quintessential Jack Vance adventure novel. swiftly-paced, drily witty, deeply ironic, byzantine in its layers of back-story and multiple displays of world-building yet happily trim and stripped-down in its actual verbiage, featuring a sardonic young hero, his icy love interest and various mysteries that he is only slightly interested in solving.Jubal Droad is a high-caste Glint in the land of Thaery, on the planet Maske, on the outskirts of the Gaean Reach. unfortunately being a noble son of Glint means practically nothing in the big city of Wysrod, where his homeland of Glentlin is an embarrassing country cousin to more sophisticated family members. Jubal is instantly identified as redneck. he gets offended. Jubal gets offended quite a lot; he chafes frequently at any sign of snobbery or high-handedness. fortunately for Jubal, he is a lad with both connections and some very dear secrets, and he is quickly given a job as an "Inn Inspector". which is code for glamorous, jet-setting spy. Jubal barely cares. it's just another job and his main goals are making lots of cash, getting his revenge on with a noble who offended him, and then, well, he doesn't know. doing something. he'll figure it out. whatever. and so the Grand Adventure begins! ha.that 'whatever' is one of the wonderful qualities of this novel. this may be a novel featuring a spy tracking down a nefarious villain across three worlds, while getting embroiled in the affairs of the aristocracy and dealing with a violent regime change back home, but the tone of the whole thing is so charmingly nonchalant. Jubal may be seething with fury and resentment in general, gnashing his teeth with frustration at the cold treatment he receives from a lady who turns him on with that cold treatment, and forever haggling with his boss over money... but he is also so nonchalant about it. most characters in Vance novels are this way: oh so sardonic. i love the elegant and stylishly low-key way that all the characters converse with each other. this may be a pulp novel of sorts, but it is also pure style. Jack Vance, as ever, has a skilled and delightful way with words. i read this all in one long afternoon in the park and it was pure enjoyment.Masque: Thaery has a real economy of words and yet the various science fantasy ideas on display are well thought-out, wide-ranging, just brimming over with creativity. there is enough imaginative awesomeness in this book to fill a whole mega-series of science fantasy, and yet the novel clocks in at a slim 216 pages.i found two things to be particularly enjoyable.first HEY THIS WHOLE PARAGRAPH HAS A BIG SPOILER. at one point, Vance spends several pages detailing various luxury tours that are available on a vacation planet. the tours described are wonderful flights of the imagination and i loved reading about them. but i did wonder - why spend so much time on something that has nothing to do with the plot? and then i forgot that, and continued to enjoy the narrative. but at the end - with the surprise reveal of the villain's surprisingly banal motives being based on mercenary exploitation of natural places for luxury tourism - the lengthy descriptions of luxury tours elsewhere made quick sense. i reread them again and noticed the subtle things that had escaped me at first: native animals being exploited; natural places being transformed and prettified for tourist eyes; sex tourism; the drug trade; exploitation of natural resources; etc. i appreciated the subtlety of the foreshadowing, and i appreciated even more the secretly furious perspective of the author on such things. who would have guessed that Vance would be such an ardent progressive when it comes to environmentalism? the heinous and gruesome ending for the villain illustrates exactly how Vance feels about raping natural places. plus some fairly brutal irony in the actual mode of (slow, slow) death.the second thing: a lot of odd footnotes and a really random glossary. here's one entry from the glossary, describing points an employer must consider when using the services of the human-ish Djan: One Djan performs aimlessly unless supervised.Two Djan become intense; they either quarrel or fondle each other.Three Djan create a disequilibrium; they work with agitation and resentful energy.Four Djan form a stable system. They respond equably to orders but exert themselves only moderately and indulge themselves in comfort.Five Djan form an unstable and dangerous combination. Four will presently form a group; the fifth, ejected, becomes resentful and bitter. He may go "solitary."Six Djan yield one stable set and a pair of defiant lovers.Seven Djan create an unpredictable flux of shifting conditions and a turmoil of emotions.Eight Djan, after considerable shifting, conniving, testing, plotting, backbiting, yield two stable groups.
More of a 2.5 or so but I'm being generous and rounding up because even second-rate Vance is fun to read.Maske: Thaery is your typical Vance SF novel: The protagonist, Jubal Droad, is smart, cynical and emotionally distant, though underneath there is a passionate, involved person. The action is swift-paced and the villain is contemptuously evil but it's formulaic and not Vance at his best.If you're already a Vance fan, you'll be pleasantly diverted for a few hours. If you're not yet a Vance fan, you should start with one of his classics like The Dying Earth or The Demon Princes so you can see his lyricism and the fun he has with language at their best.
What do You think about Maske: Thaery (2003)?
I have probably read this book at least ten times and I always enjoy it. It's a pity that Jack Vance did not develop the ideas in the book because the book is a little rushed and could have been longer. It's also a pity he never returned to Maske again so this is just a one off. The central character, Jubal Droad, is interesting and his final act made me laugh out loud. I agree with other reviewers that this is by no means one of Jack Vance's best books and I would not recommend it as the best place to start but Jack Vance fans will like it.
—Rog Harrison
I might have to make my own separate 'Jack Vance' shelf one day.So, 'Mask:Thaery' has an awkward-ass name for a book. Its back cover and online descriptions is a confusing word salad of awkwardly lifted introduction, and in a long and prolific career its certainly not one of the more famous or well reviewed works of Vance.But despite all of this, Mask: Thaery, is awesome. It is at least as good (if way less long and varied) as 'Planet of Adventure' for travel/action, and comes nearest of any of the Gaen Reach independent stories I have thus far read in approaching 'Dying Earth' levels of wit and sleaze.The main character is a somewhat typical is somewhat more sympathetic Vance-rogue, and the villain, though not commonly seen, is on par with Vance's best when he does show up. Rhamus Ymph is a proper Tamurello or Ioucounnu (cant remember the actual spelling of that one)and its a shame he doesnt show up more.One wishes also that this planet's setting had been used more often as well is other Vance books, but that hardly matters. Much of the very long narrated introduction became unnecessary to the actual story being told.But all that is irrelevant, it was a really fun romp, as it usually is.
—Christopher
I'm exceptionally fond of Jack Vance's scifi and fantasy works (for the latter, check out the Lyonesse series or the Cudgel books) and this novel is almost a cross-over of the two genres - our young hero butting heads with haughty aristocrats and an eccentric civil service in an effort to right some wrongs. The story has almost a quasi-medieval feel to it, but is set against a background of interplanetary travel.Not the best Vance book for a beginner, but a solid example from his back catalogue, now widely available thanks to electronic publishing.
—S.J. Arnott
