He is an activist for the independence of the colonized natives despite this, he is falling in love with the land-owner Schaine. Erris Sammatzen is a decent man and gentle progressive from the cosmopolitan continent of Szintarre, which also functions as the de facto capital of Koryphon. Surprisingly, she is not the protagonist. The Gray Prince is madly in love with her. She’s lightly liberal and hates the idea that others may suffer from her family’s actions she also really loves her land and has no interest in leaving it. She’s the child of a maverick ranching family – one of many such families on the planet – whose ancestors seized their land on the continent Uaia from the nomadic human-offshoots who once held it. Schaine Madduc returns to the world of Koryphon after a stay abroad. “The mourning of defeated peoples, while pathetic and tragic, is usually futile,” said Kelse. This is the lesson of history, whether you like it or not.” 'Except for a few special cases, title to every parcel of real property derives from an act of violence, more or less remote, and ownership is only as valid as the strength and will required to maintain it. I don’t agree with the points he is making but damn he knows how to drive a point home. Because it is written by the masterful Jack Vance, these ideas are slowly, sardonically unspooled with wit, subtlety, and a quiet, slowly building forcefulness. It is a very enjoyable novel with some unnerving things to say about who can take what and why. I think it should be called “Might Is Right”. I don’t know why the book is titled “The Gray Prince”. The Gray Prince – the character – is a fool, a clown, an object of exploitation, an embittered revolutionary, a supporting character of more importance as an object of critical contemplation than as an actual supporting character. The Gray Prince – the novel – is reserved, dry, sly, a streamlined adventure, a mystery box full of more mystery boxes, a meditation on manifest destiny, a critical contemplation on colonialism that left me a little disturbed.

The Gray Prince by Jack Vance