Son of the Tree
This novella was first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine, June 1951, and in book form as half of an Ace Double in 1964.
"A vast, breathing, sappy mass, a trunk five miles in diameter, and
twelve miles from the great kneed roots to the ultimate bud – the
'Vital Exprescience' in the cant of the Druids. The tree ruled the
horizons, shouldered aside the clouds, and wore thunder and lightning
like a wreath of tinsels. It was the soul of life, trampling and
vanwuishing the inert, and Joe understood how it had come to be
worshipped by the first marveling settlers on Kyril."
For Joe
Smith, the sight of the Tree was the beginning of an experience that
would forever change his life. He had journeyed into space in search of
a man, but what he found was a tree, a huge sky-dominating tree, that
held the power of life and death over millions of slaves.
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.