Note: it’s Rhialto the Marvellous.
To expand a bit from the link posted, the first book, Dying Earth, is a bunch of short stories, some of which are connected and some are standalone. The Eyes of the Overworld is a single continuous story, and Cugel’s Saga is its sequel. Rhialto the Marvellous is not connected.
He also wrote a number of wry science fiction novels: Big Planet and Showboat World, Space Opera; and a number of sci-fi adventure series: the Demon Princes series and the Planet of Adventure series. All great good fun.
I tried reading Lyonesse, but it just didn’t have the magic for me, which was disappointing.
I’ve got to put in another plug for the *Demon Princes *novels. Five science fiction mysteries of majestic proportion. You can read them in order, or out of sequence; doesn’t make much difference. They get better every time I read them…TRM
That’ll teach me to copy and paste from amazon.
However, A Quest for Simbilis by author Michael Shea is the other sequel to The Eyes of the Overworld. Authorized and everything. Shea got Vance’s style and world down pat, imho.
Quoting from the article I linked to above:
There is also “Songs of the Dying Earth,”
I would also like to suggest his sc-fi mystery story “The Moon Moth.” His gift for creating soceities is on full force, as an investigator from Earth needs to find a dangerous escaped criminal on a planet where everyone wears a mask.
Jack Vance is one of my favorites too.
The *Araminta Station *trilogy is how I started reading him.
I need a new set and that’s what I’ll treat myself to for Christmas.
I haven’t re-read the series in a couple of years and I have no idea if someone borrowed them, but I can’t it.
I love Dying Earth. I like Big Planet. I’ll read any Vance I find.
As I recall, Showboat World is set on Big Planet.
The John Varley thing is a great shout - I recognise this guy’s name intimately through looking at the Vance titles, him and Vernor Vinge space out two SF giants, Vance and Wolfe.
Wolfe and Vance are often linked via the Dying Earth theme, despite being very different writers. A writing trait they do share, though, is one madmonk28 has described - the ability to let their creations live and breathe in the reader’s imagination. They have a fantastically deft touch in providing just enough vision and imagery to power their creations - love this style of writing. Not great for a bestiary I guess.
As much as I love the dying earth, I don’t think I’ve read much else from Vance. Is lyonesse really in the same league? It don’t seem possible.
Gookin, why do you lie among the cheeses?
Lyonesse and its sequels have a very different feel than the Dying Earth books. They’re about Faerie, and Vance actually does a wonderful job of conveying that sense of nothing being quite what it looks like (or acts like). That said, they’re not as compelling as the Dying Earth books…I got halfway through Madouc and just kind of gave up. I don’t even remember why, or remember much of the plot, main or otherwise.
Early on in the Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel is given an amulet that allows him to make matter palatable and avoid poisons. Eventually it stops being mentioned completely, and he must rely on foraging. Did I miss the part where he loses it? He seems to eventually lose every enchantment through his charlatanry, but I don’t remember a conspicuous mention of this one.
I don’t remember him losing that specific item, but there are a couple of times when he pretty much has to run out of town and leave his stuff behind.
The thing about Eyes of the Overworld, is the stories that comprise it were written over a long period of time – easily several years. Vance was writing them as fast as he could, since he got paid pennies for them. Compared to other authors writing in that period, I think the EotO stories hold their stuff together better than most. But he definitely forgot stuff in the months between writing Cugel stories.
Cugel’s Saga holds together much better, because it was written to be a book. Mind you, the chapters can still be read (mostly) by themselves as marvelously entertaining stories, but that’s just the style.
For my money, I think *Cugel’s Saga *is his best fantasy-comedy work. But you can’t go wrong with any Vance book. If you like his style, everything he wrote’s readable. I recently picked up The Dark Ocean and Bad Ronald, very early works that haven’t been reprinted much, and they were every bit as entertaining as I hoped.
Seconded (or thirded). The Demon Prince novels are my favorite Vance of all for some reason. I won’t claim that it is all great writting but I’ve read them all a dozen times and will read them again. They are my go-to books any time I need to fill up time (plane flights and doctor visits for example.) The description of Smade’s planet alone is worth the price of admission.
Made into an enjoyable (if not incredible) TV movie back in 1974.
I thought otherwise, and I picked them up as a big, big fan of Varley’s short stories. I like the shorts a lot more.
Another Vance fan checking in. My first exposure to him was only recently when I read collection Tales of the Dying Earth..
I loved it so much, I subsequently read [Songs of the Dying Earth](Songs of the Dying Earth), a collection of short stories written by fantasy/sci-fi authors in tribute of Vance. Unlike a lot of artistic tributes, this one was extremely well-done and contained some beautiful writing. (I should also note that this appears to be out of print on Amazon, with prices starting at $80. I’m glad I ordered mine when I did).
I received The Jack Vance Treasury for Christmas. I’m eagerly awaiting the moment I dive into that book. Once I do so, I don’t expect to surface again until I finish it, even for air.
While the 1st DE novel is pretty subdued, the Rhialto & Cugel books are pretty hilarious in parts. Cugel in particular makes for a pretty good anti-hero who is not quite a bright as he thinks he is.
What you seek is this…
The Jack Vance Lexicon: from Ahulph to Zipangote
compiled by Dan Temianka
ISBN 0887331181
I have a copy, signed by the maestro himself. It entails 136 pages of definitions from all of his books over his 50-year writing career. I refer to it often in translating Vance into Esperanto for my website Eldonejo Mistera Sturno where I present my authorized translations. The lexicon has no pictures, though. This is something I am thinking to address. I will issue, at some point, a bi-lingual (English and Esperanto) bestiary of only the Dying Earth fauna.