I've never done much traveling by sea, but the fiction of Jack Vance seems to explicitly elaborate on an analogy between travel from port to port by sea and space travel between planets. In Vance's Demon Princes novels the setting is a future when travel between the stars has become as convenient as a sea voyage between London and New York. Read 'Demon Princes' by Jack Vance available from Rakuten Kobo. Sign up today and get $5 off your first purchase. In a far-off future, criminals have the freedom to pursue their most violent passions among the civilized worlds of the.
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(Demon Princes #5)
Howard Alan Treesong gave a banquet to ten friends. All died in agony, save himself.
Howard Alan Treesong went to his old school reunion to teach his former classmates the meaning of terror.
Howard Alan Treesong was the most elusive of the five Demon Princes upon whom Kirth Gersen had sworn vengeance. A galaxy-wide guessing game proved his undoing.
Howard Alan Treesong wrote...more
Howard Alan Treesong went to his old school reunion to teach his former classmates the meaning of terror.
Howard Alan Treesong was the most elusive of the five Demon Princes upon whom Kirth Gersen had sworn vengeance. A galaxy-wide guessing game proved his undoing.
Howard Alan Treesong wrote...more
Published July 3rd 1984 by DAW (first published 1981)
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Classic Science Fiction - 1980-1989 239 books — 204 voters
Best Jack Vance stories 23 books — 7 voters
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Jul 05, 2010Stephen rated it really liked it · review of another edition Shelves: cordwainer-vance-zelazny-and-esque, assassins, kings-of-badassia, 1980-1989, science-fiction, betrayal-and-revenge
4.0 stars. Satisfying final volume of the excellent, and under-rated, Demon Prince series by Jack Vance. In this episode, Kirth Gersen, our revenge seeking hero, searches out the last of the 'demon princes,' a master criminal known as Howard Treesong.
Vance is a master story-teller with an incredible imagination and a talent for concise, descriptive writing that immerses his readers in the worlds he creates without needing a lot of pages to do it. As with the other Demon Prince novels, this book...more
Vance is a master story-teller with an incredible imagination and a talent for concise, descriptive writing that immerses his readers in the worlds he creates without needing a lot of pages to do it. As with the other Demon Prince novels, this book...more
Feb 06, 2016Jaro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
First time read as ebook (audio)
Second time read in Orbit omnibus.
Second time read in Orbit omnibus.
The Book of Dreams was published in 1981 by DAW Books and is the fifth and final novel in Vance's The Demon Prince series. My copy is 190 pages, making it the second longest novel of the group. All of The Demon Price novels continue to be in print. I like the two volume set by Orb Books that has the first three novels in volume one and the last two in volume two. The Book of Dreams is my favorite of the five novels, and I rated it a five both times I read it. But the whole series is highly recom...more
Howard Alan Treesong, the last remaining Demon Prince, must die. And so it goes. The last installment in Vance's Demon Princes series ends on a high note. Each book in the series, which tells the tale of revenge against one of the five Demon Princes, entertains without fail. If pressed, I'd say the best is The Face, book number four. The worst? Not to be had.
Our protagonist, Kirth Gersen, remains the same throughout, yet everything else changes, as he pursues his targets across a multitude of di...more
Our protagonist, Kirth Gersen, remains the same throughout, yet everything else changes, as he pursues his targets across a multitude of di...more
I love Vance, adore him, forever in the man's debt, etcet. But I felt like this was a really anticlimactic ending to the Demon princes saga. Basically the same investigate-and-bait-the-elusive-criminal template as all the others but with a curious absence of any raised stakes or deeper exploration of Gersen or his final nemesis. After Palace and Face everything about this story seems second-rate, including the uncompelling, basically tacked-on James Kirk-esque romance with Alice yawn. There was...more
May 15, 2019Jannelies rated it it was amazing![Vance Vance](https://pmcdn.priceminister.com/photo/le-palais-de-l-amour-la-geste-des-princes-demons-tome-3-de-jack-vance-1038790965_ML.jpg)
Shelves: five-stars, books-i-own, science-fiction, jack-vance
This series belongs to my absolute all time favorites. I think I've read these books ten times or more and they are still interesting, great to read and fun.
For people who would like to try and start reading science fiction: please choose something by Jack Vance.
