Have you read this book?- KILLING MACHINE by Jack Vance

Recently I laid my hands on a famous book of not so famous (Unjustified) American science fiction writer Jack Vance. To me it was a pleasant reading, a book which maintains the thrill and curiosity throughout and I could not leave it until it was finished. Let me share it with all my friends. 

courtesy-Wikipedia

Who is Jack Vance?

Jack (John Holbrook) Vance American mystery, fantasy and science fiction writer born in San Francisco on August 28, 1916 born in  and died in  Oakland on May 26, 2013). He received many awards for his fiction.writing. Notable among these are- 

• Hugo Awards, in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir “This is Me, Jack Vance!”
• Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle
• the Jupiter Award in 1975
• World Fantasy Award in 1984 for life achievement and in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc
• Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Nebula) for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage
• He was Guest of Honor at the WorldCon in Orlando (1992)nd he was
• Named a SFWA Grand Master in 1997.

Since his first published story, "The World-Thinker" (in Thrilling Wonder Stories) in 1945, Vance has written over sixty books. His work has been published in three categories: science fiction, fantasy and mystery.

1. The Dying Earth Quartet:

• The Dying Earth 
• The Eyes of the Overworld 
• Rhialto the Marvelous
• Cugel's Saga 

2. The Big Planet Duo:

• Big Planet
• Showboat World 

3. The Five Gold Bands 

4. To Live Forever 

5. Slaves of the Klau 

6. The Languages of Pao

7. The Dragon Masters 

8. The Demon Princes Quintet:

• The Star King 
• The Killing Machine
• The Palace of Love
• The Face
• The Book of Dreams

9. Galactic Effectuator 

10. Son of the Tree

11. The Houses of Iszm 

12. Space Opera

13. The Blue World

14. Nopalgarth 

15. The Last Castle 

16. The Planet of Adventure Quartet:

• The Chasch 
• The Wannek 
• The Dirdir
• The Pnume

17. Emphyrio 

18. The Durdane Trilogy:

• The Anome 
• The Brave Free Men 
• The Asutra

19. The Alastor Cluster Trio:

• Trullion: Alastor 2262
• Marune: Alastor 933
• Wyst: Alastor 1716

20. The Gray Prince 

21. Maske: Thaery 

22. The Magnus Ridolph Book(s):

The Complete Magnus Ridolph
(this has all 10 Ridolph tales)

23. The Lyonesse Trilogy:

• Suldrun's Garden
• The Green Pearl
• Madouc

24. The Cadwal Chronicles Trilogy:

• Araminta Station
• Ecce and Old Earth
• Throy

24. Night Lamp

25. The Ports of Call Duology:

• Ports of Call
• Lurulu

26. The Short-Story Collections:

• Future Tense 
• The World Between, and Other Stories 
• The Worlds of Jack Vance 
• The Best of Jack Vance 
• Eight Fantasms and Magics 
  Green Magic 
• Lost Moons 
• The Narrow Land 
• The Light From a Lone Star 
  The Augmented Agent and Other Stories 
• The Dark Side of the Moon 
• Chateau D'If 
• When the Five Moons Rise
• Wild Thyme, Green Magic 

(And who can say how many more?) 

And now about killing machine

The Killing Machine is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, the second in his "Demon Princes" series, written in 1964,  in which Kirth Gersen, having brought arch-villain Malagate the Woe to justice, sets his sights on Kokor Hekkus, another of the Demon Princes. The name Kokor Hekkus, which means "killing machine" in the language of the planet Thamber, does not refer to Hekkus's own predilection for homicide, but to his fondness for horrific and murderous devices, including the giant robotic executioner that first gained him his nickname.

To hone his skills, Gersen spends time as a "weasel", a police spy in the lawless Beyond, and is sent on a mission in which "Billy Windle" intercepts a “Mr Hoskins” with license to kill if necessary. Mr Hoskins is killed, though not by Gersen, who recovers two pieces of paper that were being exchanged. One paper provides information on how to become a “hormagaunt,” an undying monster that steals children and lives on the mythical planet Thamber, and the other paper contains technical specifications that Gersen does not understand.

