The Gray Prince

The Gray Prince

Cover of the first paperback edition
Author Jack Vance
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Avon
Publication date
 December 1975
Media type Print (paperback)
Pages 173 pp
ISBN 0-380-00555-7

The Gray Prince is a science fiction novel by Jack Vance, first published in two parts in Amazing Science Fiction[1] 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 Gray Prince as xenological fiction

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.

Narrative

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.

Bildungsroman and initiatory journey

Jean-François Jamoul divides the narratives found in the novels of Jack Vance into two possible categories: the bildungsroman ("le roman de formation et d'expérience") and the initiatory journey ("le voyage initiatique"), citing Emphyrio, the Durdane trilogy, the Demon Princes series, and Maske: Thaery as examples of the former and the Tschai series as an example of the latter.[2] The Gray Prince might be said to include the two different kinds of narrative within the same novel, with the same character as the protagonist of each. That character is Elvo Glissam, an independently wealthy young man, who arrives on Koryphon and in Szintarre becomes involved in one of the various political groups campaigning for the rights of the planet's natives. At a soirée, he accepts an invitation from Schaine Madduc, the daughter of a Land Baron, to visit her father's domain in the Alouan. On the way, their aircraft is shot down and the party embarks upon an arduous trek across the wilderness, during which they are attacked by both Uldra tribesmen and wild erjins. Glissam, an urbanite who has previously lived a life of ease, comes face to face with death and gains experience of life in the raw. Glissam meets the challenges and gives a good account of himself, but ultimately he refuses to relinquish the political beliefs that civilised society has inculcated in him. His initiatory journey takes place when he joins a quest to the Palga plateau undertaken by Gerd Jemasze, a Land Baron whose domain borders the Madducs', and Kurgech, a shaman of the Ao tribe resident on the Madducs' Morningswake estate. Jemasze and Kurgech are seeking the answer as to why Schaine's father, Uther, was murdered shortly after visiting the Palga and what was the secret, or "joke" as he referred to it, he discovered when he was there. The journey, which they make in one of the Wind Runners' sail wagons, takes them to a sacred forest. There, Kurgech engages in a battle of magic against the Wind Runner priests, assisted by Jemasze, but this is an initiatory test that the civilised Glissam fails: the Wind Runners are easily able to manipulate his thoughts by telepathic magic, until Jemasze breaks the spell for him. The three manage to escape and at the edge of the Palga plateau, bordering the Morningswake estate, they discover a hidden erjin temple carved from the solid rock. Here, Glissam fails yet again: under attack by the erjins, he despairs and allows himself to be shot, almost bringing disaster upon his two companions, who nonetheless manage to save him and bring him back to Morningswake. Uther Madduc's "joke" is that the erjins are not wild beasts but sentient beings and therefore have an earlier and better claim to the land than the Uldras, although by the same logic the only rightful owners of the planet are the indigenous morphotes.

Setting

The planet Koryphon is part of Jack Vance's overarching Gaean Reach science-fiction setting, which he defines in the Prologue to The Gray Prince as follows: "the Gaean Reach encompasses a perceptible fraction of the galaxy. Trade routes thread space like capillaries in living tissue; thousands of worlds have been colonized, each different from every other, each working its specific change upon those men who live there. Never has the human race been less homogenous."[3] The planet has two continents, Uaia to the north and Szintarre to the south, separated by the Persimmon Sea. The littoral of Uaia, known as the Alouan, is inhabited by the Uldras, consisting of various tribes, some of which signed the so-called Submission Treaties with the Land Barons two hundred years prior to the timeframe of the novel, while the others retained their own lands, known as the Retent. Szintarre is a long, narrow island, whose capital, Olanje, is a sophisticated, fashionable resort for Outkers ("out-worlders" in general) and also the seat of the planet's single organ of government, the Mull, which sits in Holrude House. The Mull is disdained by the Land Barons, who see it as "an organ for the production of inconsequential sophistry."[4] The Retent Uldras, led by the Gray Prince, attempt to manipulate the Mull as a means of evicting the Land Barons, but otherwise reject all centralised authority. The Wind Runners of the Palga Plateau of the Uaia continent are ignorant of the very existence of the Mull.

