The Houses of Iszm
This novella first appeared in Startling Stories magazine in 1954. It was reissued in book form in 1964.
Cover: Underwood-Miller, 1983.
The Houses of Iszm were alive. Lush, elaborate, hollow trees wherein
the walls, floors, ceilings and even the furniture and plumbing were
part of the living, thriving plant.
The people of Iszm were
guarded and afraid. Alone in the universe they possessed the secret of
cultivating such dwekkings. They held a gigantic, lucrative monopoly,
exporting such homes to all other worlds. With the universe facing a
population crisis and a desperate need for cheep, organic dwelling
places, aliens from other worlds, including Earth, had long tried to
steal a female house-seed to break the monopoly.
But iszic
security was efficient and ruthless. As Earthling botanist Aile Farr,
spearheading the most ingenious plat of all, discovered...
Jack Vance
John Holbrook "Jack" Vance (1916–2013) was an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published as by Jack Vance, he also wrote 11 mystery novels using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and once each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse.
Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984 and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 14th Grand Master in 1997 and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers.