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Ports of Call #1
Ports of Call
Myron's parents insisted that he study economics, and Myron dutifully applied himself. But Myron had an aunt--his great aunt Hester Lojoie, a woman of great wealth inherited from a dead husband, and even greater flamboyance of nature. And when Dame Hester came into possession of a space yacht, Myron suddenly saw his long-supressed dreams of adventure bloom into new life.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
12 people are currently reading
293 people want to read
About the author
Jack Vance
776 books1,583 followersAka 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
September 29, 2020
Jack Vance's penultimate novel is really just the first part of his last novel. But as the second part arrived 6 years later, I may as well review this one separately. Perhaps the last book/second part will feel different? I guess I will see.
Ports of Call finds my favorite author at his most relaxed, idly steering his passionless hero through a series of fascinating trips across multiple planets. There is no driving narrative to speak of. Overall, this was pure pleasure to read. Although I missed the pungency of past protagonists - Myron is as uninteresting as his name - the intriguing set of supporting characters more than make up for Myron's simple, earnest blandness. Fortunately, "simple, earnest blandness" is nowhere else to be found in this book, as each society is often as bizarre, insular, and sometimes as threatening as any of the most memorable Vancean locales.
The book actually gets quite dark in its visit to the planet Terce, whose inhabitants flay the skins off of their victims (including the occasional stray tourist) to sell as materials to be used by amoral artists in a range of repulsive-sounding pieces - including a frolic of children featuring the skins of actual children arranged in Arcadian tableau. Terce is also where naïve, horny Myron finds himself in a honey trap that leads to a startlingly piteous death for a local lass with murder on her mind. Vance's light touch and droll, sardonic sense of humor made the sequence all the more disturbing.
Vance from the start of his career to here, near its end, has always had a touch of cruelty within him. This is the case with nearly all of my favorite authors. I wonder why that is.
Ports of Call finds my favorite author at his most relaxed, idly steering his passionless hero through a series of fascinating trips across multiple planets. There is no driving narrative to speak of. Overall, this was pure pleasure to read. Although I missed the pungency of past protagonists - Myron is as uninteresting as his name - the intriguing set of supporting characters more than make up for Myron's simple, earnest blandness. Fortunately, "simple, earnest blandness" is nowhere else to be found in this book, as each society is often as bizarre, insular, and sometimes as threatening as any of the most memorable Vancean locales.
The book actually gets quite dark in its visit to the planet Terce, whose inhabitants flay the skins off of their victims (including the occasional stray tourist) to sell as materials to be used by amoral artists in a range of repulsive-sounding pieces - including a frolic of children featuring the skins of actual children arranged in Arcadian tableau. Terce is also where naïve, horny Myron finds himself in a honey trap that leads to a startlingly piteous death for a local lass with murder on her mind. Vance's light touch and droll, sardonic sense of humor made the sequence all the more disturbing.
Vance from the start of his career to here, near its end, has always had a touch of cruelty within him. This is the case with nearly all of my favorite authors. I wonder why that is.
January 21, 2025
Vance's penultimate novel (really a segue into his last novel Lurulu) made me wish he wrote more and once again takes place in the Gaean Reach. I love his 'Reach novels and the world(s) he created there. Some 10,000 years prior to Ports of Call, the Gaean Reach attracted humanity's fringe for colonization-- sects, religious groups, cults, you name it, they found their own planets. Toss in 10,000 years of social/cultural evolution, and each planet possesses a unique culture, or sometimes several cultures. Vance had the knack of world building and all his 'Reach novels present colorful societies and norms.
Here, rather than have an adventure on one planet, Ports of Call involves a typical (for Vance) protagonist visiting several. Myron Tany always had a yen for the stars, even while born on a bucolic agricultural planet. Young and 'against the world', he finally sets out as captain on his insufferable Aunt's space yacht (she wants to go to a quasi mythical planet with a fountain of youth), but she dumps him in route. Undaunted, he finds a space on a tramp space freighter with a crew of 4 total and off to the stars once more!
While Vance may have been just about blind and very old when he wrote this, his vocabulary is still whip-smart (get you dictionaries out!) and his world building is in top form. At times comedic, at times serious, this left me feeling rather melancholy for sure. 3.5 stars, rounding up!!
Here, rather than have an adventure on one planet, Ports of Call involves a typical (for Vance) protagonist visiting several. Myron Tany always had a yen for the stars, even while born on a bucolic agricultural planet. Young and 'against the world', he finally sets out as captain on his insufferable Aunt's space yacht (she wants to go to a quasi mythical planet with a fountain of youth), but she dumps him in route. Undaunted, he finds a space on a tramp space freighter with a crew of 4 total and off to the stars once more!
While Vance may have been just about blind and very old when he wrote this, his vocabulary is still whip-smart (get you dictionaries out!) and his world building is in top form. At times comedic, at times serious, this left me feeling rather melancholy for sure. 3.5 stars, rounding up!!
February 7, 2016
As charming as other Vance novels, with many situations and vistas familiar to his readers; journeys to far off planets with strange and dangerous customs, gamblers trying to outwit each other, though not as many obstinate secretaries refusing to give out information. Perhaps it is a bit more airy in tone, but it does not by any means have its primary focus on humor, as one can get the impressions of from some descriptions. Maybe a bit less stringent in structure, however, on this last point I will wait with my judgement until I've read Lurulu, which seems not just to be the sequel, but the actual second half of the novel.
February 9, 2025
Not a whole lot of plot for this one, but instead an adventure story that follows a crew as they make various cargo deliveries to a procession of backwater planets. As a tour of some of his Gaean Reach worlds, this has a wonderful motley of exotic people, gorgeous alien landscapes and an abundance of his uniquely rich, sardonic humour instilled into his characters' banterous dialogue.
It may not be his best, but it crams in all his trademark banter, themes of revenge and a bit of romance, leaving this penultimate book (concluding in Lurulu) as a fun little bookend to a remarkable and iconic career by one of the all time great writers in SFF.
It may not be his best, but it crams in all his trademark banter, themes of revenge and a bit of romance, leaving this penultimate book (concluding in Lurulu) as a fun little bookend to a remarkable and iconic career by one of the all time great writers in SFF.
November 4, 2013
Half a century after he started publishing, Vance showed in this story that he still had his gift. For Vance fans, the characters are familiar types, but the writing flows just as smoothly as ever.
Ports of Call is a travelogue, somewhat in the mode of Big Planet (but broader) or Space Opera (but less farcical). In brief, a young man is forced to make his way as a member of a spaceship crew, visiting all manner of planets. As always, the worlds are strange, the customs bizarre, the decisions whimsical.
The book has a broader range of well-developed characters than usual. Where Vance often relies on a fairly 'normal' narrator and weird, barely human companions or foils, here the crew of the spaceship are interesting and reasonable individuals in their own right.
Some of the decoration is familiar. For example, Vance expands slightly on one of his favorite risks - that innocent actions can lead to unexpected - and undesired - marriage. (Since he seems to have been quite happy with his own lifelong marriage, it's best not to read into this anything but humor.) But the total is nonetheless very entertaining.
So far, so good, and one of Vance's better books. Unfortunately, whether through editorial pressure, bad planning, or some other cause, the book stops at what one might feel is about the 2/3 or 3/4 mark. There's a quick epilogue (strange in a book so obviously designed for a sequel) that pretends to set up the sequel, but basically the book simply ends mid-stream. Given that the sequel, Lurulu, is so slim, it's hard to escape the conviction that it was all intended to be published as a single volume. Had that happened, I'd have been very pleased. But this book, as it stands, is incomplete and unsatisfying.
Overall, the main portion of an excellent Vance work. If I end up buying all his work electronically (Spatterlight Press), I'll consider simply merging Ports of Call and Lurulu into the one volume I feel they're meant to be.
I do recommend this, provided you buy Lurulu at the same time. The two together make a good story.
CVIE VI
Ports of Call is a travelogue, somewhat in the mode of Big Planet (but broader) or Space Opera (but less farcical). In brief, a young man is forced to make his way as a member of a spaceship crew, visiting all manner of planets. As always, the worlds are strange, the customs bizarre, the decisions whimsical.
