Plot summary
Son of the Tree begins with the arrival of Joe Smith on the planet Kyril, so distant that Earth is but a myth. Kyril is dominated by a religious aristocracy called "Druids", who rule over the five billion commoner "Laity", and who control worship of the "Tree of Life", a huge tree with a trunk five miles in diameter and twelve miles high. The Druids are xenophobic, and consider Joe to be a spy. For unknown reasons, he is befriended by Hableyat, a native of the world of Mangtse and self-admitted spy, who finds him a job as a chauffeur for Druid Princess Elfane.
After witnessing a murder committed by Princess Elfane's lover Manaolo, Joe Smith flees Kyril on the spaceship Belsaurion, bound for the world Ballenkarch, his original destination – only to find that his fellow passengers include Hableyat, Manaolo and Princess Elfane, and that he is caught up as a pawn in a complex three-way political plot between the opposing worlds. Surviving a couple of murder attempts and puzzling over the intentions of Hableyat and Princess Elfane, he arrives on Ballenkarch, where he finds to his surprise that the Earthman he was seeking has made himself ruling prince, with the woman he left behind on Earth as his princess. However, his biggest surprise is yet to come, when he discovers the horrific true nature of the so-called "Tree of Life".
John Holbrook "Jack" Vance was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under different pen names.
Unspiek, Baron Bodissey, is a fictional character referred to in many of the novels of speculative-fiction author Jack Vance. Within those novels he has the status of an authority, but he is sometimes referred to with amusement or scepticism. Like the 'mad poet' Navarth, he first appeared in the Demon Princes sequence but also is alluded to in a number of other unrelated stories. Unlike Navarth, the Baron never appears in person in these novels, but his monumental, many-volume work Life is frequently quoted. The lengthiest citations from it appear, with varying degrees of apparent relevance, as epigraphs to various chapters in the Demon Princes novels. Otherwise, the Baron and his work are occasionally referred to in passing or quoted by characters in the tales. Fictional reviews of Life also appear in The Killing Machine and The Face, usually dismissing it as snobbish, elitist and pretentious; one reviewer expresses a desire to thrash the Baron within an inch of his life before buying him a drink.
Doctor Druid, also known as Doctor Droom and Druid, is a fictional character, a supernatural monster-hunter appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
The Gods of Mars is a science fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs and the second of Burroughs' Barsoom series. It features the characters of John Carter and Carter's wife Dejah Thoris. It was first published in The All-Story as a five-part serial in the issues for January–May 1913. It was later published as a complete novel by A. C. McClurg in September, 1918 and in many editions subsequently.
Sword and planet is a subgenre of science fantasy that features rousing adventure stories set on other planets, and usually featuring humans as protagonists. The name derives from the heroes of the genre engaging their adversaries in hand-to-hand combat primarily with simple melée weapons such as swords, even in a setting that often has advanced technology. Although there are works that herald the genre, such as Percy Greg's Across the Zodiac (1880) and Edwin Lester Arnold's Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation, the prototype for the genre is A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs originally serialized by All-Story in 1912 as "Under the Moons of Mars".
The Dawning Light is a 1959 science fiction novel published under the name Robert Randall, collaborative pseudonym of American writers Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett. It depicts the changes, after the events of The Shrouded Planet by the same authors, in the society of the fictional planet Nidor, a world perpetually covered in dense cloud, inhabited by humanoids resembling humans but differing in several respects, notably in being covered from head to foot in short downy fur. The technological level of the society is about that of Renaissance Europe, and has been that way for thousands of years.
Kyril, Prince of Preslav, Duke in Saxony, also known as Kyril of Saxe-Coburg, is the second son of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2001–5, and Margarita Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
The Dying Earth is a collection of fantasy short fiction by American writer Jack Vance, published by Hillman in 1950. Vance returned to the setting in 1965 and thereafter, making it the first book in the Dying Earth series. It is retitled Mazirian the Magician in its Vance Integral Edition (2005), after the second of six collected stories.
The Eyes of the Overworld is a fantasy fix-up novel by American writer Jack Vance, published by Ace in 1966, the second book in the Dying Earth series that Vance inaugurated in 1950. Retitled Cugel the Clever in its Vance Integral Edition (2005), the book features the self-proclaimed Cugel the Clever in linked stories.
Big Planet is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance. It is the first novel sharing the same setting, an immense, but metal-poor and backward world called Big Planet.
The Houses of Iszm is a science fiction novella by American writer Jack Vance, which appeared in Startling Stories magazine in 1954. It was reissued in book form in 1964 as part of an Ace Double novel, together with Vance's Son of the Tree. The story published in Startling Stories is about 22,000 words while the version that appears in the Ace Double still less than novel length at about 30,000 words. The Houses of Iszm was re-published as a stand-alone volume in 1974 by Mayflower.
The Pnume is a science fiction adventure novel by American writer Jack Vance. The last book in the tetralogy of Planet of Adventure, it tells of the efforts to return to Earth by the sole survivor of a human starship destroyed while investigating a mysterious signal from the distant planet Tschai.
Lest We Forget Thee, Earth is a fix-up novel derived from three short stories written by Robert Silverberg under the pen-name Calvin M. Knox and released in 1958. They are, in order; "Chalice of Death", "Earth Shall Live Again!" and "Vengeance of the Space Armada". This novel extends the three stories previously published in 1957 and 1958 in the magazine Science Fiction Adventures.
Maske: Thaery is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, set in his Gaean Reach milieu, which was first published as a paperback by Berkley Books, the science-fiction imprint of Putnam, in 1976. Maske: Thaery marks the beginning of the period when Vance's novels were published exclusively straight to paperback, whereas prior to this the majority had first appeared in science fiction magazines, the last such examples being Durdane trilogy, serialised in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1971 to 1973, The Gray Prince, serialised in Amazing Science Fiction in 1974, and Marune: Alastor 933, also serialised in Amazing Science Fiction in 1974. The twofold title of Maske: Thaery, with its separating colon, would suggest that it was originally intended to be part of a serial, similar to the Alastor novels, although no further volumes were written: instead, Vance completed his Demon Princes series, after a hiatus of more than a decade, with The Face (1979) and The Book of Dreams (1981), before embarking on his Lyonesse trilogy (1983–89).
The Five Gold Bands is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, first published in the November 1950 issue of Startling Stories magazine. It was published in 1953 as a separate book under the title The Space Pirate, and in 1963 it was paired with Vance's Hugo Award-winning novella The Dragon Masters in the form of an Ace Double.
Black Legion of Callisto is a science fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the second in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in December 1972, and reprinted twice through January 1974. The first British edition was published by Orbit Books in 1975. It was later gathered together with Jandar of Callisto into the omnibus collection Callisto: Volume 1 (2000). The book includes an appendix collating background information from this and the previous volume.
"Abercrombie Station" is a science fiction short story by American author Jack Vance. It first appeared in the February 1952 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. It is about an orphaned 16-year-old girl, Jean Parlier, who is hired to seduce a wealthy heir to a luxury space station-resort. On her arrival at the space station, she discovers lies, moral turpitude, and betrayal. In 1965, it was packaged with the sequel, Cholwell's Chickens, as Monsters in Orbit and published in an Ace Double edition. In 1976 it was reprinted, with the original title, in The Best of Jack Vance. Most recently, it appeared in Hard Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance, published in 2010 by Subterranean Press.
Dying Earth is a subgenre of science fantasy or science fiction which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth or the end of time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail. Themes of world-weariness, innocence, idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources, and the hope of renewal dominate.
