The Crown Jewels

Maijstral #1

by Walter Jon Williams

Drake Maijstral, a dispossessed aristocrat and master thief, is commissioned to steal the invaluable jeweled box that has become the focus of the power struggle between the Khosali alien conquerors and the successfully rebellious Humans

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Space Opera

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 15, 1987

About the author

Walter Jon Williams has published twenty novels and short fiction collections. Most are science fiction or fantasy -Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind, Aristoi, Metropolitan, City on Fire to name just a few - a few are historical adventures, and the most recent, The Rift, is a disaster novel in which "I just basically pound a part of the planet down to bedrock." And that's just the opening chapters. Walter holds a fourth-degree black belt in Kenpo Karate, and also enjoys sailing and scuba diving. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, Kathy Hedges.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in a series featuring Drake Majistral, a burglar who has some zany and exotic adventures. It's a fun "caper" novel, with many merry twists and turns and surprises along the way. Williams does an excellent job of building a complex and convincing background, and the plot development is a lot of fun. Perfect for fans of Ron Goulart's comic romps and friends of Slippery Jim DiGriz.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read several very ho-hum books in a row, and thought ~I want to read something fun that I like!~ and looked for a book I hadn’t read by a favorite author: Sheri S. Tepper, Walter Jon Williams, etc.
WJW is one of my favorite authors, ever since the The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories and Lethe stories in the Gardner Dozois Danny l anthologies… I have read most of his books. This one however is slight. It’s not so much that there is anything wrong with it, it is just that it is slight. (I rated it two stars, except that’s what I just gave Oryx and Crake which was worse, so probably I need to go subtract a star from that one.)

A comedy-of-manners science fiction mystery. Made me think of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief, The Crown Conspiracy, those Michael Swanwick stories with the Dog, Surplus and Darger.

The future itself feels solid: although written in the 1980s this world has portable phones, video calls, fliers, household robots, media globes, reality TV, social media influencers, voice control, DVRs... mostly called other names of course.

*Khosali - the aliens with the empire.
*Human Constellation - area that rebelled against the empire a generation ago..
*Humanity Prime - group formed to assure human domination of the Constellation.
*the Diadem - 300 human celebrities who are part of an ongoing reality TV show.
_______________________
Character List (just for me)
Drake Maijstral - human, gentleman thief. Wears a white ring. Quotes fee of 60 to Miss Jensen.

Etienne - human, mustacheio, eyeglass from duel,

Nichole - tall blonde, 32. Beautiful, media-savvy. Member of Human Diadem. Invites Lt. Navarre to supper but he turns her down.

Roman - Khosalikh. Maijstral 's servant. Strong, loyal. Admires Nichole.

Baron Sinn - Khosali. Tall, pointed, ebony.

Pietro Quijano - high boots, gangly. Knows Miss Jensen. Post-grad Student in mathematics.

Miss Amalia Jensen - park hair it, serious mien. Has some biz re an antiquity.

Khottvin - giant Khosalikh henchman. impressed into service with Secret Dragoons after an armed robbery.

Countess Anastasia - 50s, blue eyed, fair. Notices everything. Knew Maijstral's father; annoys M. Wants the Empire restored.

Lieutenant Navarre - tall, 30, coppery. In mourning for uncle, inherited property. Pompey Sea Scouts. Asks Maijstral about his relationship with Miss Jensen.

Count Quick - Troxan (no external ears).

Paavo Kusinen - slight, cool, middle-aged. Traveling alone on business. Empire-style coat. Surveilling action for unclear reasons.

General Gerald - retired Marine. Looks angry. Threatens Maijstral during dance. Accuses Baron Sinn of being a spy.

Lord Giddon - owed money by Maijstral's father.

Gregor Norman - works for Maijstral. 20s, red hair, lanky, intense. Cheeky accent. Lots of gadgets.

