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640e373
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have been prisoner, slave, fugitive, and now king, which I prefer.
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Jack Vance |
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bfe86b1
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An enemy, perhaps. Ah, so simple. Liane will kill you ten men. Two steps forward, thrust -- thus!" He lunged. "And souls go thrilling up like bubbles in a beaker of mead."
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Jack Vance |
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b1bb7b5
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I hate you with the hate that I give to all the world; I love you with a feeling nothing else arouses.
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Jack Vance |
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c581f3a
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How I hate you," he said softly. "If hate were stone I could build a tower into the clouds."
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Jack Vance |
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f50b250
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A voice issued from the mirror..."The characters read thus: 'Suldrun, sweet Suldrun, leave this room before harm arrives upon you!'" Suldrun looked about her. "What would harm me?" "Let the bottled imps clamp your hair or your fingers and you will learn the meaning of harm." The two heads spoke at the same time: "What a wicked remark! We are as faithful as doves." "Oh! It is bitter to be maligned, when we cannot seek redress for the wrong!..
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Jack Vance |
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2bbc816
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On the heights above the river Xzan, at the site of certain ancient ruins, Iucounu the Laughing Magician had built a manse to his private taste: an eccentric structure of steep gables, balconies, sky-walks, cupolas, together with three spiral green glass towers through which the red sunlight shone in twisted glints and peculiar colors.
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opening-lines
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Jack Vance |
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8bb4284
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The secret, so Shimrod knew, was never to accept the fairies' terms, but always to close the deal on one's own stipulations, otherwise the bargain was sure to turn sour.
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Jack Vance |
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f6042c7
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The old Galactic Prime sat silent, mouth compressed, eyes burning like far volcanoes. At his feet the new Prime, Lord of Two Billion Suns, found a dead leaf, put it into his mouth, and began to chew. Afterword
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Jack Vance |
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db0b843
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I will be glad to go. There is no poetry here. It is as I have always set forth: joy comes of its own free will; it cannot be belabored.
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poetry
joy
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Jack Vance |
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6e315b0
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The woman behind the bar called out: 'Why do you stand like hypnotized fish? Did you come to drink beer or to eat food?' 'Be patient,' said Gersen. 'We are making our decision.' The remark annoyed the woman. Her voice took on a coarse edge. "Be patient,' you say? All night I pour beer for crapulous men; isn't that patience enough? Come over here, backwards; I'll put this spigot somewhere amazing, at full gush, and then we'll discover who ca..
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humour
barmaid
pub
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Jack Vance |
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71436e1
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The world now lacks a " Sir Pom-pom", with all his funny ways! I wonder where he is now? Or is he anywhere at all? Can someone be nowhere?" --
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Jack Vance |
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5b5d9b1
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An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of afterthought--
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Jack Vance |
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ac7c575
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Let us leave this room, said Melancthe. It reeks of the brain.
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Jack Vance |
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2575f11
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You are evil like all existence. ... If power were mine I would crush the universe to bloody gravel and stamp into the ultimate muck!
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Jack Vance |
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e00eeb1
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Lord Daldace looked about as if seeing the villa for the first time. "What are dreams? Ordinary experience is a dream. The eyes, the ears, the nose: they present pictures on the brain, and these pictures are called 'reality'. At night, when we dream, other pictures, of source unknown, are impinged. Sometimes the dream-images are more real than 'reality'. Which is solid, which illusion? Why trouble to make the distinction?"
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Jack Vance |
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d369a49
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I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man's accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race.
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Jack Vance |
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f40de2e
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Alastor Cluster is thousands of years old; men by the trillions fill the galaxy. Great mentors here, there, everywhere, across the whole pageant of existence have propounded problems and solved them. Everything conceivable has been achieved and all goals attained: not once, but thousands of times over. It is well known that we live in the golden afternoon of the human race; hence, in the name of the Thirty Thousand Stars, where will you fin..
