Trullion: Alastor 2262

When I was younger I read some Jack Vance books from my dad. Although I have read a lot of science fiction this past year, and although I have his Jack Vance books, I haven’t read anything by him for years. ‘Trullion: Sterrenwereld/Alastor 2262′ is the first book I picked up, purely by chance.

It is the story of Glinnes Hulden, a man who lives on Trullion, one of the many planets in the Alastor cluster. The planet is peaceful, man doesn’t have to work much and just enjoys a simple life. Glinnes returns after ten years in the Whelm, the interplanetary army, to find that his father and brother are dead or missing, and his younger brother is not taking good care of the family estate. What follows is a story about sport, and an adventure with pirates, a sect, stolen money and dangerous gypsies.

I have to be honest, while the writing is alright, the world is nice, I just didn’t like this book. Too much sport (and too detailed) and an adventure that just seems to happen. The story-lines wander around, like Vance had a list of things he wanted in this book, and when he didn’t know what to put on the next page, he thought to himself “Oh, pirates!” or “Oh, a new match!”. Three out of five stars.