About the Author

Jack Vance was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. He has since had a varied career: his first story was written while he was serving in the US Merchant Marine during the Second World War. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he contributed a variety of short stories to the science fiction and fantasy magazines of the time. His first published book was ‘The Dying Earth' (1950). Since then he has won the two most coveted trophies of the science fiction world, the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. He has also won the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America for his novel ‘The Man in the Cage' (1960). In addition, he has written scripts for television science fiction series. Jack Vance's non-literary interests include blue water sailing and early jazz. He lives in California in a house he designed and largely built himself.

Reviews

‘Grand yarn-spinning’
Kirkus Reviews ‘Vance at his most effortless and pleasant: a romp’
American Library Association
On Night Lamp: ‘Buy it. It’s cheaper and at least as exotic as two weeks in the sun’
Financial Times ‘The quintessential Vance novel. Rush out and buy this glorious book’
Interzone ‘Night Lamp yields rich rewards in its humorous complexities’
Publishers Weekly

'Grand yarn-spinning'
Kirkus Reviews

'Vance at his most effortless and pleasant: a romp'
American Library Association
On Night Lamp:

'Buy it. It's cheaper and at least as exotic as two weeks in the sun'
Financial Times

'The quintessential Vance novel. Rush out and buy this glorious book'
Interzone

'Night Lamp yields rich rewards in its humorous complexities'
Publishers Weekly

Classic space opera is alive and kicking in this latest interstellar spree from Vance (Night Lamp), who turns 82 this year. In the far future, young Myron Tany seems destined to be a misty-eyed dreamer, pining away for interstellar intrigue, until his rich and eccentric great-aunt, Dame Hester, gains ownership of the space yacht Glodwyn and pushes Myron into the captain's chair. The stresses of family relationships prove too difficult, however, and Hester soon kicks Myron out on his own, forcing him to sign on as a majordomo for the cargo ship Glicca. As one of a hearty and fearless crew, Myron begins the education that makes him a sailor of the spaceways, learning how to placate difficult passengers, romance women of exotic worlds and make it back aboard ship with his purse intact. While his future is unclear at the novel's end, Myron has grown into a confident and capable fellow, if not exactly a swashbuckler. Readers who demand a complicated, hard-science milieu might find Vance's narrative occasionally too chauvinistic, or too simple, or just too plain silly, but this jaunty, politically incorrect tale provides first-rate escapist entertainment. (Apr.)