Dying Earth series
Encyclopedia
The Dying Earth is a series of picaresque fantasy
fixups (novels created from older short stories) by American
author Jack Vance
.
Michael Shea
's novel A Quest for Simbilis, set in the same fictional world published in 1974, is an authorized sequel to Eyes of the Overworld. This book was published nine years before Vance's own sequel. In 2010 Shea wrote another authorized story belonging to the Dying Earth series and featuring Cugel as one of characters: "Hew the Tintmaster", published in the anthology Swords & Dark Magic. Shea's novel Nifft the Lean also owes much debt to Vance's creation, since the protagonist of the story is a petty thief (not unlike Cugel the Clever), who travels and struggles in an exotic world.
Songs of the Dying Earth
is a tribute anthology to Jack Vance's Dying Earth series edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois and published in 2009 by Subterranean Press.
Gene Wolfe
's The Book of the New Sun
is set in a slightly similar world, and was written under Vance's influence. Wolfe suggested in The Castle of the Otter
, a collection of essays, that he inserted the book The Dying Earth into his fictional world under the title The Book of Gold.
In the Vance Integral Edition of Vance's complete œuvre, three of these books have had Vance's original titles restored:
, a tribute anthology edited by George R. R. Martin
and Gardner Dozois
. Each short story in the anthology is set on the Dying Earth, and concludes with a short acknowledgement by the author of Vance's influence on them.
The original creators of the Dungeons & Dragons
games were fans of Jack Vance and incorporated many aspects of the Dying Earth series into the game. The magic
system, in which a wizard is limited in the number of spells that can be simultaneously remembered and forgets them once they are cast) was based on the magic of Dying Earth. In role-playing game circles, this sort of magic system is called 'Vancian'. Some of the spells from Dungeons & Dragons are based on spells mentioned in the Dying Earth series, such as the prismatic spray. Magic items from the Dying Earth stories such as ioun stones also made their way into Dungeons & Dragons. One of the deities of magic in Dungeons & Dragons is named Vecna
(an anagram of Vance).
Many other role-playing settings pay homage to Vance's series by including fantasy elements he invented such as the darkness-dwelling Grues
. There is an official Dying Earth role-playing game
, published by Pelgrane Press
, which places players into Vance's ancient world populated by desperately extravagant people.
The Archonate stories by Matthew Hughes
take place in "the penultimate age of Old Earth," a period of science and technology that is on the verge of transforming into the magical era of the time of the Dying Earth.
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
fixups (novels created from older short stories) by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author Jack Vance
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
.
Works
The series consists of the following works:- The Dying EarthThe Dying EarthThe Dying Earth is a 1950 collection of fantasy short stories by author Jack Vance. It is the first book in the Dying Earth series. It was nominated for the Retro Hugo in 2001.-Stories:*Turjan of Miir*Mazirian the Magician*T'sais...
(collection of linked stories, 1950) - The Eyes of the OverworldThe Eyes of the OverworldThe Eyes of the Overworld is a fantasy fixup by Jack Vance published in 1966, the second in the Dying Earth series. It features a series of linked stories detailing the travails of the self-proclaimed Cugel the Clever...
(novel, 1966) - Cugel's SagaCugel's SagaCugel's Saga is a 1983 work of science fantasy by Jack Vance, and the sequel to his 1966 book The Eyes of the Overworld. The story picks up where the protagonist, Cugel the Clever, had been left at the end of the previous book: sitting disconsolately on a barren beach far to the north of his...
(novel, 1983) - Rhialto the MarvellousRhialto the MarvellousRhialto the Marvellous is a 1984 collection of three fantasy novellas by Jack Vance as part of hisDying Earth series. The collection was first published by Brandywyne Books in 1984. The first two stories are original to this collection...
(three linked stories, 1984) - Tales of the Dying EarthTales of the Dying EarthTales of the Dying Earth is an omnibus collection of the Dying Earth series books by Jack Vance. The collection was first published by the Science Fiction Book Club in 1999 with the title The Compleat Dying Earth...
collects the entire series.
Michael Shea
Michael Shea
Michael Shea is an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author living in California. He is a multiple winner of the World Fantasy Award.-Life and work:...
's novel A Quest for Simbilis, set in the same fictional world published in 1974, is an authorized sequel to Eyes of the Overworld. This book was published nine years before Vance's own sequel. In 2010 Shea wrote another authorized story belonging to the Dying Earth series and featuring Cugel as one of characters: "Hew the Tintmaster", published in the anthology Swords & Dark Magic. Shea's novel Nifft the Lean also owes much debt to Vance's creation, since the protagonist of the story is a petty thief (not unlike Cugel the Clever), who travels and struggles in an exotic world.
Songs of the Dying Earth
Songs of the Dying Earth
Songs of the Dying Earth is an all-new fiction tribute anthology to Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois; it was first published in hardcover in 2009 by Subterranean Press. The book's Introduction "Thank You, Mr. Vance" was written by Dean R. Koontz...
is a tribute anthology to Jack Vance's Dying Earth series edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois and published in 2009 by Subterranean Press.
Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
's The Book of the New Sun
The Book of the New Sun
The Book of the New Sun is a novel in four parts written by science fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe. It chronicles the journey and ascent to power of Severian, a disgraced journeyman torturer who rises to the position of Autarch, the one ruler of the free world...
is set in a slightly similar world, and was written under Vance's influence. Wolfe suggested in The Castle of the Otter
The Castle of the Otter
When Gene Wolfe finished the third volume of his The Book of the New Sun heroic fantasy epic, fans of the series began clamoring almost immediately for the fourth and final book in the tetralogy. As time passed and this concluding volume did not materialize, they began to root about for any...
, a collection of essays, that he inserted the book The Dying Earth into his fictional world under the title The Book of Gold.
In the Vance Integral Edition of Vance's complete œuvre, three of these books have had Vance's original titles restored:
- The Dying Earth was retitled Mazirian the Magician.
- The Eyes of the Overworld was retitled Cugel the Clever.
- Cugel's Saga was retitled Cugel: the Skybreak Spatterlight.
Setting
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 Moon has disappeared and the Sun is in danger of burning out at any time, often flickering as if about to go out, before shining again. The various civilizations of Earth have collapsed for the most part into decadence and its inhabitants overcome with a fatalistic outlook. The Earth is mostly barren and cold, and has become infested with various predatory monsters (possibly created by a magician in a former age).Influence
The series has lent its name to a whole sub-genre of science fiction that uses an entropically dying earth as the setting. Its importance was recognised with the publication of Songs of the Dying EarthSongs of the Dying Earth
Songs of the Dying Earth is an all-new fiction tribute anthology to Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois; it was first published in hardcover in 2009 by Subterranean Press. The book's Introduction "Thank You, Mr. Vance" was written by Dean R. Koontz...
, a tribute anthology edited by George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...
and Gardner Dozois
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois is an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004...
. Each short story in the anthology is set on the Dying Earth, and concludes with a short acknowledgement by the author of Vance's influence on them.
The original creators of the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
games were fans of Jack Vance and incorporated many aspects of the Dying Earth series into the game. The magic
Magic (gaming)
Some role-playing games or game systems can include a set of rules that are used to portray magic in the paranormal sense. These rules simulate the effects that magic would have within the game context, according to how the game designer intended the magic to be portrayed...
system, in which a wizard is limited in the number of spells that can be simultaneously remembered and forgets them once they are cast) was based on the magic of Dying Earth. In role-playing game circles, this sort of magic system is called 'Vancian'. Some of the spells from Dungeons & Dragons are based on spells mentioned in the Dying Earth series, such as the prismatic spray. Magic items from the Dying Earth stories such as ioun stones also made their way into Dungeons & Dragons. One of the deities of magic in Dungeons & Dragons is named Vecna
Vecna
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Vecna was a powerful wizard who became a lich. He was eventually destroyed, and his left hand and left eye were the only parts of his body to survive...
(an anagram of Vance).
Many other role-playing settings pay homage to Vance's series by including fantasy elements he invented such as the darkness-dwelling Grues
Grue (monster)
A grue is a fictional predator that dwells in the dark. The word was first used in modern times as a fictional predator in Jack Vance's Dying Earthuniverse ....
. There is an official Dying Earth role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
, published by Pelgrane Press
Pelgrane Press
Pelgrane Press Ltd is a British role-playing game publishing company based in London and founded in 1999. It is owned by Simon J Rogers, Sasha Bilton and its sister company ProFantasy Software. It currently produces the Dying Earth Roleplaying Game, GUMSHOE System and related products.-GUMSHOE...
, which places players into Vance's ancient world populated by desperately extravagant people.
The Archonate stories by Matthew Hughes
Matt Hughes (writer)
Matthew Hughes is a British-born Canadian author who now lives wherever his secondary career as a housesitter takes him, while continuing to write science fiction under the name Matthew Hughes, crime fiction as Matt Hughes and media tie-ins as Hugh Matthews...
take place in "the penultimate age of Old Earth," a period of science and technology that is on the verge of transforming into the magical era of the time of the Dying Earth.
See also
- Characters of The Dying EarthCharacters of The Dying EarthThis is a list of characters in the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance.-Title characters:*Guyal: Guyal of Sfere is a young, wealthy man who is famous among his people for endlessly asking questions, due to a "void" in his mind which compels him to seek knowledge...
- The Excellent Prismatic SprayThe Excellent Prismatic SprayThe Excellent Prismatic Spray is a magazine devoted to the Dying Earth role-playing game and Jack Vance. It is published intermittently by Pelgrane Press and is named for one of the spells used by various wizards in the Dying Earth stories....
- magazine devoted to the Dying Earth role-playing game and Jack Vance