25 December, 2001
Masque World
Alexei Panshin
1969
156 pp (PB)
Masque World is the third (and, unfortunately, last) book in the Villiers series. It's similar in style and tone to its predecessor, The Thurb Revolution. In Masque World, Villiers and Torve travel to the backwater world of Delbaso, where lives Villiers' maternal uncle, Lord Semichastny, and Torve's pen pal, Badrian Beaufils of the Monist Society. (It's never explained exactly what a Monist is, although it's obvious they're some sort of religious/philosophical order.)
Villiers visits some acquaintances of his to get some forged travel documents for Torve, and his uncle to pick up his mail. Meanwhile, Semichastny is arranging a party in honor of Lord Henry Oliphaunt (the new Imperial Governor) and his wife. The Monist society is having a Marvels and Wonders contest (wherein members from various houses comb the streets, in search of the best Wonder or Marvel they can find, and gather to compare at the end of the night). Lord Henry discovers his Inner Trog.
There is decidedly more plot in Masque World than there is in The Thurb Revolution, and less of the narrative banter I enjoyed so much in that book. Even so, Masque World is enjoyable, and I do wish that Panshin had written the sequel promised at the end of Masque World:
"In _The Universal Pantograph_, the fourth Anthony Villiers adventure, such universals are discussed as Nominalism, Realism, marriage, the Great Ian Steele Contest, and Louisa Parini, To follow soon."Alas, it never did.