THROY

Wrapping up the far-future trilogy begun with Araminta Station and continued in Ecce and Old Earth (1992), the struggle for control over the scenically spectacular and biologically diverse planet Cadwal. Here, the unspeakable Smonny Clattuc, her hordes of Yip subjects, and her allies at the cliffside town Stroma on the continent of Throy are preparing to invade and destroy Araminta Station. To forestall this, investigators Glawen Clattuc and Eustace Chilke must determine the facts behind the possibly significant involvement of interstellar engineer and entrepreneur Barduys and his adopted daughter Flitz in Smonny's complex affairs. After pursuing inquiries on several planets—one populated, hilariously, by food faddists and health freaks—Glawen and Chilke discover that Barduys himself has been swindled by Smonny's associate, the venal Namour; indeed, they arrive just in time to prevent Namour from murdering Barduys. On Cadwal, meanwhile, Smonny attempts to assert her authority by destroying Stroma; in retaliation, her erstwhile allies burn the atoll-town Yipton to the waterline. Would that all trilogists provided as succinct and pithy a summary as Vance does here. Otherwise, enjoyable but rather thin: Vance's tendency to invent brilliantly and prodigiously in the opening volume, and thereafter to lose interest, is particularly evident.