The Gray Prince
.jpg)
Cover of the first paperback edition
|
|
| Author | Jack Vance |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Patrick Woodroffe |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Published | December 1975 Avon |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 173 pp |
| ISBN | |
The Gray Prince is a science fiction novel by Jack Vance, first published in two parts in Amazing Science Fiction magazine (August and October 1974 issues) with the title The Domains of Koryphon. Given that the novel's setting, the planet Koryphon, is integral to the plot, The Gray Prince may be said to belong to the science fiction subgenre of the planetary romance. Also significant in this regard is the work's original title, The Domains of Koryphon, which gives prominence to the setting of the conflict narrated in the novel rather than to one of its many characters.
The setting of Koryphon allows Vance to create multiple conflicting xenologies. The planet is home to two alien species, one of which, the morphotes, is indigenous, while the other, the seemingly beast-like erjins, proves to be exogenous and to have possessed in the past a material and technical culture complex enough to allow space travel. The cultures of Koryphon's four human societies are described in greater detail, however: the inhabitants of Szintarre, one of the planet's continents, are urban and sophisticated; the so-called Land Barons of the Alouan, part of the larger continent of Uaia, are a self-sufficient landed aristocracy; and the Uldras of the Alouan and the Wind Runners of the adjacent Palga plateau are nomadic barbarian tribes, which, unlike the other two secular and technically advanced societies, practise religious beliefs that are suggestive of shamanism and voodoo, and which also involve the use of fetishes. The magic of the Uldras and the Wind Runners is presented as real rather than merely superstition, however, in that it has a real effect upon those against whom it is employed. In this respect, Vance suggests the existence of a phenomenology that has been lost by or is inaccessible to the characters in the novel who are from secular, technical societies.
The conflict central to the plot arises from opposing claims to the land of the Alouan on the Uaia continent, with one side (the Uldras) asserting a right derived from original tenancy and the other (the Land Barons or "Outkers") a right based on the strength and determination to defend established property ownership, even if the property in question was originally stolen. Exploring the theme of barbarism versus civilisation, Vance would ultimately seem to argue that a societal mean is the most preferable of all possible worlds. The society of Szintarre has become over-civilised and proves too weak to defend itself when the erjins that the rights-obsessed city-dwellers hypocritically keep as slaves rise up against them. On the other hand, the Land Barons, who are in effect settled reavers and are rustic and quaint in comparison with urbane Szintarre society, nonetheless bring the benefits of civilisation (basic healthcare, education, reliable sources of drinking water, etc.) to the Uldras, curbing their more violent and barbarous customs, while otherwise allowing them to continue their traditional way of life unhindered.
...
Wikipedia