Galactic Effectuator

Epub“Galactic Effectuator” is an omnibus containing two of the famous detective “science fiction” stories written by the grandmaster of the genre, Jack Vance. This is a classic Vance: breathtaking adventures on colorful and dangerous planets, exotic customs of races evolved in unique conditions, and, of course, moving fast on the vivid background of it all, a brave and clever man, moderately quixotic but never forgetting his self-interest. Vance’s protagonist, Miro Hetzel, is a top-notch interstellar private investigator who solves two tangled and risky cases.In the first story, “Dogtown Tourist Agency,” Hetzel travels to planet Maz: there he has to investigate a mysterious shipping company. Axistil, the hypnotically strange capital of this grotesque planet, serves as a diplomatic rendezvous point for at least four mutually hostile Galactic races, including humans. Meanwhile, a young man, after being subjected to a weird mental torture, is accused of a triple murder; trying to save this confused victim of unknown evil forces from an imminent execution, Hetzel discovers that young man’s improbable story is intricately connected with the case that he investigates, not to mention the deadbeat lover of a rich woman, whom Hetzel was tasked to find, and whom he also unexpectedly encounters on the same faraway planet. Inevitably, there is also a lovely innocent girl that may not be so innocent after all…In the second, shorter and somewhat more sarcastic story, “Freitzke's Turn”, Miro Hetzel deals with his former classmate from the Academy, an evil genius who almost killed Hetzel many years ago, and then escaped to lead a life above all laws, those of men as well as, seemingly, those of the nature. Working for a wealthy client whose health and happiness will never be restored without Hetzel’s help, galactic effectuator gathers pieces of evidence on several planets, minutely going through risky turns and stunning discoveries, and finally tracks the criminal down in the remote tropical paradise of his last refuge — only to lose the sight of him again…