F/SF

In the past, a ship from old Earth had been sent to a penal colony, with a load of prisoners. They hijacked the ship and crash-landed on the Blue World, a planet that is all ocean.
Many generations have passed, and the crimes for which the prisoners had been imprisoned still keep their names, for example, Forger, but they have a different meaning now.
There are giant lily pads here and there on the planet, called floats, which are so tough and thick that the descendants of the original prisoners can build huts on them. Small villages live on the biggest floats.
Obeisance must be paid to a giant kragen, something like an octopus combined with a squid combined with an insect. Called King Kragen, he keeps smaller kragens from entering the float village's lagoons, but he must be fed, and he eats a LOT. Sklar Hast is sick and tired of the homage that must be paid to King kragen. He has plans for getting rid of him.
He likes meril, the daughter of his Superior in his messaging job. In this society, women must be "tested" before they are married to a man. This way the man finds out if he likes the way she gives sex to him. Meril wants nothing to do with this custom and lets sklar know that she will not be moving in with him as soon as his currently-tested woman moves out.
She wants More in her life; she wants to study the old memorandums left from the original prisoners.

2003 edition, Paperback, Orion Publishing Group
P.14:
" 'what I want to do,' said meril, 'is to make a careful new study of the memoria. I want to note each of the absurdities and try to understand it, try to relate it to all the other absurdities -- because I can't believe that the men who wrote the memoria considered these passages absurdities.'
Sklar hast gave a shrug of indifference. 'Incidentally, your father suggested that you might care to be tested. If you like, you can come to my float anytime after tomorrow morning -- coralie Vozelle will then be leaving.'
Meril Rohan compressed her lips with mingled amusement and vexation. 'My father is trying to marry me off long before I care to be so dealt with. Thank you, I do not care to be tested. Coralie May exert herself on your behalf yet another week, for all of me. Or another month. Or a year.' "

P.45:
"Phocan's cauldron, rising into the sky, revealed the kragen in Fuller detail. Sklar Hast examined the four blind-seeming eyes in the turret, intricate construction of the mandibles and tentacles at the maw. He touched the turret, peered at the dome-shaped cap of chitin that covered it. The turret itself seemed laminated, as if constructed of sacked rings of cartilage, the eyes protruding fore and aft in flexible tubes of rugose harsh substance.
Others in the group began to crowd close; Sklar Hast jumped forward, thrust at a young Felon boat-builder, but too late. The kragen flung out a palp, seized the youth around the neck. Sklar Hast cursed, heaved, tore; the clenched palp was unyielding. Another curled out for his leg; Sklar Hast kicked, danced back, still heaving upon the felon's writhing form.
The kragen Drew the felon slowly forward, hoping, so sklar Hast realized, to pull him within easier reach. He loosened his grip, but the kragen allowed its palp to sway back to encourage Sklar Hast, who once More tore at the constricting member.
again the kragen craftily Drew it's Captive and Sklar Hast forward; the second palp snapped out once more and this time coiled around Sklar Hast's leg. Sklar Hast dropped to the ground, twisted himself around and broke the hold, though losing skin. The kragen petulantly jerked the felon to within reach of its mandible, snipped off the young man's head, tossed body and head aside.
A horrified gasp came from the watching crowd. Ixon myRex bellowed, 'a man's life is gone, due to your Savage obstinacy! You have much to answer for! Woe to you!' "
( )

Big fat King Kragen
chubby terror of the sea
fear his mighty girth! ( )

This is one of my very favorite novels by one of my favorite authors.

I am not quite sure why I like this novel so much, out of all Vance's works. To be frank, The Blue World does not have the finesse or the poignancy of many of his more complex works. However, there is a sly humor found throughout the novel that I find particularly funny. Also, this world is fascinating in many ways. Firstly, the environment itself is intriguing, with the watery world survivable only because of the vast, habitable lilypad-esque plants, and the maniacally intelligent homicidal sea monster. Secondly, the society is a perfect rendition of a small community, with the oblivious old guard versus the younger irreverent citizens. Thirdly, this novel has a sense of concentrated urgency because of its short length, the intense life-and-death struggle, and the closed environment.

Sklar Hast is the prototypical Jack Vance hero. Change his name and he is Shimrod, or Adam Reith, or Kirth Gersen. However, he is tailor-made for what he must accomplish, namely mortifying the men who hold power, defeating the dreaded Kragen, and leading all the worthwhile people in his society to a new paradise.

If you love Jack Vance but have somehow missed this one, you will really enjoy this short novel. If you've never read any Vance, this is a good place to begin. With a scaled-down vocabulary compared to much of his other work, it will allow you to ease yourself into a Vancian state of mind. ( )

CVIE edition

The Blue World is an longer version of Vance's novella "The Kragen". They're very similar, though the novel tells the story with a little more finesse. Essentially, Sklar Hast, one among the descendants of a crashed human ship, becomes dissatisfied and runs into trouble with the authorities. So far, standard Vance.

Sklar, however, is one of the most appealing and sympathetic of Vance's characters. Not only that, but his love interest, Meril Rohan, is unusually independent. The story itself covers how Sklar and others deal with King Kragen - a giant among the native sea life. King Kragen is clearly intelligent, and it's disappointing that Vance spends virtually no time exploring that aspect of the world - not even the history of how humans and kragen first communicated.

The story is in many ways not one of Vance's best, but it is among the most optimistic. Good things consistently happen to good people, and that's unusual in itself in a Vance story.

As always, there's great fun with language. In this case, for example, society is stratified by caste, including Hoodwinks (who, naturally, wink hoods), Advertisermen, and Swindlers.

Worth a read by anyone, and not a bad place to start with Vance. Non-serious fans won't need to read both this and the novella. ( )