Emphyrio by Jack Vance

Another Christ-like slayer of oligarchies

Jack Vance’s science fiction novel Emphyrio was first published in the June 1969 issue of Fantastic Science Fiction and released in book form later that same year. The story takes place in the distant future, after mankind has mastered interstellar travel and populated many worlds. The teenaged protagonist Ghyl Tarvoke lives in the city of Ambroy in the country of Fortinone on the planet Halma. Despite the technology for space travel, the civilization on Halma is rather medieval in nature, calling to mind the worlds of Game of Thrones or The Witcher, but without the magic or monsters. The lives of Ambroy’s citizens are determined largely by their affiliation to one of numerous trade guilds. The planet is renowned for its export of handicrafts, so much so that the wealthy lords who govern the world have outlawed all forms of mechanical duplication, such as printing and photography. Ghyl belongs to the woodcarvers’ guild and works as an apprentice to his father, Amiante, an expert in the art of fine carving.

As a young boy, Ghyl learns of a folk legend about a rebellious, Christ-like figure named Emphyrio. The story becomes somewhat of an obsession for Ghyl, and he determines to investigate the historical fact behind the legend. Who was this great people’s hero, and what was the cause of his martyrdom? As Ghyl grows into manhood, he begins to question the rigid caste structure of Halman society and the lords’ domineering trade regulations. He becomes an entrepreneurial rebel himself, emulating the inspirational figure of Emphyrio. The novel is filled with so much talk of trade regulations, taxes, and tariffs that I’m sure there’s an economic message here. Quite frankly, I didn’t care enough to pin it down, but the book seems to push a libertarian message. For the most part, however, Emphyrio primarily reads as another young-hero-versus-the-empire story that is overly familiar from Dune, Star Wars, and many other science fiction works. One interesting bit of trivia is that Vance actually uses the phrase “Star Wars” in this book published eight years before the release of the popular film by that name.

Emphyrio is included in the Library of America’s volume American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1968–1969. It is easily the best of the four novels in that volume, but to be honest, none of the four selections are particularly impressive. Ghyl’s coming-of-age journey is engaging enough. He encounters his first love, commits his first juvenile delinquencies, and realizes his father isn’t perfect. The reader, however, never becomes as invested in the vaguely biblical legend of Emphyrio to the extent that Ghyl does, so whenever the story follows that thread it feels like a distraction from the more interesting trajectory of Ghyl’s life.

As is common in science fiction novels, Vance peppers the text of Emphyrio with many fictional words and place names. That can make for a difficult read at times, but to his credit Vance writes real sentences with recognizable syntax, which is more than can be said for a lot of the more ostentatiously avant garde sci-fi writers of this period, whose works suffer from self-indulgent attempts at poetic prose. I wish that Vance had given Emphyrio a better ending, however, one that would bring us around full circle to the book’s flash-forward prelude. Overall, Emphyrio is a solid sci-fi novel for its era, but it lacks the excitement and psychological depth necessary to make it stand out as a memorable entry in the genre. It probably influenced later works more entertaining than itself.

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