Planet of Adventure Book

Science Fiction and Fantasy Grandmaster is an impressive title, but just not comprehensive enough.

Jack Vance was the Grand Poobah of Speculative Fiction Cool.

He was the High Galactic Overlord of SF Writing.

Jack Vance was the Tom Bombadil Dean of Fantasy Writing, the most powerful man on the planet but too hip to let it go to his head.

He was all that and a bag of chips.

In the late 60s, a cool period by most standards, Vance added his unique footprint on the SF/F writing landscape. In the time of Heinlein and Asimov, Vance laid down a simmering riff of Stratocaster JIVE with his Tschai books, collected later as The Planet of Adventure.

Campy theme park titles aside, The Planet of Adventure books established Vance's ability to pay tribute to pulp fiction heroes like Edgar Rice Burroughs while transforming the plot heavy, traveling adventurer protagonist tales into something new. Adam Reith, Vance's hero, is edgier and a touch darker than either John Carter or Tarzan. America was bogged down in civil unrest and an unpopular, misunderstood distant foreign war. Vance revisited and recast the fantasy hero mold into something new, something relevant for his time.

Vance's writing is witty, well developed and fun. Beneath the surface, though, is a demonstrable observant eye towards human nature and cultural tribulations. Science fiction is best when it is allegory and Vance was too good a writer to beat his readers over the head. His were not the strident messages, but the sidelong glances and the subtle, dry witticism that cast a read-between-the-lines spotlight on shadows.

Comprising four books:
City of the Chasch
Servants of the Wankh
The Dirdir
The Pnume

The Planet of Adventure books demonstrate some of Vance's best work.