Part of what makes Jack Vance such a master is the casual way he conjures entire planets full of dynamic societies, even for minor stopovers in the story. This may be partially due to the fact that he goes out of his way to present deadly wilderness alongside civilization. There's a fair amount of gunplay (though usually directed at the literal beasts), but the primary conflict is always between societies and in this regard I have to stand in awe of his imagination.For that and other reasons I enjoyed the Cadwal Chronicals very much. Though Throy is the shortest of the three I liked the way that it ended with the antagonists devouring each other, as opposed to a planetary shoot-out. I also liked the way that the Yips remain aliens, and though they're out of sight at the end of Throy they have already begun to develop into different sub-cultures and their future in the Gaean Reach is far from certain.
