The Moon Moth

by Jack Vance, Humayoun Ibrahim (Illustrations)

A classic science fiction tale finds new life in this graphic novel adaptation.
A fascinating blend of murder mystery and high-concept science fiction, The Moon Moth has long been hailed as one of Jack Vance’s greatest works. And now this intricately crafted tale is available in glorious full color as a new graphic novel. Edwer Thissell, the new consul from Earth to the planet Sirene, is having all kinds of trouble adjusting to the local culture. The Sirenese cover their faces with exquisitely crafted masks that indicate their social status. Thissell, a bumbling foreigner, wears a mask of very low status: the Moon Moth. Shortly after Thissell arrives on Sirene, he finds himself embroiled in a an unsolved murder case made all the more mysterious by the fact that since everyone must always wear a mask, you can never be sure who you’re dealing with.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Short Stories, Graphic Novels Comics

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Aka John Holbrook Vance, Peter Held, John Holbrook, Ellery Queen, John van See, Alan Wade.

The author was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, he contributed widely to science fiction and fantasy magazines. His first novel, The Dying Earth , was published in 1950 to great acclaim. He won both of science fiction's most coveted trophies, the Hugo and Nebula awards. He also won an Edgar Award for his mystery novel The Man in the Cage . He lived in Oakland, California in a house he designed.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 2 out of 5]

this colorful illustrated adaptation of Jack Vance's classic story also illustrates how this author's appeal is all about the prose and not about a driving narrative. Vance focuses on describing and commenting on the journey; he's not particularly interested in the destination. despite the vivid art, the book was a mediocre experience. all of those glorious Vancean phrases are nowhere to be found. and without that prose, the joy in the journey itself is lost. I can't imagine how anyone could understand this if they were unfamiliar with the source material. the story is strongest near the end, which does have an ironic appeal and a brief, vicious moment of enjoyable schadenfreude. additional star awarded because of the fantastic intro by Carlo Rotella, who paints an entirely moving portrait of my favorite author's life.

[Seth T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

[On Sirene, everyone who's anyone drives their own Noah's ark
(minus the two-by-twos of course)]

Generally, the purpose of setting a story in a science fiction world meanders down one of two lanes. On the one hand, an author may hope to introduce in the reader's mind a critique of contemporary society, culture, or history by forcing a comparison of analogy. A Brave New World, 1984, Gattaca, Solaris, even Alien—these are stories whose goals are above and beyond the simple entertainment of the reader. These follow in the grand science-fiction tradition of giving readers easy tools with which to evaluate the current world-state by stripping the contemporary situation of its context. It's a time-honoured and noble pursuit.

The other option, less praise-worthy perhaps, is the simple use of science-fiction elements to decorate well-worn stories and make them seem fresh or exciting. Star Wars, Predator, Treasure Planet, E.T., Aliens, or Back to the Future—there's nothing wrong with these stories in principle. They're fun and adventurous and make for an invigourating experience; but they're not exactly stories that couldn't exist successfully in non-science-fiction terms.



I have not read the works of Jack Vance—this Moon Moth adaptation is my introduction—but I hope his other works slide so neatly from these alternating taxonomies as well as The Moon Moth does. This isn't a work by which we examine our present culture's social ills; neither is it predictive, extrapolating out from some forseeable future. And it doesn't even so much dance a thrilling adventure epic to save the world from the A.I. threat or span galaxies to watch the combat of empires unfold. It probably wouldn't make a great film (though a great film might be set in these fascinating climes). Instead, The Moon Moth seems more a development of possibilities solely for the sake of deducing the directions they might take a people.

The particular investigation at stake here is the quality and means of social communication if a civilization were to develop along a different, perhaps more elegant, vector. On Sirene, the world central to The Moon Moth, conversation is blatantly far from equitable. All discussion is embellished, pronounced, and finally given meaning through the use of instruments. Each instrument has a particular purpose, a goal through which status and intent is communicated. One instrument may convey wrath to a lesser member of the social hierarchy, while another when properly used may convey polite obsequience to a person of superior standing. Only the slave caste sings conversations unaccompanied by instrumentation, and that is a bare mark of their low station. Further complicating matters each citizen wears a mask, the make of which further codifies social station and directs which instruments should be played in conversation with each other citizen.

