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Eleven generations ago, a ship carrying convicts to a prison planet crashed on a nameless ocean world. Survivors built an egalitarian culture on the pads of giant water plants, winning food, shelter, and the necessities of life from vegetation growing on the pads, and from... Read Full Overview

This is classic Vance: a carefully thought-out alien world, a stratified society, a man in conflict with its rules, and a crucial struggle for liberty against a seemingly unbeatable enemy. "One of the finest writers the science fiction field has ever known.""--Poul Anderson "An... Read Full Overview

This is classic Vance: a carefully thought-out alien world, a stratified society, a man in conflict with its rules, and a crucial struggle for liberty against a seemingly unbeatable enemy. "One of the finest writers the science fiction field has ever known.""--Poul Anderson "An... Read Full Overview

THE BLUE WORLD, a beautiful world, a world of water, with floating islands made by the thick, spreading tops of gigantic ocean growths, big enough to support neat houses and sea 'gardens' alive with fish of all kinds, rich with edible water plants, and even communication towers... Read Full Overview