Jack Vance; fantasy footnote or literary titan?

[Hugh]

I've been trying to read Lyonesse but have found it very slow going.

I liked the first one very much. The second less so. However everyone's taste is different.

 

[MWagner]

Literary titan.

Vance's inventiveness is unmatched in fantastical fiction. His works feature hundreds of cultures and races, each more exotic than the last. The worlds he describes - the geography, customs, and often comically predatory relations between the various species - are the product of a sparkling imagination. And it's all portrayed with a deft touch compared with the turgid and heavy-handed exposition other genre authors typically rely on.

Vance's mastery of language was second to none, in or or out of the SFF genres. He played with diction and phrasing like a virtuous on the piano. The wit and interplay in his dialog is some of the funniest I've read - my wife can usually tell when I'm reading Vance because of how often I laugh out loud.

Take the opening lines from The Dying Earth:

Turjan sat in his workroom, legs sprawled out from the stool, back against and elbows on the bench. Across the room was a cage; into this Turjan gazed with rueful vexation. The creature in the cage returned the scrutiny with emotions beyond conjecture.

It's all there - Vance's deliberately overwrought and yet word-perfect diction; the weirdness bordering on the macabre; the wry tone that raises a chuckle.

However, his appeal is narrow. If you don't enjoy exotic inventiveness, arch wit, and a detached irony, then Vance is not for you. The fantasy genre, and its audience, has been veering away from Vance's approach to fiction for decades. Where modern readers want to climb into the skin of a sympathetic character and experience intense surges of emotion and catharsis, Vance's work is told at a remove. You don't inhabit his characters; you observe them explore and scheme and quip their way across a fantastic landscape the way you watch a pantomime of shadow-puppets.

I expect this irony detachment is why younger readers tend to bounce off Vance, in spite of the reverence that superstar influencer GRRM holds him in. His approach is simply at odds with the expectations of today's audience.

 

[Fried Egg]

Of the various works of Vance I have read over the years; I have broadly held all his books to be in high regard.

The only works of his I found to be exceptional were those comprising the Lyonesse trilogy. A masterpiece of epic fantasy that should be regarded as highly as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It must be around ten years since I read it so I think it must be due for a re-read.

 

[Al Jackson]

Yeah I think (like Cordwainer Smith) Jack Vance is a unjustly unknown author in SF and Fantasy.
I like more this straight SF like Big Planet and the clever and funny Space Opera.

 

[picklematrix]

Of the various works of Vance I have read over the years; I have broadly held all his books to be in high regard.

The only works of his I found to be exceptional were those comprising the Lyonesse trilogy. A masterpiece of epic fantasy that should be regarded as highly as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It must be around ten years since I read it so I think it must be due for a re-read.

I agree with this. Lyonesse has that mystical fairytale kind of tone to it, but at the same time it is pretty darn dark in places. I love them.

 

[picklematrix]

Sometimes I do wish that Vance had a broader mainstream appreciation. But that was probably never going to happen due to the content and style of his work. His books are like albums made by underground bands that not many people have heard of, or at least they are not household names.

 

[Hugh]

I've bought a fair number of old Vance paperbacks in the past year, almost all very cheap, printed in the 1980s. I'd assumed that he must have been very popular at that time.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Of the various works of Vance I have read over the years; I have broadly held all his books to be in high regard.

The only works of his I found to be exceptional were those comprising the Lyonesse trilogy. A masterpiece of epic fantasy that should be regarded as highly as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It must be around ten years since I read it so I think it must be due for a re-read.

Hear hear! (except for volume 3, which lets the trilogy down).

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've bought a fair number of old Vance paperbacks in the past year, almost all very cheap, printed in the 1980s. I'd assumed that he must have been very popular at that time.

According to the best of my recollection he was popular back then. If not a household name broadly, at least one in the SFF community (which, admittedly, was a great deal smaller then than it is now).

 

[The Ace]

For me, he tends to waver between extremes. I loved the, "Demon Princes," but found the, "Dying Earth," mediocre, and could never get a handle on, "Lyonesse."

Conversely, I found the, "Moon Moth," quite entertaining.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

He certainly was popular.
Harper Collins had a lot of his books on the go, and they wouldn't have published him otherwise...

 

[Hugh]

And then there are all those volunteers who put such effort (and finance) into producing the Vance Integral Edition. There was a fair bit of noise about that at the time.

 

[J Riff]

I got to hang out with Jack one time, he played some fine banjo. His wife kept a sharp eye on him at conventions...
Meanwhile, the guy is the best overall writer... just ridiculous. Re-reading Demon Princes, mebbe third time, and just going slowly and watching the words, and he's invisible, but pulls out more stuff than anyone. Thing is, it's just a detective novel, grabs you like any straight ahead whodunnit should, but then there's just every trick and convention-bender and different take on standard writing ... . The dialogue, the melding of dialogue and description, the use of ten things we're told not to do, and it's all invisble, goes past like nothing. Really fun to analyze what he's doing as you read, but the story keeps you going fast, gonna catch those evil Princes, you know he is, but I just hadda expound on the variety and ... invisibleosity of his writing, I dunno how you get that good, it's a mystery... gotta go now, I'm only on Book Two, don't need a viral internment excuse to read this stuff.

 

[Dave]

I've bought a fair number of old Vance paperbacks in the past year, almost all very cheap, printed in the 1980s. I'd assumed that he must have been very popular at that time.

According to the best of my recollection he was popular back then. If not a household name broadly, at least one in the SFF community (which, admittedly, was a great deal smaller then than it is now).

I had a summer job working in public libraries in the early eighties. He was very popular on loan, with quite a large amount of shelf space. However, so were Westerns, and few people read that genre today. I admit to never reading him myself, although even at the time, I did read fantasy. I should probably correct that. These things go through cycles and he will get rediscovered by the masses someday.

 

[J Riff]

stupid good invisible writing. Make you ill, you can't write that. All the common stuff, just better. I quit. Just forget it, some got it, some don't.

 

[Elckerlyc]

I doubt many writers could duplicate Vance's style if they tried. Perhaps not even a few. It is so unique. It seems to flow easily and effortlessly from his pen. It would be nice if you could write like he could - I know I do - but you should ask yourself; why, really?
There are many, many writers and they all have (more or less) their own style and voice. It is a matter of finding your own.

 

[BAYLOR]

I doubt many writers could duplicate Vance's style if they tried. Perhaps not even a few. It is so unique. It seems to flow easily and effortlessly from his pen. It would be nice if you could write like he could - I know I do - but you should ask yourself; why, really?
There are many, many writers and they all have (more or less) their own style and voice. It is a matter of finding your own.

Book you might find of Interest Magus Rex by Jack Lovejoy.
Would also recommend checking othe Clark Ashton Smith and M John Harrisons Virconium.

 

[Vince W]

Vance is one of those writers I just marvel at. It's nearly forty years since I read almost all his fantasy and science fiction. I remember trying to write stories like he did and failing miserably. He's certainly a titan in my eyes.

 

[J Riff]

Worth analysing as you read, each paragraph, where you might write 'he said' or somesuch a bunch times... but he just dodges all around stuff with annoying ease. He was quite good at 20s banjo tunes as well. A lot of it is the way dialogue just appears in with description, technical stuff like that, not so much the style or nine-dollar words, of which there are plenty, It's just the way he gets through all the basic, neccessary stuff with such efficiency. Or something.

 

[Simbelmynë]

I’m a huge admirer of Gene Wolfe’s Book Of The New Sun, and I’ve read that The Dying Earth was inspiration for this, or that there are at least similarities between the two. From the title it certainly sounds like it, and I plan to delve in at some point.