Books by Jack Vance

Here in one unforgettable volume are three of Jack Vance's best novellas-rich adventures of humanity in crisis, showcasing Vance's stylistic flair, creative ingenuity, wit, and storytelling skill: the Hugo-winning "The Dragon Masters," Hugo and Nebula-winning "The Last Castle", and that gem of science re-born, "The Miracle Workers".Resilient Joaz Banbeck of Aerlith sends his remarkable dragons against the non-human Basics. Xanten of Castle Hagedorn deals with the alien Meks, in their war of retribution on our own beleaguered, far-future Earth; the pragmatic Sam Salazar outdoes his betters, to save the last remnants of the human race on Pangborn.

Fifteen-year-old Dick Murdoch leaves Venus to meet his father Paul on the Moon. On the voyage there, the captain stops to examine the wreckage of a sister spaceship. No one knows what attacked the ship-some say it's the Basilisk. Dick's adventures aboard spaceship and on the Moon start to pay off as he finds more and more clues.

In these early novellas SF Grand Master Jack Vance tells tales of fanaticism, interplanetary politics, intrigue and subterfuge, while displaying his trademark gifts for inventiveness, rich detail and colorful description.Son of the Tree - Joe, a young Earthman, finds himself stranded on Kyril, a planet of five billion peasants, two million Druids-and a great Tree. The Tree, worshiped by the Druids, towers twelve miles from root to ultimate bud, shouldering the clouds, wearing lightning like a tinsel wreath. Joe is swept up in a swirl of change, at the center of which is a potted plant - the Son of the Tree!The Houses of Iszm - masters of botany for 200,000 years, the Iszic have developed strains of living houses, semi-intelligent organic units which need no crude additions such as furniture, plumbing or décor, and can be grown for the price of seed - the solution to the housing needs of a galaxy! The Iszic are protective of their lucrative monopoly, and when botanist Aile Farr of Earth arrives for a visit, he is under immediate suspicion of attempting to steal a female house. So begins a cat-and-mouse game between the graceful, unfailingly courteous Iszic, and a determined man of Earth.

THE BLUE WORLD, a beautiful world, a world of water, with floating islands made by the thick, spreading tops of gigantic ocean growths, big enough to support neat houses and sea 'gardens' alive with fish of all kinds, rich with edible water plants, and even communication towers so that the People of the Floats were not cut off from one another but could send messages and enjoy festivals and meetings together.Except for one thing. The massive abundance of the ocean spawned far more than food and sustenance for the puny humans living on its surface. The Floats were in constant danger from the ravaging attacks of great sea creatures against which there was no defense - except mealy-mouthed propitiation.THE BLUE WORLD needed a rebel, one who would give his life if necessary.

Grand Master Jack Vance's haunting tale of the search for identity across time and space.

Far in the future, the craftsmen of the distant planet Halma create goods which are the wonder of the galaxy, but the use of automation is punishable by death. When Amiante is executed for processing old documents with a camera, his son Ghyl rebels and decides to bring down the system.