The Dragon Masters / The Five Gold Bands by Jack Vance

Paperback. Condition: Good. 1962. Ace.

The Dragon Masters
Vance develops several races of people and follows the life of a boy born into and growing up in a static, stratified society, in which he comes into conflict and is eventually driven into rebellion. "A Rebel Without a Cause" for an Alien world.

The Five Gold Bands
Five gold bracelets imprinted with cryptic messages were the clues that set Paddy Blackthorn off on a riotous galactic treasure hunt. But Paddy found himself not only the hunter but also the hunted for the armbands had been left to him by his would-be killers, the Rulers of the Five Planets.