How timely that we posted about The Dying Earth on the same day! I’ve only read The Dying Earth story, and I might have to check out Cugel’s Saga. I had a hardback library edition, but I don’t understand why recent publishers did such a disservice to Vance’s collection with that lackluster new cover. Excellent video!
I woke up this morning and saw a notification in your discord and I thought "What are the odds of that?" 😂 I think you will like the rest of the Dying Earth novels. Thanks!
I first read the Dying Earth in the late 70's when I was in my early teens. Loved it! I then proceeded to read all his Fantasy & SF. Jack Vance is still to this day my fave Sci Fi & Fantasy author
I started my journey into Vance with the first Dying Earth book, in the early 2000s. it's honestly still one of my favourites, but I also love the Cugel books, and Rhialto is good, but also the only one of the Tales that I've not visited since first reading. It's just such a fantastically creative world, and yeah, Vance's dialogue is wonderful, as well as his descriptions, and the subtle and concisely detailed world-creating he does. I've read a lot of his other work after all this time. Most of it has been great, and even when it hasn't, it's always sucha pleasure to read and sometimes sticks in the mind in unexpected ways. The other favourite of his series for me is the Demon Princes, a cycle of five short novels concerning a skilled, driven character out to avenge the deaths of his family and enslavement of his planet by a consortium of five galactic master criminals. Each book deals with the quest to track down and eliminate one of the five, so it's basically this wild, intense trip all over the galaxy in an interesting future loaded with detail and a multitude of eloquently devious and entertaining characters. Like in Dune, there are lots of intratextual bits between chapters that are pieces of the "in-universe" literature: documents, academic excerpts, poetry, songs, TV broadcasts, you name it, and there are footnotes too of course, as in some of vance's work. Often I would find this attention to detail a little distracting rather than edifying and just want to get on with the story, but Vance makes me interesting somehow and you want to know more, and it also adds to the re-readability I think. The books gets better as they go generally, but even the first one is pretty great, and the whole thing is an interesting setup that's especially entertaining if you like detective/crime fiction, a genre Vance also wrote in with some success, though I haven't read too many of those yet. Ther'es some really good standalone stuff like To live Forever and Languages of Pau, too, and other excellent series like Derdane (sp) and Planet of Adventure. I also really enjoyed Araminta Station, which is not really a standalone, but I haven't read either of the followups and I don't know how connected the three books really are. I also really enjoyed the Lyoness trilogy, his other foray into fantasy, this time set supposedly in a nebulous time in ancient history (kind of reminding me of the hybroain age I guess in that it seems like our world in the past but not quite), but I wasn't entirely satisfied with how that trilogy wrapped up. Vance has a sort of formula for sure of a strong and cunning protagonist starting out naive about the world and basically figuring out how to become his own master or overcome great odds, but the interesting situations, bizarre but somehow plausible worlds, cracking character interaction and flowing prose make every book more than readable. And you get some really messed up characters too at times like the titular "Bad Ronald", in one of his contemporary-set thrillers. Occasionally after reading so much of his stuff, I have come across what I might charitably call "dubious politics", but it's not really ever been enough to put me off, and doesn't come up in the vast majority of his work (and I don't pretend to fully know what the author thought about anything anyway, or whether that changed from time to time in life depending on his mood or whatever).
Joseph, you should pick up and read Zorachus & The Nightmare of God, by Mark E. Rogers. There are some great prequel books(Blood+Pearls.etc.,) that are good, and some sequel books, called The Devouring Void Trilogy...The Expected One being the first one, that are great also. S&S, religio-polical, horror dark fantasy extravaganzas. Amazing stuff! It's been a huge formative part of my reading life. He also wrote a great series of books about a character called The Samurai Cat...which are really great and I never see talked about. Anyway keep up the good work Joseph. Thanks!
I still have to get myself a copy! I also recommend Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure / Tschai books! I only read the first one and it’s really good! Plus, I found the audiobook here on RUclips!
I feel like a broken record at this point(I say it in almost every comment between us) but the audiobook narration by Arthur Morey is perfect. I listen to a lot of audiobooks 😅
I was surprised by how enjoyable these stories were. Cugel's Saga was definitely my favorite of them, his series of stories was just crazy. Definitely holds up susprisingly well. Will be interested to see what you think about Songs of the Dying Earth! I've always wondered if those tribute anthologies were worth the bother.