For people who would like to try and start reading science fiction: please choose something by Jack Vance.
The Book of Dreams is the final book of Jack Vance’s The Demon Princes saga. Kirth Gersen must find and eliminate his last elusive enemy: Howard Alan Treesong. As usual, he has the help of his reluctant banker and there’s a new Innocent Pretty Young Female to attend to, also.
The Book of Dreams is reminiscent of The Palace of Love (the third Demon Princes novel), which also featured a sensitive boy turned bad after being bullied and teased by his peers. Kirth finally tracks down Treesong at his h...more
Apr 10, 2012Mohammed Abdi Osman rated it it was amazingThe Book of Dreams is reminiscent of The Palace of Love (the third Demon Princes novel), which also featured a sensitive boy turned bad after being bullied and teased by his peers. Kirth finally tracks down Treesong at his h...more
Shelves: 2012, library-books, science-fiction, jack-vance
Vance saved the best villain for the last, the most interesting,fascinating and insane of the criminals called Demon Princes. Howard Alan Treesong was something.
It was a very fine ending to a great series and Kirth Gersens personal story had a good bitter end for me. Not the usual kind of revenge story. Technically this book might have been the best along with the fourth book The Face but i enjoyed The Face more. It had more interesting, weird human cultures,more interesting side characters.
I r...more
It was a very fine ending to a great series and Kirth Gersens personal story had a good bitter end for me. Not the usual kind of revenge story. Technically this book might have been the best along with the fourth book The Face but i enjoyed The Face more. It had more interesting, weird human cultures,more interesting side characters.
I r...more
Jan 09, 2008Donna rated it really liked it · review of another edition
This was the fifth and final instalment in the Demon Princes series. I quite enjoyed the whole series. Vance is clearly a most imaginative and clever author, and as a sci-fi writer he stands among the best. Every chapter begins with an excerpt from some important published work of the future, something that advances the plot or elucidates some element of the story. I particularly enjoyed his careful descriptions of clothing styles, which varied dramatically from planet to planet, and the details...more
Jun 21, 2014Judy Goldich rated it really liked it
The final installment of the Demon Prince' series. Opinions vary, and my sci-Fi living husband thinks I'm crazy, but I rate this as second best of the five, after 'The Face.' It ends quite abruptly, with the death of the last the Demon Princes, and not even at our hero's hands. Vance spent at least 700 pages building up to this, and given the character development, I don't see that he had much option but to cut it off. Or perhaps, he was tired of it. Still, fun read.
Sep 14, 2018Peter rated it it was amazing Shelves: 20th-century, american-writers, broad-right, 1980s, novels, science-fiction, 1979-2008
![Epub Epub](/uploads/1/2/5/1/125188345/107324788.jpg)
Jack Vance’s Demon Princes saga ends with the taking down of the last and probably most interesting of the five space pirates who destroyed Kirth Gessen’s home village way back when. Howard Alan Treesong, like Viole Falushe, one of the previous baddies, just can’t get over high school. Born on a planetary backwater that sounds a lot like the upper Midwest or some descriptions I’ve heard of rural New Zealand, an imaginative and willful boy, he gets the works from the locals and dedicates his life...more
May 21, 2019Jim Mcclanahan rated it really liked it · review of another edition
The last of the Kirth Gerson adventures. In a way it's the easiest of our anti-hero's targets for revenge. Not all that hard to track down. More intrigue and duplicity from all sides along the way. His ultimate solution is inventive, to say the least. I get the impression he would be happy to move on to the next bad guy, but he seems to have run out of villains, Sigh.
Perhaps the best of the series.
Only gripes:
1) The female characters in each book were token and shallow, but that seems to be true of a lot of sci-fi of the time.
2) The conclusion of this (and the other novels in the series) seemed abrupt and a bit anticlimactic.
Only gripes:
1) The female characters in each book were token and shallow, but that seems to be true of a lot of sci-fi of the time.
2) The conclusion of this (and the other novels in the series) seemed abrupt and a bit anticlimactic.
Jan 12, 2018Jeroen Van de Crommenacker rated it really liked it
The final volume in the Demon Princes novels. It has been an exhilarating ride. Shame to come to the end.
