Beyond Jack Vance discussion

When did you become a fan?

Jack Vance won few awards, rarely cracks top 100 lists, and never got the top shelf at the bookstore. So how did you find his work?

Here's my story:

I had given up on the fantasy genre. I felt like everything I picked up was really childish and formulaic. One day, sixteen years ago, I stumbled on this website: http://greatsfandf.com/authors-lists.php

The website is a monument to eccentricity. It contains a pseudoanonymous collection of essays intended to look like an encyclopedia but really existing only to justify one man's idiosyncratic tastes. In other words, it's like something out of a Jack Vance novel.

I was taken by the man's air of authority and the intensity of his opinions. While browsing through his list of twelve "Five Star Masters," I noticed that his longest, most passionate essay was on the topic of Vance. I thought to myself, "This man is odd, but brilliant. If he likes Vance, then it's worth looking into."

One Dying Earth omnibus later, I was hooked.

If you're curious, here are the man's other 11 "Five Star Masters:"

Ernest Bramah
James Branch Cabell
R.A. Lafferty
Jorge Luis Borges
L. Frank Baum
Lewis Carroll
Italo Calvino
Lord Dunsany
Mervyn Peake
E.R. Eddison
J.R.R. Tolkien

First of all, THANK YOU for a link to that fascinating website. indeed it is Vancean, in its own odd way. the way that guy writes! I love it.

I became a fan with the first book I read: City of Chasch. at age 19 I was house sitting a friend's parents' house and brought the series with me. a bunch of colorful and fairly cheesy paperbacks promised a lot of stupid fun. instead I found myself in love with prose that was so dry and witty and ironic and elegant and all the good things. I really couldn't believe how good the series turned out to be.

I was 19, so my main goal when house sitting this house was to find ways to get booze and figure out how to unlock the hot tub and then invite my friends over. I loved this series so much that I put off all of that until I read each book in the series. probably took a couple days. I think I must have made up some excuse to put off having anyone over because how could I ever honestly explain that I didn't want to party because I was too busy getting to know the new love of my life.

When I was in my early teens, I used to frequent two great bookshops in London - "Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed" and "Forbidden Planet". One happy post-Christmas, heavily laden with gift certificates, I went to the latter (I think), and picked up (largely at random) either "Marune" or "Fantasms and Magics". I think it was the latter, but it doesn't matter - I read the other soon after, and they both had strong impacts on me. Right then and there, I was a fan, though it wasn't until much later that I became truly committed and set out to buy everything I could find (culminating with the Compact Vance Integral Edition.

Metaphorosis wrote: "When I was in my early teens, I used to frequent two great bookshops in London - "Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed" and "Forbidden Planet". One happy post-Christmas, heavily laden with gift certifica..."

Isn't the Forbidden Planet store kind of legendary? I feel like I've heard of it elsewhere- maybe "Spaced."

Phil wrote: "Isn't the Forbidden Planet store kind of legendary?"

It seems to have since morphed into a huge chain, but when I went there, it was a small bookshop run (I think) by Stan Nicholls (now an author). In any case, it was a great place for a kid who liked SFF.

I may be older that some of you, but I first read "The Moon Moth" as part of some anthology, when I was 27 (1971) and studying engineering in graduate school. I immediately re-read it, How could he make me cringe at the idea of being caught in public with no mask? Great writing.

I read and collected all of his works since then. My son took up Jack when he was in college studying engineering. He got all of his friends reading Vance.

I know from the famous interviews the Vance appealed in particular to intelligent young men. I hope that I qualify,


I still re-read a book or two every year.

BTW

Forbidden Planet was a great movie made in the 1950's. I saw it in the theater around 1955 and stayed to see it again. It was intelligent, well written and acted and contained about 2 seconds of what appeared to be nudity.

The special effects were ahead of anything else at that time. Although 1953's "War of the Worlds" was pretty good,

The music was supposed to be appropriate to the genre, but unlike the rest of the movie does not stand the test of time.

Before you watch it, remember that Sigmund Freud was very popular in the 1950's and plays into the ending.

Supposedly, the story was roughly based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest". There may have been a book or short story as well

Phil wrote: "When did you become a fan?

Jack Vance won few awards, rarely cracks top 100 lists, and never got the top shelf at the bookstore. So how did you find his work?

Here's my story:

I had given up on ..."

That guy has a brilliant taste of masterful authors with unique styles like Vance, Lord Dunsany, Carroll, Borges, Calvino,Peake. I have not read the others except read Tolkein.

I first read Vance in januari 2007 and i tried him by buying, reading the omnibus Dying Earth Tales. What a nice choice it was because i didnt expect more than just another SFF legend that might or might not be to my taste. I only knew Dying Earth was unique setting, blend of fantasy,sf, the dark,wit, the Cugel and co sounded interesting to my ears.

I could never imagine he would became my alltime fav writer, that i would pay tons to get hardbacks, rare books by him. I read something like 10 Vance books every year for like 3-4 years.

The best thing is i dont remember exactly why i decided then to give Vance a try. Now he is a holy trinity of great alltime favs in Hammett, Lord Dunsany, Vance. Prose stylist, wit, high use of great language is the common elements.

It was back in 1994 in a short stories collection compiled by Asimov which regarded magic/magicians/wizards stories and that was translated to Portuguese. One of the stories happened to be Mazirian the Magician, which I read like 3 or 4 times back then. There are not many Jack Vance books translated to Portuguese - incredibly Dying Earth is not one of them and only the short story above mentioned was ever translated- but I have read most of these books back in the 90s.

I have been reading his books in English since 2012 with great pleasure and awe thanks to the VIE ebooks.

I read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun first, wanted something similar, saw that BotNS was inspired by The Dying Earth. Loved The Dying Earth so much, I read almost everything else Vance has written.

Josh wrote: "I read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun first, wanted something similar, saw that BotNS was inspired by The Dying Earth. Loved The Dying Earth so much, I read almost everything else Vance has written."

Same for me. Book of the New Sun was my gateway to Dying Earth (which eventually brought me to Zothique). Its fitting because The Dying Earth was what Gene Wolfe himself said was his 'Book of Gold' as referenced in his own works.

Nice to see new activity here.

Myself, I've been a Vance fan since, well, so long ago I don't remember. But I have a couple feet of his old pbs, ranging back to the ones with a cover price of 35c or thereabouts. I still re-read his stuff pretty regularly.

Here's my appreciation of his great Lyonesse trilogy, from 2001:
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfict...

-- and you should *definitely* read Nick Gevers' piece there from the year before, linked there: "Lord of Language, and Emperor of Dreams." Whoa. My, how time flies....