All interactions on Sirene are conducted according to the concept of personal honour. There is no currency beyond one's personal honour—or more properly, what personal honour one may convince others he possesses. A citizen may wear a grand mask if he has the honour to pull it off. A citizen may take goods of the finest craftsmanship if he has the honour that would allow him to do so. On Sirene fortune favours not merely the bold however, for overstepping one's honour may lead to a speedy decapitation. Foreigners, then, are at a distinct disadvantage on this world, and being an offworlder ambassador would be a trial of great magnitude for even the most quick-witted diplomat.



The Moon Moth is constructed as a sort of thriller, engaging a not-so-quick-witted ambassador as he tries to unearth a murderer whose face he cannot know—after all, on Sirene we all wear masks and may change our masks at will so long as we can keep up with the demands of the masquerade. While there is some excitement over protagonist Ser Thissel's dilemma as he tries to detect a man who may be undetectable, the plot is not the book's central joy. This is good because that avenue is rather thin and even as the narrative turns to its final twist, we recognize that the story may have only ever been an excuse for us to engage Vance's strange, intricate world. I was fine with the story, but Ser Thissel (nearly incompetent for much of the book) and reaching the climax were never my motivations for remaining in The Moon Moth's grip.

Vance and his adapter, Humayoun Ibrahim, have crafted a world that I've returned to over and again in thought over the several weeks since reading The Moon Moth. Not only is Vance's world fascinating, but Ibrahim's visual translation of the instrumental idea leaves me wondering how the story could have ever succeeded in bare prose. While I generally found Ibrahim's figure-drawing a weakness, the manner by which he effortlessly demonstrates both the instrument being used and the technical proficiency with which it is being played is so winning that I can hardly imagine the story in any other form. Comparing Ser Thissel's lurching melodic incompetence with the natural musicianship of Sirene's natives is caught by readers at a glance and the story's purposes are never hindered for lack of craftsmanship on this score.


[In case you missed it, he's playing a violin with a sword. Badass!]

There are some bumps to the road, however, the chief of which is the natural difficulty in translating a foreign language for readers in such a way as to make the text flow effortlessly. Because The Moon Moth is chiefly concerned with the exploration of a music/status based language, converting that simply to wholly verbal expression would be inadequate. There is some learning curve demanded of readers and Ibrahim does what he can to help by providing at the book's frontmatter a visual glossary of several instruments, the sounds they make, and the social implications of using each instrument. For the first few exchanges readers will doubtlessly be turning back to this glossary as an aid to understanding. Due this break in the reading rhythm, one's first experience of the text may feel staggered and a bit too staccato. I felt some of this myself but found a second reading to be far less punctuated and discovered a rhythmic sense that I missed on my first read-through.


[This is basically like the inside cover of Vietnamerica that you keep flipping back to so you can tell who's who throughout the story]

I'd be tempted to understand that kind of difficulty in the reading experience as a knock against the work, but in The Moon Moth's case I think the complexity of the idea merits the work it requires of the reader. As I said above, I've come back again and again over the intervening weeks to the concepts Vance and his interlocutor present in this small book. It's such a fascinating excursion into what makes a language and how language can direct a people that I can't help but enjoy it, despite any initial reservations I may have held. Ibrahim presents a colourful, intricate world—one only partially of his own making, but one worth our time nonetheless.
___________________________

[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad]

[Jared Millet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vance's "The Moon Moth" was an interesting choice for a graphic novel adaptation. The story hinges on concepts that lend themselves to the graphical format, such as the masks that all the characters wear, and ideas that don't - namely the music that permeates all Sirenese conversation. That Ibrahim managed to pull the latter trick off is no small feat. His art style leans more toward Spiegelman or McCloud than that of mainstream comics, which is appropriate for a story heavy on personal interaction and light on action scenes. The only thing you lose in such a translation are the sweeping alien vistas you'd expect on a waterworld where everyone lives on houseboats and traveling cities.