Mar 23, 2018Jesús rated it it was ok
Disappointing
I have now finished Jack Vance’s, Space Opera epic classic series, The Demon Princes. With novel five, The Book of Dreams, finished, I have zipped (if you can zip through almost 1000 pages) through the series.
It becomes clear that Vance saved the best for last, as the final two books, to me, are the best of the series.
It is hard to not go back and sort of give a bit of an overview of the whole series, and in this case I am not going to resist that temptation.
The most interesting way to look a...more
It becomes clear that Vance saved the best for last, as the final two books, to me, are the best of the series.
It is hard to not go back and sort of give a bit of an overview of the whole series, and in this case I am not going to resist that temptation.
The most interesting way to look a...more
Sep 19, 2016Johnny rated it really liked it
The fifth target (coinciding with the fifth volume) in The Demon Princes series doesn’t seem to reflect the pervasive evil to be seen in the first four. Yet, about 2/3 through The Book of Dreams, we begin to see the sadistic side of Howard Alan Treesong when the villain who has been as obsessed with privacy as an intergalactic Howard Hughes (without the refusal to throw out body waste or trim nails and hair) shows up at his hometown’s school reunion. Here, Howard runs amok like Carrie at her pro...more
Mar 12, 2013Ivan Stoner rated it really liked it
A rare downgrade (from 5 to 4 stars) on a subsequent reading of Vance.
The Book of Dreams was written in 1981 with Vance at the height of his powers. It's the finale of a 5-book series called (execrably) 'The Demon Princes.' Vance is about the best in the business at naming, so I can only imagine the series title was foisted on him by a publisher. The basic story is that hero Kirth Gersen's family was killed when he was a child by five master criminals. He devotes his life to hunting them down an...more
The Book of Dreams was written in 1981 with Vance at the height of his powers. It's the finale of a 5-book series called (execrably) 'The Demon Princes.' Vance is about the best in the business at naming, so I can only imagine the series title was foisted on him by a publisher. The basic story is that hero Kirth Gersen's family was killed when he was a child by five master criminals. He devotes his life to hunting them down an...more
Jun 15, 2013Ivo Crnkovic-Rubsamen rated it really liked it
In the final installment of the Demon Princes series, Vance does a reasonable job of addressing some of the issues I had with the earlier books in the series. The final demon prince is distinguishable from his colleagues, and Gersen has to work a lot harder to finally destroy him. The multiple encounters with the demon prince that do not end in Gersen's ultimate victory allow the character to be developed past the relatively cursory character portraits of the other Princes. Vance also allows som...more
Apr 11, 2015Ĝan Starling rated it it was amazing
I have re-read all five books of The Demon Princes series at least seven times. I own all five in hardbound editions, signed by the author. I would like to give The Book of Dreams five stars together with the fourth book of the series. It is the perfect conclusion to this series, the ending just right.
Of all the characters created by Jack Vance, Howard Alan Treesong is one of the most enjoyed...one might even say inspiring. Did you not know the hero too well by this time, you would instead root...more
Apr 27, 2008Curtiss rated it really liked itOf all the characters created by Jack Vance, Howard Alan Treesong is one of the most enjoyed...one might even say inspiring. Did you not know the hero too well by this time, you would instead root...more
Shelves: science-fiction, all-time-favorites
I recorded all of Jack Vance's Demon Princes books in 50-55 minute episodes for Golden Hours, my local radio service for blind and reading-impaired listeners. Too bad I didn't make CD copies for myself, since the radio station broadcast the tape versions and then erased them too reuse.
I guess I'll have to re-record them for Golden Hours and this time keep a copy, since Jack Vance has a wicked and sardonic sense of humor that I really enjoy, and this series of books is his absolute best.
I especia...more
I guess I'll have to re-record them for Golden Hours and this time keep a copy, since Jack Vance has a wicked and sardonic sense of humor that I really enjoy, and this series of books is his absolute best.
I especia...more
The long-awaited conclusion of Kirth Gersen's vendetta against the Demon Princes.
