The Magnificent Showboats: Excellent
In the afternoon I finished The Magnificent Showboats of the Lower Vissel River, Lune XXIII South, Big Planet by Jack Vance. It was an excellent reread; recommended.
The Anome
The minstrel Gastel Etzwane lives in Shant- a country of cantons, each independently dictating its own law and customs. The enforcement of law is simple, quick, and inevitable: death by decapitation, from an explosive torc clamped around each citizen's neck by authority of a single man- the Anome. For millennia Anomes have ruled Shant, dealing death as they see fit- and none dares defy them, until Gastel Etzwane risks his head to expose the Anome’s identity- and end the tyranny of these faceless men forever.
In the evening I started in The Anome by Jack Vance, book 1 of the Durdane trilogy. My ebook copy came with nice cover art by Konstantin Korobov.