The book has a broader range of well-developed characters than usual. Where Vance often relies on a fairly 'normal' narrator and weird, barely human companions or foils, here the crew of the spaceship are interesting and reasonable individuals in their own right.
Some of the decoration is familiar. For example, Vance expands slightly on one of his favorite risks - that innocent actions can lead to unexpected - and undesired - marriage. (Since he seems to have been quite happy with his own lifelong marriage, it's best not to read into this anything but humor.) But the total is nonetheless very entertaining.
So far, so good, and one of Vance's better books. Unfortunately, whether through editorial pressure, bad planning, or some other cause, the book stops at what one might feel is about the 2/3 or 3/4 mark. There's a quick epilogue (strange in a book so obviously designed for a sequel) that pretends to set up the sequel, but basically the book simply ends mid-stream. Given that the sequel, Lurulu, is so slim, it's hard to escape the conviction that it was all intended to be published as a single volume. Had that happened, I'd have been very pleased. But this book, as it stands, is incomplete and unsatisfying.
Overall, the main portion of an excellent Vance work. If I end up buying all his work electronically (Spatterlight Press), I'll consider simply merging Ports of Call and Lurulu into the one volume I feel they're meant to be.
I do recommend this, provided you buy Lurulu at the same time. The two together make a good story.
CVIE VI
March 25, 2010
The setup is nothing new for a Jack Vance story: a man essentially alone against the world in a hostile environment and having to live by his wits alone. The description and cover copy go this far.
What's odd here is that the description is deceptive. Myron immediately falls in with the crew of the starship Glicca, who for once (in a Vance story at least) appear completely trustworthy and competent. This development drains the tension and feeling of menace out of the narrative: from the moment Myron gets picked up, the reader never doubts that he would survive and likely prosper. The dangers are relatively slight and the events mundane.
Instead, the reader is treated to a slower, more relaxed narrative of low-key adventures and interesting encounters with odd personalities, an episodic story with no central theme. While it's enjoyable to bask in Vance's mastery of language and his imaginative creations without the urgency of a driving plot, the situation felt washed-out and tired.
What's odd here is that the description is deceptive. Myron immediately falls in with the crew of the starship Glicca, who for once (in a Vance story at least) appear completely trustworthy and competent. This development drains the tension and feeling of menace out of the narrative: from the moment Myron gets picked up, the reader never doubts that he would survive and likely prosper. The dangers are relatively slight and the events mundane.
Instead, the reader is treated to a slower, more relaxed narrative of low-key adventures and interesting encounters with odd personalities, an episodic story with no central theme. While it's enjoyable to bask in Vance's mastery of language and his imaginative creations without the urgency of a driving plot, the situation felt washed-out and tired.
March 6, 2013
If I'd read this as my first Vance book I would probably not have enjoyed it. As it is, I believe I've read most of his output and so I know what he's about. And reading Ports of Call (and more so Lurulu) is like exactly what it is: one last fond loving look back over the landscapes and vistas that had been carved out of fire and stone over the last five decades - a leisurely piece of nostalgia and the last opportunity to read some of his most beautiful descriptions and inventions without the annoyance of plot and tension to get in the way.
For it is the descriptions of his inventions that are most memorable about his writing. Any fool can set up a swashbuckling plot; pirate captains and beauteous maidens are ten a penny; high fantasy and the fall of ancient kingdoms can be bought by the wheelbarrowload - but there are few who can transport the reader directly to the surface of a brand new planet, and make them fall in love several times in one book.
For that, Jack Vance, I salute you and wish you well on whatever journeys you have yet to take.
For it is the descriptions of his inventions that are most memorable about his writing. Any fool can set up a swashbuckling plot; pirate captains and beauteous maidens are ten a penny; high fantasy and the fall of ancient kingdoms can be bought by the wheelbarrowload - but there are few who can transport the reader directly to the surface of a brand new planet, and make them fall in love several times in one book.
For that, Jack Vance, I salute you and wish you well on whatever journeys you have yet to take.
September 4, 2025
Ports of Call was first published in 1998 near the end of Vance's writing career. It is still in print in paperback and Kindle through Spatterlight Press. My out of print hardcover copy is 225 pages long, and this is the second time I've read it in recent years. I rated it a 3 both times. It is a novel that will probably be of interest mostly to Vance fans. Readers who are new to reading Vance are advised to begin elsewhere.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...
Ports of Call begins in the Gaean Reach on the planet Vermazen with our main character, Myron Tany. As a boy Myron was obsessed with stories of space exploration while growing up in a country village where everything was tranquil and soporific. His parents wanted him to become a financial analyst like his father and take a post at the Exchange. When Myron enrolled in the College of Definable Excellences he tried to compromise by taking some math and economic courses but also some classes in cosmology, space propulsion and Gaean anthropology.
Myron's path to becoming a financial analyst is interrupted by his great aunt, Dame Hester Lajoie, who is a wealthy widow with an eccentric, independent and flamboyant personality. Dame Hester wins a legal judgment for slander and is awarded a space-yacht named Glodwyn. At first she has no interest in the Glodwyn and plans to sell it saying she has "neither time nor inclination to go hurtling through space in an oversized coffin." One morning Dame Hester decides to at least visit the ship to see what it looks like and brings Myron along with her. After inspecting the space-yacht Dame Hester at least considers the idea of visiting another nearby planet to watch some festivals.
While reading the journal Innovative Salubrity, Dame Hester encounters an article by a person using a pseudonym describing advance research on aging that the author encountered on a planet called Kodaira at a clinic named Place of Resurgent Youth. A second article in the same issue by a Dr. Maximus discusses his research and the Exxil Waters that he discovered while doing research as a biologist on newt like creatures that seemed extremely long lived. He claims that after trying the water himself and on some volunteers, he found that it had regenerative powers so he opened a clinic. When Dame Hester has Myron investigate Kodaira, he finds there is no such planet. Dame Hester decides to contact the publisher to find out the real name of the author of the article. After considerable effort and much cunning she tracks down the author and cleverly discovers the real name of the planet. She, of course, wants to visit the planet in her new space-yacht and partake of the treatment that this clinic offers to the few persons who can find it and afford it. Naturally Myron is extremely enthusiastic and, after providing so much help in locating the planet, he hopes his great aunt will invite him to join her.
Much to his disappointment, Myron is not invited on the trip and the captain his great aunt appoints will not hire him as a hand on the Glodwyn. But Myron does not give up easily, and after he is able to expose the new captain as a fraud, Myron himself is given the position as ship's captain. They quickly hire a crew and begin their trip to visit this planet that is reported to have a fountain of youth clinic. But it is a long, tedious journey and Dame Hester becomes bored and decides she wants to land on other planets on the way. She is use to being entertained and wants to see some sites and visit exotic markets to relieve the boredom. Ideally she would like to visit "a world that is amusing, with beautiful people, appetizing cuisine, interesting entertainment, and very good shopping opportunities." Myron has no choice except to try to please his aunt. When visiting one of the nearby planets they encounter in a restaurant a friendly outgoing space traveler named Marko Fassig. Dame Hester finds him charming and entertaining so she hires him as a purser even though they do not need one.
Myron soon finds that Fassig is more interested in socializing and charming his aunt than in working so upon arrival at Port Tanjee on the planet Taubry he tells Fassig he is fired. Fassig goes to get his things but does not return. But Dame Hester learns about Fassig being fired and decides to fire Myron instead and to keep Fassig because he is the more entertaining of the two. Myron suddenly finds himself standing alone at a terminal on a planet to which he is a stranger. Fifty one pages into the novel and Dame Hester leaves the story. But she is a very interesting character and much of the initial humor and lively, witty dialog was related to her comments and interactions. The beginning of the novel might even remind some readers of the comic writings of P. G. Woodhouse. While the rest of the novel is certainly not without humor; it does not have the same type that Dame Hester's character provided.
Myron is left in Port Tanjee which is noted for its Museum of Non-motile Amphibian Carapaces and its hanging cages where prisoners who violate local rules or laws are displayed for public ridicule. After a brief conversation with a man in a hanging cage, Myron visits the Owlswyck Inn where he meets the crew of the cargo ship Glicca. When one of their crew members is arrested and jailed after a comical dance scene, Captain Maloff finds he is short a worker and hires Myron as their supercargo.
