Lyonesse

Jack Vance puts together a huge cast of characters, a large island full of political intrigue, fairy realms and magic. Through all this, he comes up with a solid story and great prose to boot.

Politically, this island (south of the British Isles, west of France) has intrigues and minor skirmishes aplenty. At the mid point of the novel, two of these nations undertake a minor war, framing that section of the story and introducing one of the many main characters.

Magically, this island has several reclusive wizards who are mostly in competition with each other, though respecting some sort of compact. The upstart attempt to enter this collection commences with the theft of magical items from another of the many main characters.

... and that's just two of the stories interwoven here. Further fleshing out awaits the fairy realms (more than a few, with different kings but respected boundaries), the truce between two warring factions (not likely to hold long) and the reappearance of a wizard destroyed. Whew!

Jack Vance closed this story off fairly well but left a lot open, as you can see. For me, this is never a great thing in the first book of a series, and being 30 years old is no excuse. That said, I will seek out more from this Grand Master of Science Fiction in the near future - including the second book of this fine series!