Slaves of the Klau
Actual title: Gold and Iron.
The sea spreads leaden, listless; they drift over dreary mud-flats. Ahead appears a long black line which, as the barge draws near, breaks
up into clots of men, moving slow as cold ants as they fit great stones
together. They will arrive at any moment...
Barch, an Earther,
and Komeitk Lelianr, the beautiful stranger from a far world, have
together been captured and transported to Magarak by the Klau, great
black creatures whose faces are stiff with black bristles and eyes
gleam like polished jet. Somehow they escape to the wild mountains
where trees clater in the dank wind as it roars through the valley – but
soon they must form a daring plan – for this inhospitable ground is where
the Klau hunt down escaped slaves, for sport...
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.