The Glicca travels from port to port on different planets picking up and delivering cargo, packages and sometimes people, and they take aboard a group of eleven religious pilgrims. In the novel Vance often develops clever conversations about religion, philosophy and the meaning of life. Many of these are humorous or satirical but some are deceptively serious. Often this involves the pilgrims or different crew members, especially Wingo, who is interested in "comparative metaphysic." During one such conversation Wingo comments, "I might well recommend mystics and zealots to caution, lest after decades of fasting and penitence they are allowed Truth, only to find it to be some miserable scrap of information, of no more account than mouse droppings in a sugar bowl."
The novel also has some fascinating and often humorous descriptions of eating and drinking scenes at taverns and restaurants on different planets where exotic cuisines are sometimes described in detail. At times the descriptions seem over the top, however. In one scene, for example, the waiters deliver to the restaurant customers a grilled dinner that is, "an enormous armored sea-worm, a foot in diameter, eight feet long, fringed with twin rows of small jointed arms. The waiters cut away the forward proboscis and the frontal process, as well as the terminal organs, from which exuded a yellow froth." The passage continues on in a similar very graphic vein with the guests eating "the pungent white flesh as they might devour slices of watermelon..." Readers will vary in their appreciation of these different epicurean descriptions.
Waiters, shop owners, innkeepers and others are usually portrayed as dishonest cheats who insult the customers while trying to fleece them. There is one restaurant, for example, where customers have to pay extra for a clean plate in order to compensate the dishwashers. These are often amusing encounters, and Vance clearly had fun with some of these descriptions.
Myron's travels to different planets are also interesting because of the strange customs and odd people he frequently encounters. One of the more dramatic scenes was when they visited a planet where human skins are the main export from the planet and are sold to other planets as expensive pelts, mostly for elaborate art projects. Myron has to literally fight to save his own skin. Vance, of course, is a master at describing and creating bizarre worlds with their unusual people or creatures.
Additionally the novel has many detailed descriptions of various gambling games. Some involve Moncrief the Mouse-rider and his entertainment troupe of two large, stern Klute women and three younger acrobatic women called Flook, Pook and Snook. They offer games and entertain for gambling purposes in theaters, at inns, etc. Moncrief encourages audience members to place bets with him which he usually wins. There is also gambling on the Glicca, usually involving Moncrief, Chief Engineer Schwatzendale or some of the pilgrims. These include card games and games that are invented en route. I found some gambling scenes to be entertaining but others seemed to continue too long.
The main character, Myron, is perhaps not the most exciting or fascinating Vance main character and his adventures did seem relatively tame compared to those in other Vance novels. But Myron is more likeable than many Vance protagonists. Also, he is not the only character that is portrayed, and I found some of them to be quite interesting. Many readers also mention that the plot is very thin (which is true), but Vance is a storyteller and his stories and adventures can often engage readers despite their lack of a highly structured plot. Individual readers will have varied reactions to this emphasis on travel and adventure over plot. As mentioned above, the novel involves many descriptions of different gambling games, exotic cuisines and metaphysical conversations. Again readers will probably respond differently to these sections, and some readers might find the pace slow at times.
Ports of Call also does not have a real ending. Instead, the story suddenly stops during flight to one of the ports. The storyline continues in the a subsequent novel Lurulu that was published six years later. Lurulu is a word from myths and legends that represents a mysterious search or yearning for something meaningful, a wistful longing for a real reason for living. In the follow up novel Lurulu devotes the first two chapters to summarizing what happened in Ports of Call. The book I own had both novels included in one book so it was easy to read them as one novel. Overall Ports of Call is well written and worth reading but is not one of Vance's better novels and will probably only appeal to Vance fans. Readers will probably respond differently to this novel, but those who are unfamiliar with Vance's writings are advised to begin elsewhere. I've read this novel three times so far and rate it a low 4.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...
Ports of Call begins in the Gaean Reach on the planet Vermazen with our main character, Myron Tany. As a boy Myron was obsessed with stories of space exploration while growing up in a country village where everything was tranquil and soporific. His parents wanted him to become a financial analyst like his father and take a post at the Exchange. When Myron enrolled in the College of Definable Excellences he tried to compromise by taking some math and economic courses but also some classes in cosmology, space propulsion and Gaean anthropology.
Myron's path to becoming a financial analyst is interrupted by his great aunt, Dame Hester Lajoie, who is a wealthy widow with an eccentric, independent and flamboyant personality. Dame Hester wins a legal judgment for slander and is awarded a space-yacht named Glodwyn. At first she has no interest in the Glodwyn and plans to sell it saying she has "neither time nor inclination to go hurtling through space in an oversized coffin." One morning Dame Hester decides to at least visit the ship to see what it looks like and brings Myron along with her. After inspecting the space-yacht Dame Hester at least considers the idea of visiting another nearby planet to watch some festivals.
While reading the journal Innovative Salubrity, Dame Hester encounters an article by a person using a pseudonym describing advance research on aging that the author encountered on a planet called Kodaira at a clinic named Place of Resurgent Youth. A second article in the same issue by a Dr. Maximus discusses his research and the Exxil Waters that he discovered while doing research as a biologist on newt like creatures that seemed extremely long lived. He claims that after trying the water himself and on some volunteers, he found that it had regenerative powers so he opened a clinic. When Dame Hester has Myron investigate Kodaira, he finds there is no such planet. Dame Hester decides to contact the publisher to find out the real name of the author of the article. After considerable effort and much cunning she tracks down the author and cleverly discovers the real name of the planet. She, of course, wants to visit the planet in her new space-yacht and partake of the treatment that this clinic offers to the few persons who can find it and afford it. Naturally Myron is extremely enthusiastic and, after providing so much help in locating the planet, he hopes his great aunt will invite him to join her.
Much to his disappointment, Myron is not invited on the trip and the captain his great aunt appoints will not hire him as a hand on the Glodwyn. But Myron does not give up easily, and after he is able to expose the new captain as a fraud, Myron himself is given the position as ship's captain. They quickly hire a crew and begin their trip to visit this planet that is reported to have a fountain of youth clinic. But it is a long, tedious journey and Dame Hester becomes bored and decides she wants to land on other planets on the way. She is use to being entertained and wants to see some sites and visit exotic markets to relieve the boredom. Ideally she would like to visit "a world that is amusing, with beautiful people, appetizing cuisine, interesting entertainment, and very good shopping opportunities." Myron has no choice except to try to please his aunt. When visiting one of the nearby planets they encounter in a restaurant a friendly outgoing space traveler named Marko Fassig. Dame Hester finds him charming and entertaining so she hires him as a purser even though they do not need one.
Myron soon finds that Fassig is more interested in socializing and charming his aunt than in working so upon arrival at Port Tanjee on the planet Taubry he tells Fassig he is fired. Fassig goes to get his things but does not return. But Dame Hester learns about Fassig being fired and decides to fire Myron instead and to keep Fassig because he is the more entertaining of the two. Myron suddenly finds himself standing alone at a terminal on a planet to which he is a stranger. Fifty one pages into the novel and Dame Hester leaves the story. But she is a very interesting character and much of the initial humor and lively, witty dialog was related to her comments and interactions. The beginning of the novel might even remind some readers of the comic writings of P. G. Woodhouse. While the rest of the novel is certainly not without humor; it does not have the same type that Dame Hester's character provided.
Myron is left in Port Tanjee which is noted for its Museum of Non-motile Amphibian Carapaces and its hanging cages where prisoners who violate local rules or laws are displayed for public ridicule. After a brief conversation with a man in a hanging cage, Myron visits the Owlswyck Inn where he meets the crew of the cargo ship Glicca. When one of their crew members is arrested and jailed after a comical dance scene, Captain Maloff finds he is short a worker and hires Myron as their supercargo.
The Glicca travels from port to port on different planets picking up and delivering cargo, packages and sometimes people, and they take aboard a group of eleven religious pilgrims. In the novel Vance often develops clever conversations about religion, philosophy and the meaning of life. Many of these are humorous or satirical but some are deceptively serious. Often this involves the pilgrims or different crew members, especially Wingo, who is interested in "comparative metaphysic." During one such conversation Wingo comments, "I might well recommend mystics and zealots to caution, lest after decades of fasting and penitence they are allowed Truth, only to find it to be some miserable scrap of information, of no more account than mouse droppings in a sugar bowl."