Admiral Jack Scholder - Lieutenant Navarre's uncle. HCN, retired, deceased.
Sergeant Tvi - impressed into service with His Imperial Majesty’s Secret Dragoons after bunging a burglary

Chang & Bix - henchmen

Captain Tartaglia - Miss Jensen's boss

[Kate Fall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book but it was too short. By the time the worldbuilding is done and I could get immersed in the story, the book was over.

This novel takes place in the far future in a human solar system that was formerly ruled by an alien race. The Earthlings have just won a war of independence, but their social structures are still based on alien customs. So there are a lot of great ideas to mine here. The setting overwhelmed the plotting and characterization somewhat. The main character, Maijstral, is a gentleman thief. There are specific rules he has to follow to stay out of jail. His family is agitating politically to return to the alien empire. But we never really know how Maijstral feels about the empire, or independence. He's just typically amoral and sort of hard to like or know. He's not perfect, but he feels like an empty shell. One early passage describes how he got interested in sneaking around as opposed to direct confrontation, but the characterization never threads through the rest of the novel.

I really enjoyed the side characters and wouldn't mind seeing more of them. They had stronger emotions, passions, and goals. This was a fascinating world, but I'm not sure the rogue type character would have been its best guide. Try this out if you like fantasy with witty dialogue and a very unique world of alien formal manners and spies.

[Al Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprising gem. Brilliant, witty and amusing.

I fell in love with this world in which nobility live off of their media popularity and Allowed Burglary is less about stealing things as it is about pulling off the crime and selling the rights.

[Grimgrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. If you like Stainless Steel Rat you will like this book and its sequel House of Shards.

[Stephan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a relative disappointment - but only because I have high expectations of Walter Jon Williams. The world-building is excellent. I like the way the hybrid human-alien-culture works seemlessly, and that the reader is often as oblivious to which alien race characters are as they seem to be themselves. The dialogues are fun, but the main protagonists stay somewhat flat (the minor actors have more character). Williams tries too keep to many things in the air at the same time. In the end, he gets everything together - or maybe he has the reader confused enough not to notice any inconsistencies. Overall not a bad read, but it feels like he is practicing for the Praxis. Read that first.

[R.]

I read one or two Arsène Lupin gentleman thief novels in my youth and has had a weakness for the genre since. No wonder I love the Maijstral books then. The "Quantum thief" series was good as well, but set in a more cyberpunk universe. The stainless steel rat is a principled thief but not quite a gentleman. All recommended though!

Walter Jon Williams sort of balances on the rim just below greatness. I liked most of his books, loved a few and disliked a few. Have read maybe 8-10 of his books.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a quick read. Luckily.

My guess is that Williams saw the void that is SF Humor and thought to himself, "God, I could make a killing!" and rushed off to write this "Divertimenti" in one draft, then sat back waiting to laugh his way to the bank. Of course, God must have been out to lunch or he would have sent Walter Jon a sign for his brain saying, "No humor aptitude here. Bank closed."

I'm being rough on Williams, and I'm doing it mainly because I'm afraid he might prove this whole article false and decide to write a series using the characters in this book. I don't mind being proved wrong as much as I mind the idea of these characters actually appearing in another book.

I would go into plot and characterization, but in these "humor" novels, that's what makes up the humor. Suffice it to say that you should treat yourself to anything by P.G. Wodehouse instead, or, if you must have some SF content in everything you read, a book by John Sladek or Bruce Sterling's novella, "The Beautiful and the Sublime." Hopefully, one of these will be easier to locate than The Crown Jewels.

[Jay S · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of the book is a pun - I was slightly disappointed when I discovered that. The main character is described so well I could know him. (However, I probably would not like him as a person. It doesn't matter, since he is a fictional character.)

Set in the future, Drake Maijstral is a titled person with little money or property. He has the "profession" of being a burglar - where his exploits are recorded and sold for entertainment purposes. He is expected not to cause personal damage, and is judged on his performance. (10 possible points for "style".) He is expected to ransom his items after a specified time, since the items stolen require to meet certain standards.

