Okay, I give up on this book. There are too many mediocre stories trying to hard to be like Vance. The occasional story will get it right and it will be pretty decent - but often when I read those I will wonder, why aren't I just reading Vance?

In the end, it is the fact that there is too much chaff among the wheat that pulls the book down. If it was narrowed down, it at least would be worth reading - and sometimes it is! - but I couldn't recommend buying this even to a hardcore Vance fan. Vance is too particular a stylist to be copied without falling into parody, and reading an accidental parody is about the worst thing in the world, right?