Tuf Voyaging

This is an odd book about an odd man: a science-fiction story starring a tall, bald, overweight vegetarian, a beer-drinker and cat-lover, who doesn't much like the company of humans, and speaks in an oddly formal and pedantic manner. He's highly intelligent but eccentric, and determined to play by the rules—at least, whatever he conceives to be the rules of any situation.Initially he's an unsuccessful interstellar trader, a role that doesn't suit him well. At the end of the first chapter, he acquires a new role that seems to suit him better, and it continues for the rest of the book.The stories in the book are somewhat interesting and entertaining, but I think the main entertainment here is in the character of Haviland Tuf, the protagonist, and in his quaint way of speaking. If I met the man, hypothetically, I don't suppose I'd actively like him: he doesn't tend to like other people and doesn't usually care what they think of him. But I quite enjoy reading about him. He's literally extraordinary. I could readily read another book about him, but as far as I know this is the only one.It certainly deserves at least three stars, perhaps four, but I'm not sure about that, so for the time being I'll leave it at three. This is, incidentally, the only fiction I've read by George R. R. Martin: the Game of Thrones saga doesn't appeal to me, from what I've heard about it, and I've neither read it nor seen it on screen.I've read that, in writing this book, Martin was trying to imitate [a:Jack Vance 5376 Jack Vance https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1207604643p2/5376.jpg], and indeed Haviland Tuf seems like a character that Vance might have created.