[Rosalind M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent part of my reading time imagining this as a movie, with Peter Sellers, Kevin Kline, John Cleese, and Rosalind Russell among the cast members. I can understand why Walter Jon Williams's regular reading audience might not have embraced this series when it was first introduced. Too bad; the juxtaposition of farce and elegance made for a delightful ride.

[Clyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Crown Jewels, the first Drake Maijstral adventure, is a quite enjoyable romp.
My thanks to Walter Jon Williams for re-releasing the series. I somehow quite missed them when they were originally published.

[Andy S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ha! Hillarious and involving at the same time. Williams demonstrates the heights (well, lows) to which he can take farce.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very funny and entertaining read.

[Chris Branch · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading this book and thinking ahead about writing this review, there were two points I planned to mention, and sure enough, both of them come up in the author’s essay about the series (http://www.walterjonwilliams.net/2011...).

One is the influence of the early Retief books by Laumer. Williams mentions other influences also, but this was the one that struck me - the pulpy science fictional setting is equally creative, even if most of the action in this book is a more down to earth variety.

The other is the type of comedy he was going for here, which is decidedly deadpan. It’s a dry and tightly controlled form of humor that’s undoubtedly hard to pull off, and even when successful, requires a certain sense of humor to fully appreciate. I think I’m almost the target audience for this, but it didn’t quite land as effectively as I’d have liked.

I think the reason was the writing style, which is purposely spare, lacking excessive explanatory text. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and it does give the book a polished elegance that contrasts interestingly with the relative absurdity of the plot - on the other hand, it means some effort is required on the part of the reader to keep track of the complexities of the society, the multitude of characters, and their relationships. In fact, the formal dance scenes (!) are kind of a metaphor for the whole book - I should have realized when I didn’t entirely follow the one at the beginning that I couldn’t just let it go and figure I’d catch up later.

But, not a bad effort at all; I may try the next in the series, and for best results I’ll do a better job giving it my full attention.

[Conrad Gempf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gentleman thief in the far future, incredible finesse and impeccable manners against the backdrop of the instellar societal norms that the conquered, then successfully rebellious, humans have adopted from the ancient Khosali Empire. What's not to like? Imagine Keith Laumer's Retief crossed with the Man from UNCLE with a just a touch of PG Wodehouse. How can you not love a hero who shoots an adorable R2D2-like droid with his disruptor for whistling and beeping while Beethoven's *Eroica* is playing? (NB — I do wish I had paid closer attention — maybe even taken notes — in the opening chapter in which the multiple minor characters were introduced.)

[Dan Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little sci-fi caper novel, with some interesting world-building as the background. I'll almost certainly read the next in the series, House of Shards.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading something over 20 years later can be risky, but I still very much liked this one. A clever and amusing caper.

[Daniel Barrows · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very funny and entertaining, but lacking in the intriguing ideas I look for in sci-fi.

[Scott Shjefte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story line, some sex stuff.

