31 May »
Bad Ronald
Bad Ronald Misfit teenager Ronald Wilby accidentally kills a neighborhood girl, and his hyper-protective mother hides him between the walls of their house. Years pass, and Ronald's mind slips into delusional fantasy. When his mother dies a new family with three teenage daughters moves in. Things go badly when Ronald decides the youngest belongs in his imaginary world. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
Bird Isle
Bird Isle Coves has more land on Bird Island than he can use. So he sells, using proceeds to renovate his hotel. He's happy with his buyers until he finds that none are exactly what they said they were. And one - or more - is bent on trouble. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
Chiroglyphs
Chiroglyphs
Death of a Solitary Chess Player
Death of a Solitary Chess Player Cover for the novel written by Jack Vance and published under the Ellery Queen name as "A Room to Die In".
Navigator
Navigator
Necker
Necker
Skywatch
Skywatch
Son Of The Tree
Son Of The Tree "The Tree ruled the horizons, shouldered aside the clouds, and wore thunder and lightning like a wreath of tinsels - it had come to be worshipped by the first marveling settlers on Kyril". Joe Smith arrives from Earth and soon is caught up in a political plot between opposing worlds. Ultimately he discovers the true, horrific nature of The Tree of Life... - summary from the official Jack Vance website
Strange People, Queer Notions
Strange People, Queer Notions While in Rome, art student Chuck Musgrave is offered a job painting pictures of Positano, a picturesque town south of Naples. When Chuck arrives in Positano, strange things begin to happen. It becomes clear that not all foreigners living in Positano are there for the scenery! - summary from the official Jack Vance website Cover created utilising an original photograph of Positano by the author.
Strange She Hasnt Written
Strange She Hasnt Written Cover for the novel written by Jack Vance and published under the Ellery Queen name as "The Four Johns".
The Cadwal Chronicles
The Cadwal Chronicles For centuries the breathtakingly beautiful planet Cadwal has been held in trust by a centuries-old Charter of Conservancy, created by the now-defunct Naturalist Society on Old Earth. Over time, restrictions on population expansion written into the Charter have become irksome to some who live on Cadwal—those who would take the unexploited wealth of Cadwal for themselves, also those forced to leave the planet to keep population in check. Glawen Clattuc grows to manhood within the insular community of Araminta Station, the primary settlement on the planet, and becomes attuned to conflicts among the parties wishing to break free of the Charter. He joins the Constabulary, and ties mysterious events and circumstances together. To uphold the Conservancy, much depends upon locating the original Charter document, which has been lost for many years; Glawen is chosen to search for the Charter, on backwater Earth and worlds beyond. - summary from the official Jack Vance website Original painting by Paul Rhoads; typesetting by Howard Kistler.
The Cadwal Chronicles 1 : Araminta Station
The Cadwal Chronicles 1 : Araminta Station At the remote end of Mircea's Wisp, far out on the galaxy's Perseid Arm, is the Purple Rose System - containing the three stars Lorca, Sing and Syrene. Around Syrene swings the spectacular planet Cadwal, which the now defunct Naturalist Society of Earth long ago chartered to forever protect from exploitation. Cadwal is administered from Araminta Station- where young Glawen Clattuc wonders what the future may hold for him in the hierarchic, constrained society of Cadwal. His budding relationship with the lovely Sessily Veder ends with her mysterious disappearance - casting Glawen into a strange adventure, and the unraveling of a potent conspiracy. - summary from the official Jack Vance website Original etching by Paul Rhoads; digital colouring and typesetting by Howard Kistler.
The Cadwal Chronicles 2 : Ecce and Old Earth
The Cadwal Chronicles 2 : Ecce and Old Earth The planet Cadwal has an ecosystem unique in the human-explored galaxy. A thousand years past it was set aside as a natural preserve, protected by law and covenant against colonization and exploitation. But there is a conspiracy to open the planet and its rich resources to commerce. Glawen Clattuc must find who is behind the sabotage, and bring them to justice - but discovers that his own family is involved! Ancient crimes will be discovered, along with the key to the crisis which threatens Cadwal. - summary from the official Jack Vance website Original etching by Paul Rhoads; digital colouring and typesetting by Howard Kistler.
The Cadwal Chronicles 3 : Throy
The Cadwal Chronicles 3 : Throy The Conservancy of Cadwal has a new Charter- thanks to the courage of Glawen Clattuc and his beloved Wayness Tamm. But this has not brought peace to the people of Cadwal - instead, it has polarized them. Led by exiles, anti-Conservancy forces continue work to open Cadwal to commercial exploitation, while a new extremist faction seeks to restore Cadwal to entirely natural condition. In the middle are the governors of the planet, and their police force. Newly-promoted Commander Glawen Clattuc is charged with apprehending the conspirators wherever they might flee, but he also has a personal agenda. After twenty years, he will solve the mystery of his mother's death. - summary from the official Jack Vance website Original etching by Paul Rhoads; digital colouring and typesetting by Howard Kistler.
