When Panarch Panasper is apparently assassinated by his son Beran during a tense meeting with off-world traders from Mercantile, the culturally sedate planet Pao is plunged into turmoil. Beran's uncle Bustamonte becomes Regent until the lad is mature enough to become Panarch, while the boy himself is spirited away to Breakness, a world dominated by the Wizards of the Institute, humans whose cunning intellects are matched only by the cybernetic augmentation that makes them supermen. Under the wing of Institute Wizard Palofax, Beran grows to manhood while studying linguistics. But Pao is easily bested by raiders from the planet Batmarsh and is forced to pay a hefty annual tribute to their martial conquerors. Seeking advice from Breakness, Bustamonte falls for the machinations of Palofax, who has his own designs on Pao. Palofax believes a new breed of Paonese is required – effective warriors and technicians. To achieve this, aggressive new languages are engineered, unleashing the scientific and military tendencies latent in the Paonese, whose subdued character was dictated by the muted structure of their homeworld's tongue. Meanwhile, Beran has plans of his own for Pao...

As well as the colourful, elegant usage of words typical of Vance's style, this novel displays the author's passion for language by employing a plot structure powered by the idea of vocabulary as humankind's means of progress. Despite the high concept nature of the story, The Languages of Pao is no arid, academic read; it's a swift-moving interplanetary intrigue with elements of quasi-Renaissance imperialism admirers of Dune or Star Wars will enjoy, and the pages turn easily and rapidly. Vance has long been regarded as creator of some of the finest planetary romances and "dying Earth" fantasies in the annals of genre writing. His genius for coining memorable and plausible nouns for unearthly beings and artifacts is displayed at its very best here, in one of the earliest SF novels to focus on linguistics. Although it is less florid than some of his better-known works, The Languages of Pao is a clever, original adventure story and a shimmering example of Vance's verbal and world-building skills.

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