Jack Vance

[Dave]

John Holbrook Vance
pen names: Ellery Queen, Peter Held, John Holbrook, John van See, Jay Kavanse and Alan Wade.

born San Francisco, California: 28 August 1916
died Oakland, California: 26 May 2013

Jack Vance was an American author of mysteries, fantasy and science fiction. He was also a merchant seaman, mining engineer and journalist. He played the cornet and ukulele.

His first published story was The World-Thinker (1945) in Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Most of his early work was short stories, which have now lately been assembled in retrospective collections. Most of his SFF works could be considered planetary romances.

He is best known for The Dying Earth (1950) collection of short stories, and for a series of connected stories and novels that followed.

Other story series of note are Magnus Ridolph, beginning with Hard-Luck Diggings (1948); Big Planet, beginning with Big Planet (1952); Demon Princes, beginning with The Star King (1963); Durdane, beginning with The Anome (1973); Miro Hetzel, beginning with The Dogtown Tourist Agency (1975); and the Lyonesse trilogy beginning with Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden (1983).

He is one of the most frequently mentioned authors in our SFF Chronicles Book Search forum, suggesting his stories are fondly remembered. Despite this, he remains one of the least recognised contributors to the genre, possibly because most of his known work as Jack Vance consists of short stories, while his 12 novels were written under various pseudonyms.

A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Jack Vance

Wikipedia page: Jack Vance - Wikipedia

 

[Elckerlyc]

I have never considered his trilogies Durdane, Lyonesse or Tschai other than complete novels. The same for the 5 Demon princes books or his books set in the Gaean Reach. I remember him more for these (often re-read) books than his short stories.

 

[Dave]

Okay, that's a mistake by me. His trilogies Durdane, Lyonesse or Tschai are definitely novels, they are far too long to be even considered novellas or novelettes. So, I should have said 12 'standalone' novels, not part of any series.

What I really meant to say was that in our Book Search forum, many of the answers to the queries about his work, (and his work is one of the most frequently mentioned, apart from Asimov and Clarke, and then they're just for only one or two of their stories) are for his short stories, and yet most of them were out of print until published as collections in the 1980's and 1990's.

 

[BAYLOR]

Ive read the Dying Earth books, excellent stuff. Author Michael Shea did a novel set in on Jack Vances Dying Earth The Quest for Simblis written 1974,

Also the is anthology Songs From The Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance edited by George R R Martin and Gardiner Dozes published in 2010. Stories by other writer set on Jack Vance's Dying Earth.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Jack Vance had an unique voice and style that could paint vistas and characters that are difficult to imitate.