The novel also has some fascinating and often humorous descriptions of eating and drinking scenes at taverns and restaurants on different planets where exotic cuisines are sometimes described in detail. At times the descriptions seem over the top, however. In one scene, for example, the waiters deliver to the restaurant customers a grilled dinner that is, "an enormous armored sea-worm, a foot in diameter, eight feet long, fringed with twin rows of small jointed arms. The waiters cut away the forward proboscis and the frontal process, as well as the terminal organs, from which exuded a yellow froth." The passage continues on in a similar very graphic vein with the guests eating "the pungent white flesh as they might devour slices of watermelon..." Readers will vary in their appreciation of these different epicurean descriptions.
Waiters, shop owners, innkeepers and others are usually portrayed as dishonest cheats who insult the customers while trying to fleece them. There is one restaurant, for example, where customers have to pay extra for a clean plate in order to compensate the dishwashers. These are often amusing encounters, and Vance clearly had fun with some of these descriptions.
Myron's travels to different planets are also interesting because of the strange customs and odd people he frequently encounters. One of the more dramatic scenes was when they visited a planet where human skins are the main export from the planet and are sold to other planets as expensive pelts, mostly for elaborate art projects. Myron has to literally fight to save his own skin. Vance, of course, is a master at describing and creating bizarre worlds with their unusual people or creatures.
Additionally the novel has many detailed descriptions of various gambling games. Some involve Moncrief the Mouse-rider and his entertainment troupe of two large, stern Klute women and three younger acrobatic women called Flook, Pook and Snook. They offer games and entertain for gambling purposes in theaters, at inns, etc. Moncrief encourages audience members to place bets with him which he usually wins. There is also gambling on the Glicca, usually involving Moncrief, Chief Engineer Schwatzendale or some of the pilgrims. These include card games and games that are invented en route. I found some gambling scenes to be entertaining but others seemed to continue too long.
The main character, Myron, is perhaps not the most exciting or fascinating Vance main character and his adventures did seem relatively tame compared to those in other Vance novels. But Myron is more likeable than many Vance protagonists. Also, he is not the only character that is portrayed, and I found some of them to be quite interesting. Many readers also mention that the plot is very thin (which is true), but Vance is a storyteller and his stories and adventures can often engage readers despite their lack of a highly structured plot. Individual readers will have varied reactions to this emphasis on travel and adventure over plot. As mentioned above, the novel involves many descriptions of different gambling games, exotic cuisines and metaphysical conversations. Again readers will probably respond differently to these sections, and some readers might find the pace slow at times.
Ports of Call also does not have a real ending. Instead, the story suddenly stops during flight to one of the ports. The storyline continues in the a subsequent novel Lurulu that was published six years later. Lurulu is a word from myths and legends that represents a mysterious search or yearning for something meaningful, a wistful longing for a real reason for living. In the follow up novel Lurulu devotes the first two chapters to summarizing what happened in Ports of Call. The book I own had both novels included in one book so it was easy to read them as one novel. Overall Ports of Call is well written and worth reading but is not one of Vance's better novels and will probably only appeal to Vance fans. Readers will probably respond differently to this novel, but those who are unfamiliar with Vance's writings are advised to begin elsewhere. I've read this novel three times so far and rate it a low 4.
June 1, 2025
I read a lot of Jack Vance when I was younger and then for some reason I stopped. Possibly because I loved the stories of Tschai, Cugel, The Dying Earth and several others so much, and the follow-up to Ports of Call never seemed to become available in my local bookstore, so I never bought it until it was too late and sold out.
Years later I picked up a used copy from my favorite used bookstore thinking it's so dirt cheap I might as well read it anyway, even if I never get hold of the sequel.
My impressions of Ports of Call is that it's absolutely beautiful, the language is filled with intricacies, it is so densely written you need to weigh almost every word to follow the story you read, and the story is a wild and fantastic journey through different planets and their respective cultures by our trickster protagonists and the temporary parties they pick up along their way.
The space travel makes it sci-fi, but I would maybe rather prefer to put it into a category of fantasy, or just relations. Is social sci-fantasy a category?
As a side note, in late 2024 I discovered by pure chance that Amazon had a supply of brand new editions of the sequel, Lurulu, available for purchase. I ordered it and while it says 2006 as the year or print it feels so new it must have sat in stasis ever since then. I couldn't be happier.
Years later I picked up a used copy from my favorite used bookstore thinking it's so dirt cheap I might as well read it anyway, even if I never get hold of the sequel.
My impressions of Ports of Call is that it's absolutely beautiful, the language is filled with intricacies, it is so densely written you need to weigh almost every word to follow the story you read, and the story is a wild and fantastic journey through different planets and their respective cultures by our trickster protagonists and the temporary parties they pick up along their way.
The space travel makes it sci-fi, but I would maybe rather prefer to put it into a category of fantasy, or just relations. Is social sci-fantasy a category?
As a side note, in late 2024 I discovered by pure chance that Amazon had a supply of brand new editions of the sequel, Lurulu, available for purchase. I ordered it and while it says 2006 as the year or print it feels so new it must have sat in stasis ever since then. I couldn't be happier.
May 22, 2020
"Recently an old friend I had not heard from in 20 years got in touch and we agreed that 40 years on we still enjoyed the books of Jack Vance. What I had not realised was that Jack Vance had written a final book Lurulu. He is now in his nineties so is unlikely to write another. I duly bought a copy of Lurulu (in fact due to a mistake I actually bought two copies!) but before reading it decided to re-read Ports of call which is the start of the story which concludes in Lurulu.
This is probably the fourth time I have read this and I enjoyed it as much as the other times. There is not much of a plot but more of a series of descriptions of events. However this is at what Jack Vance excels. It's certainly a book I will read again." was what I wrote on 1 October 2009.
I am surprised that the last time I read it was so long ago. This is a witty book with some philosophical musings.
This is probably the fourth time I have read this and I enjoyed it as much as the other times. There is not much of a plot but more of a series of descriptions of events. However this is at what Jack Vance excels. It's certainly a book I will read again." was what I wrote on 1 October 2009.
I am surprised that the last time I read it was so long ago. This is a witty book with some philosophical musings.
April 18, 2014
I suspect that this book was intended to be funny. However, I found it arch, pretentious and obvious. Vance's vivid imagination shone through but it was a failure in all other respects.
August 31, 2025
One last time, for old time’s sake. It is a fine coincidence that Jack Vance for his last novels wrote a duology that returns to the wonderful universe he has created over the span of many decades. Ports of Call (1998) and Lurulu (2004) are two connected novels that feature a fun and leisurely travelogue, a picaresque journey from planet to planet through the Gaean Reach, a milieu in which countless of Vance’s books have been set. Emotionally, a last hurrah and farewell to his fictional universe in the twilight of his career and his life, although I am by no means certain that Vance meant it to be this way.
Even though Vance was 82 years old and blind when he wrote Ports of Call and it was his 55th novel (or somewhere around that number), his storytelling still feels as if he just loves creating odd characters and is having a wonderful time writing about them. Even though the plot of these novels isn’t all that spectacular, his boundless energy in creating strange people, strange planets and customs is still evident. He still had it. And pretty much anyone who loves Vance loves him for those reasons and will find much to love in these novels, although it takes a while for Ports of Call to find its footing.
Starring, as usual, a young man, Myron, who wants to escape the constraints of his society and explore the universe. Under the thumb of his rich and crabby aunt, Myron joins a doomed journey that is supposed to bring his aunt to a rumoured place for anti-ageing treatment, but his aunt leaves him stranded on an unknown planet. Now Myron has to survive by his wits. Quickly, he joins a freighter crew as supercargo and travels with them from planet to planet looking for trade. Each chapter works like short story of an adventure on a planet.
Vance’s writing shows a constant quality, but I found these books indeed to be of somewhat lesser quality than most of his novels. Nothing about it stood out. There was something missing, some wickedly clever idea maybe that every Demon Princes or Planet of Adventure novel did have, or a narrative drive. Myron is a bland protagonist, reserved and without strong motivations. His journey is without tension or goal. His shipmates are all of a friendly nature. In a way, there are similarities to Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (2014), except with far more interesting prose, more interesting societies and great, understated comedy, but also with a preponderance of male characters.