"The Moon Moth" does succeed in capturing the flavor of a Vance story, if not the language itself. This edition begins with a reprint of a long tribute piece to Vance that was originally published elsewhere. If you're not already a Vance devotee, skip it and just read the story, then come back to it at the end. Then track down the original story the book is based on and read that too.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a graphic adaptation of Jack Vance's classic story. It's not a really bad version, but didn't work for me. Vance's strength was the richness of his language and phrasing, which by nature doesn't translate well to the condensation of this format. Too, I thought the art didn't really stand up to the story; his detailed descriptions of artistic masks and carvings didn't come through at all, and the musical theme was entirely lost. I liked the idea, but not the execution... I suspect the choice of story had more to do with my opinion that anything else.

[First Second Books]

I initially read Jack Vance's short story 'The Moon Moth' when I was in high school; in talking to our editorial director about books we had read in childhood, it was great to find that he also remembered this story vividly.

Jack Vance is a spectacular world-builder; we're so pleased to be able to publish this book and give readers another way to come to his work.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vance is one brainy guy. The language and concepts here are amazing.
Basically, it's a space future, and there's this planet where everyone wears masks, 24/7. Masks denote status and there are strict, potentially lethal consequences of getting the etiquette wrong. As if that wasn't enough, all speech on this world is accompanied by instrumental music, played by the speaker on hand instruments carried around on everyone's belts.

Add to all this a government agent trying to catch a fugitive without being able to see the faces of anyone around him. Crazy crazy complex.

This was originally a short story published serially in the 60s. The illustrations of this graphic adaptation have a nonwestern quality to them. The masks the characters wear look like they're from ancient south american or southeast asian mythology. Before the body of the story, the volume includes an essay on Vance and his significance originally run in the New York Times Magazine.

While I admire the sophistication of this, I can't say that I was ever sucked into the story. It's a bit too cerebral for that. A bit too unfamiliar. It has qualities similar to The Arrival by Shaun Tan. What a great way to get a taste of Vance's work, though.

[jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

an illustrated adventure in cultural incompetency

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting world and concept, beautiful illustration to go along with it. The story itself was just ok—very straightforward and not much to comment on

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can I say about Jack Vance? Not a thing. The forward to this graphic novel by Carlo Rotella entitled “The Genre Artist” (originally published in Time magazine in 2009) extols the virtues of a Jack Vance story because of his way of creating an occasion and opulent speech in what some might consider just lowly genre fiction. I could not attest to any of this having never read a Jack Vance novel. Then out of the blue comes “The Moon Moth” a graphic novel adaptation “Based on the Classic Short Story,” and I begin to believe that their might be something to the praise heaped upon him.

In this story, Edwer Thissell has been assigned to be the new consular representative to the planet Sirene. Sirene is a place where everyone wears masks and everyone converses by singing with the accompaniment of various instruments. Every mask and every instrument used signify something about the user’s status in relation to others and it is with status, also known as Strakh that one gets what they need. Thissell threw himself into studying and preparation for his new post, but such endeavors did not truly prepare him for the odd customs and quick, harsh justice for missteps in custom. In addition to having to awkwardly stumble through the customs of this new planet he has received orders to apprehend an assassin who has made his way back to Sirene. This man is an Out-Worlder like Thissell, but in a world of masks he is going to be hard to find.

Based on the story premise and the dialogue I certainly now believe that Jack Vance is an unheralded master of words that transcend the sci-fi and mystery genre in which he writes. Just the idea of such a planet with such customs and the dialogue he creates for it speaks to a very imaginative and exacting mind.

What I still cannot speak to is Vance’s ability to set a scene. In this adaptation I am only getting Ibrahim’s take on Vance’s world. In that I am quite disappointed. What this story really requires in a graphic novel is greater detail and a more refined color palette. Just one example of why I say that is found on page 19 and 20. Thissell is preparing for life on Sirene and the computer is telling him about the planets ways; it educates him of their occupation with intricacy; their intricate craftsmanship, symbolism, language, and interpersonal relationships. On page 19 it refers to the intricately carved panels of the houseboats and the intricate symbolism of the masks they wear. These two items are visual in nature and therefore, visually, should be intricately rendered; however I did not find this to be the case. I appreciate simplicity in some graphic novels, but this story begged for more detail.

If nothing else, this graphic novel adaptation has moved me to want to read the original short story. And, maybe I missed it, but why hasn’t anyone made this into a movie?

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

[disclosure: I won this in a Goodreads First Reads Contest]
So that's how you write a mystery short story!