The Dark Ocean
The Dark Ocean Betty Haverhill leaves San Francisco on an Italian freighter bound for ports in El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela, Spain and Italy. Among the passengers is Mik Finsch, a mysterious man-of-the-world. Betty's mild flirtation with Mik ends in a fight and the suicide of one of the passengers. Another "suicide" leaves no doubt in Betty's mind that Finsch is a murderer, and soon she's fighting for her own life. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Deadly Isles
The Deadly Isles A young scientist with ties to a family fortune survives a murder attempt while working in Tahiti. He discovers the identity of the assailant, but not the motive. For this, he follows the would-be murderer aboard an island-hopping passenger/cargo schooner bound for the Marquesas. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Flesh Mask
The Flesh Mask San Giorgio High School athlete Robert Struve's face is disfigured by an accident. Humiliated at a party by four popular girls, he lashes out - and as a result is sent away to reform school. Struve receives reconstructive surgery which transforms his appearance, then goes into the Army. Back in San Giorgio several years later, one of the girls is murdered, her face mutilated. A second girl is killed, and a third. Who could the murderer be? - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Fox Valley Murders
The Fox Valley Murders Ausley Wyett's release from prison after sixteen years in prison is an event of many consequences for the residents of San Rodrigo County, California. Five men whose testimonies led to Wyett's conviction receive threatening letters, and one by one become victims of fatal accidents. But there is no evidence of murder. For Acting Sheriff Joe Bain, proving Wyett's guilt - or innocence - is more than a matter of justice; while campaigning to be elected Sheriff, he must stubbornly protect Wyett from townspeople who insist upon immediate arrest - or a lynching. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Genesee Slough Murders
The Genesee Slough Murders Cover for the unfinished third Joe Bain novel. The plot outline is included in the Joe Bain omnibus edition, and this cover was created in order to include it in the omnibus cover image.
The House On Lily Street
The House On Lily Street Welfare worker Paul Gunther is killed when he looks into the blackmailing of some of his cases. Lieutenant George Shaw leads the murder investigation, which touches on the jazz community and beatnik culture of Oakland in the early 1960's. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Houses of Iszm
The Houses of Iszm The people of Iszm live in homes which are alive. Their dwellings are elaborate, hollow trees, wherein the very walls, floors - even furniture and plumbing - are all part of a living plant. For decades, inhabitants of other worlds, including Earth, have been trying to steal a female house seed, but every attempt has failed. This is the story of a most ingenious plot to carry off a prize worth billions: one seed from the Houses of Iszm. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Joe Bain Mysteries
The Joe Bain Mysteries Bucolic San Rodrigo County, nestled in California's Coast Range, is home to communities of truck farms, fruit orchards, and sleepy gas stations. The passing of old sheriff Cucchinello has left county law enforcement in the hands of officer Joe Bain, single father of a teenage daughter. The responsibilities of the acting sheriff are suddenly complicated — in a dangerous way — when residents of Fox Valley and Pleasant Grove begin to die under violent and unlikely circumstances. Acting Sheriff Bain is caught between the political necessities of an upcoming election, and the urgent need to solve grisly crimes committed against ordinary folk of Rodrigo County. Published together in the Joe Bain omnibus are The Fox Valley Murders and The Pleasant Grove Murders, hard-to-find examples of Jack Vance's masterful detective fiction from the '60s. Vance brings rural California from a half-century ago to vivid life, and introduces a variety of intricate characters with all the detail readers expect from his fantasy and science fiction works. These two books, with an accompanying outline for a third entry in the Joe Bain series, The Genesee Slough Murders, demonstrate Vance's ability to transport his readers into a seamlessly-crafted locale, teeming with believable characters who grab your interest from the first page. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Man in the Cage
The Man in the Cage Junketing around the Mediterranean in petty smuggling operations, Noel Hutson liked to think of himself as a gallant adventurer. But in the middle of a North African desert kasbah, with a truckload of contraband, the American feels less and less like a swashbuckling hero. Forced to reload his truck with a very suspicious cargo, he writes to his family asking for help. Noel disappears, and his brother Darrell comes to find him. Darrell's search takes him to the ancient city of Fez, and into the desert- along the way meeting fanatics, beautiful women, and villains. An exciting suspense novel about an American making his way through a restless society of smuggling, murder, and North African politics. Winner of the Edgar Award, 1961. - summary from the official Jack Vance website
The Man Who Walks Behind
The Man Who Walks Behind Cover for the novel written by Jack Vance and published under the Ellery Queen name as "The Madman Theory".
The Pleasant Grove Murders
The Pleasant Grove Murders In this second mystery novel of the Sheriff Joe Bain series, the appealing and energetic Sheriff of San Rodrigo County, California, is once again beset by extraordinary complications and diversions in the midst of trying to solve three brutal hammer murders. His career is threatened with a political smear, his ego damaged losing a fight with a suspect, and his bachelorhood threatened by several wonderfully bizarre encounters with a lovely young woman named Luna. - summary from the official Jack Vance website