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Jack Vance |
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4737d94
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Star-watching: at night the stars of Alastor Cluster blaze in profusion. The atmosphere refracts their light; the sky quivers with beams, glitters, and errant flashes. The Trills go out into their gardens with jugs of wine; they name the stars and discusses localities. For the Trills, for almost anyone of Alastor, the night sky was no abstract empyrean, but rather a view across prodigious distances to known places: a vast luminous map.
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Jack Vance |
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e32efc7
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Someone who conceals his curiosity, is overwhelmed with information.
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Jack Vance |
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36abce2
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Humanity is old, civilization new: the mesh of cogs is by no means smooth -- and this is as it should be. Never should a man enter a building of glass or metal, or a spaceship, or a submarine, without a small shock of astonishment; never should he avoid an act of passion without a small sense of effort ...
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Jack Vance |
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dbc71cf
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From Life, Volume III, by Unspiek, Baron Bodissey: I am constantly startled and often amused by the diverse attitudes toward wealth to be found among the peoples of the Oikumene. Some societies equate affluence with criminal skill; for others wealth represents the gratitude of society for the performance of valuable services. My own concepts in this regard are easy and clear, and I am sure that the word 'simplistic' will be used by my criti..
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Jack Vance |
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d676835
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I admit to a specialized occupation, which in fact has not so much as acquired a name. Not to put too keen an edge on it, I wait under gallows until the corpse drops, whereupon I assume possession of the clothes and valuables. I find little competition in the field; the work is dull, and I will never become wealthy, but at least it is honest, and I have time to daydream.
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Jack Vance |
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2d7d486
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Bending, she kissed Glawen's cheek. "Thank you for a lovely day." "Wait!" cried Glawen. "Come back!" "I think not," said Wayness, and ran off up the path to Riverview House."
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Jack Vance |
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85770c2
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Extraordinary that those who command the perquisites of place are those most ready to ignore them! It is as if the blessings of Providence are specious, and notable only in their absence. Ah well, I refuse to speculate.
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Jack Vance |
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d725cd4
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Earth . . . A dim place, ancient beyond knowledge . . . Ages of rain and wind have beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun is red and feeble . . . A million cities have lifted towers, have fallen to dust. In place of the old peoples a few thousand strange souls live. There is evil on Earth . . . Earth is dying . . .
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Jack Vance |
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884601c
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The pre-dawn air was quiet and cool; the sky showed the colors of citron, pearl, and apricot, which were reflected from the sea. Out from the Tumbling River estuary drifted the black ship Smaadra, propelled across the water by its sweeps. A mile offshore, the sweeps were shipped. The yards were raised, sails sheeted taut and back-stays set up. With the sunrise came breeze; the ship glided quickly and quietly into the east, and presently Tro..
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Jack Vance |
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1f92046
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Public convenience or dignity means nothing; police prerogatives assume the status of divine law. Submissiveness is demanded. If a police officer kills a civilian, it is a regrettable circumstance: the officer was possibly over-zealous. If a civilian kills a police officer all hell breaks loose. The police foam at the mouth. All other business comes to a standstill until the perpetrator of this most dastardly act is found out. Inevitably, w..
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Jack Vance |
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539ef63
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The young woman quoted Turgenev, "If you want to annoy an opponent thoroughly or even harm him, you reproach him with every defect or vice you are conscious of in yourself."
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turgenev
vice
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Jack Vance |
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bd46330
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How can we do this? We are told that our world is too small for men of eternal life. This is true. We must become pioneers again, we must break out into new territories! The men of old carved living space from the wilderness; we must do the same, and let this be the condition for eternal life! Is it not sufficient? When a man creates his living space and guarantees his sustenance, is he not entitled to life?
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Jack Vance |
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2a647a6
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When we shattered the Actuarian, we shattered the bar across the sky. Now, life, eternal life, is at anyone's demand. Man must move forward; this is the nature of his brain and blood. Today he is given the Earth; his destiny is the stars. The entire universe awaits him! And so, why should we quaver and hedge at life for all of us?
