The Book of Dreams is the fifth and final book of Vance’s Demon Princes series. It was first published by DAW Books in 1981, two years after the fourth novel of the series. Like all the Demon Princes books, it is set in the Oikumene (later called the Gaean Reach), though to my knowledge, Vance never returned to any of the characters
Please note that spoilers for the book’s plot follow.
Kirth Gersen is tracking the fifth and final of the criminal masterminds collectively known as the Demon Princes, Howard Alan Treesong a.k.a. Lord of the Overmen. Recall that Gersen now owns a business empire, including a magazine, and comes across a recent photograph of a group that contains Treesong in the magazine’s archives. Gersen doesn’t know which individual in the group photo is Treesong, nor does he know when or where the photo was taken, so he cleverly sponsors a magazine contest to have readers help him track down Treesong. It is in the course of this phase of the investigation that Gersen first encounters Alice Wroke, a young woman who has been badly used by Treesong but who is acting as his agent. Gersen also learns that Treesong has been attempting to control the Institute, a powerful philosophical and social organization, by assassinating its leadership. Gersen was himself once a low-ranking member of this organization in his youth, which we learned in The Killing Machine, though he has since left the Institute because of philosophical differences. Gersen manages to thwart Treesong’s plan and wounds him, but Treesong manages to escape.
As with Gersen’s efforts to track down Viole Falushe (The Face), Treesong’s connections with his childhood home are what ultimately lead to his undoing. Gersen learns of Treesong’s origins through his sponsored magazine contest and travels to the dour, religiously-strict Maundish region of the planet Mouderveldt. There, he meets Treesong’s family and gains possession of Treesong’s “Book of Dreams,” a teenage journal where Treesong laid out many of his hopes, dreams, fears, hatreds, etc. in thinly veiled fiction, using his Seven Paladins as protagonists. There are lengthy passages from Treesong’s Book of Dreams included in the novel, and it is through this that we learn much about Treesong’s troubled past and personal psychology. Gersen attends Treesong’s twenty-fifth high school reunion, which Treesong has chosen as the time to gain revenge against all his high school acquaintances who tormented him in his youth. These petty revenges are extremely amusing, though Gersen ultimately foils much of Treesong’s revenge fantasy and manages to wound him again. Throughout, Gersen’s clever investigations and stratagems are detailed, and it is in the course of these that we really see Vance’s artistry shine.
Gersen then comes into contact with the parents of Treesong’s one high school friend, who was murdered long ago by Treesong. They assist Gersen in his schemes to entrap Treesong using the Book of Dreams as bait, though Gersen eventually learns that their plans for revenge interfere with his own. The final scene with Treesong getting his comeuppance is especially poignant, and it is here that we truly see how fractured Treesong’s personality is: his mind is made up of seven parts/personalities, each symbolized by one of the Paladins from his childhood writings.
I did not find Gersen’s romantic interest here, Alice Wroke, to be particularly interesting (I am, as I have mentioned previously, partial to poor Pallis Atwrode from The Star King). Likewise, we don’t see a tremendous amount of characterization of Gersen’s motives and hopes for the future in this one, and I have often wondered what Gersen went on to do now that he’s defeated the five Demon Princes. Think about it: from childhood, he was created by his grandfather as a living tool of vengeance. He has spent his entire life training to destroy these criminal masterminds. Now, around the age of thirty or so, he is fabulously wealthy and has completed his life’s work. What now? I always imagined that he went on to be an anonymous philanthropist and set up an agency to very discreetly provide extra-legal justice/vengeance for others wronged by criminals who cannot, for whatever reason, be brought to justice. That’s as plausible as anything else, as Vance gives us no clue as to what’s next. I suppose that’s because Gersen also has no idea what he’s going to do with himself.
This is Vance almost at his very finest, despite the relatively thin characterization of the protagonist and his love interest, and I give The Book of Dreams 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Review copyright 2010 J. Andrew Byers
Do you have to read the Demon Princes in order? I only have this one in the series (so far unread).
I think you’d be fine reading this one without having read the others. They all have their charms, but this one is my favorite of the series. It explains the backstory sufficiently that you should have no problem following what’s going on.
After what happens to “Poor Pallis”, Kirth knows that he should not risk involving women in his work. After Alusz chastises Gersen he is doubly reluctant to allow himself entanglements with innocents like “Zanzu”. Kirth’s defenses are completely useless against the charms of Jerdian, but she cannot trade her comfortable world for involvement in Gersen’s life as a “motivated mechanism” of retribution. In contrast, the miraculous Alice completely shares Kirth’s motivation for destroying Treesong. Even so, Gersen carefully avoids taking advantage of Alice and tries to shield her from the grim dirty work that is involved in eliminating Treesong, but Alice is not willing to passively sit on the sidelines. In the end she is there at his side when Kirth needs her help and by working together they resolve their joint need to finish off Treesong. In many ways this is the perfect romantic end point for Kirth and it was for the best that all of the other “Gersen Girls” could not fit into his life. At the end of The Book of Dreams there are remaining questions about Alice, her father and the Institute and need for a sequel.
I think you are absolutely correct in your cogent analysis of the “Gersen girls.” Pallis was my personal favorite, but Alice was the best, and obvious, choice for Gersen.
I also agree that we are in dire need of a sequel to the series (and frankly, more Dying Earth and Lyonesse books, among others, would be most welcome). Sadly, I don’t think Jack Vance is up to writing any more though.