The Gray Prince

Rating:
Summary: Missing the Point
Review: Those hasty readers who sought, and therefore found, "racist filth" here have seriously misunderstood the meaning of Kelsse Madduc's "magnificent joke."

[WARNING: SPOILER FOLLOWS]

The whole point of the book is that the "oppressed" "native" Uldra are not natives but off-world conquerors -- of the Erjin, who are THEMSELVES off-world conquerors, of the autochthonous Morphotes, for whose welfare not one of the bleeding-heart societies of the planet cares a bent farthing.

A further irony is that Uldra and Erjin alike are separately, and actively, plotting to regain their conquests by wholesale slaughter. The Morphotes? They kill on a retail level, so far as I recall....

The only ones, in fact, manifesting a trace of fellow-feeling for the other races of the planet (native and other) are the wicked nasty "colonialists."

Rating:
Summary: Vance tells a tale of alien succession fascinatingly.
Review: A returnee to the planet Koryphon discovers changes and mysteries in the behavior of his old friends. The displaced former masters of Koryphon are subservient to human immigrants, who are trying to agree upon a formal relationship with them. Typically humanity cannot agree, and the differences between advocates degenerates to opposition and conflict. The urban factions promote their solution based upon abstractions formed through social fashion and educated consensus. Those who deal most with the native population are faced with the threat of externally imposed order and loss of their way of life. Told in Vance's typically elaborate manner the story shows how the most convoluted human and alien relationship must be understood internally, by the participants, to reach a working relationship. The tale hinges on enlightened self interest of the characters as they all pursue individual goals; not at all transparently. An exemplary Vance title, with all his sense of! ! wonder and roundabout manner of getting to the real point of the story. Well worth a read!!

Rating:
Summary: Fairly interesting SF book
Review: If I could, I would assign this book 3.5 stars. The Gray Prince is interesting in the vein of the vastly superior Emphyrio by Vance (i.e. this is not one of Vance's whimsical and zany Dying Earth type books) but its characterization is minimal.

Apparently, several of the reviewers drank a little too much of the dark liquid that Kurgech used to drug Moffamides and their hallucinations produced visions of "racist filth." While many SF writers delve into what Connie Willis termed the treasure trove of the Renaissance to pluck ideas for their civilizations, ostensibly Vance modeled a Nomadic civilization around Amerinds, with his typical Manses ruled by Land-barons dotting the wild lands, and a third civilization of Urban effetes living in the north. All 3 societies (Nomads, Land-barons, and Urbans) are descendents of the same race: humans -- and 2 of the human cultures subjugate another race: erjin. Hypocritically, the 2 human cultures who enslave erjin (Nomads and Urbans) denounce the single culture that does not enslave the erjin, i.e. the Land-barons, for "stealing" the land of the Nomads. Got that?

The drugged readers decrying this as "racist filth" also denounce the Land-barons because -- well, it's hard to avoid the conclusion -- the readers are racist. They assume the Land-barons represent Europeans and the Nomads Amerinds so the Land-barons just hafta be bad and since Jack Vance is of European descent he just must be a jack-booted purveyor of racism (Likely, they would think differently if Jack Vance were of Amerind descent, which means the author's race, not his ideas, determines whether they should charge him with racism). These readers don't just insult Jack Vance; they insult all SF readers. They are like the princess in the fable "The Princess and the Pea," claiming to detect a pea of racism under forty mattresses.

One major point of the book is that "stealing" land is viewed as worse than subjugating people by some (i.e. those readers claiming racism). Another point of the book -- spoiler coming -- is that the species that is ostensibly victimized (the erjin) are actually offworld conquerers of the original indigenous race, Morphotes. Humans conquered the erjin who had previously conquered the Morphotes.

Vance's final conclusion is that all SF worlds where humans reside are "stolen" from the indigenous inhabitants. The only way to avoid this fate is for humans to remain on Earth and wait for the sun to die (a la Dying Earth), or hang out in generation ships and expire when their supplies deplete, or people a lifeless world and die when their stores are gone.