Gersen is made aware that Billy Windle was Kokor Hekkus. He then learns that Hekkus is masterminding a series of kidnappings. The victims are taken to Interchange, a planet in the Beyond, where exchanges between kidnappers and ransomers are facilitated. Gersen learns that the latest victims are the children of a high-ranking Fellow of the powerful Institute, Duschane Audmar, who must remain aloof under all circumstances. Gersen convinces him to underwrite a fact-finding mission to learn more of Hekkus’s activities and to ransom the children.

Gersen learns that Hekkus accumulates funds to ransom a young woman named Alusz Iphigenia Eperje-Tokay who claims to be from Thamber; she fled her homeworld when Hekkus became interested in her and settled on Interchange as her only refuge, since even he would not dare interfere with the organization. She had set her ransom at 10 billion SVU. Hekkus raised the sum by kidnapping the loved ones of the Oikumene’s hundred-wealthiest citizens, ransoming them for a hundred million apiece.

Gersen also meets Myron Patch, an engineer from Krokinole. Patch had built Hekkus a many-legged walking “fort” resembling a giant centipede, but when Hekkus was dissatisfied with the result, Patch refused to refund the money already paid, and was kidnapped and shipped to Interchange to recover the sum. Gersen ransoms him as well as the Audmar children, and temporarily takes a controlling interest in his engineering company.

He determines to lure Hekkus within his reach, and has ideas how to correct the faults in its walking mechanism. Gersen demands more money from Hekkus’s agent Seuman Otwal for the alterations, but when it is time to deliver the completed fort, Gersen is captured and ordered to repay the money; when he cannot, he is dispatched to Interchange.

While there, Gersen sees an old newspaper article that identifies “Mr Hoskins” as a senior bank official. He recalls the cryptic fragment of paper he recovered earlier and surmises that it describes marks used to authenticate banknotes. He forges enough money to free himself and returns to ransom Alusz Iphigenia. The money goes to her (minus Interchange's fee) – and since she is uninterested, Gersen becomes fabulously wealthy.

Gersen hopes that Alusz Iphigenia will be able to guide him to Thamber. She has no knowledge of astrogation but is able to complete a nursery rhyme that allows Gersen to deduce the planet's location.

Thamber is home to a quasi-medieval culture with barbarian tribes into whose hands Gersen and Alusz Iphigenia fall. He fights the leader of a war-band to save her from sexual slavery, and they accompany the warriors to Kokor Hekkus’s castle. There the barbarians easily defeat Hekkus’s foot soldiers, but then Patch's mechanical fort appears. It mimics one of Thamber's greatest terrors, an animal called the dnazd, and the barbarians flee in panic before it. Gersen, however, had foreseen the possibility of facing Patch's creation and had installed an Achilles heel. He disables the war machine and takes its crew prisoner, in the process noting that one of the men aboard,

Franz Paderbush, resembles Seuman Otwal and also Billy Windle, in height and build.

He takes the fort to the castle of Sion Trumble, at one time Alusz Iphigenia’s fiancé. Trumble offers the services of a friend who knows Kokor Hekkus, but the man denies that he is Paderbush. Gersen has his suspicions and allows his prisoner to escape, but then forces his way into Trumble’s private quarters. There he finds Paderbush in the process of transforming himself into Trumble, for they are one and the same, and both are alter-egos of Kokor Hekkus. Hekkus has no face, having concealed his hideous un-face beneath a series of masks. Gersen identifies himself, reminding Hekkus of the Mount Pleasant raid in which his home was destroyed and nearly all of his family killed, and after giving him a few seconds for the news to sink in, executes him. He then returns to the Oikumene accompanied by Alusz Iphigenia, promising to send ships to bring Thamber back into contact with the rest of humanity.