The Dragon Masters: The Definitive Edition Of The Hugo - ... (ISBN 0743474678)

two great stories from a great writer:
The Dragon Masters is great reading. you never know how is going to end. The battle sequences are presented with ability and you feel like you are in the middle of the action. Like always with Vance, he manages to create human and alien cultures wich are believable and at the same do not resemble or copy any culture we know. The thing about this story is the sense of decadence and fatality of humanity. It is suppose to be in the far away future after a great and destructive war, and it appears like the once powerful humans wich controlled a lot of planets under their rule are now just a group of a few tribes living in the small valleys of a harsh planet. An alien race comes to this planet every time its home planet orbits near, and they use its technical superiority to enslave humans. What to do? How do we face such an enemy? Is it true there are no humans elsewhere? But besides the alien menace, the tribes engage in war between them. Are doomed the humans because they can not stop fighting each other? This is a story about hope, about defeat and about the uncertainty of the future. Finally I want to make a WARNING: if you have not read this book and you do not know any specific details about the story, avoid reading the backcover. I can't understand why, but the publisher reveals the greatest plot twist in the story. I never read this kind of information because I want to be surprised in my reading. After I finished reading this book I read the backcover and I couldn't believe what they said. Also in this book is another story: The Last Castle. I'm only going to mention one thing. You've got to read this because of the human culture depicted here. To see those men handle the extreme situation in which they are is at the same time hilarious and stressful. One last thing. It is true that after you finish reading these two stories you wish they were longer, but not because there is a lack of charachter development or because something is missing, but because they are so damn good. It is good to know that in the middle of all the garbage fantatstical stories that are published today (Jordan, Eddings, etc) there is great SF and F to be found, there is always Jack Vance.

Vance at near the top of his form: elegant, imaginative, baroque:
Jack Vance is one of the greatest SF writers of all time, an SFWA Grand Master, an inimitable prose stylist, as individual a writer as anyone. He has won two Hugo awards and one Nebula, for two long novellas from the 60s. These are "The Dragon Masters" (1962) and "The Last Castle" (1966). (The latter won both awards -- the former having been published prior to the establishment of the Nebulas.) These stories have long been associated with each other, not just because they both won Hugos, but because they share certain themes, and because they have been published together as an Ace Double. This new book, called simply The Dragon Masters, brings these two stories together again. Both stories are set in the far future, and they feature humans enslaving genetically modified aliens. In each, the plot turns on a war between the humans and the aliens. The two stories are quite cynical, and our admiration for the heroes is tempered by our natural antipathy for some of their attitudes and actions. In "The Dragon Masters", humans have almost been eradicated. Those that remain are mostly slaves of aliens, modified for special uses; except on one planet, where a few remain free. Indeed, these free humans have captured some aliens and radically modified them for their own uses. The hero, Joaz Banbeck, is a very Vancean hero, dour, misogynistic, intelligent but resigned. He has determined that the aliens are due to return, and he tries to organize a defence while dealing with a foolish enemy in the next valley, and also with the reclusive humans who live underneath the ground. The story works its way to a logical and rather bitter and uncompromising conclusion. The science is not terribly plausible (though I can think of ways to paper over the worst bits), but the description is good, and the action is sound. The story moves well and fascinates. And the prose is enjoyable as ever with Vance, if perhaps not tuned to the highest pitch of Vancean elegance. In "The Last Castle", a group of decadent humans have returned to a long-abandoned Earth and set up an effete society in several "castles". The labour is performed by various genetically conditioned alien races. For example, the Phanes are beautiful elfin creatures sometimes used as sexual playthings. The Peasants perform menial chores. And the Meks are a hive-like species used to maintain the technological underpinnings. The Meks have finally revolted, and using their control of the technology, they have destroyed all the castles, until only the strongest, Castle Hagedorn, remains. The story turns on the ineffectual attempts of the humans to resist -- most are too concerned with their "honour", unable to sully themselves by any hint of labour, to put up a real resistance. Others refuse to kill aliens for what seems an arguably just rebellion anyway. Only a few see that the only hope for humanity is to regain a semblance of a work ethic and to cast off the decadent ways of the aristocratic society. The prose and characterization here is more effective than in "The Dragon Masters", but I thought the plot resolution less convincing. This is an extremely welcome reissue. It is worth noting that the text is based on that of the Vance Integral Edition, the result of a wonderful project to create, in 44 volumes, a corrected edition of all of Vance's work, under the supervision of the author himself.