Furthermore, every intelligent alien race will be faced with the choice of dying on their own world as their sun extinguishes or "stealing" worlds similar to their own, presumably harboring indigenous lifeforms (intelligent or otherwise) in a Darwinian race to avoid extinction.

Apparently, these ideas were lost on the readers who only see black and white in the Gray Prince.

Rating:
Summary: Racist Filth
Review: The Gray Prince is a horribly racist novel. The author uses a thinly veiled setting of science fiction and aliens to tackle and justify racism in America. I despised this novel and the horrible message it departs. Landbarons are white while everyone else is described as colored, i.e, gray, red, brown.... There is the assignment of the Uldra's as native American's and the SEE movement as the abolitionist of the early 18th and 19th century. The landbarons are obviously parallel to the White Europeans, most likely Brits, who came over to America. The Barons, just as their English counterparts they are based on, set up grand manors that are worked by field hands, the colored folk. The Landbarons attempt to justify their dominance and say that life is better now that they are in charge. The Uldras are never allowed to come in their homes or eat at their tables. Most insulting is the way the book ends. The Uldra's having helped rescue the white heroes are then awarded the right to sit at in the Great Hall...however the "good" Uldra knows his place and says that you have your thing and I don't need to be there. I implore any of you who want to stop this spread of subtle racism to NOT buy this book. I also encourage you all to get the book from the library and read it. Let me know if I'm wrong. I doubt it though.

Rating:
Summary: Probably The Worst Book Vance Has Written
Review: The reviewer who dismissed this as "racist filth" is maybe overstating the case a little, but his/her take is basically on target. "The Grey Prince" is about humans colonizing a planet and dominating that planet's native inhabitants: the natives are depicted as deserving this treatment because they're lazy and immoral. Fortunately, they're aliens (and not human), so they're lazy and immoral *by their very nature*, and, if you take that at face value, you can say the book is a work of science fiction and not a xenophobic far-right allegory.

A common attitude in Vance's writing is that a commitment to self-discipline and intellectual honesty entitle one to a certain disdain for those who are not so committed. When he applies this idea to a single character, that character often comes off as plucky and admirable. In the case of "The Grey Prince," he extends the idea to entire groups of people, and the result is pretty offensive.

You would think after "The Grey Prince," Vance would've seen the light. Unfortunately the racism surfaces again, somewhat less virulently, in the "Araminta Station" books written twenty-plus years later. It is an unfortunate blot on the work of a writer who is, by all accounts, a fair-minded and generous man.

(By the way, I highly recommend all of Vance's *other* books: many of them feature invented aliens and ethnic groups who are depicted as noble and admirable- the "Ska" in the Lyonesse series come to mind.)



Rating:
Summary: I tore through this book
Review: Vance delivers his straight-faced wit and fully conceived worlds almost to perfection with The Gray Prince. In the far future, newcomer land barons and longtime inhabitant nomads clash on the planet Koryphon. But this is only the backdrop. The characters are completely believable and well thought-out. They each have their own interests and motivations. Who are the good guys? Vance leaves that up to you. Refreshingly, he does not preach. He just writes a great story.

Rating:
Summary: An ironic parody of ideological politics in a SF world
Review: Vance ventures in the world of politics in The Grey Prince with an ironic tale where the oppressed are found to be oppressors and the self-righteous prove to follow disguised self-interest of grandeur and fame. Curiously, this time the main Vancian character is introduced as somewhat of a villain, the storytelling evolving to show his true side as well as his "noble" rivals - whose true face is not as noble as it appears. The ending, as always, shows an admirable ironic witt.

An intelligent, educated critic at how real world politics can degenetate between natives and colonials, with a keen reminder that "abstract" interest groups rarely defend their members' grassroots views.

Interesting for the student of politics as for the SF fan looking for inspiring social dynamics.