Songs of the Dying Earth

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance is the best anthology I’ve ever read. These stories will be enjoyed by any SFF reader, but they’ll be ten times more fun if you’ve read Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth, because they are all written in honor of that fantastic work. Each tale is written in the style of Vance, which is quite amusing in itself, and each takes place on the Dying Earth, that far-future wasteland in which natural selection means survival of the cleverest, nastiest, sneakiest, and most self-serving.

Songs of the Dying Earth was written by “many high-echelon, top-drawer writers” (as Mr. Vance says in the preface): Robert Silverberg, Matthew Hughes, Terry show more Dowling, Liz Williams, Mike Resnick, Walter Jon Williams, Paula Volsky, Jeff Vandermeer, Kage Baker, Phyllis Eisenstein, Elizabeth Moon, Lucius Shepard, Tad Williams, John C. Wright, Glen Cook, Elizabeth Hand, Byron Tetrick, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons, Howard Waldrop, George R.R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman. And there’s an introductory “appreciation” by Dean Koontz.

It was pure pleasure to listen to these authors emulate Jack Vance’s writing style and to fill their stories with Vance’s beloved (if I can call them that) characters such as Rhialto the Marvellous, Cugel the clever, Derwe Coreme, Guyal, Turjan, T’sais, Ioucounu the Laughing Magician, Lith, Chun the Unavoidable and, of course, plenty of Deodands, sandestins, pelgranes, and Twk-men. They used some of Vance’s neologisms and hilariously named magic spells (e.g., The Spell of Forlorn Encystment, The Excellent Prismatic Spray, The Spell of the Macroid Toe) and plenty of those other strange things we find in Vance novels: colors that don’t exist, baroque architecture and fashion, slimy creatures that squirm and pulsate, eyeball jelly, blue concentrate, miniaturized enemies, nostrils used as doorways, pulp, ichor, fungi, and empty eye sockets… as Kage Baker said in her afterword, the Dying Earth is like a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

These stories were so well done that much of the time I forgot that I wasn’t actually reading Jack Vance. Many of the tales give us supplementary history about some of Vance’s well-known characters and they fit into the canon so smoothly that I’m afraid I’ll forever be remembering them as original Vance! Every story in this anthology is a lot of fun (except for Elizabeth Moon’s because I have a phobia of cockroaches), and they are all highly recommended reading, but my favorites were those that best affect Vance’s florid style, magniloquent dialogue, distinctive character names, black humor, and sense of irony — not so easily done. Those that accomplish this best are:

* Tad Williams, whose story about a low-order traveling magician who gets stuck to a Deodand was the funniest
* Terry Dowling, who made me late to work because I was sitting in the parking lot and laughing at his magicians’ contest
* Kage Baker, who had won me over even before she has Cugel say to himself “What, though, Cugel! Have you not an unfailing way with the female sex? If you cannot ingratiate yourself with the old witch, you are not your father’s child.”
* Tanith Lee, whose style is spot-on in every respect and gets extra points for creating a spell “extrapolated from Phandaal’s empurpled theorem of Locative Selfulsion”
* Walter Jon Williams, who creates a delightfully clever hero, puts a disagreeable wife in a bottle, and makes up some nice new words
* Mike Resnick, who explains the origin of Chun the Unavoidable and why he sews eyeballs onto his cloak
* Matthew Hughes, whose unlucky protagonist inhabits flying insects who keep getting squashed
* Neil Gaiman, whose charming last story answers the ultimate question: what happens when the sputtering sun finally goes out?

Something that makes the Songs of the Dying Earth very special (especially to me, a rabid but newer Vance fan) were the authors’ afterwords in which they explain what Jack Vance’s work means to them. I was amazed at how similar their stories were: almost invariably they were between 13 and 15 years old, looking for something to do, found a Vance novel on their brother’s bookshelf or one of his stories in a pulp magazine, became completely enthralled, scoured the bookstores and newsstands for more, and eventually read all of his work. They consider Vance a major influence in their own writing, and (almost all of them say this) he’s one of the few authors they still feel the same way about today as they did when they were teenagers. I found this fascinating. And kind of sad, for I have never experienced the joy of needing to hunt for, and therefore eventually finding, a treasured book that I didn’t know existed. I’ve never seen an Ace Double at a newsstand. This was all before my time and I feel like I’ve missed out.

