Ports of Call (Vance novel)

Ports of Call

Dust-jacket illustration from the first mass-market hardcover edition
Author	Jack Vance
Cover artist	Vladimir Nenov
Language	English
Series	Gaean Reach
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Tom Doherty
Publication date	April 1998
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	294
ISBN	0-312-85801-9
OCLC	37513050
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 21
LC Class	PS3572.A424 P67 1998
Followed by	Lurulu

Ports of Call is a 1998 science fiction adventure novel by American writer Jack Vance. Followed by the novel Lurulu , it tells the story of a young man named Myron Tany on a picaresque journey through the Gaean Reach.

Plot summary

Myron's family intended for Myron to follow a staid and respectable career in economics; however, when his wealthy and eccentric great-aunt Dame Hester came into possession of a space yacht, Myron suddenly found his long suppressed dreams of adventure within reach. Serving as Dame Hester's nominal captain on her journey to find a clinic reputed to restore lost youth to wealthy clients, Myron soon finds that his aunt is capricious as she is flamboyant, and after an argument, finds himself cast away on a remote planet. With no resources to return home, he obtains the position of supercargo on a tramp freighter, which enables him to travel further across the Gaean Reach to exotic lands.

Reception

F&SF reviewer Elizabeth Hand praised Ports of Call as "delightful," declaring that "one enjoys Ports of Call as one does a Restoration comedy, for the sheer outrageous of its characters and the precision of Vance's often lunatic descriptive powers." ^[1]

References

1. Hand, Elizabeth (August 1998). "Books: Ports of Call". F&SF . Retrieved August 13, 2011.

External links

• Ports of Call title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database