As the night went on, the intoxication of Carnevalle became a thing in itself. To the sounds of the thrill-rides, to the hiss and thwashh when the cars of the Grand Pyrotek passed over, to the calls of barkers and hucksters, to the tones of plangent zither, hoarse accordion, chiming zovelle, plaintive lemurka, bright ectreen, were added the shuffle of a hundred thousand feet, the undertone of excitement, cries of shock and surprise and delight. Along the avenues, through the alleys and lanes, the crowds streamed and shifted. The pavilions gave off prismatic refractions the pagodas dripped molten liquid a myriad lumes floated like a haze of fireflies. Around the periphery swung the comet-cars of the Grand Pyroteck: the Sangreal Rubloon, the Golden Gloriana, the Mystic Emeraud, the Melancthon and the Ultra-Lazuti, each a different color, each casting a different glow from its flaming train. When the sun sank there was a momentary lull, then a swift surge into such vitality and emotion as to deny the very concept of oblivion. In the afternoon Carnevalle came to life, preening and shuddering like a new butterfly. At noon the swish of cleaning equipment and an occasional footstep might be heard. In Clarges itself life was confined to the activity of men. Its six hundred acres held a treasure of color, of pageantry, of spectacular devices for diversion and thrill and catharsis. Against the dismal background of Glade County, Carnevalle blazed like a flower on a slag-heap. Glade County had no reason for being except the fact that it included the six hundred acres of Carnevalle. Without use or habitation, where nothing grew except stunted willows and rust-colored rushes. Across the river lay Glade County, a wasteland, drab, flat and dreary, Men and women walked briskly along the streets to their destinations, wasting no time. A million windows flickered in the sunlight, vehicles darkened the boulevards, shoals of aircraft meshed along the avenues of the air. Everywhere was motion, the quiver of vitality, the sense of human effort. The best residential areas-Balliasse, Eardiston, Vandoon, Temple Cloud-occupied hillsides north and south overlooking the river. From the Mercery rose towers like tourmaline crystals, tall enough to intercept passing clouds surrounding were great shops, theaters and apartment blocks then came the suburbs, the industrial purlieus, the nondescript backlands extending out past the range of vision. There never had been such a city as Clarges for grandeur and somber beauty. The unique variation of the free-enterprise system by which they lived, however, urged them to innovation as a result Clarges was a curious medley of the hoary and the novel, and the citizens-in this as in other ways-suffered the pull of opposing emotions. The citizens of the Reach cherished these links with the past, drawing from them an unconscious comfort, a mystical sense of identification with the continuity of the city. Clarges was an ancient city structures, monuments, manors, old taverns, docks and warehouses two or even three thousand years old were common. I Clarges, the last metropolis of the world, stretched thirty miles along the north shore of the Chant River, not far above the broadening of the Chant into its estuary. 56-12123 Printed in the United States of America BALLANTINE BOOKS, INC., 101 Fifth Avenue, New York 3, N. © 1956, by Jack Vance library of Congress Catalog Card No. As the story of Warlock's desperate flight and pursuit unfolds, we are led through the labyrinths of a fantastic world government -a government literally of the living and the dead. A carnival barker-unmoral, unscrupulous, utterly ruthless-he can evade his punishment only so long as his career of crime is uninterrupted. The central figure in Vance's absorbing speculation is John Warlock, an Immortal who has committed the unforgivable crime of murder. The road to immortality is a hard one, and one false step may mean a visit from the Assassins. Immortality is not given indiscriminately to all mankind, but must be earned through a series of worthy achievements, each of which brings as its reward an extension of the life span. In Jack Vance's exciting science-fiction novel, we enter a future world in which eternal life is possible.
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