The Face (Vance)
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| Author | Jack Vance |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Demon Princes |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1979 |
| Preceded by | The Palace of Love |
| Followed by | The Book of Dreams |
The Face is the fourth novel (1979) of Jack Vance's "Demon Princes" science fiction series, in which Kirth Gersen pursues Lens Larque. This book was published nearly twelve years after the third.
[edit] Synopsis
Kirth Gersen tracks Lens Larque across several worlds, most notably Aloysius (which orbits Vega and serves as a financial and banking center), the desert world Dar Sai and the more temperate Methel, in the same star system as Dar Sai, but orbiting further out.
Lens Larque is a Darsh, born Husse Bugold, a native of Dar Sai. He had been exiled by his clan for stealing an air-conditioner from a corpse, a crime considered "repulsive but not superlatively heinous." Bugold was deprived of an earlobe and made a rachepol or outcast. He renamed himself Lens Larque after the lanslarke, an indigenous "predacious winged creature" and the fetish of the Bugold Clan. (It was this slim clue that enabled Gersen to track him down.) As Larque, he became a notorious criminal renowned for his magnificent, if often grotesque and horrifying, jests.
Gersen encounters Larque at a Darsh restaurant on Aloysius, but only manages to cut off his remaining earlobe. Gersen had arranged to impound one of Larque's spaceships, in order to lure him in from the lawless Beyond. In an ironic twist, Larque escapes Gersen's courtroom ambush, blows up the ship, and collects insurance money - from a company owned by Gersen.
The action then moves to the harsh world of Dar Sai. The planet is home to the Darsh, a "fierce and perverse" folk who mine black sand, stable transuranic elements of atomic number 120 or greater. They have odd mating customs; when the moon is full, the men and women chase each other on the desert. Wiliness is at a premium, as the more attractive targets are zealously guarded and used as bait by less desirable participants to lure others within their reach. Darsh men and women marry for other reasons; men judge the cooking and the comfort of the home provided, women the wealth of the male.
Gersen determines that Larque is connected somehow with a seemingly-worthless Dar Sai company called Kotzash Mutual. He begins buying up its shares in an attempt to gain control, but falls short of an absolute majority, until shares are put up as a prize for a hadaul match. Hadaul is essentially a free-for-all wrestle within a series of concentric rings, where the object is to become the last man in the rings. Gersen, by dint of skill and cleverness, wins the match and gains control of the company. Concurrently with the acquisition of Kotzash shares, he rescues Jerdian Chanseth, a young aristocratic Methlen woman, when her sightseeing party is waylaid by Darsh during the mating activities. A brief romance blossoms between them.
Gersen then follows Larque to Methlen. The wealthier Methlens reside in large manors with which they closely identify. Gersen attempts to renew his relationship with Jerdian, going so far as to buy the mansion next to her family's. But being a disreputable (if extremely rich) space vagabond and decidedly not Methlen, he is rejected as a suitor by her father, bank owner Adario Chanseth, who uses the law to nullify the sale of the house. It turns out that Larque himself had tried to buy the same estate, but had also been thwarted by the same Methlen law, because Chanseth didn't want to see Larque's Darsh face "hanging over his garden wall." In the banker's eyes, Gersen is little better than Larque.
Eventually, Gersen learns that Lens Larque and Kotzash Mutual have been mining Shanitra, the small moon of Methlen, for no reason that anyone can fathom. It had been proven long ago that Shanitra bore no useful deposits of ore and was practically worthless. Nonetheless, Kotzash had gone to great pains to place extensive explosive charges all across its surface.
Gersen eventually tracks down Larque and kills him with a paralyzing poison, cluthe. In his final moments of life, the Darsh begs Gersen to press the button on a small box, but Gersen denies him his last request.
Afterwards, Gersen is amazed to learn the purpose of Larque's last and most grandiose jest. Having exactly the same motivation, he presses the button. Shanitra explodes and takes on a new shape, the face of Lens Larque, expression frozen in a leering grin. Gersen then calls Adario Chanseth and tells him there is a Darsh face "hanging over his garden wall."
