Jack Vance

To Live Forever is that Vance? What is it about?


Havent read mediocre PKD atleast not so far and havent Silverberg at all but i agree about Vance not near his best is still better than most SF i have read.

I think he is by far the best world builder in SF. I have seen that in the books i have read. His worlds and its people are so interesting. Like how Heinlein ideas social and political ones are better than his characters and action.
 
So sick and interesting and so Vance :)

Is it a short story or a novel ?

I was looking for more Vance thanks.
 
Connavar of Rigante said:
So sick and interesting and so Vance :)

Is it a short story or a novel ?

I was looking for more Vance thanks.
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I've got quite a lot by Vance including the recent publication The Jack Vance Treasury - (collection of many of Vance's stories). I can recommned the latter to you even if it is a bit pricey in HB...:)
 
He isnt the most printed of SF writers so the price isnt an issue for me with Vance. I will get his best works. I will try to get short stories if he has next.

Novel wise is The Demon series and Live Forever next.
 
Hi all
it's great to find an active Jack Vance topic.
I'll confess I've read two average books by him (titles not remembered at this time) but 'Tales of Dying Earth' is a wonderful, funny, exciting and memorable series of adventures which I've read twice.
I'm just waiting for 'Planet of Adventure' to arrive from amazon...
 
Have you read Emphyrio by Vance?

Its amazing stand alone story. My fav SF book of the many i have read.

Gotta warn you that the first book of Planet Adventure isnt Vance at his best but it prolly gets better.
 
Connavar of Rigante said:
Have you read Emphyrio by Vance?

Its amazing stand alone story. My fav SF book of the many i have read.

Gotta warn you that the first book of Planet Adventure isnt Vance at his best but it prolly gets better.
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Hi
I've not read Emphyrio yet, I'll add it to the (not long list) of ones to check out next time, thanks for the advice and warning about the 1st book out of 4 in POA!

My Fantasy knowledge was really only Tolkien, Gene Wolfe and S Donaldson up until last week when I read Elric and was highly impressed and the week before that when I read MJ Harrison's Viriconium and wasn't so impressed (The Pastel City was 10/10) but not the others.
I'm reading The First Book of Lankhmar at the moment so that will take a couple of weeks :)
I've read far more 20th Century fiction and SciFi than fantasy but I'm discovering some great writing in fantasy
best wishes
Paul
 
I read more SF than fantasy too but there are some interesting sounding fantasy from yesterday i wanna read.

Elric and Corum by MM im gonna read too.

I have read Dying Earth and Emphyrio of JV and he has become one of my fav authors. I like the way he writes alot.
 
not really having any friends who enjoy reading like I do, it's sometimes hard to know who to read next, I've been trusting the judgement of some Amazon reviewers! :D
Elric was fast paced, sad and exciting, excellently written. Essential reading.
I loved 'The Dying Earth' when I first read it about 5 years ago but the other two short novels by Jack Vance were disappointing at the time.
This was when I used to hunt in real bookshops, now I just normally surf for 98% of books
If I enjoy POA then I'll check out 'The Demon Princes' next.
Viriconium is made up of several stories, the opening two for me were the best
Gotta go, work to do!
 
Not many of my real friends read either which is why i enjoy this forum. Many of the works i like i found thanks to recommendations by the members in the forums. I dont trust Amazon reviewers at all.


I wonder which two short novels by JV you didnt like. If you find out the names let me know.

Even if you dont think POA is good, dont judge JV by it. I always judge writers and if i like them or not by reading their most famous and best works. POA isnt even in top ten of what is seen as JV best works.


Anyway see you around. Also if you are looking for recommendations there are many threads for authors you want to look into. If not you can make thread for them and someone will know the writer or alot of fans will if its a big gun like the writers you have read recently ;)
 
Hi Connavar

Now don't you worry if I don't enjoy Planet of Adventure (which arrived this morning & I've started) it won't negate my feelings about Tales of Dying Earth

the two Jack Vance stories I've got but didn't enjoy, I might have read 6/7 years ago. They are Ports of Call & Night Lamp
I haven't re read them since, so I might change my mind if I re read them. It does happen but not often.I bought these books down in London before I'd ever checked a book review on the internet or an author's forum. The truth is I don't remember a single thing about them. Whereas a book I enjoy I would remember a lot more.

