, and he resolves to never again involve a woman in the grim necessities of his life.

The Fortunate Folk

Kirth also makes use of his vast wealth to buy the Radian Publishing company, the publisher of Cosmopolis magazine. This allows him to become a "roving reporter" for Cosmopolis. Posing as an employee of Cosmopolis, Kirth goes to Earth and searches for more clues that might lead to Viole Falushe, who grew up on Earth as Vogel Filschner. As a boy, Vogel fell in love with Jheral Tinzy, and his life when down hill from there. After receiving Jheral's cruel rebuff, he turned to a life of crime, a life that he began by attempting to kidnap Jheral.

Kirth first tracks down the "mad poet" Navarth, who knew Vogel Filschner as a boy and who still has an odd connection to Viole Falushe. Gersen is puzzled by Navarth's young ward, the mysterious Zan Zu, who appears to be physically identical to Jheral Tinzy.

Eventually, 80% of the way through the novel, Kirth, Navarth and Zan Zu finally arrive at Viole Falushe's Palace of Love, on the planet Sogdian. Gersen learns that Zan Zu is a clone of Jheral Tinzy. Having failed to win Zan Zu's heart, Viole Falushe plans to force her to give birth to additional clones, as Jheral did previously.

in the Ekcolir Reality

By the end of the novel, Kirth and Zan Zu have developed romantic feelings for each other, but Kirth sends her back to Earth with Navarth and two other Jehral clones who he rescued from Sogdian and Viole Falushe's evil clutches. At the very end of the story, Kirth meets the remaining Jehral clone (Drusilla I) on the Esplanade at Avante and readers are left to wonder how much time Gersen spends with the "immensely appealing" Drusilla.

Related Reading: the adventures of Kirth and Drusilla.

Next: more science fiction from Deep Time

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