Posted by Richard Chandler on January 13, 1997 at 13:45:31:
Gabriel Stein in the VancePhile has conjectured that Maske: Thaery might just be a prelimiminary version that saw fruition in The Cadwal Chronicles. Another conjecture which seems a little more plausible is that Maske: Thaery is the first volume of a multi-volume series of which the remaining stories were never written. If you take that as a working hypothesis much of the problems with Maske are answered. The 'end' just leaves the story hanging with many threads untied: how does Jubal rebuild Droad House? do Jubal and Mieltrude get their love-life straightened out? What are the Binidaries? etc., etc., etc.
Vance could have started something he intended to finish and never did. The 'Deamon Prince' series was nearly ended after the first three stories. Vance has said he didn't write the last two novels of that series until someone offered to pay for them. In my mind this was very fortuitous - the last 2 stories are *much* better than the first 3. Any comments?