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The Dying Earth

Dying Earth #1 / 4
by Jack Vance
The Dying Earth (Dying Earth #1) by Jack Vance
★ 7.66 / 45

Actual title Mazirian the Magician. Cover art by Geoff Taylor. Another cover: George Barr, Underwood-Miller, 1976. 

Retro Hugo Award novel nomination 2001.

Contents:

  • Turjan of Miir (1950)
  • Mazirian the Magician (1950)
  • T'Sais (1950)
  • Liane the Wayfarer (1950)
  • Ulan Dhor Ends a Dream (1950)
  • Guyal of Sfere (1950)

Many eons from now, our Sun has dwindled to a cold red star. Soon it must flicker out... yet still men and women live, and love, and seek what adventure their strange world holds. And that is plenty – for on this ancient Earth the laws of physics weaken, and magic has returned to its own. Enchantment rules, from the Iron Mountains to the dreaming city of Kaiin.

Meet T'sais the sorceress, Turjan the scientist, and Liane the rogue. Journey with them through dim forests and ancient seabeds – across the mystical landscape of The Dying Earth.

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Updated September 22, 2012
Category: Fantasy, Short stories
Release date: 1950
Jack Vance

Jack Vance

John Holbrook "Jack" Vance (1916–2013) was an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published as by Jack Vance, he also wrote 11 mystery novels using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and once each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse.

Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984 and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 14th Grand Master in 1997 and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers.

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Among his awards for particular works were: Hugo Awards, in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir This is Me, Jack Vance!; a Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle; the Jupiter Award in 1975; the World Fantasy Award in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc. He also won an Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Nebula) for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage.

A 2009 profile in The New York Times Magazine described Vance as "one of American literature’s most distinctive and undervalued voices." He died at his home in Oakland, California, May 26, 2013, aged 96.

Selected works

Early novels:

Big Planet (written in 1948)
The Rapparee (1949)
Gold and Iron (1952)
The Houses of Iszm (1953, a novella)
Clarges (1955)
The Languages of Pao (1956)
The Miracle Workers (1957, a novella)
The Dragon Masters (1961, a novella)
The Blue World (1963, novella version The Kragen)
Space Opera (1964)
The Last Castle (1965, a novella)
Emphyrio (1967)

Dying Earth:

Dying Earth (1944)
Cugel the Clever (1963) & Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight (1973–81)
Rhialto the Marvelous (1970–79)

Demon Princes:

1. The Star King (1960)
2. The Killing Machine (1964)
3. The Palace of Love (1965)
4. The Face (1978)
5. The Book of Dreams (1981)

Alastor:

Trullion: Alastor 2262 (1973)
Marune: Alastor 993 (1975)
Wyst: Alastor 1716 (1978)

Lyonesse:

1. Suldrun's Garden (1982)
2. The Green Pearl (1984)
3. Madouc (1989)

Cadwal Chronicles:

1. Araminta Station (1986)
2. Ecce and Old Earth (1990)
3. Throy (1992)

Other novels:

Tschai (1967–69, 1979)
Durdane (1970–71)
The Domains of Koryphon (1972)
The Galactic Effactuator (1973–74)
The Magnificent Showboats (1974)
Maske: Thaery (1975)
Night Lamp (1995)
Ports of Call
(1997, 2004)

Links

Jack Vance. Wikipedia.
Eric Walker: Jack Vance. Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works.
Foreverness: The Jack Vance Archive. Information about the Vance Integral Edition, archive of zines with essays.
Jack Vance Message Board.
Nick Gevers: Jack Vance: Lord of Language, Emperor of Dreams. Infinity Plus.
Peter D Tillman: Jack Vance in the 25th Century – and Beyond. Infinity Plus.
Vance Museum.
Carlo Rotella: The Genre Artist. New York Times.

Dying Earth

Series contains 4 primary works and has 12 total works. Current series reading order on below.

The stories of the Dying Earth series are set in the distant future, at a point when the sun is almost exhausted and magic has reasserted itself as a dominant force. The various civilizations of Earth have collapsed for the most part into decadence. The Earth is mostly barren and cold, and has become infested with various predatory monsters (possibly created by a magician in a former age).

The Moon has disappeared and the Sun is in danger of burning out at any time. A certain fatalism characterizes many of the inhabitants as a consequence.

The series shows the influence of the picaresque tale, applied to a science fiction/fantasy setting.

The Dying Earth (Dying Earth #1)
★ 7.66 / 45
The Eyes of the Overworld (Dying Earth #2)
★ 7.20 / 5
Cugel's Saga (Dying Earth #3)
★ 10.00 / 2
Rhialto the Marvellous (Dying Earth #4)
★ 8.00 / 2
A Quest for Simbilis
N/A
Morreion
★ 7.00 / 2
The Seventeen Virgins
★ 10.00 / 1
The Bagful of Dreams
★ 10.00 / 1
Tales of the Dying Earth
★ 9.20 / 5
The Laughing Magician: The Adventures of Cugel
★ 6.00 / 2
Songs of the Dying Earth
★ 7.50 / 2
The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderoz
N/A


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