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''The Demon Princes'' is a five-book series of science fiction novels by Jack Vance, which cumulatively relate the story of one Kirth Gersen as he exacts his revenge on five notorious criminals, collectively known as the Demon Princes, who carried the people of his village off into slavery during his childhood. Each novel deals with his pursuit of one of the five Princes. ==Book titles== The titles, Gersen's antagonists, and a few details of their plots, in order of publication: * ''The Star King'' (1964). The antagonist is Attel Malagate, a renegade from a species called the Star Kings, who are driven to imitate and surpass the most successful species they encounter; with their contact with humanity in antiquity, they began consciously evolving into imitations of human beings. The bait Gersen uses to trap him is an undeveloped and fantastically beautiful planet whose location is known only to Gersen, which Malagate covets to become the father of a new race that can outdo both humans and his own species. * ''The Killing Machine'' (1964). Kokor Hekkus, a 'hormagaunt', has prolonged his life by the vivisection of human beings to obtain hormones and other substances from their living bodies. But eternal life can be boring, and so he has converted the lost planet Thamber into a stage wherein he acts out his fantasies. * ''The Palace of Love'' (1967). Viole Falushe, an impotent megalomaniac ironically fixated on sex. He was so obsessed with a girl in his youth, that he created a number of clones of her in a vain attempt to generate one which would return his love. This novel contains one of Vance's most compelling and unforgettable characters, the mad poet, Navarth, who has a central role. * ''The Face'' (1979). Lens Larque, a sadist and monumental trickster. In the course of the novel, the protagonist experiences some of the same outrages that motivated the villain to concoct his most grandiose jest, leading to one of the most humorous endings in all Vance's work. * ''The Book of Dreams'' (1981). Howard Alan Treesong, a 'chaoticist', who embodies elements of all the foregoing, and has the most imaginatively ambitious plans of all. He attempts to take-over the 3 major organisations of the Oikumene - the IPCC (law enforcement), the Jarnell Corporation (space ship technology), and the Institute (political and social power). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Demon Princes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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