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Jack Vance |
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459ec61
|
She seems somewhat morose and out of sorts. Do you beat her often?' 'I must admit that I do not.' 'There is the answer! Beat her well; beat her often! It will bring roses to her cheeks! There is nothing better to induce good cheer in a woman than a fine constitutional beating.
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humour
wife-beating
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Jack Vance |
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57f14c2
|
Shimrod gave the boy a copper penny. 'Bring me now a goblet of good tawny wine.' By a sleight of magic Shimrod augmented the acuity of his hearing, so that the whispers of two young lovers in a far corner were now clearly audible, as were the innkeeper's instructions to Fonsel in regard to the watering of Shimrod's wine.
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wine
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Jack Vance |
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f641cf9
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We hold that gain after toil, triumph after adversity, achievement to a goal long-sought, is a greater beneficence than prebendary nutrient from the teat of an indulgent government.
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Jack Vance |
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98c4cdf
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I would offer congratulations were it not for this tentacle gripping my leg.
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humor
tentacle
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Jack Vance |
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9c78ece
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If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another's mind. Few such conflicts can match the First Vegan Wars for grotesque excess.
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Jack Vance |
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53c05f7
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First coming aboard, a new arrival makes a cautious survey of the crew, trying to winnow the affable and good-natured from the surly and truculent. Some of the crewmen will seem easygoing, happy-go-lucky, good-fellows-all; others may appear to be reserved or even aloof. Yet I found that at the end of a voyage these aloof ones were often the persons whom I grew to like and respect the most, while those who seemed so agreeable turned out to b..
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relationships
friendship
new-friends
wariness
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Jack Vance |
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7dcb11f
|
Within and about the Forest of Tantrevalles existed a hundred or more fairy shees, each the castle of a fairy tribe. Thripsey Shee on Madling Meadow, little more than a mile within the precincts of the forest, was ruled by King Throbius and his spouse Queen Bossum. His realm included Madling Meadow and as much of the forest surrounding as was consistent with his dignity. The fairies at Thripsey numbered eighty-six.
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Jack Vance |
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e7c6e0b
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Two hours of loose philosophizing will never tilt the scale against the worth of one sound belch.
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Jack Vance |
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f4bef0d
|
The police mentality cannot regard a human being in terms other than as an item or object to be processed as expeditiously as possible.
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Jack Vance |
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9805743
|
On occasion I read Raymond Chandler although I have certain reservations about this author. Chandler, while obviously a master of his craft, makes overuse of simile, to my annoyance.
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simile
raymond-chandler
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Jack Vance |
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01e9c12
|
You're so quiet and subdued! You worry me. Are you well?" "Quite well. Deflated, perhaps. I have been deserted by my enemies. The affair is over. I am done."
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meaning
success
mission
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Jack Vance |
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8441563
|
For the first time Gersen saw indigenous fauna of Moudervelt: a band of lizard-foxes, with gray-green pangolin scales and a single optic orb. They reared high to watch Gersen pass by; when he slowed the car they advanced with dancing sidelong steps, for purposes Gersen could not guess. He drove on, leaving the troop staring after him.
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dream-like
fauna
foxes
kafkaesque
surreal
eerie
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Jack Vance |
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c802dcd
|
His decision was preordained, and derived from a perverse quirk in his mentality. At his deepest, most essential level, Hack knew himself for an insipid mediocrity, of no intellectual distinction and no particular competence in any direction. This was an insight so shocking that Hack never allowed it past the threshold of consciousness, and he conducted himself as if the reverse were true. So, while his innermost elements winced and grimace..
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bureaucrat
milton-hack
the-man-from-zodiac
mediocrity
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Jack Vance |
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bf1bcea
|
Day and far into the opalescent Embelyon night [Turjan of Miir] worked under Pandelume's unseen tutelage. He learned the secret of renewed youth, many spells of the ancients, and a strange abstract lore that Pandelume termed 'Mathematics.' "Within this instrument," said Pandelume, "resides the Universe. Passive in itself and not of sorcery, it elucidates every problem, each phase of existence, all the secrets of time and space. Your spells ..
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jack-vance
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Jack Vance |