Star Well

This has been one of my favourite books for most of my adult life, along with its sequels: they're good friends that I can turn to for comfort, good company, and cheering up in case of need. I know them so well by now, but I still enjoy rereading them now and then.

Each book is a little different from the others. This first one is something of a thriller, there are ruthless criminals at large, and our hero Anthony Villiers is at risk of violent death a couple of times. The danger level drops somewhat in the second book, and then again in the third, as the author realizes that the risk of death is not really an essential feature of this kind of story.

What kind of stories are these, then? I suppose they might be described as adventures in good company, in which the author himself is one of the company, and feels free to comment about what's going on, or to make observations about life in general.

Samuel R. Delany contributed an introduction to this book in 1968, part of which explains: “What follows is a gallery of gamblers, duels and doublecrosses, a minuet of manners and manners mangled; the machinery of the universe is speculated upon; inspector generals arrived to inspect it. And Anthony Villiers, gentleman par excellence, dashes through it all, buckling a swash or two, bungling a couple of others.”

A comment embedded in the story itself explains that: “This is a small story. Outside is a vast Empire set in a vaster universe. Billions delve and spin, fight and love. Storms and wars shake whole planets and are never noticed. Nonetheless, here money, love and life hang in the balance; important enough things, I think you will agree, without the necessity for overstatement.”

A lot of science fiction tells of world-shaking events that affect whole societies, but this is more of a miniature, a story whose events affect only the characters we meet in the course of it. It nevertheless becomes quite exciting, once you get past the scene-setting of the first few chapters.

I should warn that these first few chapters are not really captivating: you have to be ready to persevere, until Panshin gets into his stride later on.