The joy in the tale is found in the strange and funny. The ship picks up a group of pilgrims as passengers with weird customs and titles and a very demanding leader, which Myron has to deal with, and later a swindler named Moncrief the Mouse-rider. Some planets they land on are tricky to navigate socially, because of strange rules or customs. A wrong look or wrong action may have a visitor publicly locked in a cage, or married or hypnotised. Vance was an enthusiastic world traveller, and his experiences of dealing with foreign social rules inform his writing, and he exaggerates that all to comedic effects. It gets better and better as more passengers join the trip, but by that time, Myron seems all but abandoned by Vance as the main character.
Even though Vance was 82 years old and blind when he wrote Ports of Call and it was his 55th novel (or somewhere around that number), his storytelling still feels as if he just loves creating odd characters and is having a wonderful time writing about them. Even though the plot of these novels isn’t all that spectacular, his boundless energy in creating strange people, strange planets and customs is still evident. He still had it. And pretty much anyone who loves Vance loves him for those reasons and will find much to love in these novels, although it takes a while for Ports of Call to find its footing.
Starring, as usual, a young man, Myron, who wants to escape the constraints of his society and explore the universe. Under the thumb of his rich and crabby aunt, Myron joins a doomed journey that is supposed to bring his aunt to a rumoured place for anti-ageing treatment, but his aunt leaves him stranded on an unknown planet. Now Myron has to survive by his wits. Quickly, he joins a freighter crew as supercargo and travels with them from planet to planet looking for trade. Each chapter works like short story of an adventure on a planet.
Vance’s writing shows a constant quality, but I found these books indeed to be of somewhat lesser quality than most of his novels. Nothing about it stood out. There was something missing, some wickedly clever idea maybe that every Demon Princes or Planet of Adventure novel did have, or a narrative drive. Myron is a bland protagonist, reserved and without strong motivations. His journey is without tension or goal. His shipmates are all of a friendly nature. In a way, there are similarities to Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (2014), except with far more interesting prose, more interesting societies and great, understated comedy, but also with a preponderance of male characters.
The joy in the tale is found in the strange and funny. The ship picks up a group of pilgrims as passengers with weird customs and titles and a very demanding leader, which Myron has to deal with, and later a swindler named Moncrief the Mouse-rider. Some planets they land on are tricky to navigate socially, because of strange rules or customs. A wrong look or wrong action may have a visitor publicly locked in a cage, or married or hypnotised. Vance was an enthusiastic world traveller, and his experiences of dealing with foreign social rules inform his writing, and he exaggerates that all to comedic effects. It gets better and better as more passengers join the trip, but by that time, Myron seems all but abandoned by Vance as the main character.
November 4, 2018
For all of Vance's inventiveness in making strange planetary societies I can't help but feel like they're all some iteration of that joke New Yorker cartoon caption of "Would you look at this asshole?"
June 29, 2016
This is Jack Vance master builder of worlds, societies and colourful characters. And this book is just that. A quite loose plot that is second to the rich Gaean Reach background in a light hearted, joyous description of each of the ports of call.
And in the end, a cliff end that it is not an end but a dire pause that impels you to follow the Glicca and her crew into the next book (Lurulu)... if you like. As there is nothing in the plot to hook you on but a mild interest, nothing happens if you opt to lay down the story at this point.
Most likely I will got Lurulu to see how the things go on. But there is no hurry. Jack Vance is to be relished best without haste, enjoying a good ale with some exotic dish and striking company (if possible).
And in the end, a cliff end that it is not an end but a dire pause that impels you to follow the Glicca and her crew into the next book (Lurulu)... if you like. As there is nothing in the plot to hook you on but a mild interest, nothing happens if you opt to lay down the story at this point.
Most likely I will got Lurulu to see how the things go on. But there is no hurry. Jack Vance is to be relished best without haste, enjoying a good ale with some exotic dish and striking company (if possible).
May 13, 2016
As always I enjoy Vance's dialogue and remarkable world-building. Though considering he might be my favorite author I also feel this work lacks tension and drive, plodding when the setting or dialogue is not strong enough to carry the story on its own merits. most likely, I will hold off on the sequel until I have gone on to what remains of his more jaunty writings first.
Though the culture that harvests human pelts was a particularly cool high point that will stick in my memory for the long term.
Though the culture that harvests human pelts was a particularly cool high point that will stick in my memory for the long term.
August 2, 2020
This book is very good, and has some wonderful passages in it. Myron's travels across the universe with an eclectic crew of voyagers to different-but-meaningfully-similar locales is (I think) a series of pretty profound meditations on the nature of life. It is interesting that many people complain about lack of "plot," "satisfying ending," or "story." There are two responses to this: (1) The plot is not the point; (2) The plotlessness *is* the point.
August 11, 2019
Vance has a vivid imagination but 1/2 the plot, what little there was revolves around people losing money gambling, haggling, coming up with schemes to win back their money and losing it again.
Of all the planets the only time the book really gathered some steam up was on the skin trading one.
After that it just fizzles out.
Of all the planets the only time the book really gathered some steam up was on the skin trading one.
After that it just fizzles out.
September 20, 2024
Second of last of Vance’s books where he focuses more on the mysteries of life and religion than action. I like the fact that several anthropologically interesting races are in the stories and what a planet with different conditions can do to a man. But it is a lot of elonquence of relatively simple spaceman tales.
March 4, 2018
I'd describe this as Gulliver's travels as written by PG Wodehouse reimagined in space opera format. It's an easy read, chosen at a time when I wasn't feeling well enough to read anything requiring thought, and finished in three days :-)
June 21, 2013
Up to Vance's usual high standards for prose & characterization. However, the lack of plot in this book, due to its extreme picaresque nature, becomes very trying by the end.
May 28, 2024
Ports of Call was first published in January, 1998 by Underwood-Miller Books near the end of Vance's writing career. It is still in print by Spatterlight Press in a high quality trade paperback. My hardcover copy is 225 pages long. Ports of Call was nominated in 1999 for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction novel.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...
Ports of Call begins in the Gaean Reach on the planet Vermazen with our main character, Myron Tany. As a boy Myron was obsessed with stories of space exploration while growing up in a country village where everything was tranquil and soporific. His parents wanted him to become a financial analyst like his father and take a post at the Exchange. When Myron enrolled in the College of Definable Excellences he tried to compromise by taking some math and economic courses but also some classes in cosmology, space propulsion and Gaean anthropology.
Myron's path to becoming a financial analyst is disrupted by his great aunt Dame Hester Lajoie, who is a wealthy widow with an eccentric, independent and flamboyant personality. Dame Hester wins a legal judgment for slander and is awarded a space-yacht called Glodwyn. She has no interest in the Glodwyn and plans to sell it saying she has "neither time nor inclination to go hurtling through space in an oversized coffin." One morning Dame Hester decides to at least visit the ship to see what it looks like and brings Myron along with her. After inspecting the space-yacht Dame Hester at least considers the idea of visiting another planet to watch some festivals.
When reading the journal Innovative Salubrity, Dame Hester finds an article by a person using a pseudonym describing advance research that the author encountered on a planet called Kodaira at a clinic named Place of Resurgent Youth. A second article in the same issue by a Dr. Maximus discusses his research and the Exxil Waters that he discovered while doing research as a biologist on newt like creatures that seemed extremely long lived. He claims that after trying the water himself and on some volunteers, he found that it had regenerative powers so he opened a clinic. When Dame Hester has Myron investigate the planet they find there is no such place. Dame Hester decides to try to contact the publisher to find out the real name of the author of the article. After considerable effort and much cunning she tracks down the author and cleverly determines the real name of the planet. She, of course, wants to visit the planet in her new space-yacht and partake of the treatment that this clinic offers to the few persons who can find it and afford it. Naturally Myron is extremely enthusiastic and, after providing so much help in locating the planet, he hopes his great aunt will invite him to join her.