The afterwords were beautifully nostalgic, but in reality I’m thankful to Subterranean Press and Brilliance Audio, that scrounging around on used bookstore floors is a thing of the past for Vance fans. Both of these houses have lately been supplying us with Vance in print and audio, and both have published Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance. Sub Press’s print version has terrific illustrations by Tom Kidd. Arthur Morey does the narration for the audio version and, because he also narrated The Dying Earth stories and uses the same voices for the characters in this anthology, it helps give the impression that these are actually Vance tales. Mr. Morey “gets” Jack Vance — he has the wry tone just right. He really had me laughing at the bad-poetry-quoting barbarians in Robert Silverberg’s story.

Songs of the Dying Earth is a must-read for Vance fans. If you haven’t read The Dying Earth, I highly suggest that you read it first (may I recommend Brilliance Audio’s versions?). Mr. Martin and Mr. Dozois, please give us more Songs of the Dying Earth! show less

I am always delighted to see Festschrifts expand beyond the realm of Academia, and within the domain of literature there are few so deserving of the honour as Jack Vance. Though the stories are excellent, often I find myself most looking forward to the afterword of each tale - where each contributor describes what Jack Vance meant to them, how his works spurred their imagination from their youth to the present day, influenced their writing, or how they thought and interpreted the world around them.

This anthology is particularly striking in regards to the high degree of quality each tale attains. Usually most collections of short stories contain at least a few stinkers, but thankfully that is not the case here - there is not one work show more which I regret reading, and the top half dozen or so would likely be the best in the book had they been contained in a different anthology.

Standouts for me were Walter Jon Williams' Abrizonde (adventure of an architect-wizard), Terry Dowling's The Copsy Door (more legitimate laugh-out-loud moments than any other), and Dan Simmons The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderōz (The tale the felt perhaps the most Vancian in terms of overall structure). Some tales were a bit disappointing to my own personal preferences, but not to the extent of making me feel as if the time spent reading them was not worthwhile. Howard Waldrop's Frogskin Cap felt as if half the story was missing, Liz Williams' Caulk the Witch-chaser is really only spoiled if you are familiar with the predilections inherent to her own writing, and Lucius Shephard's Sylgarmo’s Proclamation seemed to be written solely to redeem the honour of a certain minor character ignominiously discarded by Cugel. Speaking of Cugel, while he does appear often, there's really only a single story in the volume that properly counts as a Cugel tale - Kage Baker's The Geen Bird. Fortunately there are a few others that also delve into the character in different ways - there's also a secret Cugel tale, a tale of Cugel's son, of a would-be adventurer following in Cugel's footsteps, and one about seeking revenge against Cugel.

Any ranking of stories is going to involve a certain degree of approximation - for example, while I rated Robert Silverberg's The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale fifth, in many ways I felt as if it was the best written, and certain ideas stick with me more strongly than any other. Regardless, if you hold any degree of affection towards Jack Vance, or his Dying Earth setting, these Songs of the Dying Earth are well worth your time.

Ranking the Tales in descending order of preference:

1. Abrizonde, by Walter Jon Williams
2. The Copsy Door, by Terry Dowling
3. The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderōz, by Dan Simmons
4. The Last Golden Thread, by Phyllis Eisenstein
5. The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale, by Robert Silverberg
6. A Night at Tarn House, by George R. R. Martin
7. Evillo the Uncunning, by Tanith Lee
8. Inescapable, by Mike Resnick
9. The Collegeum of Mauge, by Byron Tetrick
10. The Good Magician, by Glen Cook
11. Guyal the Curator, by John C. Wright
12. The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or the Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixial Laqavee, By Tad Williams
13. The Green Bird, by Kage Baker
14. The Traditions of Karzh, by Paula Volsky
15. Grolion of Almery, by Matthew Hughes
16. An Incident in Uskvosk, by Elizabeth Moon
17. Caulk the Witch-chaser, by Liz Williams
18. The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod, by Jeff Vandermeer
19. The Return of the Fire Witch, by Elizabeth Hand
20. An Invocation of Incuriosity, by Neil Gaiman
21. Frogskin Cap, by Howard Waldrop
22. Sylgarmo’s Proclamation, by Lucius Shephard show less

Most of the authors here tell of how they found Vance at an impressionable age, and at least one or two of them maintain that his unique style can't be copied - nonetheless they all copy his style in these stories, to mostly good effect, since they're all top-notch authors. If you like Vance it is most definitely a mood. Some of them weren't memorable, but it's tricky enough to stand out when you're all writing in the same mode, more or less. There's only one Vance, but this is a nice homage.

Edited by George R.R. Martin (who contributes a story as well) and Gardner Dozois, this anthology is another journey to the Dying Earth world created by Jack Vance.

Vance himself provides an introduction, and Dean Koontz provides an appreciation. But the heart and meat of the anthology are the stories.

