First, it is good to see that a great deal more of Jack Vance's work is now available for Kindle. 'The Chasch' is the first book of the 4-volume Tschai series, a series which, in my opinion (and along with the Demon Princes set), represents Vance at his very best. These books are fast-paced, intelligent, subtle, nuanced, filled with fascinating names, images, and concepts, and totally entertaining.
The Tschai series was originally published in the late 60s and early 70s (the copyright dates range from 1968 to 1970). The series has been previously published under the label 'The Planet of Adventure' and is sometimes just referred to as 'Tschai'. Using the e-book titles, the books are:
The Chasch (originally published as City of the Chasch)
The Wannek (originally published as Servants of the Wankh)
The Dirdir
The Pnume
All four of the books take place on the planet Tschai (except for brief bits in outer space at the very beginning and very end). Tschai is occupied by four alien species -- the Chasch, the Wannek, the Dirdir, and the Pnume, who rule over the planet in an uneasy truce. The first three species came to Tschai from somewhere else; the Pnume, who now live in a huge maze of caverns, driven underground by the other aliens, are apparently indigenous. In prehistoric times (Earth prehistoric) parties of these various space-faring alien groups raided Earth and abducted primitive tribal humans in order to breed slave populations on Tschai. The Chasch begins long after this initial enslavement, in the far future. The human slaves on Tschai have long since forgotten their origin and live in obsequious, or cowed and furtive, states. In the meantime, civilization and technology on Earth have evolved to a high point: humans travel to distant star systems and are busily exploring the galaxy. However, they know nothing of the planet Tschai, which lies far beyond their boundaries in uncharted space.
'The Chasch' begins when a scout ship from Earth stumbles upon Tschai. The ship is immediately destroyed by a missile from the planet; the only survivor is our hero, Adam Reith, who finds himself alone and stranded on the surface of Tschai. He discovers a world of incredible complexity: each alien group has its own slave population of humans, each of which has made a different, strange but plausible, adjustment to its slave status. There are also free humans, descendants of escaped slaves, who live in both nomadic tribes and established kingdoms. The free humans seem to exist at the volatile will of the aliens, serving as buffers between the dominant alien nations. Of course, the "free" humans are not necessarily free within their own enclave societies. These various populations interact with each other in unpredictable ways.
Each book in the series depicts Reith's encounter with one of the different alien groups and their human slaves (this is probably obvious from the titles). Reith rescues various humans from their situations and gains companions. He also encounters and becomes involved with a couple of beautiful women. Along the way, Reith does his best to demonstrate to the local humans their potential for a more noble status, a concept they have lost under alien domination. The individual books provide some closure, each resolving an immediate conflict, but the overall plot dynamic -- Reith's struggle to escape Tschai and return to Earth -- is not resolved until the end of the last book. (Presumably when the situation on Tschai is made known to the Earth hierarchy, the star fleets of Earth's now mighty navy will return in force to free their distant cousins.)
In Tschai, Vance creates a complex and fascinating situation, then makes excellent use of its potential. 'The Chasch' is a strong start to a great series -- if you like extremely well done classic science fiction, this is as good as it gets.
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