The Green Pearl cover art

The Green Pearl

Lyonesse, Book 2

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The Green Pearl

By: Jack Vance
Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
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About this listen

In The Green Pearl, King Aillas of Troicinet defends the peace of the Elder Isles against both the Ska marauders who once enslaved him and the wicked King Casmir. While organizing the unruly barons in the frontiers of his land, Aillas goes out of his way to capture the lovely Ska noblewoman who once stung him with her disregard. When he gets separated from his men, his dream of forcing the lady's recognition becomes the toil of dragging a defiant captive across lands governed by Casmir's henchmen. Meanwhile, the world of magic has gone on the move. The concentrated malice of the witch Desmëi has manifested as a green pearl, breeding lust and envy and death; and a sorcerer in Casmir's employ abducts the princess Glyneth, in a bid to draw Aillas and friends on a hopeless rescue mission across a bizarre and deadly alternate world.

A masterpiece of romantic, picaresque adventure, The Green Pearl extends the epic founded with Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden and concluded in the World Fantasy Award-winning Madouc

©1986 Jack Vance (P)2010 Audible, Inc. Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Magic Royalty Magic Users

Critic Reviews

“(Vance) gives you glimpses of entire worlds with just perfectly turned language. If he’d been born south of the border, he’d be up for a Nobel Prize.” (Dan Simmons)
“Vance has the narrative force, the willingness to look very coldly at violence and cruelty, to not shy away…. He has an amazing ear and writes a beautiful sentence.” (Michael Chabon)
All stars
Most relevant  
This novel, like the other two in the trilogy, is a pastiche - essentially, a collection of top notch short stories bound together by a multi-strand story arc. Such a storytelling approach can easily fall afoul of a number of pitfalls. However, Vance is a master storyteller, and while each episode is captivating in itself, the wider, overall story is somehow richer and part of something great beyond itself that the reader and listener cannot help but be captivated. Keven T Collins does an awesome job in his reading. There is another audiobook version out there, read by a woman I don't know the name of. No comparison. Collins has created the definitive version. He captures the tone brilliantly. This all applies to all three books/audiobooks in the trilogy. Top stuff!

Collins does Vance's greatest stories justice

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