The novel “Servants of the Wankh”, also known as “The Wannek” by Jack Vance was published for the first time in 1969. It’s the second novel in the Tschai tetralogy, also known with the global title “Planet of Adventure”, and follows “City of the Chasch“.

Adam Reith continues his attempts to find a spaceship to return to Earth and to leave the planet Tschai is also willing to try to build one. However, it’s difficult to gain access to local technologies and above all very expensive. One option could come from the family of Ylin-Ylang, a woman Reith saved, who is very rich.

Bringing Ylin-Ylang back to her native Cath sounds a good idea but the relationship between the two of them, which at one point was of great passion, freezes down. The woman is linked to the customs of her people and social status is extremely important but her current situation is a source of shame.

In “Servants of the Wankh” the adventures of Adam Reith continue in his attempt to leave the planet Tschai. The narrative takes up where the first novel ended, with the astronaut traveling to Cath with his unlikely companions Traz and Anacho and especially Ylin-Ylang. Reith saved the woman and hopes to get a reward from her wealthy father that allows him to build a spaceship.

The description of alien cultures and customs is one of the characteristics of Jack Vance’s works and in “Servants of the Wankh” this element is more important than ever in the plot. During the journey to Cath, instead of being happy for her return home Ylin-Ylan becomes increasingly agitated because she’s worried about her social status, a crucial factor in her culture.

For Adam Reith carrying out his plan suddenly becomes even more difficult. In addition to the dangers of the journey, he also faces cultural problems he could not anticipate. In some cases his actions are disruptive because they have consequences he doesn’t know about on other people caused by local customs.

In many cases, however, the cultural problems encountered by Adam Reith concern him. The Earthman is an alien on Tschai, a situation quite out of the ordinary because the humans living on the planet believe that no others exist. After a while, Reith stopped getting bothered by the fact that he’s the object of puzzlement or even of ridicule when he claims to come from another planet.

Jack Vance addresses in a rather ironic way the topic of the various cultures that exist on Tschai, of the comparisons among various beliefs and the reactions of humans from different cultures to Adam Reith’s claims. The various human populations on the planet had some beliefs imposed by alien species that enslaved them so their representatives tend to think that the Earthman is crazy. Each of them is convinced of his own story about the origin of humanity so the idea that there’s a planet ruled by humans seems to them absurd.

The development of “Servants of the Wankh” alternates humor and tragedy in a typical plot of the subgenre known as planetary romance. Adam Reith continues his journey through various dangers and even intrigue told with by Jack Vance with in great fantasy as in a novel that’s short even by the standards of that time he added many details about various human peoples and some aliens who live on Tschai.

It’s this mix of elements that makes the Tschai tetralogy a classic not only of planetary romance but of science fiction in general. “Servants of the Wankh” is the second part of a larger story and is titghtly connected to the other novels in the series so it has no real beginning nor a real end. For this reason, I think the best thing is to get the complete tetralogy to read it all and fully enjoy this classic.