Showboat World
The Magnificent Showboats of the Lower Vissel River, Lune XXIII South, Big Planet.
The amazing adventures of two wily rogues on a planet settled by Earth's misfits
Vast, beautiful, untamed, Big Planet lay beyond the frontier of terrestrial law. Its inhabitants were eccentric misfits, descended from the original refugees from Earth.
Those that ran the showboats up and down the rivers knew that each port of call hid its own sinister threat. Apollon Zamp and Garth Ashgale were adept at dodging danger. Two of the wiliest rascals in the business, they were deadly rivals to boot.
So when Zamp began his perilous journey to compete in the Grand Festival at Nornune, he knew only too well that Ashgale would try to sabotage his plans. And he had the added complication of a mysterious blonde beauty on board.
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.