The Face (Vance)
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 First English language edition cover |
|
| Author | Jack Vance |
|---|---|
| Original title | Lens Larque |
| Cover artist | Gino D'Achille |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Demon Princes |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | DAW Books |
| Released | 1979 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 224 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0879974982 |
| 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] Plot summary
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 Darsh, born Husse Bugold. He had been deprived of an earlobe and made a rachepol or outcast from his clan for a crime considered "repulsive but not superlatively heinous." He took the name Lens Larque, after the lanslarke, an indigenous creature and the fetish of the Bugold clan. (It was this slim clue that enabled Gersen to track him down.) He then 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.
Gersen then proceeds to Dar Sai. The harsh planet is home to the "fierce and perverse" Darsh, 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.
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 what he needs, until shares are put up as a prize for a hadaul match. Hadaul is essentially a free-for-all brawl within a series of concentric rings. Gersen, by dint of skill and cleverness, wins the match and gains control of the company. He also rescues Jerdian Chanseth, a young aristocratic Methlen woman, when her sightseeing party is waylaid by Darsh during their 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 his Darsh face "hanging over his garden wall."
Eventually, Gersen learns that Lens Larque and Kotzash Mutual have been mining Shanitra, the small moon of Methlen, for some mysterious reason. It was well known 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 finally tracks Larque down and kills him with a paralyzing poison. In his final moments of life, the Darsh begs Gersen to press a button, 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."
[edit] References
- Jaffery, Sheldon (1987). Future and Fantastic Worlds: A Bibliographic Retrospective of DAW Books (1972-1987). Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, Inc., 125. ISBN 1-55742-002-5.
- Underwood, Tim; Chuck Miller (1980). Jack Vance. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 228. ISBN 0-8008-4295-2.
