Rhialto the Marvellous

I absolutely adored the previous three books in The Dying Earth, but I feared that the last book would not have the same magic as the previous three.

Unfortunately this was exactly the case. Rhialto is not a bad story - in truth a set of three short stories where the characters are the same but are otherwise independent of one another - but it lacks both the personality of the Cugel books and the soul of the 1st collection of stories.

As with the other books, it's a comedy of manners where the absolute worst people you could ever meet do monstrous things to one another and the world around them for the pettiest of reasons, but it's all couched in polite, understated observations and flowery language. Old men more powerful than gods bicker show more and prank one another like a college frat while decorum is staunchly upheld or carelessly discarded depending on the mood.

It remains funny and novel and very weird. The problem is that we've seen all this before, only with much more interesting characters with better stories and journeys. Rhialto himself - despite the flamboyant title - is boringly mundane. He's a straight man in a setting that does not need one.

This book falls into the same trap I see a lot of long-in-the-tooth stories get stuck in, which is that it tries to revive a tired setting by introducing some new idea never hinted at before and then immediately concluding it. These self-contained story arcs feel disconnected from both themselves and the previous books, and you're left with the feeling that they were completely unnecessary.

This is in fact the opposite feeling you want to have when finishing a series. The rest of the series is fantastic, but skip this one. show less

Yes, there are supposed to be two Ls in the "Marvellous" of the title. Says so right there on the title page and on the cover of the Baen edition. Rhialto is a "novel" composed of three shorter works all about the eponymous character, who is one of the few remaining powerful magicians in the Twenty-First Aeon of the Dying Earth. Rhialto serves as the fourth and final canonical Dying Earth novel. Two of the three stories -- "The Murthe" and "Fader's Waft" are original to this collection -- while the third "Morreion" first appeared in Lin Carter's edited collection Flashing Swords! 1, first published in 1973. Rhialto the Marvellous was first published in a limited edition hardback by Brandywyne Books in August 1984, and was published by show more Baen Books in a wider release hardback two months later.

Please note that spoilers for the book’s plot follow.

A brief "Foreword" sketches out Rhialto and his fellow magicians, setting the stage for their adventures as the sun slowly burns out. While all know spells, they also command various sandestins, who are fabulously powerful, capricious beings bound to the magicians who perform any number of tasks for them in order that they may be eventually set free.

"The Murthe" is the first short story of the collection. A visitor from the past comes to warn the magicians that a literal war of the sexes is upon them. A powerful female witch from the past has decided to transform the all-male magicians into women so that they will become female witches under her control. All but two of these eccentric magicians -- Rhialto and his friend Ildefonse -- are transformed into women and these last two male holdouts must stop the plot. Some fun commentary on gender relations here.

"Fader's Waft" is a novella, and takes up most of the word count of the collection. Rhialto has most of his magical powers taken from him by his fellow scheming magicians and must travel to the past to recover an artifact that will aid him in restoring his power, aided only by his own native cunning and an extremely unreliable sandestin. Time travel plays an extremely important role in this story, as each of the magicians has the ability to stop time (for everyone but himself) -- now think about how complicated that makes debates and votes between the men! -- and, of course, both Rhialto and his rivals and servants can all travel to the distant past, so there are many time-related schemes going on here. It is also extremely amusing reading Rhialto's frustrations in dealing with his sandestin servant who is doing its best to follow Rhialto's orders to the letter and nothing more.

"Morreion" is the final short story of the collection. Here, the magicians travel to the end of the universe -- an actual wall, as it turns out -- to find one of their long-missing fellow magicians. Of course, none of them actually care about this poor fellow, but they suspect that he may know the location of the mysterious IOUN stones, which they all prize. Lots of fun and scheming by rival, extremely powerful wizards.

Rhialto's personality is sparsely sketched: we know he is extremely powerful, cunning, and a bit of a rogue. That's probably all we need. Suffice it to say that the power level and concerns are ramped up considerably over those in previous Dying Earth tales. While we don't see any of the previous characters from the other Dying Earth books appear here, the setting of the Dying Earth is extremely important to the tone and plot of the stories. In some ways, I get the impression that the Rhialto stories are set much later in time than, say, the Cugel stories, though it's unclear if that's actually the case. I also suspect that the three tales here may be set temporally some distance apart, as Rhialto has different servants in each, and his relationship with his fellow magicians clearly changes between the stories.

