Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCXLX (Jack Vance, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Thom Keyes, and Kenneth Bulmer)

Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed? 1. Jack Vance’s Galactic Effectuator (1980) David Mattingly’s cover for the 1981 edition From the back cover: “Meet Miro Hetzel, Galactic Effectuator. He’s part gentlemen, part detective, part fraud, and his trail of exploits cuts through some of the more improbably civilizations in the universe. Join him in a trip to the planet Maz, whose natives are so fierce that they’ll fight three battle before lunch and then dine on the enemy–a planet that only a man with Miro Hetzel’s steely nerve would dare to visit at all.” Initial Thoughts: This is a fix-up novel containing “The Dogtown Tourist Agency” (1975) and “Freitzke’s Turn” (1977). I previously reviewed “Freitzke’s Turn” (1977) and did not classify it amongst Vance’s best. As many know, I’ve soured a bit on Vance in the last decade. That said, I still think novels like Wyst: Alastor, 1716 (1978) and Emphyrio (1969) are worth the read. 2. Adolfo Dioy…