Time for a good stack of books! Now, unfortunately for us sci-fi fans, sometimes writers milk a series much farther than it needs to be (cough Harry Turtledove you bastard). Thankfully, back in the day when writers knew how to write, series were often kept within three books or a handful. This particular series, usually referred to as the Durdane Series, is contained within three different novels, all by Jack Vance, an incredibly prolific writer who's highly undervalued in the history of American literature. Oh yeah, I forgot, if it has an interesting plot it isn't "literature". Anyway, dude wrote a lot of good shit, this series being one of the more well-known. Original, first-run copies still fetch a few hundred.
So, this little entry in our blog is going to be a short summary of each. First off, a word of caution. These babies are so damn detailed it's almost impossible to cover everything that happens. I don't want to blow too much, but I want to give a general idea of what they're about, so keep that in mind. There's just too much greatness here to touch. So here we go anyway...
The Durdane books all involve the main character, Gastel Etzwane, and his path from boy, to ruler of his planet, to savior. Durdane is ruled by an unseen leader called the Faceless Man, or the Anome, who maintains control by the means of a device called the torc, a metallic device that fits around the neck. Torcs mark off social class and such, and can be used to explode a citizen's head should they get out of line. Durdane is the planet of the novel, but a good portion of the action takes place in Gastel's homeland of Shant and surrounding areas, as well as some other locations as the stories progress. A horrible race of creatures threatens several areas, Gastel takes control of the land, and things eventually come to pass, for the most part. How do each of the books lay it out?
The Anome
This is a good starter. Gastel is a boy in a Shant, which consists of a number of different areas ruled by different types of cults. Gastel, not so willingly, is considered a 'Pure Boy' in his particular cult, which is something to sort of strive for, but he doesn't really care. He gets involved in mischief here and there, but is eventually driven away from Shant when he decides to remove his mother from slavery by appealing directly to the Anome, the unseen ruler of Shant who has passed on his power throughout the years. This book sets up the world and gives you a taste of some of the weird language and creatures. Lots of cool things, but too many to mention here, but I personally enjoyed the weird balloon transportation system the people of Shant used, as well as these weird creatures called the alhuphs, even though you only come upon them now and then. Gastel also learns the identity of his father and starts to become a musician. Eventually, he learns of the general location of the Anome and, with the help of an outsider, figures out a way to disarm his torc and discover where to find the Faceless Man...
The Brave Free Men
This one takes the story further. It's not really possible to read the first one and just leave it at that, because it basically leaves off with the assumption you're going to read the next, so you can't really read this one alone either. Gastel in this one eventually finds who the Anome is, and is kind of shock to find a frail, almost psychotic lunatic at the helm of the land. He, of course, eventually becomes the Anome himself but pretends as if he is simply working for him. This novel focuses more on the Roguskoi, a strange race of beings that look something like men but are incredibly powerful and have horrifying weapons. They have been raiding various areas around Shant, killing the men without taking much damage at all, and impregnating women and girls, who seem to only give birth to more Roguskoi. No transfer of genes takes place. They were talked about in the first book, but this one really focuses on them, and in fact the problem of the Roguskoi is how Gastel is able to gain power. He then goes on a campaign to figure out how to destroy the Roguskoi. Throughout various intrigues and dealings with tons of characters, Gastel creates an army with newly invented weapons. He also creates a group called the Brave Free Men, willing fighters for the cause who are given freedom from the torc for fighting for Shant. With their weapons, and through some really cool fighting scenes, the Roguskoi are forced into huge swamplands that lead into another area south of Durdane. The Roguskoi are oddly found to be organic tanks with strange, insect-like creatures controlling them inside. When Gastel and some of his glider troops begin to wipe out the rest of the Roguskoi in the swamps, they lead them to Caraz, a different part of Durdane rarely dealt with through Shant. Thinking the people of Caraz with their superior technology are somehow responsible for the Roguskoi, more intrigue begins...
The Asutra
Gastel learns more of Caraz and a whole new world opens for the reader with lots of cool creatures, people, and adventures. Again, really, it's almost impossible to detail the amount of depth Vance provides in these books, suffice to say this is the one where it all comes together, so if you don't want to spoil it don't finish this short synopsis. Basically, through various wanderings in an area sort-of fashioned like the Middle East with slavers and lots of crazies, Gastel learns the insect creatures are the Asutra, who have been enslaved (seems the other way around at first until you learn the truth) the Ka, another alien race. They've been herding and using various creatures as different types of slaves, including the humans of Durdane, and Gastel takes it upon himself to brave their ship and destroy them. Later there are some incredible scenes in this slave colony where Gastel learns more about the history of the creatures he seeks. Throughout the rest you learn the truth of the Ka and Gastel eventually returns to Shant after some seriously cool sci-fi adventure, happy that he's essentially saved the entire planet and even more happy to live life as a musician instead of the Anome. Brief summary, and not nearly enough to scratch the surface, but for our purposes we'll leave it be.
Really, overall, the Durdane books are plain fucking awesome. You generally can expect that when a poor, little old blog writer can't even compose a somewhat substantial entry about them. There is simply so much in each of these books you have to read them for yourself to get an idea of what Vance has created. The world of Durdane is incredible, interesting, and more importantly very real. It's incredibly easy to get engrossed in each of these books. No real complaints, though the integration of the Eagle Dukes of Caraz would have been cooler. They touch on them in the second book and just sort of leave it at that. Other than that minor detail, these books fucking school. Great science fiction, real science fiction, and the stuff that's clearly for the hardcore sci-fi reader. You can't be casual with these, you're all in or you're all poseur. It's not like the technology will blow you away because it's so detailed, it's that the world requires the reader to learn about it, it's almost like learning about another country, language and all. It takes time to sink in, and by the end of the first book you're totally absorbed. I personally finished each of these in about a day apiece because they were so fucking awesome. The story never really lets up, even when it's just explaining some history of Durdane or pieces of its culture. Each adventure segment is exciting, it's just, fuck, can't say enough good about them, but unfortunately I can't really explain them totally either. If you're into sci-fi, these books are a must read.