The final villain, 'Howard Allan Treesong', is especially interesting. It is hard to dislike him completely. The glimpses of the imagination expressed in the titular book are fascinating (even Vancian)... and his treatment for all the bullies who made him miserable in school can not but appeal to all of us who went through the like. And the sheer audacity of his schemes (like an attempt to take over the IPCC) impres...more
The final villain, 'Howard Allan Treesong', is especially interesting. It is hard to dislike him completely. The glimpses of the imagination expressed in the titular book are fascinating (even Vancian)... and his treatment for all the bullies who made him miserable in school can not but appeal to all of us who went through the like. And the sheer audacity of his schemes (like an attempt to take over the IPCC) impres...more
Mar 31, 2012Fantasy Literature rated it really liked it
4.5 stars
The Book of Dreams is the final book of Jack Vance’s The Demon Princes saga. Kirth Gersen must find and eliminate his last elusive enemy: Howard Alan Treesong. As usual, he has the help of his reluctant banker and there’s a new Innocent Pretty Young Female to attend to, also.
The Book of Dreams is reminiscent of The Palace of Love (the third Demon Princes novel), which also featured a sensitive boy turned bad after being bullied and teased by his peers. Kirth finally tracks down Treesong...more
The Book of Dreams is the final book of Jack Vance’s The Demon Princes saga. Kirth Gersen must find and eliminate his last elusive enemy: Howard Alan Treesong. As usual, he has the help of his reluctant banker and there’s a new Innocent Pretty Young Female to attend to, also.
The Book of Dreams is reminiscent of The Palace of Love (the third Demon Princes novel), which also featured a sensitive boy turned bad after being bullied and teased by his peers. Kirth finally tracks down Treesong...more
Feb 20, 2017Rog Harrison rated it liked it · review of another edition
I probably bought this book in 1982 and have read it a few times though not for over twenty years. It is the final book in the series about Kirth Gersen's quest for revenge on the five people who killed his family. Gersen has already eliminated four of the killers (one in each of the previous books) and now has to track down Howard Alan Treesong perhaps the most dangerous of them all. Treesong has an ambitious plan which by sheer luck Gersen manages to thwart. Gersen again luckily comes across s...more
Aug 01, 2012Derek rated it liked it · review of another edition
Vance grapples with the psychology and motivations of the Demon Princes through the entire series, trying to make each one uniquely outrageous. With Howard Alan Treesong this process reaches an apex: he operates by an elaborate internal mythology and a possible personality disorder which apparently drive much of what he does.
Like the rest of the series, the path to justice is convoluted, with multiple setbacks. Fortunately Gersen never voices the misgivings or weakening of will that hampered the...more
Like the rest of the series, the path to justice is convoluted, with multiple setbacks. Fortunately Gersen never voices the misgivings or weakening of will that hampered the...more
Probably the most complete of all the Demon Prince books in terms of fleshing out the antagonist's motivations. Enjoyed the story very much, just sad to reach the end of the series. Too bad Kirth Gersen didn't have more enemies.
least convincing villain of the series, though his fantasy world of color coded paladins was kinda funny. similar in scope to the previous book, more humor and less violence i guess. ending was pretty dry, but somehow that felt just right.
This was a decent read. But not as good as The Face or The Killing Machine. As the last demon prince, I would expect him to be much more powerful than the others. But he turned out to be a piece of cake.
Mar 14, 2014James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
This series is one big novel, they just couldn't publish giant SF novels in the early 60's. So read them in order!
The last of the five 'Demon Princes' novels. Still good old-fashioned space opera but I think Vance was running out of steam on this particular plot-line by this point.
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Aka John Holbrook Vance, Peter Held, John Holbrook, Ellery Queen, John van See, Alan Wade.
The author was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, he contributed widely to science fiction and fantasy magazines. His first novel, The Dying Earth, was published in 1950 to gre...more
The author was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, he contributed widely to science fiction and fantasy magazines. His first novel, The Dying Earth, was published in 1950 to gre...more
Demon Princes(5 books)
More quizzes & trivia...
“You’re so quiet and subdued! You worry me. Are you well?”
“Quite well. Deflated, perhaps. I have been deserted by my enemies. The affair is over. I am done.” — 0 likes
“Quite well. Deflated, perhaps. I have been deserted by my enemies. The affair is over. I am done.”
“For the first time Gersen saw indigenous fauna of Moudervelt: a band of lizard-foxes, with gray-green pangolin scales and a single optic orb. They reared high to watch Gersen pass by; when he slowed the car they advanced with dancing sidelong steps, for purposes Gersen could not guess. He drove on, leaving the troop staring after him.” — 0 likes
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