#19

Christ, I'm only on pace to read 40 books this year. Inexcusable! Better get it in gear this summer.

OK, I've mentioned before how these Demon Princes novels are formulaic, but Vance is so imaginative the ride is always worth it. Here for the confrontation between Kirth Gersen and his final victim we have as setting a planet set aside for study of its unmolested flora and fauna. The few pages of description of the creatures and their habits is alone worth the price of the book. I'm sad to have finished the series, much as I was when I finished the superior Dying Earth novels. But there's a lot of Jack Vance to go, and I will seek him out again.