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quelle histoire, non mais quelle histoire !
Avant tout, un petit aperçu de la dite histoire. Drake Maijstral est un cambrioleur patenté, c'est-à-dire un voleur reconnu dans cette société galactique qui s'est émancipée d'un empire qui l'avait conquis. Dans cette société, en tant que cambrioleur patenté, il faut avoir du style. Et Drake en a. Il faut avoir des relations. Et Drake en a aussi. Il faut enfin envisager les bons larcins. Et c'est générallement le cas de Drake. Jusqu'à ce qu'on lui demande de voler une urne funéraire contenant ce que tout cambrioleur patenté redoute de voler : un objet d'une valeur trop importante pour qui que ce soit et dont dépend, en l'espèce, le sort de l'empire et de l'humanité indépendante ... rien que ça !
Il y a une légèreté, une finesse dans cette histoire, qui m'a rappelé les épisodes des aventures d'Arsène Lupin que diffusait jadis la télé. On y retrouve en effet ce cambrioleur, baignant dans un monde des plus chics, et toujours à l'affût d'un larcin de bon goût à comettre (sans ça, il perdrait des places au classement des cambrioleurs). Une finesse qu'on retrouve d'ailleurs aussi bien dans les différents personnages (au premier lieu desquels Drake et Nickole tiennent une place de choix) que dans l'extraordinaire construction du récit. Parce que je trouve extraordinaire que l'auteur ait imaginé une danse qui permette de faire les présentations dans la scène d'ouverture, tout en permettant de résoudre presque complètement l'histoire dans la scène finale. Qui plus est, l'auteur maitrîse suffisament sonr écit pour nous faire croire que cette scène d'ouverture n'est, de sa part, qu'un morceau de bravoure sans conséquence quand il s'agit en fait, d'une certaine manière, du rythme, de la musique qui va sous-tendre aussi bien le cambriolage, que les péripéthies le suivant.
Alors j'imagine que j'ai à la fois une faiblesse pour les récits mettant en scène les mauvais garçons remplis de style, mais aussi les récits d'une certaine légèreté (je pense, par exemple, au fabuleux Sans parler du chien). Du coup, forcément, ce récit m'a particulièrement plu. Non pas qu'il soit indispensable, malgré son regard assez acéré sur notre société du spectacle, mais il s'agit là d'un divertissement d'une qualité formidable. Alors du coup, je vous enjoins à lire cette aventure parfaitement distrayante.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know that Elvis' great good friend was Jesse James, who chose a life of crime because he was madly in love with Elvis' wife, Pamela, and Bat Masterson was out to get Jesse but Elvis had promised not to tell Jesse? That is the plot of Drake Maijstral's favourite western vid and he is sure it is a biography. Earth's galaxy has successfully broken away from the Khosali empire but there are still groups on both sides of the border who would like to turn back time. Maijstral, as an Allowed Burglar, doesn't care as much as others might since he has a living to make, but his aristocratic background may have a part to play as the thief & others play pass the parcel with an artifact which could determine the end of the empire or the fate of the galaxy. Lots of leaping about, plotting in corners and suits which mask your shape, especially at night. The author lists the book in a column titled Divertimenti and that is just what this space fantasy is, a Diversion.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved this on first read. I'm almost certain I wrote a detailed review, which GR has eaten! I'll look for a backup copy.
I did attempt to reread this a couple years back, when the library offered an (awful) Hoopla online ebook version. Well, price is right? Maybe. Terrible format!

Anyway, it didn't strike a spark the second time, so I'm dropping it back to 3-stars. But, according to GR, I've never read #2! Hope springs eternal . . .

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book attempts to be more clever than it should. It has some potential but it is a bit superficial and overly glib which leads to confusion about what is even happening in some scenes. It reads a bit like a screenplay actually, where some things would make sense if you could actually see what was happening but was confusing when it was just snippets of conversation.

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing SF novel about Maijstral, an Allowed Burglar. Detailed world-building, with several alien species, the Diadem (a type of high society with peculiar rituals like ear-sniffing), fancy burglar tech and dead people who still somehow send letters... I very much enjoyed the partner-swapping dance in the beginning and ending chapters and the mid-book rescue was hilarious.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this series a lot. Too bad there are only three books in the series, apparently they didn't sell very well. They remind me a lot of Alexei Panshin's Villier series, which also had a short run.

[Deathburst · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Lu en édition française chez Rivage, édition pas référencée sur GoodReads)

Très drôle, univers original, plein de sarcasme et de parodie. Écriture intéressante mais pas toujours évidente à suivre. M'a donné envie de lire la suite de la série.

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's such a shame that this book didn't gain a wider audience. Well-written, witty, clever, and highly entertaining---this is the sort of book you curl up with on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

And it took me much longer than it should have to realize the, um . . . pun in the title.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

WJW straps on his Keith Laumer suit to tell this tale of scifi hijinks, burglary and farce. Compared to his more serious cyber punk thrillers this may be a little too light and frothy for some readers, but it works on its own merits.

[Trinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny.

[Dan Walls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok, slow parts, premise is interesting. Master thief is allowed in the future, as long as they perform with panache.