All the strengths of classic SF, and many of the weaknesses.:
Science fiction changed forever when the Viking probe landed on Mars in 1976 and sent back color pictures. No longer could SF writers set their stories among the "canals" of Mars, or have colonists romping across the planet without spacesuits. Much previous SF had also contained elements of fantasy, including epic family sagas or unrealistically fantastic depictions of other planets. At the same time, fantasy began to emerge as a separate genre, led by the sword and sorcery epics of Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson. The Viking probe's real science and the rise of fantasy drove SF into the new level of scientific depth that permeates the genre today. However, old-school SF, like Jack Vance, still offers the mix of science and the fantastic that dominated science fiction before the mid 1970s. _The Dragon Masters_ features genetically engineered dragons and the remnants of the human race fighting for survival on a barren planet. This 1962 Hugo Award-winning SF classic has been reissued in a "Definitive Edition" single volume, along with _The Last Castle_, a novella that was the other half of the 1966 Ace Double of _The Dragon Masters_. This novel has all the hallmarks of classic SF: a fascinating world with a strange semi-human race, intricate backstory detailing the colonization, a technologically superior alien antagonist, human application of science in the breeding of battle dragons, and a climax that forces the human characters to ponder their role in the universe. Vance has clearly worked out the intricate details of the colonists, the semi-human sacerdotes, and the countless types of bred dragons. These elements seem scattered as the plot moves through the immediate conflict between two settlements of colonists, but they all converge in the climactic final battle. _The Dragon Masters_ also has many of the shortcomings of classic SF. The characterization is paper-thin. Huge sections, including all of Chapter 2, are devoted to political backstory. The various battles, which take up three-quarters of the novel, are depicted from a distant, unit-level perspective. The narrative lists how many dragons of each different type went where, but it never shows the combat up-front through the eyes of a character. Over forty years after it was written, _The Dragon Masters_ stands as a well-developed and solidly written example of the classic SF style that mixed elements of science and fantasy. It isn't as scientifically rigorous as modern SF, and it isn't as detailed as modern fantasy, but its middle ground between those extremes offers an accessible read for modern fans of either genre.

Exciting, and also thought provoking SF:
This review refers only to the Dragon Masters story. I picked up recently an old ACE paperback of this, and having not read Vance before, was really pleased. The "novel's" (actually a novella in length) action all takes place on the distant and desolate planet Aerlith. The planet, or at least the part that interests the reader, is occupied by two groups of men living in two different valleys. One group led by Joaz Banbeck live in Banbeck Vale. Joaz rules like a Renaissance prince. His interests are varied and intellectual, but he's no fop either, and can be ruthless as occasion warrants. Nearby is (the ironically titled) Happy Valley, ruled by Ervis Carcolo, a courageous but often stupid and impulsive man. At the time Dragon Masters was written (1962), you had a Cold War in full chill. The parallel between East and West is obvious. Also on the planet is a mystic group called the Sacerdotes - who represent a future Church of some sort. And "out there" - the Basics, a lizard like race that runs itself on science - they also strike the reader as Nazi-like in their harvesting of humans. Banbeck fears a return of the Basics, and urges Carcolo to also prepare. Both leaders have on hand armies comprised of dragons. Getting the difference between the various dragon types is difficult at best. But once battle is joined, you don't seem to mind as much as you keep turning the pages. Interestingly, the Basics are themselves related to the very dragons the humans have subdued, probably as a result of long-ago (and improbable) defeat they suffered at the hands of the humans. But Carcolo is deceitful, and as a result an unnecessarily divided humanity faces a dicey situation beneath the hovering enemy ship. What happens? Read and see. Oh, and the Sacerdotes also, despite themselves, have a role to play. Overall, I like Vance's ability to draw you into an action packed story, while at the same time say things about the human condition that are as timeless as something you might find in the Bible or in Myth. And that's good writing, whatever the genre.

Great long short story...:
Wonderful little story. The concept was wonderfully executed, these two species using genetically bred versions of each other, battling it out. Vance is just a very, very good writer is what it comes down to. I think this would make an amazing RTS videogame concept also... well ahead of its' time. Definitely should have been extended out into a full novel or a series. I, like others, was left wanting more, which is why I give it a 4 and not a 5. I liked it as a tiny paperback. But it's a little short for a $10 or $11 book.