The Book of Dreams cover art

The Book of Dreams

The Demon Princes Series, Book 5

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The Book of Dreams

By: Jack Vance
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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Five intergalactic criminal masterminds raid the tranquil world of Mount Pleasant, leaving behind only ruin and slaughter—and the orphaned child Kirth Gersen, who comes to manhood swearing to take bloody revenge. Now Gersen roams the galaxy, bringing vengeance to the Demon Princes one by one, in Jack Vance's classic series of hard-boiled space opera.

In the fifth and final book of the Demon Princes series, Gersen trails Howard Alan Treesong, notorious for his imaginative and horrifying revenges. But Treesong has a sentimental streak and longs for a childhood composition called The Book of Dreams. Exploiting this weakness, Gersen lures Treesong into a final confrontation.

©1981, 2002 Jack Vance (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media, Inc. Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Interstellar Revenge Royalty
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I loved the narration. At first I was wondering, but grew to love the tone and intonation of the narrator. Really enjoyed the worlds Jack Vance could conjure for us.

Brought the stories alive.

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A wonderful read. My first thought on completing Lord of the Rings as a teenager was that it wasn't long enough. I had the same thought with this, the final part of The Demon Princes. Mr Vance was a master story teller and this, for me, was one of his greatest works, alongside the Planet of Adventure series.

The final part of a beautiful odyssey

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I bought a second hand Star King that got me onto this series, then realised there was 5 demon princes, but only 3 books, published in the 60's. There were 2 stories yet to be told and I feared they may not get written. Then on a visit to The Forbidden Planet bookshop in London, I spied The Face, then this was published 2 years later. So my reading of these books spanned 5 years (albeit the publishing spanned nearly 30). Getting to the end was like the closing of an era for me, I was invested in the character of Kirth Gersen, and on the story's conclusion felt quite lost. For me, these books are huge, love the universe they are set in, loved the nice simple story telling and the inventiveness of the journey. This was before the internet, so I sent a letter to Jack Vance via his publisher, I got a response and have the letter safely stored away, that blew me away. I am very biased, but I highly recommend the books. Just think they should be packaged into 2 rather than the 5 books as they are quite short.

Very much enjoyed listening to this one

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