The linguistic setting

As Jacques Chambon observes, the dialogue in almost all Vance's novels is understood to be an often approximate translation of a fictional language.[5] We are given a glimpse of one such alien future language in the Prologue to The Gray Prince, where, in a footnote, the term Land Baron is said to be an unsatisfactory translation of "eng'sharatz (literally: the revered master of a large domain)".[6] Elsewhere, one of the characters employs the term "weldewiste", which is explained in a footnote—also providing a metafictional rationale of Vance's own xenological approach—as "a word from the lexicon of social anthropology, to sum up a complicated idea comprising the attitude with which an individual confronts his environment [...] his character and personality from the purview of comparative culture."[7] Other examples of "untranslatable" concepts that form part of the phenomenology of the alien cultures of Koryphon are the Uldra word "aurau" ("said of a tribesman afflicted with revulsion against civilized restrictions, and sometimes of a caged animal yearning for freedom")[8] and "Sarai", the geographical name for the Windrunners' plateau, but suggestive of "a limitless expanse, horizon to horizon, of land or water, lacking all impediments or obstacle to travel and projecting an irresistible urgency to be on the way, to travel toward a known or unknown destination."[9]

Characters

Plot summary

Schaine returns to Koryphon from school off-world, met by Kelse. They and Jerd are to meet their father, Uther, who has said he just learned something that is a splendid joke. Glissam agrees to visit Uaia with them. However, Uther is ambushed and killed by Retent Uldras. Schaine, Kelse, Jerd, and Glissam survive a similar ambush and reach the Madducs' domain Morningswake.

Uther Madduc was exploring the Palga before he was killed. Jerd, Glissam, and Kurgech go into the Palga to discover what he found. After various encounters with the Wind-runners, they find the secret: an ancient temple built by Erjins, who are in fact fully sentient.

They return to Morningswake, to learn that the Mull has ordered the land barons to give up their domain. The land barons defy this decree, and form their own Order of Uaia. Jorjol incites several hundred Retent Uldras to invade Morningswake. This attack is defeated by the Order's militia.

A committee of the Mull arrives at Morningswake. Gerd escorts them to the Erjin temple, where he explains the first part of Uther Madduc's joke. The Mull has demanded that the land barons yield to the claim of the Uldras, who were there first. But the temple shows that the Erjins are sentient, which makes the Szintarrese slaveowners.

Near the temple is the depot from which tamed Erjins are shipped. There they discover that the Erjin mounts and servitors exported by the Wind-runners are actually warriors, who at that very same moment are uprising and destroying their supposed masters. Erjin "servitors" seize control of Szintarre from its effete inhabitants. Erjin "mounts" turn on their Retent Uldra riders, but the combative Uldras defeat them. The Order of Uaia's militia (including Submission Uldras) fly south and defeat the Erjins in Szintarre. Returning to Uaia, they defeat a second and larger Uldra attack incited by Jorjol.

This experience chastens some of the Szintarrese reformers, but the others persist in their campaign. Now Gerd Jemasze reveals the rest of Uther Madduc's joke. The temple shows that the Erjins were there before the Uldras, so they have an even better claim to the land. Furthermore, the temple's decorations depict Erjins arriving in spaceships and in combat with Morphotes: Morphotes are in fact the oldest inhabitants and "rightful" claimants to the land.

Gerd, speaking for the land barons, tells the Szintarrese that to be consistent they should either revoke their decree against the land barons, or else give their own country to the Morphotes as well.

Publication history

After the two-part serialization of The Domains of Koryphon in Amazing Science Fiction in 1974, the novel was published in hardback with the new title The Gray Prince by Bobbs-Merrill in February 1975. A paperback edition of The Gray Prince was brought out by Avon in December of the same year. A second paperback edition was published by Coronet in May 1976, reprinted in 1982. Specialist science-fiction imprint DAW published an edition in 1982. The novel reverted to its original title of The Domains of Koryphon when it was published as volume 28 of the Vance Integral Edition in 2002.[10] The most recent republication of the novel was in 2008, as part of The Jack Vance Reader, edited by Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan and published by Subterranean Press. The Jack Vance Reader also includes the novels Emphyrio and The Languages of Pao, with prefaces by Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Mike Resnick (to The Domains of Koryphon).[11]

References

  1. ↑ Formerly Amazing Stories, the magazine changed its name to Amazing Science Fiction in 1972, two years before the publication of The Domains of Koryphon, as part of an effort to distance itself from its pulp image of the 1920s-1950s.
  2. ↑ Jean-François Jamoul, "Les singulières Arcadies de John Holbrook Vance", Univers 1984, Éditions J'ai Lu, 1984, p. 301.
  3. ↑ Jack Vance, The Gray Prince. A Science Fiction Novel, Avon, New York, 1975, p. 5
  4. ↑ The Gray Prince, p. 7.
  5. ↑ Jack Vance, Le Livre d'or de la science fiction, edited and with an introduction by Jacques Chambon, Presses Pocket, 1981, p. 20.
  6. ↑ The Gray Prince, p. 7.
  7. ↑ The Gray Prince, p. 20.
  8. ↑ The Gray Prince, p. 32.
  9. ↑ The Gray Prince, p. 86.
  10. ↑ The Jack Vance Integral Edition, 44 vols., Editions Andreas Irle, 2001-2006.
  11. ↑ Internet Speculative Fiction Database, Bibliography: The Gray Prince
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