Much to his disappointment, Myron is not invited on the trip and the captain his great aunt appoints will not hire him as a hand. But Myron does not give up easily, and after he is able to expose the new captain as a fraud, Myron himself is given the position as ship's captain. They quickly hire a crew and begin their trip to visit this planet that is reported to have a fountain of youth clinic. But it is a long, tedious journey and Dame Hester becomes bored and decides she wants to land on another planet on the way. She is use to being entertained and wants to see some sites and visit some exotic markets to relive the boredom. Ideally she would like to visit "a world that is amusing, with beautiful people, appetizing cuisine, interesting entertainment, and very good shopping opportunities." Myron has no choice except to try to please his aunt. When visiting one of the nearby planets they encounter in a restaurant a friendly outgoing space traveler named Marko Fassig. Dame Hester finds him charming and entertaining so hires him as a purser even though they do not need one.
Myron soon finds that Fassig is more interested in talking and charming his aunt than in working so upon arrival at Port Tanjee on the planet Taubry he tells Fassig he is fired. Fassig goes to get his things but does not return. When Dame Hester learns about Fassig being fired, she decides to fire Myron instead and to keep Fassig because he is the more entertaining of the two. Myron finds himself suddenly standing alone at a terminal on a planet to which he is a stranger. Fifty one pages into the novel the storyline begins to follow Myron without Dame Hester. But Dame Hester is the more interesting of the two characters and much of the humor and lively, witty dialog was related to her interactions with her nephew and others. The beginning of the novel might even remind some readers of the comic writings of P. G. Woodhouse. But the rest of the novel is not without humor; it just does not have the type that Dame Hester provided.
Port Tanjee, the town Myron was left in, is noted for its Museum of Non-motile Amphibian Carapaces and its hanging cages where prisoners who violate local rules are displayed for public ridicule. After a brief conversation with a man in a hanging cage, Myron visits the Owlswyck Inn he where meets the crew of the cargo ship Glicca. When one of their crew members is arrested and jailed after a comical dance scene, Captain Maloff of the Glicca finds he is short a person and hires Myron as their Supercargo.
The Glicca travels from port to port on different planets picking up and delivering cargo, packages and sometimes people and they soon take aboard a group of eleven religious pilgrims. Vance develops humorous, often satirical conversations about religion, philosophy and the meaning of life during the interactions and conversations between the pilgrims, a crew member named Wingo and others. For example, Wingo, who is interested in "comparative metaphysic," states, "I might well recommend mystics and zealots to caution, lest after decades of fasting and penitence they are allowed Truth, only to find it to be some miserable scrap of information, of no more account than mouse droppings in a sugar bowl." Later he states, "I have long hoped to synthesize the vagaries of the cosmos into a harmonious unity. I have traveled a long road, and from time to time I have resolved some of the more flagrant paradoxes--but I am not yet at peace. A pair of quandaries still hang in my mind." I won't give away what the two quandaries are but I thought it was quite funny. There is also the humorous exchange where Upon Baron Bodissey is quoted as having defined Truth as being "a rope with one end." Again I won't spoil the humor by quoting more, but this gives you some idea. Those with some understanding of philosophy will probably be more entertained.
The novel also has many fascinating and often humorous descriptions of eating and drinking scenes on different planets where exotic cuisines are presented in detail. Reader response to such scenes will vary but I sometimes found them to be interesting and creative. At times they did seem over the top, however. In one scene, for example, the waiters deliver to the restaurant customers a grilled dinner that is, "an enormous armored sea-worm, a foot in diameter, eight feet long, fringed with twin rows of small jointed arms. The waiters cut away the forward proboscis and the frontal process, as well as the terminal organs, from which exuded a yellow froth." The passage continues on in a similar vein with the guests eating "the pungent white flesh as they might devour slices of watermelon..." Vance clearly had fun with these descriptions. There is one restaurant, for example, where customers have to pay extra for a clean plate in order to compensate the dishwashers. Waiters, like shopkeepers and others, are invariably dishonest cheats who insult the customers while trying to fleece them. These are often amusing encounters.
Myron's travels to different planets is also interesting for the strange customs and odd people he encounters as are the strange people he encounters. One of the more dramatic scenes was when they visited a planet where human skins are the main export for the planet and are sold to other planets as expensive pelts. Myron has to literally fight to save his own skin. Other descriptions were less dramatic or interesting such as behavior at Felker's Landing where on the river Amer the north bank was considered female and the south male. "When men wished to visit the north bank they must clip small scarlet cockades to their noses. The women similarly must fix tufts of blue hair to their cheeks when they visited the south bank."
Additionally the novel has many detailed descriptions of various gambling games. Some involve Moncrief the Mouse rider and his troop of two large, stern Klute women and three younger acrobatic women called Flook, Pook and Snook. They entertain for gambling purposes at carnivals, inns and circuses. In one of the skits the three women perform acrobatic acts on three drums while being protected by the two huge Klute women. They jump and tumble from drum to drum and members of the audience are then asked to place bets that they can identify one of the women by name. Each of them look similar but wear different gemstone rings. Moncrief has many other types of games, all involving bets with the audience and most of the time he wins. There are also numerous card and other gambling games aboard ship, usually involving the pilgrims and the Chief Engineer Schwatzendale. When the pilgrims lose most of their money to Schwatzendale the want to gamble for tokens that represent boxes of religious relics they are transporting to the pilgrimage. They also invent new gambling games such as trying to stack six levels of tokens per a specified pattern while other participants at any time may throw tokens to try to knock over another person's stack. Some gambling scenes were mildly entertaining but others seemed to go on too long.
The main character, Myron, although likeable enough, was not the most interesting Vance protagonist and his adventures often seemed relatively tame compared to other Vance main characters. Many readers mention that the plot is quite thin but Vance is a storyteller and his stories and adventures often engage the reader despite their lack of a clearly structured plot. As mentioned above, the novel also involves many detailed descriptions of different gambling games, exotic cuisines and metaphysical conversations. These are not without interest, but readers will vary in their reactions and the pace can seem slow at times.
Ports of Call also does not have a real ending. Instead the story suddenly stops at one of the ports. The storyline continues in the subsequent novel Lurulu that was published six years later. Lurulu is a word from myths and legends that represents a mysterious search for something unknown. In the follow up novel Lurulu the first two chapters summarize what happened in Ports of Call. Ports of Call is well written and worth reading but is not one of Vance's better novels and will probably only appeal to Vance fans. Readers will respond differently to this novel, but those who are unfamiliar with Vance's writings are advised to begin elsewhere. I’ve read this novel twice so far and rated it a 3 “Liked it” both times.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...
Ports of Call begins in the Gaean Reach on the planet Vermazen with our main character, Myron Tany. As a boy Myron was obsessed with stories of space exploration while growing up in a country village where everything was tranquil and soporific. His parents wanted him to become a financial analyst like his father and take a post at the Exchange. When Myron enrolled in the College of Definable Excellences he tried to compromise by taking some math and economic courses but also some classes in cosmology, space propulsion and Gaean anthropology.
Myron's path to becoming a financial analyst is disrupted by his great aunt Dame Hester Lajoie, who is a wealthy widow with an eccentric, independent and flamboyant personality. Dame Hester wins a legal judgment for slander and is awarded a space-yacht called Glodwyn. She has no interest in the Glodwyn and plans to sell it saying she has "neither time nor inclination to go hurtling through space in an oversized coffin." One morning Dame Hester decides to at least visit the ship to see what it looks like and brings Myron along with her. After inspecting the space-yacht Dame Hester at least considers the idea of visiting another planet to watch some festivals.
When reading the journal Innovative Salubrity, Dame Hester finds an article by a person using a pseudonym describing advance research that the author encountered on a planet called Kodaira at a clinic named Place of Resurgent Youth. A second article in the same issue by a Dr. Maximus discusses his research and the Exxil Waters that he discovered while doing research as a biologist on newt like creatures that seemed extremely long lived. He claims that after trying the water himself and on some volunteers, he found that it had regenerative powers so he opened a clinic. When Dame Hester has Myron investigate the planet they find there is no such place. Dame Hester decides to try to contact the publisher to find out the real name of the author of the article. After considerable effort and much cunning she tracks down the author and cleverly determines the real name of the planet. She, of course, wants to visit the planet in her new space-yacht and partake of the treatment that this clinic offers to the few persons who can find it and afford it. Naturally Myron is extremely enthusiastic and, after providing so much help in locating the planet, he hopes his great aunt will invite him to join her.
