Ports of Call (Vance novel)

Ports of Call is a 1998 science fiction adventure novel by American writer Jack Vance. Followed by the novel Lurulu, it tells the story of a young man named Myron Tany on a picaresque journey through the Gaean Reach.

Ports of Call
Dust-jacket illustration from the first mass-market hardcover edition
AuthorJack Vance
Cover artistVladimir Nenov
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesGaean Reach
GenreScience fiction
PublisherTom Doherty
Publication date
April 1998
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages294
ISBN0-312-85801-9
OCLC37513050
813/.54 21
LC ClassPS3572.A424 P67 1998
Followed byLurulu 

Plot summary

Myron's family intended for Myron to follow a staid and respectable career in economics; however, when his wealthy and eccentric great-aunt Dame Hester came into possession of a space yacht, Myron suddenly found his long suppressed dreams of adventure within reach. Serving as Dame Hester's nominal captain on her journey to find a clinic reputed to restore lost youth to wealthy clients, Myron soon finds that his aunt is capricious as she is flamboyant, and after an argument, finds himself castaway on a remote planet. With no resources to return home, he obtains the position of supercargo on a tramp freighter, which enables him to travel further across the Gaean Reach to exotic lands.

Reception

F&SF reviewer Elizabeth Hand praised Ports of Call as "delightful," declaring that "one enjoys Ports of Call as one does a Restoration comedy, for the sheer outrageous of its characters and the precision of Vance's often lunatic descriptive powers."[1]

gollark: But something something anthropic principle and populations were much more isolated until recently.
gollark: I did wonder a while ago why, if it was possible to have diseases which were both really lethal and contagious/airborne, humans were alive.
gollark: Can't wait for random people to be able to make custom diseases from the comfort of their home!
gollark: The great thing about bioweapons is that commercial DNA printing is quite cheap, and apparently mostly doesn't even defend against known sequences for e.g. smallpox (not that blacklisting works, really), and I believe there are papers describing how you can conveniently resurrect Spanish flu and such.
gollark: Wow, I am typoey today.

References
  1. Hand, Elizabeth (August 1998). "Books: Ports of Call". F&SF. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
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