Would the Lord Hero consider a Sea Dragon Conqueror beneath his dignity?
Inspired by recent conversations on IFmud, I've been tearing through my collection of Jack Vance stories in an orgy of rereading. Vance doesn't seem to be widely read nowadays, but I've always been fond of his work. He was successful and indeed decorated in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery-one of only three writers I know of to win both a ( Read more... )
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I think you'd find a sizeable contingent of Vance fans (including your younger brother) who consider the Demon Princes novels to be his best science fiction at that length. Emphyrio has its advocates, as well. And if you allow novellas, what can beat "The Moon Moth"?
I agree that Night Lamp is a gem, and a very accessible place to start. I forget which reviewer (Rich Horton?) declared "Skirlet Hutsenreiter" to be the best name in SF. And the names of the various social groups... "Clam Muffins" indeed.
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Ted Chiang's "Understand" and Roger Zelazny's "The Furies."
Those are the only novellas that are better than "The Moon Moth."
And the Chiang is only better on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the Zelazny on Fridays and Saturdays. Vance rules Sunday through Tuesday.
And the only reason that John M. Ford's "The Illusionist" isn't in that three-way psuedo-tie is that it is Liavek-related, and needs a touch of pre-existing setting/cosmology info to get the full effect.
(But Stephen King's four Different Seasons novellas are close in quality to the above trilogy of awesome.)
CU
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"The Furies" on the other hand - hm. That's a tough call indeed. They're so different, structurally and in the thrust of the story.... You know, they make a good dyptich: they're almost directly opposed in theme, if viewed from a certain point.
Someone really needs to reprint "The Furies"; it was last reprinted in a 1991 edition of Four for Tomorrow. "The Moon Moth" has been printed much more recently, in 2003's The Road to Science Fiction 4: From Here to Forever and in 2007's The Jack Vance Treasury.
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That said, I just found "The Furies" in the revised collection called The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, which in addition to its original contents now also contains the other novellas/novelets that were in Four for Tomorrow: "The Graveyard Heart" and "The Furies".
Wow.
Looks like it was published in December 2005.
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