Actually, I still don't know (well, from this book anyway. I have other examples if I decide to read them). And that's the only real problem with this adaptation. Too many of the clues are glossed over in a couple of panels. The musical instruments used with dialogue (a cool SF trick that added lots of flavor to the tale and worked really well in the graphic novel format) were not all included in the front page, or at least the variations used were unclear.

All in all, this was a neat story with a cool world idea (no money, just your prestige denoted by your mask, your deeds and the instruments used to talk with) retold with wonderful drawings. I do feel (like a few other reviewers have said) that quite a bit was cut out of the story to make it fit. Actually, let me amend that. I feel Humayoun Ibrahim, in choosing his panels, thought he was telling a lot more of the story through the art than he really was. There were quite a few details that were lost on me, as someone who has not read Jack Vance.

And no, the 12 page "sing the praises of Vance" essay that introduces this graphic adaptation didn't really get me interested in reading his stuff. I might pick up a book somewhere at sometime, but I'm not rushing out anytime soon. "The Moon Moth" was an interesting short ... but if I want awesome SF that is written with a literate bent, I'll just read Samuel R. Delany.

[Jake Swanney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary of The Moon Moth:
The new consul for Earth, Edwer Thissel, gos to the planet Sirene and has difficulty adapting to the culture there. It is class based, where diffrent classes have diffrent masks they have to wear, and diffrent instruments they used to communicate with.
Edwer then learns of an assassin that has landed on Sirene, but he is unable to find out who it is due to the masks. He manages to find the assassin, but the assassin unmasks Edwer. Edwer turns it around to his advantage, and the assassin is killed by the natives.
Picture address: http://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compr...
The style of art in this book is an intresting choice, but Vance makes it work. It is full color, and there are multiple instances where the jsound coming from the insstrumnets is represents as colors an shapes.
I personally enjoyed this graphic novel, however I feel like there were places where the plot simply advanced too fast. At some point it was easy to lose track of what was happening at a particular scene, causing me to have to reread the previous page or two for context.
The main character, Edwer, changes immensly throughout this comic. At the bginning he knew none of the customs of Sirene, but by the end he had become a very influencial person on the planet.
Yes, I recommend this book to people who enjoy scifi. There are definitely some hard sci-fi notes in there, and is a fairly heavy read for its size.

[Logan Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time I have read Jack Vance (I realize this is an adaptation of his short story into a graphic novel) but I really enjoyed it. The world he created was so unique with a population that had such a distinct culture, and it was pretty miraculous how the artist was able to pull off how this society communicates exclusively through music. The art is pretty cool as well, not like mainstream comics at all. The plot itself was solid too, no complaints on that.

Perhaps my one complaint is that at times it moved a bit too fast. There were instances where I was reading and I suddenly didn't understand what was going on and had to turn back a couple pages and reread what just happened. Also since you never see the character's faces, just their masks (which they change from time to time) it was a bit hard for me to keep them straight. I'm sure it was easier to do that in the short story, which I will make sure to read eventually since I enjoyed this graphic novel so much.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the creativity of this piece, and the artwork. It put forth the kind of imagery that is likely to stay with me. I was a bit distracted by the singing speech, as it was set up to convey subtlety of power differences between characters, and I knew I was missing out on the conveyance of this, because I didn't have a handle on what all of the instruments meant. Use of the clapping blocks for talking to servants was the only one that stuck - I can imagine lots of people from my past who would have chosen the blocks to talk to me!

I think I will have to explore Jack Vance further, given this was my first introduction to his work and once I get used to wherever he's coming from, I might really enjoy his work.

[TJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not Jack Vance's great short story, "The Moon Moth." It is an adaptation by Humayoun Ibrahim. Excerpts from Vance's short story are included in this graphically illustrated book. If you have read and love the short story, then you might want to read this adaptation. I do not recommend it by itself, however, and doubt that it was intended for those who are not already familiar with the short story. The illustrations are cartoon like but seem fine, although I already had my own imagined images after having read the story about four times in the past month. My rating: 3 "Liked it." My rating for the short story was a 5.

[Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was a very interesting book I can't really explain this book it is weird. but I did enjoy it you have to read it to try to understand it. I liked it tho

I gave it a 3 stars because it was hard to follow nut it was still good it is about this other life on a different planet made of people with masks on. I would recommend this book to someone who likes a weird story.