Much to his disappointment, Myron is not invited on the trip and the captain his great aunt appoints will not hire him as a hand. But Myron does not give up easily, and after he is able to expose the new captain as a fraud, Myron himself is given the position as ship's captain. They quickly hire a crew and begin their trip to visit this planet that is reported to have a fountain of youth clinic. But it is a long, tedious journey and Dame Hester becomes bored and decides she wants to land on another planet on the way. She is use to being entertained and wants to see some sites and visit some exotic markets to relive the boredom. Ideally she would like to visit "a world that is amusing, with beautiful people, appetizing cuisine, interesting entertainment, and very good shopping opportunities." Myron has no choice except to try to please his aunt. When visiting one of the nearby planets they encounter in a restaurant a friendly outgoing space traveler named Marko Fassig. Dame Hester finds him charming and entertaining so hires him as a purser even though they do not need one.
Myron soon finds that Fassig is more interested in talking and charming his aunt than in working so upon arrival at Port Tanjee on the planet Taubry he tells Fassig he is fired. Fassig goes to get his things but does not return. When Dame Hester learns about Fassig being fired, she decides to fire Myron instead and to keep Fassig because he is the more entertaining of the two. Myron finds himself suddenly standing alone at a terminal on a planet to which he is a stranger. Fifty one pages into the novel the storyline begins to follow Myron without Dame Hester. But Dame Hester is the more interesting of the two characters and much of the humor and lively, witty dialog was related to her interactions with her nephew and others. The beginning of the novel might even remind some readers of the comic writings of P. G. Woodhouse. But the rest of the novel is not without humor; it just does not have the type that Dame Hester provided.
Port Tanjee, the town Myron was left in, is noted for its Museum of Non-motile Amphibian Carapaces and its hanging cages where prisoners who violate local rules are displayed for public ridicule. After a brief conversation with a man in a hanging cage, Myron visits the Owlswyck Inn he where meets the crew of the cargo ship Glicca. When one of their crew members is arrested and jailed after a comical dance scene, Captain Maloff of the Glicca finds he is short a person and hires Myron as their Supercargo.
The Glicca travels from port to port on different planets picking up and delivering cargo, packages and sometimes people and they soon take aboard a group of eleven religious pilgrims. Vance develops humorous, often satirical conversations about religion, philosophy and the meaning of life during the interactions and conversations between the pilgrims, a crew member named Wingo and others. For example, Wingo, who is interested in "comparative metaphysic," states, "I might well recommend mystics and zealots to caution, lest after decades of fasting and penitence they are allowed Truth, only to find it to be some miserable scrap of information, of no more account than mouse droppings in a sugar bowl." Later he states, "I have long hoped to synthesize the vagaries of the cosmos into a harmonious unity. I have traveled a long road, and from time to time I have resolved some of the more flagrant paradoxes--but I am not yet at peace. A pair of quandaries still hang in my mind." I won't give away what the two quandaries are but I thought it was quite funny. There is also the humorous exchange where Upon Baron Bodissey is quoted as having defined Truth as being "a rope with one end." Again I won't spoil the humor by quoting more, but this gives you some idea. Those with some understanding of philosophy will probably be more entertained.
The novel also has many fascinating and often humorous descriptions of eating and drinking scenes on different planets where exotic cuisines are presented in detail. Reader response to such scenes will vary but I sometimes found them to be interesting and creative. At times they did seem over the top, however. In one scene, for example, the waiters deliver to the restaurant customers a grilled dinner that is, "an enormous armored sea-worm, a foot in diameter, eight feet long, fringed with twin rows of small jointed arms. The waiters cut away the forward proboscis and the frontal process, as well as the terminal organs, from which exuded a yellow froth." The passage continues on in a similar vein with the guests eating "the pungent white flesh as they might devour slices of watermelon..." Vance clearly had fun with these descriptions. There is one restaurant, for example, where customers have to pay extra for a clean plate in order to compensate the dishwashers. Waiters, like shopkeepers and others, are invariably dishonest cheats who insult the customers while trying to fleece them. These are often amusing encounters.
Myron's travels to different planets is also interesting for the strange customs and odd people he encounters as are the strange people he encounters. One of the more dramatic scenes was when they visited a planet where human skins are the main export for the planet and are sold to other planets as expensive pelts. Myron has to literally fight to save his own skin. Other descriptions were less dramatic or interesting such as behavior at Felker's Landing where on the river Amer the north bank was considered female and the south male. "When men wished to visit the north bank they must clip small scarlet cockades to their noses. The women similarly must fix tufts of blue hair to their cheeks when they visited the south bank."
Additionally the novel has many detailed descriptions of various gambling games. Some involve Moncrief the Mouse rider and his troop of two large, stern Klute women and three younger acrobatic women called Flook, Pook and Snook. They entertain for gambling purposes at carnivals, inns and circuses. In one of the skits the three women perform acrobatic acts on three drums while being protected by the two huge Klute women. They jump and tumble from drum to drum and members of the audience are then asked to place bets that they can identify one of the women by name. Each of them look similar but wear different gemstone rings. Moncrief has many other types of games, all involving bets with the audience and most of the time he wins. There are also numerous card and other gambling games aboard ship, usually involving the pilgrims and the Chief Engineer Schwatzendale. When the pilgrims lose most of their money to Schwatzendale the want to gamble for tokens that represent boxes of religious relics they are transporting to the pilgrimage. They also invent new gambling games such as trying to stack six levels of tokens per a specified pattern while other participants at any time may throw tokens to try to knock over another person's stack. Some gambling scenes were mildly entertaining but others seemed to go on too long.
The main character, Myron, although likeable enough, was not the most interesting Vance protagonist and his adventures often seemed relatively tame compared to other Vance main characters. Many readers mention that the plot is quite thin but Vance is a storyteller and his stories and adventures often engage the reader despite their lack of a clearly structured plot. As mentioned above, the novel also involves many detailed descriptions of different gambling games, exotic cuisines and metaphysical conversations. These are not without interest, but readers will vary in their reactions and the pace can seem slow at times.
Ports of Call also does not have a real ending. Instead the story suddenly stops at one of the ports. The storyline continues in the subsequent novel Lurulu that was published six years later. Lurulu is a word from myths and legends that represents a mysterious search for something unknown. In the follow up novel Lurulu the first two chapters summarize what happened in Ports of Call. Ports of Call is well written and worth reading but is not one of Vance's better novels and will probably only appeal to Vance fans. Readers will respond differently to this novel, but those who are unfamiliar with Vance's writings are advised to begin elsewhere. I’ve read this novel twice so far and rated it a 3 “Liked it” both times.
September 13, 2023
Jack Vance will always hold a special place in my heart. He was one of the greatest authors of adventure sci-fi who ever lived. His best novels opened doors of the imagination, taught me vital life lessons, and even improved my vocabulary. Ports of Call, however, has to rank as one of his least impressive works by any standard.
Our hero this time around is Myron, a young man stuck in a dull academic path but dreaming of space exploration. His opportunity arrives when a wealthy aunt acquires a space yacht. The first fifty pages cover Myron's jockeying with rivals to be chosen as captain of the yacht. This is the funniest and most unique section of the book.
Soon Myron is off on an interstellar adventure, and not long after he ends of stranded at a distant spaceport. His only hope to is to take a job working on a freighter and the rest of the book is spent traveling from planet to planet. Such a plot device is standard fare for Vance, as any fan can attest, recalling Araminta Station or countless other Vance tales. Regrettably the various locations are nowhere as unique and colorful as those in Vance's prime novels, and while each port features a story-length adventure, none have the unique twists that readers will remember from classics like The Face or The Killing Machine. Ploughing through the middle section of the book becomes a bit of a chore.
That said, it's not a total waste of time. Those who, like me, are sick of every novel having to be a battle against the fascist government in a dystopian wasteland will appreciate the focus on smaller stuff. Vance imagines that even in a spacefaring civilization, much effort must be spent fending off thieves, pickpockets, con artists, gamblers, and various other low-level scum. The only proper defense is a certain type of cynical outlook and constant suspicion. Consistent toughness is required. Naivety is always duly punished. Vance's worldview can fairly be described as politically incorrect, though the most scathing satire and raunchy humor from his earlier novels has been toned down quite a bit here.
