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Rating: 
Summary: entertaining, quick, and smart
Review: As my title may indicate, I find Jack Vance's stories very entertaining. If you're looking for a soul-searching novel or a highly plausible technology for science fiction (it's 1970's), then perhaps this isn't for you. However, Vance's style is engaging and his main character throughout the series is single-minded and extremely apt to what he is trying to accomplish: revenge. The byplays he has with certain women in his life are amusing and I think help develop a character beyond his main purpose. Also, I think Vance depicts the evolution of his plot and his main character in a somewhat in-your-face and sarcastic manner that is somehow endearing. The plots in these books are tight and well-thought and the action is quick. For this reason I have enjoyed reading these books and recommend them to others who look to be so entertained.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining, quick, and smart
Review: As my title may indicate, I find Jack Vance's stories very entertaining. If you're looking for a soul-searching novel or a highly plausible technology for science fiction (it's 1970's), then perhaps this isn't for you. However, Vance's style is engaging and his main character throughout the series is single-minded and extremely apt to what he is trying to accomplish: revenge. The byplays he has with certain women in his life are amusing and I think help develop a character beyond his main purpose. Also, I think Vance depicts the evolution of his plot and his main character in a somewhat in-your-face and sarcastic manner that is somehow endearing. The plots in these books are tight and well-thought and the action is quick. For this reason I have enjoyed reading these books and recommend them to others who look to be so entertained.
Rating: 
Summary: A Science Fiction Classic
Review: It is good. Jack Vance compares very favorably with Aurther C Clarke, A E van Vogt, and Robert Heinlein.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent work of Soft 70s Science Fiction
Review: The feel of technology in these books is quite alien to what you will read in hard science fiction novels, but this is not necessarily a bad thing, as no one can perfectly predict or extrapolate technology into the future.I was disappointed by many references to things that were obviously on the way out even in the 70s, things like manila folders full of files (yes, we have them now, but less than we did 30 years ago, and centuries from now, I doubt that high-tech socities will be using them). However, once you get by these small problems (and the problems are made small by the stories other strengths), you will find an absolute bare-bones story, hard on target, without frills and distractions, flying toward conclusion from the first words of each book. The plots are well done and the pacing excellent. The obstacles the characters face are difficult to overcome and many times are intangible things which must be thought around rather than simply blown up. One of the worst dangers faced by the author is that the main character is, to put it simply, quite nasty. A master of many martial arts, weapons, espionage techniques, slieght of hand, and chemistry (especially as relates to poison); it can be difficult to present a story with any challenges for such a character, but Jack Vance does a good job by the by. Kirth's main problem is that he is overconfident, and this comes back to haunt him a time or two. Personally, I wish he'd had a few other shortcomings to make it easier to relate to him and to make obstacles harder to overcome (although, as I said, many of the obstacles aren't of the sort that any physical skill will help on). Overall, an excellent series, with better than average writing, and in some cases, excellent writing. I bought them both the moment they appeared (on the recommendation of a friend), and I was not disappointed. Definitely worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Sublime.
Review: The most literate, witty, sophisticated, inventive space opera ever written. Vance tosses off entire, elaborate cultures with unmatched ease. Entertaining, exhilarating, suspenseful, and occasionally horrifying, told in Vance's inimitable dry, ironic voice. Superb. Both volumes are a must.
Rating:
Summary: viva sinatra
Review: These novels are really 50's noirs dressed up in sci-fi clothes. The hero is actually a Philip Marlowe knock off, and a very charming one at that. The novels have the 50's and 60's habit of recycled females: all the women are (very) young, beautiful, and sweetly helpless. And why not?
There is very little tension in the novels, the reader has no doubt that our intrepid hero will off his men in some inventive way. That he ends up fabulously rich is a given, why should mere money thwart his quest?
The only annoying thing about the novels is the obligatory paragraph that Vance inserts in every one about whether or not our hero will be able to adjust to normal life once he succeeds in offing the 5th guy. NO. Of COURSE not!
All that sniping over with, these are utterly enjoyable sci-fi beach reads. So light a cigarette, get a cheap bottle of bourbon, put on sinatra and read away.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Vance
Review: This represents some of Jack Vance's best work. In the last two Demon Princes novels, the characters are fully fleshed out and the universe seems utterly real (and horrifying). Lens Larque and Howard Alan Treesong are very convincing portraits of evil, and the worlds that surround them are filled with detail and subtlety. A must-read.
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