I woudn't judge an author on 1 or 2 poor stories

about amazon, I didn't mean I just trust what any reviewer says and buy a book.
I look at a few criteria:

1) what else someone bought that I bought?
2) does a book have good reviews or not?
3) if it doesn't, who is giving it bad reviews and do they have a list of what they like?
4) If it's an author I already have read & enjoyed then other people's opinions might be completey ignored.
e.g if the next Iain M Banks Scifi book is rubbished I'll still buy it as it's rare for him to write a dud, Neil Gaiman's American Gods had nearly 500 mostly all positive reviews that really encouraged me to buy it; they weren't lying, it's a good story, it flows, it's enjoyable, well written, exciting.

Thanks for a nice positive response btw, often forums get nasty and have some Trolls on them!:mad: but looks like this is a nice place :)
 
Good to know about which stories you didnt like.

Those are like his latest i think.

Yeah no trolls in these forums ;)

Looking forward to see what you think about other JV works and the other authors you are reading.
 
Hi Connavar
I'm onto the second book in 'Planet of Adventure' and I'm really liking it, Adam Reith is a great skilled scout and fighter. This story reminds of of 'Tales of Dying Earth' with the one man finding himself on a mission which turns out to be so much more difficult than at first. I reminded myself when starting it that it was written at the time the first Star Trek TV show was out, before even I was born. It's good fun with the sadistic enemies just waiting to be beaten! Come on Adam!
:)
 
I like the world in POA so many different cultures and people.

Did you like the first book?

I havent finished it yet. Got lured away with RAH's Moon and Bester's TSMD.

All these talk about JV makes me hunger for the stories of Dying Earth and POA i havent read :p
 
Hi Connavar
Yes I'm enjoying POA, I've finished the second book 'Servants of the Wankh'
I'm reading two other novels at the same time so won't finish POA until next week probably.
I don't rate this as highly as I do Tales of a Dying Earth but I recognise the same author with his stories full of crazy customs, vicious cultures, dogmatic believers, action and adventure. Adam's finally managed to steal a spacecraft (with help) but it


SPOILER WARNING














crashed soon after so he's still stuck on the planet. The beautiful woman he saved in the first book turned into a fanatically ostentatious extravagent lady the closer she got back to home, when she finally found a fellow rich person from her culture. Adam's causing a lot of trouble and who can blame him? He's not had much fun since he arrived!
 
Well I've finished the Planet of Adventure series because I had a spare few hours and decided to concentrate on this book alone. It's clearly a Jack Vance story with the humour, irony, sadistic cultures and the false beliefs of nearly everyone.

The third book is called 'The Dirdir' which was excellent with the hunting humans species of the Dirdir and Adam and his comrades struggling to raise enough money equivalent to get a ship built to take them to Earth. The horrors of the Glass Box were excellent (punishment arena where law breakers against the Dirdir are hunted and eaten by them!).

Adam finally met a monstrous enemy: his most dangerous opponent.
The fourth book 'The Pnume' starts off underground - where Adam has been sent to his death. I won't give away the ending. My criticism of the final book is the brevity of it and the ending seems slightly hurried, however it answers the questions posed within the stories and resolves the problems posed. I don't rate this as highly as the 'Dying Earth' series but it's still well worth reading. He's created four alien species and their human client/slaves along with the fantastic world they share. Adam doesn't 'grow' as a character but he has no need to since he's a fully developed person already.

I will still read (most likely next year) Emphyrio and The Demon Prince Series and possibly Lyonesse but I'm not an avid collector/reader of every book someone has written (the only author I've done this with is Iain Banks).
Christmas will interrupt my reading.
I'm now concentrating on The mighty First Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber and I can confirm from the 1st 100 pages appears to be a 10/10 work of perfection.
 
Emphyrio is SF. He wrote many other SF works.

Demon Princes is suppose to be his best SF work although i havent read it yet.

His SF and Fantasy are similer though. His strenght is the building of interesting worlds,cultures.

You should read both. His style is that his fantasy is very SFish and SF is very Fantasyish :p
 
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