They wait...in a dying world of mystical spells, occult curses, and demonic creatures of the night...
They are Turjan, the scientist who struggles...
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reviews
Jul 05, 2011
Aerin
rated it: 
This is a book that should be read aloud, even if only to yourself. It has this elegant, primeval, oral-tradition quality that just doesn't resonate as well when it's only bouncing around inside your head. For example:
The light came from an unknown source, from the air itself, as if leaking from the discrete atoms; every breath was luminous, the room floated full of invigorating glow. A great rug pelted the floor, a monster tabard woven of gold, brown, bronze, two tones of green, fMore...
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Sep 27, 2011
Apatt
rated it: 
Meh, what on earth?
I went into the book expecting to like it, and it is nice and short, but after a good start it just went downhill for me. The first couple of stories about a wizard and two identical girls created by magic are great, but the subsequent stories just bored me. The prose is nice and elegant but sometime the extreme eloquence just leave me floundering. Also, in this cynical day and age the Abracadabra! (not to be confused with the more lethal Avada Kedavra) kind of uns More...
I went into the book expecting to like it, and it is nice and short, but after a good start it just went downhill for me. The first couple of stories about a wizard and two identical girls created by magic are great, but the subsequent stories just bored me. The prose is nice and elegant but sometime the extreme eloquence just leave me floundering. Also, in this cynical day and age the Abracadabra! (not to be confused with the more lethal Avada Kedavra) kind of uns More...
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Jun 06, 2008
Michael
rated it:
A pretty good book. I would have given it 3.5 stars if I could. The prose style is incredibly interesting and wholely unique for science fiction/fantasy. You would be wise to study the syntactic structures if you happen to be an aspiring writer.
-m
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Jan 17, 2008
Kirt
rated it:
I read the original Dying Earth novel by Jack Vance, which is less a novel and more a set of short stories set in the same universe. The universe? The last days of Earth, with a red Sun, where sorcerers are the most powerful thing around, and most people live in an oddly amoral, low-tech way.
There's a certain formality of speech and informality of morals that makes the book utterly charming despite some of the terrible things that happen to people, admittedly in most cases through th More...
There's a certain formality of speech and informality of morals that makes the book utterly charming despite some of the terrible things that happen to people, admittedly in most cases through th More...
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Aug 13, 2010
Kat
rated it: 
The Dying Earth is the first of Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth and contains six somewhat overlapping stories all set in the future when the sun is red and dim, much technology has been lost, and most of humanity has died out. Our planet is so unrecognizable that it might as well be another world, and evil has been "distilled" so that it's concentrated in Earth's remaining inhabitants.
But it's easy to forget that a failing planet is the setting for the Dying Earth st More...
But it's easy to forget that a failing planet is the setting for the Dying Earth st More...
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Oct 24, 2007
Jim
rated it:
Read this one straight through last night. What a wealthy imagination! I enjoyed the format of interconnected stories that just keep getting better and weirder. Vance delivers the action with a stunning clarity and a delicious darkness. The Dying Earth is a place of careless decadence, surreal beauty, hideous deformity and startling cruelty. As the wizard Pandelume says: "There is evil on Earth, evil distilled by time...Earth is dying and in its twilight..."
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Jul 16, 2011
Steve
rated it:
First off, I strongly recommend Aerin's review, since it's her review that lead me to the book. For me, briefly, I pretty much knew, within about 50 pages or so, that Dying Earth was special. You can read oceans of speculative fiction, enjoying a great deal of it, but it's only on occasion that you run across something that strikes you as Original, that exists beyond the time in which it was written. (I would probably liken this reading experience (espicially so with Vance's use of "high
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(7 people liked it)
Feb 15, 2011
Mike (the Paladin)
rated it:
Under the deep red sun of a far, far future wizards and sorcerers, sorceresses and creatures, blends of animal and plants, creatures un-thought of wander across an Earth in ruins where pockets of people still live, awaiting the end when the sun goes out.
Sounds dramatic doesn't it? This is considered a classic of it's kind and has been built on since. I found it mildly interesting over all but to be honest by the end I really didn't care much anymore. The blush was off the rose so to More...
Sounds dramatic doesn't it? This is considered a classic of it's kind and has been built on since. I found it mildly interesting over all but to be honest by the end I really didn't care much anymore. The blush was off the rose so to More...
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Mar 31, 2011
Donald
rated it: 
This book/series has a fantastic premise, the far future where the sun (and thus the earth) is on it's last legs. Magic abounds, and for the time this was written (the 50's) it is truly a trailblazing work that influenced a lot of what came afterwards.
The book is a series of connected short stories following several characters adventures through the world known as the Dying Earth. The emphasis is on the fantastic nature of everything, giving us wild landscapes, strange creatures, and More...
