Sunday, May 20, 2007

Lurulu by Jack Vance

Lurulu is an account of the adventures of the Glicca, a space freighter, and its unforgettable crew. In each of the eccentric vignettes, the crew encounters fascinating natives and their strange cultures. Captain Malfoor tracks down Loy Tremaine on the beautiful planet Fluter. Tremaine has killed Malfoor's father and kidnapped his mother, in addition to upsetting the puritanical Flauts, the inhabitants of Fluter. After successfully apprehending the culprit, Malfoor and his crew head off to various other ports, meeting ferocious acrobats on Blenkinsop, reclaiming stolen cargo on Star Home, and enduring other such adventures as they ship cargo across space. As they travel, the crew discusses 'lurulu,' a term that takes on a slightly different meaning for each character, and for the reader as well. In the spirit of Gulliver's Travels, this story is a critique on society, while being coy in narration and sharp in dialogue.

The story was captivating, but some of the dialogue seemed staged. Despite that, I enjoyed the story and thought that the tongue-in-cheek moments and the politically-incorrect statements added a certain charm to the otherwise simple narrative. The main characters were interesting, though the similarities between names made it hard to follow occasionally. Because Lurulu is a sequel, it felt a little distant from the reader, because the character interactions were taken for granted, but with an subtle reference to previous journeys I was not privy too. This made reading it a little frustrating, and perhaps made the characters seem flat and one-dimensional. At times, the story would lapse from light-hearted gallantry to solemn, metaphysical conversation, and this made the characters more realistic than if the story had remained on the superficial level. Jack Vance did a good job of creating realistic settings, though the situations were ridiculous (although sometimes that seemed to be his intention). Overall, this story was intriguing and a good book to reread.

Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Overland Park, Kansas United States

posted by Flamingnet Book Blog @ 4:21 PM