Songs of the Dying Earth definitely has some killer stories in it. It's far less consistent than any of the Vance books in my opinion (I guess not surprising that I'd say that about a multi-author collection and we all might have different favourites after all), but the highs are definitely high. I enjoyed about half the stories quite a lot, some were ok, and a couple were just sort of not good. Will be interested to hear your thoughts on it.
You can start with Eyes of the Overworld(the first Cugel novel) and then read Cugel's Saga. Nothing in the first book is needed to enjoy the Cugel stories and Songs of the Dying Earth is a collection written by other writers after Jack Vance passed away. You can go back and enjoy the funky but beautifully written Dying Earth stuff later on. If I could go back I would have started with Eyes of the Overworld and then Cugel's Saga before I read anything else.
Joseph, have you read the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe? Wolfe was inspired by Vance, but I found the New Sun to be a deeper story. I had read Dying Earth probably longer ago than you've been alive.
I have read the first 3 books in Book of the New Sun. I need to go back and read them again along with the final book. I loved them but they are very dense. My brain melted a little 😅
Nifft the Lean is heavily inspired by The Dying Earth. The author, Micheal Shea, wrote an authorized sequel to Eyes of the Overworld in 1974. Then about a decade later it was made unofficial when Vance wrote his own sequel. I plan on reading Nifft the Lean sometime soon.
@@JosephReadsBooks I enjoyed it, but not as much as its inspirations, which I think might include Fritz Leiber's Nehwon/Fafhrda nd Gray Mouser as well as the Dying Earth.
How timely that we posted about The Dying Earth on the same day! I’ve only read The Dying Earth story, and I might have to check out Cugel’s Saga. I had a hardback library edition, but I don’t understand why recent publishers did such a disservice to Vance’s collection with that lackluster new cover. Excellent video!
I woke up this morning and saw a notification in your discord and I thought "What are the odds of that?" 😂
I think you will like the rest of the Dying Earth novels.
Thanks!
I first read the Dying Earth in the late 70's when I was in my early teens. Loved it! I then proceeded to read all his Fantasy & SF. Jack Vance is still to this day my fave Sci Fi & Fantasy author
I can't wait to read all of his works. I really enjoy his writing.
I started my journey into Vance with the first Dying Earth book, in the early 2000s. it's honestly still one of my favourites, but I also love the Cugel books, and Rhialto is good, but also the only one of the Tales that I've not visited since first reading. It's just such a fantastically creative world, and yeah, Vance's dialogue is wonderful, as well as his descriptions, and the subtle and concisely detailed world-creating he does. I've read a lot of his other work after all this time. Most of it has been great, and even when it hasn't, it's always sucha pleasure to read and sometimes sticks in the mind in unexpected ways. The other favourite of his series for me is the Demon Princes, a cycle of five short novels concerning a skilled, driven character out to avenge the deaths of his family and enslavement of his planet by a consortium of five galactic master criminals. Each book deals with the quest to track down and eliminate one of the five, so it's basically this wild, intense trip all over the galaxy in an interesting future loaded with detail and a multitude of eloquently devious and entertaining characters. Like in Dune, there are lots of intratextual bits between chapters that are pieces of the "in-universe" literature: documents, academic excerpts, poetry, songs, TV broadcasts, you name it, and there are footnotes too of course, as in some of vance's work. Often I would find this attention to detail a little distracting rather than edifying and just want to get on with the story, but Vance makes me interesting somehow and you want to know more, and it also adds to the re-readability I think. The books gets better as they go generally, but even the first one is pretty great, and the whole thing is an interesting setup that's especially entertaining if you like detective/crime fiction, a genre Vance also wrote in with some success, though I haven't read too many of those yet.
