The Alastor Cluster is the fictional setting of three of American writer

Jack Vance John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names. ...

's novels: '' Trullion: Alastor 2262'' (1973), '' Marune: Alastor 933'' (1975), and '' Wyst: Alastor 1716'' (1978), each named after a world in the cluster. Vance planned a fourth novel ''Pharism: Alastor 458'', but it was never written. A

globular A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars. Globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of member ...

star cluster Star clusters are large groups of stars. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters are more loosely clust ...

Vance describes as "a whorl of thirty thousand live stars in an irregular volume twenty to thirty light-years in diameter," the Alastor Cluster is part of Vance's larger

Gaean Reach The Gaean Reach is a fictional region in space that is a setting for some science fiction by Jack Vance. All of his series and standalone works that are set in a universe evidently including the Gaean Reach, perhaps set inside it or outside it, ha ...

fictional universe. Three thousand of the star systems in the cluster are inhabited by five trillion humans. Vance describes them as having "little in common except their lack of uniformity." They are ruled by the mostly hands-off,

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...

Connatic, Oman Ursht, "the sixteenth of the Idite dynasty". His motto is "when in doubt, do nothing." The Connatic's palace, Lusz, on the planet Numenes, rises "ten thousand feet above the sea on five great pylons", and contains chambers dedicated to each inhabited planet. His military force, the Whelm, is so-called for its use of overwhelming military force to accomplish victory. In the manner of

Harun al-Rashid Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar , أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...

of ''

The Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', he goes among his people in disguise: often acting under a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

in the guise of an official of his own government. His character acts as a ''

deus ex machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...

'', linking the series of novels together. A fourth authorised novel by

Tais Teng Tais Teng (born 1952 in The Hague) is the pen name of a Dutch writer of fantasy fiction, hardboiled detective, children's books and science fiction. He also works as an illustrator, sculptor and writing coach. His real name is Thijs van Ebbenhor ...

, ''Phaedra: Alastor 824'', was published under the "Paladins of Vance" label by Spatterlight Press in 2019.

References

External links

* 1970s science fiction novels 1970s fantasy novels Book series introduced in 1973 Science fiction book series Fictional astronomical locations Fictional regions Novels set on fictional planets {{fantasy-stub