I had read this collection once or twice before re-reading it recently and I had forgotten how truly funny Rhialto is. Vance has a real talent for clever, understated humor that relies on witty dialogue, schemes and counter-schemes, and ridiculous/absurd situations. This is Vance almost at his very finest, despite the relatively thin characterization of the protagonist (this is a weakness of Vance I have come to realize), and I give Rhialto the Marvellous 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Review copyright 2010 J. Andrew Byers show less

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

If you’re a fan of Jack Vance, of course you’ve read, or plan to read, Rhialto the Marvellous, last of the Dying Earth books. If you’ve not read any of Mr. Vance’s work, you can start here — it isn’t necessary to have read the previous installments.

Rhialto, who has earned the cognomen “Marvellous” (this has something to do with him being a bit of a dandy) is one of the last of Earth’s magicians, a small group of selfish and unscrupulous men who sometimes work together and sometimes oppose each other as it suits their individual inglorious purposes. The other magicians don’t care too much for Rhialto because he is aloof, popular with women, arrogant, and generally unflappable. show more Rhialto the Marvellous contains three stories which feature Rhialto working with and against his colleagues.

Rhialto is more passive than Cugel the Clever and not as dastardly, so he doesn’t drive the plot or leave a swath of destruction in his wake like Cugel does. Plus, he has to share the stage with several other strong personalities, making him not as vibrant as we’ve come to expect from Vance’s main characters.

Nonetheless, this novel is still chock full of the ludicrous circumstances and strange humor that Jack Vance fans love. The first story, “The Murthe,” introduces my favorite made-up Vance word: “ensqualm” — which means to turn a man into a woman. That story was hilarious as it seemed to poke fun of feminine behavior while actually ridiculing men. Arthur Morey, who narrates Brilliance Audio’s production and has become one of my favorite audiobook readers, is at top form here as he narrates Vermoulian’s dream (AXR-11 GG7, Volume Seven of the Index) in which Vermoulian meets a group of ensqualmed men and describes their behavior:

I found myself in a landscape of great charm, where I encountered a group of men, all cultured, artistic, and exquisitely refined of manner… ‘We dine upon nutritious nuts and seeds and ripe juicy fruit; we drink only the purest and most natural water from the springs. At night we sit around the campfire and sing merry little ballads. On special occasions we make a punch called opo, from pure fruits, natural honey, and sweet sessamy, and everyone is allowed a good sip… Ah, the women, whom we revere for their kindness, strength, wisdom and patience, as well as for the delicacy of their judgments!...’

He had me laughing out loud already, but when he read their answer to Vermoulian’s questions about how they procreate, I nearly spit my Starbucks onto the steering wheel. I went back and read this in my print copy — it was funny, yes, but Arthur Morey made it even better.

Rhialto the Marvellous is the last of Brilliance Audio’s Vance collection so far, and that makes me sad. I sincerely hope they’ll soon be adding more Vance titles to their catalog and that Arthur Morey will be reading them. If so, I promise that I’ll be reviewing them! show less

I've read this in the omnibus Tales Of The Dying Earth. The book here is divided into three chapters. The first is about a sorceress from a past aeon coming to the present to convert the wizards and thus restore her power. But she's again stopped by her former enemy (a good guy, obviously). Nice chapter, but it's in the next that you get to know the crew. A tale of jealousy and envy, but what goes around, comes around. The third one, Morreion, also features the same group of magicians, who tricked a former friend/colleague somehow and now they're getting him back to the present. But the poor soul recalls the wrong-doings, plans revenge, but in the end gets tricked again... by Rhialto. Throughout the stories you can read that through show more little things he is indeed "marvellous".

A very entertaining read, all in all. show less

Read as part of 'Tales of the Dying Earth' trade p/b omnibus

Los relatos de Jack Vance de esa moribunda Tierra futura en la que el Sol se apaga y la magia ha vuelto a ocupar el lugar preeminente que tuvo en la antigüedad han intrigado, deleitado y cautivado la imaginación de dos generaciones de lectores. Tras la publicación de La Tierra moribunda, Los ojos del sobremundo y La saga de Cugel, los amantes de la fantasía y la ciencia ficción no han dejado de pedirle al autor que regresara a ese fascinante mundo futuro. Más de treinta años después de su primera incursión en él, Jack Vance vuelve a la Tierra moribunda con una nueva y apasionante aventura, la que cierra el ciclo hasta la fecha. En ella, una serie de taimados magos gobiernan una sociedad maquiavélica, extraños animales show more merodean por un aún más extraño paisaje, y las trampas e intrigas aguardan por todos lados a los incautos. El agonizante sol cuelga bajo y rojo en el cielo. La magia está en todas partes… y es usada para el mal tan frecuentemente como para el bien. Es en ese escenario donde se mueve el protagonista de esta nueva historia, Rhialto el Prodigioso, una mago del más alto orden… un personaje que tan sólo la fecunda mente de Jack Vance podría crear. show less