Ther'es some really good standalone stuff like To live Forever and Languages of Pau, too, and other excellent series like Derdane (sp) and Planet of Adventure. I also really enjoyed Araminta Station, which is not really a standalone, but I haven't read either of the followups and I don't know how connected the three books really are. I also really enjoyed the Lyoness trilogy, his other foray into fantasy, this time set supposedly in a nebulous time in ancient history (kind of reminding me of the hybroain age I guess in that it seems like our world in the past but not quite), but I wasn't entirely satisfied with how that trilogy wrapped up. Vance has a sort of formula for sure of a strong and cunning protagonist starting out naive about the world and basically figuring out how to become his own master or overcome great odds, but the interesting situations, bizarre but somehow plausible worlds, cracking character interaction and flowing prose make every book more than readable. And you get some really messed up characters too at times like the titular "Bad Ronald", in one of his contemporary-set thrillers.
Occasionally after reading so much of his stuff, I have come across what I might charitably call "dubious politics", but it's not really ever been enough to put me off, and doesn't come up in the vast majority of his work (and I don't pretend to fully know what the author thought about anything anyway, or whether that changed from time to time in life depending on his mood or whatever).
Thanks for all that info!
Demon Princes is next on my Vance journey.
I’ve actually only read Songs of the Dying Earth, not Jack Vance’s original stories.
Then you are in for treat when it comes to Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga!
Reading demon princes now and I love it
Joseph, you should pick up and read Zorachus & The Nightmare of God, by Mark E. Rogers. There are some great prequel books(Blood+Pearls.etc.,) that are good, and some sequel books, called The Devouring Void Trilogy...The Expected One being the first one, that are great also. S&S, religio-polical, horror dark fantasy extravaganzas. Amazing stuff! It's been a huge formative part of my reading life. He also wrote a great series of books about a character called The Samurai Cat...which are really great and I never see talked about. Anyway keep up the good work Joseph. Thanks!
I will keep an eye out for those!
Thanks for watching!
I still have to get myself a copy! I also recommend Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure / Tschai books! I only read the first one and it’s really good! Plus, I found the audiobook here on RUclips!
This sounds like such a fun series -- I'll put it on my must-try list and look out for them in used bookstores!
I feel like a broken record at this point(I say it in almost every comment between us) but the audiobook narration by Arthur Morey is perfect.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks 😅
@@JosephReadsBooks hah me too -- I'm always hungry for amazing narration so hearing that about Morey definitely shoots this up!
I was surprised by how enjoyable these stories were. Cugel's Saga was definitely my favorite of them, his series of stories was just crazy. Definitely holds up susprisingly well. Will be interested to see what you think about Songs of the Dying Earth! I've always wondered if those tribute anthologies were worth the bother.
There is a story from Glen Cook in Songs of the Dying Earth 😎.
I love Cugel so much. He is such a rascal 😂.
Songs of the Dying Earth definitely has some killer stories in it. It's far less consistent than any of the Vance books in my opinion (I guess not surprising that I'd say that about a multi-author collection and we all might have different favourites after all), but the highs are definitely high. I enjoyed about half the stories quite a lot, some were ok, and a couple were just sort of not good. Will be interested to hear your thoughts on it.
Brother are you saying it’s cool to start not with the songs of the dying earth? Can I start with cugel?
You can start with Eyes of the Overworld(the first Cugel novel) and then read Cugel's Saga.
Nothing in the first book is needed to enjoy the Cugel stories and Songs of the Dying Earth is a collection written by other writers after Jack Vance passed away.
You can go back and enjoy the funky but beautifully written Dying Earth stuff later on.
If I could go back I would have started with Eyes of the Overworld and then Cugel's Saga before I read anything else.
Joseph, have you read the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe? Wolfe was inspired by Vance, but I found the New Sun to be a deeper story. I had read Dying Earth probably longer ago than you've been alive.
I have read the first 3 books in Book of the New Sun. I need to go back and read them again along with the final book.
I loved them but they are very dense. My brain melted a little 😅
Isnt this connected to Nifft The Lean?
Nifft the Lean is heavily inspired by The Dying Earth. The author, Micheal Shea, wrote an authorized sequel to Eyes of the Overworld in 1974. Then about a decade later it was made unofficial when Vance wrote his own sequel.
I plan on reading Nifft the Lean sometime soon.
@@JosephReadsBooks I enjoyed it, but not as much as its inspirations, which I think might include Fritz Leiber's Nehwon/Fafhrda nd Gray Mouser as well as the Dying Earth.