Many of the authors do a remarkable job in capturing the essence of the Dying Earth. The language, the picaresque characters, the strange rambling adventures. Some of the stories feature characters from Vance's stories as main protagonists, others rely on those characters as plot devices, or even just as background color.

So how did they do?

Given the truism that anthologies can vary in the quality and interest stories and authors bring, I show more thought the quality of the stories was uniformly high. I was gratified that my high expectations were met by the authors and their stories. And the range of subjects and stories is high. Therein you will find more doings of Cugel (contradictory stories, if you wanted to try and take all of these stories as canonical), an architect who uses his skills to defend a castle, magicians large and small scrambling for power as the sun dies, and more, much more.

Dan Simmons has the only novella, the centerpiece of this anthology, The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz. It's one of the stronger stories in the volume. Like his digestion of Keats in the Hyperion novels, and the Iliad in Ilium, Simmons shows that he truly digests and does a good Dying Earth.

Besides his story, I particularly liked Wright's Guyal the Creator (continuing the character's story from the Vance story), Matthew Hughes' Grolion of Almery. (Hughes' own novels show his prior affection for homage to Vance), Paula Volsky's The Traditions of Karzh (showing how a would be wizard really gets his power) and Walter Jon William's Abrizonde (the aforementioned story about a hero architect).

But, really, few of the stories are poor, although I do wonder why Neil Gaiman felt the need to tie in the real world with the Dying Earth in his tale. I found that a bit atonal, even if its a decent story.

In any event, fans of the Dying Earth should not miss this anthology, especially given the list of authors and the love and care they have given the world of Messr. Vance.

The full list of stories:
The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale --Robert Silverberg
Grolion of Almery --Matthew Hughes
The Copsy Door --Terry Dowling
Caulk the Witch Doctor --Liz Williams
Inescapable --Mike Resnick
Abrizonde --Walter Jon Williams
The Traditions of Karzh --Paula Volsky
The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod --Jeff Vandermeer
The Green Bird --Kage Baker
The Last Golden Thread --Phyllis Eisenstein
An Incident in Uskvesk --Elizabeth Moon
Sylgarmo's Proclamation --Lucius Shepard
The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or The Laughably Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee --Tad Williams
Guyal the Curator --John C Wright
The Good Magician --Glen Cook
The Return of the Fire Witch --Elizabeth Hand
The Collegeum of Mauge --Byron Tetrick
Evillo the Uncunning --Tanith Lee
The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz --Dan Simmons
Frogskin Cap --Howard Waldrop
A Night at the Tarn House --George R R Martin
An Invocation of Curiosity --Neil Gaiman show less

This is a great book for either fans of the fantasy genre, or for fans of the original Dungeons and Dragons game. This is a collection of stories in honor of Jack Vance and his Dying Earth setting. The stories are written (more or less) in Vance's style, making use of the setting and some of the iconic characters. It would be worth reading just for the authors who are included - Silverberg, Martin, Simmons, Gaiman, Glen Cook, Tad Williams and others. For me what was perhaps the most interesting is the reverence of the writers for Vance and his works, and their short tales of reading Vance when they were younger.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2749746.html

This is a collection of short stories set in the world of Jack Vance's Dying Earth, which I read and enjoyed back in 2004. The lineup of contributors was indeed amazing: Dan Simmons, Robert Silverberg, Elizabeth Moon, Elizabeth Bear, Neil Gaiman. (One sad reflection is that several of them - Kage Baker, Lucius Shepard, Tanith Lee - are no longer with us.) The quality of the stories, as Ian Whates reflected at the time, is a bit variable. This is pastiche rather than originality, and Vance's style in the Dying Earth stories is easy to pastiche. But they are almost all enjoyable enough (as it happens, I didn't particularly care for the John C. Wright one). Several others grabbed me, though: "The show more Copsy Door", by Terry Dowling, quoted above; "The Green Bird", by Kage Baker; "The Traditions of Karzh", by Paula Volsky; "Evillo the Uncunning", by Tanith Lee.

Basically, if you liked the original Vance stories, most of these will appeal. But if you don't know them, I think it would be a bit confusing. show less

This is a collection of short stories written in honor of Jack Vance, taking place on the Dying Earth. The contributors, most well known in the field of fantasy and science fiction, take up the flavor of his tales and either revisit some of his characters or introduce us to new ones in the same vein. In these stories nothing and no one is fully as he seems and fate has a way of turning sly triumph into unexpected defeat. Most of the stories fit in well with the original world in terms of characters and atmosphere.