Floating islands of vegetation support a highly developed society with a caste system based on occupation, which over time has become completely rigid changing a eutopia into a dystopia. The ocean contains dangerous predators. A rebel saves the society from itself and the predators.
}, year = {1966}, month = {01/1966}, publisher = {Ballantine Books}, address = {New York}, note = {Rpt. San Francisco, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1979; and as vol. 16 of\ The Complete Works of Jack Vance. Oakland, CA: The Vance Integral Edition, 2005. First appeared in a shorter form as \"The Kragen.\"\ Fantastic Stories of Imagination 13.7\ (July 1964): 7-69. Rpt. in\ The Great SF Stories: 1964. Ed. Robert Silverberg and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2001), 47-102; in\ Wild Thyme and Violets. Other Unpublished Works and Addenda.\ Vol. 44 of\ The Complete Works of Jack Vance\ (Oakland, CA: Vance Integral Editions, 2002), 115-202; and as The Kragen. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2007.
}, language = {eng}, }