The book is a series of connected short stories following several characters adventures through the world known as the Dying Earth. The emphasis is on the fantastic nature of everything, giving us wild landscapes, strange creatures, and More...
Jul 03, 2010
Angela
rated it:
I really wanted to like this. But I didn't. The characters didn't seem fully fleshed out--especially the women. Because of this, the relationships really didn't seem real. Especially in the first two chapters, women are literally creations of men and the men are relieved of the burden of treating them like real people. There is unique diction and the concept is definitely unique, and interesting when it isn't completely off the wall. Destroying a demon by unraveling it into 60 bobbins of demon t
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Jun 26, 2010
Josh
rated it:
A strange sci-fi tale with strong fantasy underpinnings. In face, "tale" does not really describe it. Rather "tales", as the book has no obvious major plot, each chapter follows a different main character and they seldom interact. I'm not really sure why it is a novel and not a collection of short stories. As short stories they are quite intriguing and evocative. I especially liked the idea of a woman who can only see everything as ugliness. I wonder what she would see true e
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Jan 27, 2011
Ryan
rated it:
Well now.
Even though I was dying for this book to be over by the time it finished, I can't pan it.
Mostly, because it's pretty creative. The Dying Earth is a pretty interesting place to hang out in and I think that if I were not in my current frame of mind - one that is looking for economical story telling - I would have enjoyed this a good deal more.
That being said, it was quite a chore to get through.
That also being said, maybe reading one of the stories More...
Even though I was dying for this book to be over by the time it finished, I can't pan it.
Mostly, because it's pretty creative. The Dying Earth is a pretty interesting place to hang out in and I think that if I were not in my current frame of mind - one that is looking for economical story telling - I would have enjoyed this a good deal more.
That being said, it was quite a chore to get through.
That also being said, maybe reading one of the stories More...
Oct 25, 2011
Norman
rated it:
The Dying Earth series is Jack Vance's best known work. Set in a time far in the future when the Earth is in its last days, this, the first volume, contains six interrelated stories of magic and adventure. These were originally published as short stories, so there is very little continuity, and certainly no overreaching plot, within this book. A few characters apear in more than one story. In fact, one character seems to go to his death in one story, but is alive and well in a subsequent one. Th
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Dec 28, 2010
Julie
rated it: 
#19 - 2010.
This is the September read-along book for SFFaudio in September. It is very short and last year I read a book of Jack Vance's short stories which I really liked so I'm intrigued to see what he does with a longer work.
Finished: Hmmm ... My comments on this book will come on the SFFaudio podcast at the beginning of September.
Update:
Turns out we all either had a lot of trouble with this book or disliked it, which meant there would be very little More...
This is the September read-along book for SFFaudio in September. It is very short and last year I read a book of Jack Vance's short stories which I really liked so I'm intrigued to see what he does with a longer work.
Finished: Hmmm ... My comments on this book will come on the SFFaudio podcast at the beginning of September.
Update:
Turns out we all either had a lot of trouble with this book or disliked it, which meant there would be very little More...
Dec 17, 2010
Kat
rated it:
Audio version
The Dying Earth is the first of Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth and contains six somewhat overlapping stories all set in the future when the sun is red and dim, much technology has been lost, and most of humanity has died out. Our planet is so unrecognizable that it might as well be another world, and evil has been "distilled" so that it's concentrated in Earth's remaining inhabitants.
But it's easy to forget that a failing planet is the settin More...
The Dying Earth is the first of Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth and contains six somewhat overlapping stories all set in the future when the sun is red and dim, much technology has been lost, and most of humanity has died out. Our planet is so unrecognizable that it might as well be another world, and evil has been "distilled" so that it's concentrated in Earth's remaining inhabitants.
But it's easy to forget that a failing planet is the settin More...
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Jan 09, 2011
Ben
rated it:
I had never heard of Jack Vance until Subterranean Press announced it would be publishing a tribute anthology containing stories from some of my favourite authors. Apparently Vance is a master fantasist, on par with Tolkien, and his Dying Earth series inspired all of those authors, and many more, in the latter half of the twentieth century. So I ordered the massive volume from Subterranean Press, and then I set about finding a copy of the original book that started it all. Since then, Vance h
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Mar 16, 2010
Psychophant
rated it:
Although not very well known, this book is probably as influential as Tolkien in the sudden growth of Fantasy as a genre, influencing writers rather than readers, and also by indirectly influencing the RPG market.
The book is a series of short stories that share some characters and the general setting, Earth at the end of time, when the feeble sun may go out at any moment. Most of them were written while Vance was serving in a merchant ship during the Second World War, and that may we More...
The book is a series of short stories that share some characters and the general setting, Earth at the end of time, when the feeble sun may go out at any moment. Most of them were written while Vance was serving in a merchant ship during the Second World War, and that may we More...