Overall a B- effort. If you haven't started out on the works of Jack Vance yet, try the Demon Princes series first.
Our hero this time around is Myron, a young man stuck in a dull academic path but dreaming of space exploration. His opportunity arrives when a wealthy aunt acquires a space yacht. The first fifty pages cover Myron's jockeying with rivals to be chosen as captain of the yacht. This is the funniest and most unique section of the book.
Soon Myron is off on an interstellar adventure, and not long after he ends of stranded at a distant spaceport. His only hope to is to take a job working on a freighter and the rest of the book is spent traveling from planet to planet. Such a plot device is standard fare for Vance, as any fan can attest, recalling Araminta Station or countless other Vance tales. Regrettably the various locations are nowhere as unique and colorful as those in Vance's prime novels, and while each port features a story-length adventure, none have the unique twists that readers will remember from classics like The Face or The Killing Machine. Ploughing through the middle section of the book becomes a bit of a chore.
That said, it's not a total waste of time. Those who, like me, are sick of every novel having to be a battle against the fascist government in a dystopian wasteland will appreciate the focus on smaller stuff. Vance imagines that even in a spacefaring civilization, much effort must be spent fending off thieves, pickpockets, con artists, gamblers, and various other low-level scum. The only proper defense is a certain type of cynical outlook and constant suspicion. Consistent toughness is required. Naivety is always duly punished. Vance's worldview can fairly be described as politically incorrect, though the most scathing satire and raunchy humor from his earlier novels has been toned down quite a bit here.
Overall a B- effort. If you haven't started out on the works of Jack Vance yet, try the Demon Princes series first.
August 8, 2019
Oggi vi presento Fuga nei Mondi Perduti, romanzo di fantascienza dello scrittore statunitense Jack Vance. Sono andato a sbirciare a quando risalisse la prima pubblicazione dello stesso e con stupore ho scoperto fosse tutt’altro che “di un’altra epoca”: data infatti 1998. Perché dico questo? Per il semplice fatto che avrei potuto parzialmente giustificare il ritmo blando e mesto della storia, se fosse appartenuta a un autore del XIX secolo, senza recare offesa ai grandi dell’epoca che non soffrivano certo di questo peccato.
Insomma, il romanzo di Vance non mi è per nulla piaciuto, non è mai realmente decollato. Non sapevo peraltro che non fosse autoconclusivo e di certo non andrò a impegolarmi con il seguito, questo mi è bastato.
Una storia insulsa, che doveva fondare i suoi cardini in viaggi mirabolanti per lo spazio alla scoperta di mondi bizzarri.
Mah, io non ho trovato nulla di quanto promesso, con viaggi privi di brio e mondi dallo spessore di una sottiletta, tutti uguali, con peculiarità ben misere e di certo non in grado di catturare il lettore. Ci sono rimasto veramente male, e non ne capisco il motivo, visto il blasone dell'autore. Spero vogliate aiutarmi ad analizzare le cosa... Recensione completa su: https://www.scrittorindipendenti.com/...
Insomma, il romanzo di Vance non mi è per nulla piaciuto, non è mai realmente decollato. Non sapevo peraltro che non fosse autoconclusivo e di certo non andrò a impegolarmi con il seguito, questo mi è bastato.
Una storia insulsa, che doveva fondare i suoi cardini in viaggi mirabolanti per lo spazio alla scoperta di mondi bizzarri.
Mah, io non ho trovato nulla di quanto promesso, con viaggi privi di brio e mondi dallo spessore di una sottiletta, tutti uguali, con peculiarità ben misere e di certo non in grado di catturare il lettore. Ci sono rimasto veramente male, e non ne capisco il motivo, visto il blasone dell'autore. Spero vogliate aiutarmi ad analizzare le cosa... Recensione completa su: https://www.scrittorindipendenti.com/...
October 31, 2021
Vintage Jack Vance. No real plot, but such an amazing description of places, peoples, and interactions that you keep on reading. Vance is one of these writers that writes prose that is easy to read and might give you the impression that it is easy to write. But if you pay attention closely to the flow, the usage of words, the interactions, and the dialogue you uncover that it is all masterfully done and the work of a true genius (in my humble opinion that is).
"Ports of Call" tells the story of Myron, who gets dumped by his great-aunt on some godforsaken planet and finds employment as supercargo on the freighter Glicca. The Glicca travels between the stars with a varied cast of characters as crew and passengers. In every port they encounter strange people, outlandish customs, and easy opportunity to get swindled or lose life and limb. The story meanders a bit but never bores and mostly serves as a vehicle for Vance to draw the most colourful pictures of a human race cast far and wide across space.
"Ports of Call" tells the story of Myron, who gets dumped by his great-aunt on some godforsaken planet and finds employment as supercargo on the freighter Glicca. The Glicca travels between the stars with a varied cast of characters as crew and passengers. In every port they encounter strange people, outlandish customs, and easy opportunity to get swindled or lose life and limb. The story meanders a bit but never bores and mostly serves as a vehicle for Vance to draw the most colourful pictures of a human race cast far and wide across space.
September 10, 2018
Another picaresque novel, but one that lacks direction.
Myron Tany meanders the Gaen Reach as a crew member on the Glicca, a tram ship that stops at a never ending series of small, strange and entertaining planets. As is Vance's way the local customs on each are ridiculous and novel. Unlike his other books, the other crew members get large amounts of focus.
Like a warm autumn breeze its is enjoyable but lacks concreteness. This is a novel where really nothing happens. Ports of Call leads directly into Lurulu, but ends not on a cliffhanger, rather like the author had taken a larger work, and selected a chapter at random, slicing it in half. This book is a trifle, though an enjoyable one.
Myron Tany meanders the Gaen Reach as a crew member on the Glicca, a tram ship that stops at a never ending series of small, strange and entertaining planets. As is Vance's way the local customs on each are ridiculous and novel. Unlike his other books, the other crew members get large amounts of focus.
Like a warm autumn breeze its is enjoyable but lacks concreteness. This is a novel where really nothing happens. Ports of Call leads directly into Lurulu, but ends not on a cliffhanger, rather like the author had taken a larger work, and selected a chapter at random, slicing it in half. This book is a trifle, though an enjoyable one.
July 30, 2022
There may be something deep going on in this apparently largely 'plotless' book, but equally, it may simply be that Vance had reached the end of his career and had nothing else to prove, and decided just to write things he enjoyed writing. For a Vance fan, either way the result is a sheer pleasure - a funny, whimsical, at times beautiful, and at times disturbing, tribute to the wonderful feat of imagination that is the Gaean Reach.
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April 21, 2025This was somehow both meandering and repetitive, and after the first 1/3 almost entirely without a plot.
A lack of a plot can be made up for by great characters, but the characters here where just... fine. Nowhere near interesting enough to carry a story on their own.
The writing was fine. I definitely want to read more Jack Vance in the future, but I certainly won't be reading the sequel to this particular book.
A lack of a plot can be made up for by great characters, but the characters here where just... fine. Nowhere near interesting enough to carry a story on their own.
The writing was fine. I definitely want to read more Jack Vance in the future, but I certainly won't be reading the sequel to this particular book.
May 28, 2020
This is a pretty silly book, especially having been written in 1998 — seems more like something devised in the 50s.
BUT...
Any aspiring sci-fi writer should read this to understand what hard sci-fi is when combined with soft social drama — i.e., there’s room for both, and the sci-fi doesn’t have to suffer.
BUT...
Any aspiring sci-fi writer should read this to understand what hard sci-fi is when combined with soft social drama — i.e., there’s room for both, and the sci-fi doesn’t have to suffer.
June 17, 2022
Very unjustly dismissed as being merely episodic (Vance is in great company here with Cervantes, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky) Vance builds quite a superstructure for his protagonist's development. Replete with the perspective an old writer can bring to young characters. Clearly, Vance lived to write in a positive sense which puts him outside of the main in both genre and literature.
July 18, 2024
Very late Vance. Shows his usual style and humor, but drifts along with almost no plot. In some ways the chapters are reminiscent of the Cugel short stories, but as short stories they aren’t very interesting. It’s best as a relaxing travelogue to a series of “Ports of Call”. Perhaps only for true Vance fans.
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