Rating: 
Summary: great vance material, does lack any plot direction
Review: As a big vance fan, I enjoyed this book a lot. It is almost like a scrapbook of various vance-designed worlds and cultures, paraded one after another as the protagonist travels from world to world. The book could be 10000 pages long and I wouldn't get tired of this, but as I said, I am a Vance fan.The big problem some readers might have with this book is the lack of any overall plot or conflict. I wonder how much of this is a function of Vance's desire not to write the first half of a story without any real guarantees he would be able to finish it (he is quite elderly). In the event, he has finished the sequel, Lurulu, which should be printed late 2004.
Rating:
Summary: An Homage to P.G. Wodehouse
Review: As in Space Opera (my least favorite Vance book), Jack is playing in "Wodehousian Space," and I want to see this ambition work, for the sake of both these wonderful literary stylists. I think with a sequel it still can. PoC is not a long book. It's obviously just part of the real book. But the thing is tricky to do. Let's hope Jack has the insight and encouragement to bring it off.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Jack Vance's best
Review: I agree with those who say that this is not Jack Vance's best work. But my main concern here is the Booklist Review. Did they even read the book? The review is factually incorrect. Myron was the captain of his aunt's ship before she fired him, but not the captain of the Glicca.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining
Review: I couldn't put it down. The characters are variously involved with pursuit of their ideals: most seeking profit, some seeking spiritual enlightenment, or the joy of life through artistry. The main character is uncommitted, kind of like Milo in The Phantom Tollbooth, an inexperienced mild-mannered boy suddenly on a ship of highly experienced rogues. The boy accidentally (?) kills someone. What I like about Jack Vance's writing, is that he simply follows the characters where they will go, and makes no value judgment about them as good or bad. However, I can't make out any themes or purpose. Maybe the purpose is too subtle for me. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and I will buy the sequel as soon as Jack Vance is finished with it.
Rating:
Summary: No one writes like Vance
Review: I heard that Jack Vance was slowing down in his old age, but I bought Ports of Call anyway, figuring that bad Vance is better than no Vance at all. Perhaps it was the reduction in my expectations from the negative opinions I'd heard about the book, but Ports of Call came as a very pleasant surprise to me. It's true that there is nothing of the epic scope of some of Vance's other works in this book. It is also true that there is even less structure to the story of Myron Tany's career as a spacecraft crewman than Vance put in even nearly plotless picaresque adventures such as his Cugel books. Tany just wanders in search of adventure and exotic situations. But that's fine, because he gets in adventures and exotic situations, and they are beautifully written in Vance's elegant style and conceived by Vance's inimitable mind. They're a kick to read even if they don't seem to be leading to some huge climax down the road. The whole "life goes on," "one thing after another" feel of the book even evolves into a kind of theme in itself, causing me to reflect that life itself does not have an arc or a climax. I wonder whether Vance did this on purpose in case he does not have time to complete the series on Myron Tany he obviously contemplates. When I think of how the other greats, like Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke, sold themselves at the end of their careers, allowing lesser writers to graft themselves to their finest works for marketing purposes, I love Vance even more for doing his own work and staying true to his own vision. Ports of Call proves that he remains the master we know and love. If he's slowing down a bit, becoming a bit more contemplative and deliberate, digressing a bit more, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Rating:
Summary: A Lesser Work from the Grandmaster
Review: Jack Vance is now almost 80 years old, and has been writing and publishing fiction for 55 years. (His first story was published in 1945). So it's hardly surprising that this routine space adventure story, while still rich with the inimitable Vance prose and dialogue, is somewhat languid and plotless. The premise is appealing enough, with the standard Vance hero journeying from one exotic locale to another. Unfortunately, this is territory that Vance has explored many times, and it isn't long before the plot runs out of steam, and trails off without any resolution. I'm hoping that Vance's health will allow him to write a sequel that will tie up the loose ends; but Vance has a history of losing interest in some of his stories and either letting them go, or tying them up in a perfunctory manner. Still, Vance is one of the four or five best writers of SF and fantasy, and long time fans will enjoy this one for what it does have to offer. Those who are not familiar with Vance's work I would advise to try the Planet of Adventure series or the Demon Princes novels, two of Vance's most enjoyable works.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Vance
Review: Ports of Call has all the classic Vancean ingredients, interesting travel to a variety of wierd and less than wonderful dystopic worlds where the locals are to say the least idiosyncratic, slippery and all shades on the way to vile. Vance is the master of local colour and characterisation. I particlarly like how he takes out his typical descriptive weapons - detailed descriptions of outre clothing, climate, geography, buildings, the inevitable "Local Bar", local customs and especially the food served at the "local bar" or the hotel that the characters inevitabley book into. Very reminicent of Cudgels Saga and Planet of Adventure. I notice eel is always on the menu somewhere in a vance book. Also inevitably some local huckster it trying to take the hero down.
Its as if Jack has rifled through his entire output and picked up bits and peices, sown them into a verbal quilt and called it "Ports of Call". Thats OK - you get good solid Vance in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing but frustratingly incomplete
Review: Ports of Call is Jack Vance's latest novel. It follows Myron Tany, who is taken by his eccentric Aunt on a space trip searching for a "fountain of youth", but is marooned by his Aunt when he objects to her falling victim to an apparent fortune-hunter. Myron joins the crew of a sort of tramp freighter, and they visit various typically Vancean worlds. There is next to no plot, and what plot there is is thoroughly unresolved. (I'm sure there is supposed to be a sequel.) Vance is usually discursive, but this takes the cake. Still, the novel is always amusing, and the little societies Vance depicts are as interesting as ever. Worth the time, but not Vance's best work.
Rating:
Summary: Actually its rather good!
Review: There's been a lot of negative comments about this book but I genuinely believe its among his best. Jack Vance doesn't write like any other Fantasy/Science-fiction author today. He's the last of a dying breed. I recently read the Gray Mouser stories and I was struck by how similar in tone these stories were to the stories of Jack Vance. Complex, richly detailed but they paled in comparison. The thing that has always made Jack Vance stand out from the crowd is the beauty of his language and his situations. This book is the epitomy of a Jack Vance novel-dark, macabre, funny and haunting. Not many people still read his books which is a shame because he is the orginal of so many things. I recommend 'Ports of Call' wholeheartedly.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing to this jaded SciFi reader
Review: This was my first Jack Vance read, and to my surprise, I was sucked right into the ride with the rest of the characters. While some people were displeased with the lack of direction, I found it enjoyable to just wander along with Vance wherever the plot took me. The various worlds are colorful, and the characters interesting and varied. Vance's writing style is refreshingly different after so many SciFi novels that sound the same. There are no cliches - the ideas are fresh, the people are fresh, the dialogue is fresh - it's hard to describe why exactly it feels so different without having you read it for yourself. So do it - if you're a SciFi snob like me, you'l find a good read here.
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