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Loading... A Quest for Simbilis (1974)by Michael Shea
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Belongs to SeriesThe Dying Earth (5) Belongs to Publisher SeriesDAW Book Collectors (88) Terra-Taschenbuch (285) Awards
By dint of a mispronounced spell, Cugel the Clever finds himself once again unceremoniously dumped by a winged demon onto the bleak far northern shores of the Sea of Cutz - the location of a fierce battle aeons past between the archmagician Simbilis and the hordes of the subworlds league. Vowing to exact comprehensive revenge from Iucounu, the Laughing Magician, Cugel sets forth on the long journey back to Almery. Expecting potent magical gifts in recompense, Cugel swears fealty to Mumber Sull, the exiled Thane of Icthyll. Under the guttering blood-red sun, the two set off across the lands of the Dying Earth to obtain the aid of the legendary Simbilis. They must face cannibals, sorcery, demons, and all the other deadly and sinister creatures that populate the Earth in its final days... In this - his first published novel - World Fantasy Award winner Michael Shea recounts the further adventures of Cugel the Clever with the permission of Jack Vance, author of The Eyes of the Overworld. Shea subsequently wrote his seminal Nifft the Lean stories, which are foreshadowed, in many ways, in the present work. Dan Temianka, author of The Jack Vance Lexicon, provides an introduction for this new edition, which sheds light upon Shea, Vance, and Temianka's lifelong friendship with Michael Shea. On the Paladins of Vance label, Spatterlight publishes original works by authors who have given their own imagination free rein in the many wonderful worlds of the Grandmaster of fantasy & sci-fi. No library descriptions found. |
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It's about what I expected: it's very Vance-esque, sometimes even Vancian, but even though some story beats and a few scammy interactions read like an original, I cannot but think of Shea's book as a mimesis rather than a true sequel.
That said, I don't at all regret reading this. It's fan-fiction, but it's high quality and an entertaining picaresque story in its own right. ( )