Tales Of The Dying Earth

Author: Jack Vance

There aren't that many sf novels that give their name to an entire subgenre, but Jack Vance's The Dying Earth did just that.The original volume is a collection of loosely linked stories, set at a time when the Moon has disappeared, the sun is fading, and the various civilisations that still survive on the Earth have all collapsed into decadence. It's a bleak and a barren world, cold and grim, where monsters roam. Science has long since failed as a guiding principle for life on earth, and magic has reasserted itself, though much that seems most weird and strange might be the aging consequences of evolution and genetic engineering. Nevertheless, the role of magic in this far future world helps make The Dying Earth one of the defining works of science fantasy.The picture that emerges through this book and its sequels, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvellous, is of a world of unaccountable ruins, of marvellous technologies whose secrets have long since been lost, and of a fatalistic people who regard curiosity as highly suspect. Most of the stories that make up the series involve anti-heroes trying to steal or cheat, while all around them is an essentially uncaring world. Vance is a writer often given to rather ornate prose that you'll either love or hate, but for those who love it, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest of all science fiction writers. Much of his work has been influential, but these stories are particularly so.

Books in The Dying Earth Series (5)

The Eyes Of The Overworld

Cugel's Saga

Rhialto The Marvellous

A Quest For Simbilis

Cugel's Saga

Similar Recommendations

There have been many sequels by other hands to Vance's stories, perhaps the best of which is the Dying Earth story, A Quest for Simbilis by Michael Shea.

Many writers have written stories in the Dying earth subgenre, the most startling and innovative of which is The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

You should also check out the Dancers at the End of Time sequence by Michael Moorcock, a sequence of novels and stories of frankly variable quality which describes the adventures of decadent immortals at the end of time who indulge in elaborate games, petty duels, and extravagant romances.