| Ports of Call | |
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Dust-jacket illustration from the first mass-market hardcover edition |
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| Author(s) | Jack Vance |
| Cover artist | Vladimir Nenov |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Gaean Reach |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Tom Doherty |
| Publication date | April 1998 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 294 pp |
| ISBN | 0-312-85801-9 |
| OCLC Number | 37513050 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 21 |
| LC Classification | PS3572.A424 P67 1998 |
| Followed by | Lurulu |
Ports of Call is a science fiction adventure novel by Jack Vance, the first of a duology along with its sequel Lurulu. It follows a young man named Myron Tany on a picaresque journey through the Gaean Reach.
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Myron's family intended for Myron to follow a staid and respectable career in economics; however, when his wealthy and eccentric great-aunt Dame Hester came into possession of a space yacht, Myron suddenly found his long suppressed dreams of adventure within reach. Serving as Dame Hester's nominal captain on her journey to find a clinic reputed to restore lost youth to wealthy clients, Myron soon finds that his aunt is capricious as she is flamboyant, and after an argument, finds himself castaway on a remote planet. With no resources to return home, he obtains the position of supercargo on a tramp freighter, which enables him to travel further across the Gaean Reach to exotic lands.
F&SF reviewer Elizabeth Hand praised Ports of Call as "delightful," declaring that "one enjoys Ports of Call as one does a Restoration comedy, for the sheer outrageous of its characters and the precision of Vance's often lunatic descriptive powers."[1]
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