Feb 16, 2010
Simon
rated it:
This, the first part of the "Tales of Dying Earth" saga, is Vance in his early days as a writer and it shows. It lacks the well-roundedness and maturity that he was to develop later on in his career but it is still most definitely him, his unique writing style and humour plainly evident, even at this early stage.
Unconcerned and unconstrained by the burdens of world building and character development, his imagination is given free reign to express itself. Completely at odds More...
Unconcerned and unconstrained by the burdens of world building and character development, his imagination is given free reign to express itself. Completely at odds More...
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Mar 21, 2008
Jason
rated it:
“Earth…a dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. Once it was a tall world of cloudy mountains and bright rivers, and the sun was a bright, blazing ball. Ages of rain and wind have beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun is feeble and red. The continents have sunk and risen. A million cities have lifted towers, have fallen to dust. In place of the old peoples, a few thousand strange souls live. There is evil on Earth, evil distilled by time….Earth is dying and in its twilight.”
This b More...
This b More...
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Sep 07, 2011
Артём
rated it:
This time around I liked the first book of the Dying Earth series so much better then the other two I've read so far. It's very poetic and the short stories work like impressionist brush strokes creating the dark world Jack Vance has invented. In the Cugel adventures the Dying Earth world becomes more like a crutch to tell about his mishaps while here the world is more like one of the characters.
Aug 11, 2011
Bryant
rated it:
I was directed to this one through an interview with George RR Martin and, like his own books, this did not disappoint. The mixture of fantasy and science fiction was compelling and I was left wanting more and more at the end.
This (along with Robert E Howard's Conan stories which I also read this month) does poke quite a large hole in my 'origins of fantasy' theory...I have so much to learn.
This (along with Robert E Howard's Conan stories which I also read this month) does poke quite a large hole in my 'origins of fantasy' theory...I have so much to learn.
Aug 03, 2011
Bria
rated it:
Would be 1, but I reserve that for the worst books, so more like 1.5. Mostly wildly skimmed it after the first chapter. I didn't give up on it since it seemed to imply there was going to be an interesting idea going on in the background at some point, but it was just bland magical sexist fantasy without any of the promised enticing story of the death of the Earth and mankind.
Oct 10, 2010
John
rated it:
My memories of this work are good, but it has been, I am afraid to admit, about 30 years since I read it, so until I do a re-read, I'll pass at any sort of review. It is one of the classics of the genre and others who have mentioned the use by the role players of the conventions of magic here are correct. Vance does have a great imagination.
Jan 22, 2008
Victor
rated it:
The Dying Earth is a surreal mixture of magic, the human will to survive, and the monsters beyond our control. All human vices and virtues are here, amplified by the sad and wonderfulness of a thousand civilizations which have risen and fallen across a million years. Twin threads of development, magic and technology, have left their mark in abandoned utopias, unknown genetics, and forgotten curses. Death or oblivion awaits the unwary who wander outside their village or province of experience.
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Jul 23, 2009
Tim
rated it:
A real gem from grandpa's attic. It has been some time since I first read this and it was a delight to read it again. Vance is a fine science fiction/fantasy writer, with an elaborate writing style, a distinct and creative world, and humor. It was a pleasure to live in these stories for a little while.
Sep 20, 2011
Sffgeek
rated it:
Marvellous! Read it ages ago (probably from the library), and enjoyed it so much I eventually got my own copy. I don't think I realised back then that there were other two books in The Dying Earth series, which is why it took so long to get round to buying them. But they're on my "to-read" list now.
May 10, 2010
Manuel
rated it:
As the description goes, this is a set of stories on the last days of earth, when the sun is dying and all the evil is distilled in the few remaining humans.
It has a nice pace to it, but the idea that science got lost and now is akin of sorcery didn't appeal to me.
The short story format is also not my favoritre, since it won't allow for much character development.
It has a nice pace to it, but the idea that science got lost and now is akin of sorcery didn't appeal to me.
The short story format is also not my favoritre, since it won't allow for much character development.
Feb 05, 2011
Gregor
rated it:
This gets four stars for the idiosyncratic writing and for sheer imagination. The stories in this "novel" were almost all quest stories, which I found a bit repetitious and tiresome. To me, the stories here seemed more akin to fairy tales than science-fiction or high fantasy stories. I will be returning to The Dying Earth.
Dec 05, 2009
Ryan
rated it:
A short collection of stories set on the Dying Earth. Vance's juxtaposition of base morality and very formal speech makes for an unusual voice in sci-fi / fantasy. The only misstep was the final story, which was unnecessarily drawn out.
Mar 24, 2010
Theo
rated it:
The stories are full of the rich imagery of poetic fantasy. Despite the far-future setting there's no science fiction here, just strange tales of great powers interacting with each other. It's easy to spot the influence on writers that followed, Zelazny and Wolfe and others.
