Marune: Alastor 993
Cover: Ned Dameron. Underwood-Miller, 1984.
Man With No Past
From his fabulous palace on Numenes, the Connatic ruled the sprawling Alastor Clustor... and kept track of the doings of each of his trillion or more subjects. But there was one man he knew nothing about – for the past life of the wanderer called Pardero was a complete mystery.
Pardero set himself two goals. To find out who he was... and to find his enemy, the person who had stolen his memory. Psychologists deduced that his home world must be the mysterious Marune... a planet lit by four shifting suns Pardero made his way there – and was hailed as the Kaiark Efraim, ruler of the shadowed realm.
Uncovering his lost identity had been comparatively simple. Finding his sworn enemy would be more difficult... there were so many people to choose from!
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.
Alastor
Alastor consists of three primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Main series Gaean Reach