Book Review – Tales of the Dying Earth
Author: Jack Vance
Cover Artist: John Berkey
Publisher: Orb
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2000
Jack Vance’s Dying Earth stories are perhaps one of the best-known works in the eponymous “Dying Earth” sub-genre, alongside other greats like the Viriconium stories and Book of the New Sun (Gene Wolfe has in fact cited Vance as an influence on Book of the New Sun).
Tales of the Dying Earth gathers together all 4 of the Dying Earth novels penned by Vance: The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel’s Saga and Rhialto The Marvellous. The setting therein is that of a far-future Earth where the sun has diminished to a faint red sphere struggling to warm the planet and science has all but vanished to be replaced by magic as the world slides ever-closer to an inevitable doom.
The first novel, The Dying Earth consists of several inter-connected stories following various characters and their adventures.
The following two novels (The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel’s Saga) follow the misadventures of Cugel the Clever, who after attempting to rob a magician famed for a cruel sense of humor, is forced to wander distant lands before he can return home.
The final book Rhialto The Marvellous follows the magician Rhialto and his fellows as they quarrel with one another in the course of overcoming various challenges.
Out of the four stories, I’d have to say I enjoyed the two Cugel novels the most, mainly for the various peoples and challenges Vance invents for Cugel to overcome in the course of his journey homeward, although it suffers a bit from the same episodic feel of The Dying Earth, with Cugel constantly fleeing one scenario only to immediately encounter another. Rhialto The Marvellous moves away from this a bit, though it still consists of three inter-connected stories.
However, Vance’s slightly archaic style of writing, his impressive vocabulary and great attention to descriptive detail serve to lift even the lesser stories up to a higher level and gives the overall work a very distinct feel. It may have its flaws, but Tales of the Dying Earth is still deserving of classic status.
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