STAR KING by Jack Vance

Written way back in the 1960s, this book creaks a bit but just about manages to hold out.
   It features Kirth Gersen (wrongly called Keith Gersen on the back cover), who has five people on a hit list. The hit list grows a bit during the adventures in the book, which tries to marry an sf theme with a whodunit story. It also features a lot of 'quotes' from various fictional futuristic tracts, some of which are interesting, some of which I suspect are merely fodder for the page count.
   It's interesting in that the other worlds described by JV are weird and wonderful, as are many of the creatures both on and off planet. The different societal structures, only superficially explained, aren't bad, either. And of course we turn the pages because we want to find out who the baddie is and how he will get his comeuppance.
   So if you see this going for 20p in a second hand bookstore, go for it. £1.20? Hmm, you might like to save up for a better buy.
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