[Shannon Green-Kingery · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Moon Moth is a short story by American author Jack Vance which was first published in Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine in 1961. It is a combination sci-fi/murder mystery. I ran across it in graphic novel form illustrated by Humayoun Ibrahim. It tells the story of Edwer Thissell, the new consul from Earth to the planet Sirene. Thissell is having great difficulty adjusting to his new surroundings because the Sirenese communicate through an extremely complex system of singing accompanied by various instruments. The choice of which particular instrument to use in a given social situation is strictly regulated by a complex caste system. Also Thissell is frustrated because everyone must wear a mask at all times and these masks also denote caste. If someone inadvertently chooses the wrong instrument or mask when addressing someone of a higher caste, great umbrage may be taken. If the gaffe is great enough, the resulting penalty can mean death. While Thissell is still trying to internalize all these social intricacies, he receives a message from Earth telling him that a notorious assassin named Haxo Angmark has escaped and is headed to Sirene and that he must be stopped at all costs. Unfortunately, the message comes too late, so Thissell misses his chance to intercept Angmark as he disembarks from the transport. Soon afterwards, Angmark kills one of the other three Earthlings and assumes his identity. Thissell finds the body, but because he has never seen any of his compatriots' actual faces, he must try to figure out which one is, in fact, the imposter in this world where saving face is everything even while everyone is wearing an interchangeable array of disguises...very intriguing!

[Phoenix Scholz-Krishna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well. There was an attempt at adapting Vance's story into a graphic novel. I would have appreciated a style that was at least a little more about detail, especially when things like "intricate carved panels" are mentioned (while the artist is showing plain surfaces in the picture). But it is plot-wise that this adaptation suffers the most. The murder mystery is introduced quite far into the book - and then reduced to a Cliff Notes-style summary. None of the ironic humor and none of the mounting suspense survive. Also, when I read the original short story, I had this impression that unexpected plot-twists were lurking behind every turn of the page. Sadly, this graphic novel can't hold up with the joy of reading Vance. Not by far.

[honeybean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some parts were too simplified and glossed over - it lost some of the effect from the story. Beautiful pictures and lovely illustrations of the masks, the dialogue boxes also were used creatively. I wish more emphasis was put on the instruments, though, and explained a bit more throughout the story as the narrator makes his faux-pas.

[Amy Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve not read the original, so I really had trouble following this story. However the concept of a language not based on words, but based on emotions and tone is interesting. The characters only sing along with an accompanying instrument which conveys a deeper message. I struggled with the format, but I am intrigued enough to consider reading the short story.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the coloring and art of the book, and the world it creates is very intriguing. It's a perfect sort of world to have in a graphic form like this. The story didn't quite do it for me, by which I just sort of didn't care about the story. I'd love to have seen something a little more entrenched in the interesting social dynamics of this strange world than the story we had here.

[Christen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought learning a second language was hard. I can't imagine learning multiple instruments to communicate and always wearing the correct mask as our main character did. This was a fascinating short story. The murder mystery in here is clever and a welcomed surprise. I would recommend this one if you want a quality, short, science fiction story.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A murder mystery with some sci-fi and musical twists. Vance's imagination is only matched by his master of the English language. Read his stuff. Great artwork brings out the oddities of this story and the methods of communication of this story.

[Audrey Maran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I've not read the short story this was adapted from.
On its own, the graphic novel was nicely drawn and had interesting concepts, but never really sucked me in. I felt detached from the narrative. In the end it made me want to read the source material.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the way the different instruments are represented in the text; there's a handy guide in the front as to what each looks like when it's used. I found the story a little hard to follow in places, but ultimately quite satisfying!

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a wild story. the visual language for the different instruments was really interesting, and the artist did well representing a foreign work with a wide variety of masks.

i have not read the prose version of this, but I'm curious to after reading this graphical interpretation.

[Koonu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the concept more so than the story and I feel the art elevated these to great effect. The verbose, sing-songy communication and the law of masks certainly left an impression!

[Moon Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I'm going to like the original story even better

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel turned me on to Jack Vance. Quick read and a great story.

[Jan Ayers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I want to read more Jack Vance.....

[Finickin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this, I could read a thousand of these