The Five Gold Bands

Rating:
Summary: An early Vance not his best
Review: A formulaic, pulp SciFi novella. I actually have never finished it...and I love Vance. It seems as if he were just learning his craft at the time he wrote this. In hindsight, one perceives bits of the later master, but that's not enough. Only for the Vance fan who has to have EVERYTHING.

Rating:
Summary: Grand Space Opera
Review: An Irish spaceman Paddy Blackthorn is caught attempting to steal the secret to Intersteller Drive technology and is sentenced to death by the ruling council of mutant human species whose creator granted them it's secrets. With the help of a beautiful Terran agent, Fay Bursill, Paddy searches the home planets of the "Sons Of Langtry" for the secrets to the drive hidden in 5 gold rings that the mutants possessed. Terrific Space Opera! I absolutely adore this genre and Vance is one of it's best.