Ports of Call

Ports of Call
Dust-jacket illustration from the first mass-market hardcover edition
Author(s)	Jack Vance
Cover artist	Vladimir Nenov
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Gaean Reach
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Tom Doherty
Publication date	April 1998
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	294 pp
ISBN	0-312-85801-9
OCLC Number	37513050
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 21
LC Classification	PS3572.A424 P67 1998
Followed by	Lurulu

Ports of Call is a science fiction adventure novel by Jack Vance, the first of a duology along with its sequel Lurulu. It follows a young man named Myron Tany on a picaresque journey through the Gaean Reach.

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."

External links

• Ports of Call publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database