Tales of the Dying Earth in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Nov 22, 2008 Dave Johnson rated it liked it

this book is an omnibus of four books, so i'll review them one by one. unfortunately i havent read all that much in the last few weeks, so i've only read the first book. :-\ But this is a FANTASTIC series--dare i say even BETTER than Lord of the Rings. yes, i said it, and it's true. i enjoy it far better than LOTR. this book takes place on a future earth when the sun is dying and has expanded to a red giant. because of the weird sunlight, life on earth has changed and human life has reverted to this book is an omnibus of four books, so i'll review them one by one. unfortunately i havent read all that much in the last few weeks, so i've only read the first book. :-\ But this is a FANTASTIC series--dare i say even BETTER than Lord of the Rings. yes, i said it, and it's true. i enjoy it far better than LOTR. this book takes place on a future earth when the sun is dying and has expanded to a red giant. because of the weird sunlight, life on earth has changed and human life has reverted to a fantasy-like environment. but before the sun started dying, humans must've understood the secrets of the universe through science but failed to pass it on to the next generation. because of that, anything spectacular is now "magic". another interesting note is that this is one of Dan Simmons's (author of the Hyperion series, Illium and Olympos, et al) favorite book series, and he pays homage to it in the Hyperion cantos with a popular poem called "The Dying Earth".

first book, The Dying Earth 5 stars!
The first book is a collection of short stories that are loosely related to each other via relating characters. i normally dont like short story compilations, but this was so fun and engaging to read, after reading one story, i had to read the subsequent stories. it seems to me that there is a certain caliber of authorship that can be both a great storyteller/character developer while also being highly imaginative. many authors seemingly eschew one for the other, but jack vance is both imaginative and great at story. it's hard to pick my favorite story--because i love them all--but i think the edge goes to the one with a cloned woman whose brain has a "warp" in it and she only sees ugliness where there is beauty. the story that follows was nothing if not brilliant. another great story is one in which there are two clans of people in the same city, either wearing their own color of clothes, neither seeing the other color. that tale has a lot of racial resonance, but is handled with care, proving that fantasy authors CAN allude to society with the best of them. on to the next book, Eyes of the Overworld!

second book, Eyes of the Overworld, 4 stars.
although i didnt like the second book as much as the first, dont get me wrong, this is still a good read. what i didnt like about the second was that i didnt really care for the protagonist. he's more of an antihero. and although thats fun to read sometimes and is interesting because it isnt cliche, i often hated the guy. i also think the story was a little too long for what it was, and there wasnt much of a plot here; just traveling from point A to point B. the humor is funny--though i wouldnt call it a comedic book--and had hints of Douglas Adams in here. it's very imaginative and was still a fun read. i liked the ending and i'm looking forward to reading the next book.

third book, Cugel's Saga 2 stars.
ugh. i was already starting to tire of Cugel from the last book, but man did this book take a nose dive. toward the middle of the book it got so boring that i decided that i would skip ahead and see if i could still understand what's going on in the book. well, i skipped a hundred--one hundred!--pages and nothing happened. so i just read the last chapter and that was that. it didnt even end well. hopefully the last book is better. we'll see. i know that has nothing to do with Cugel, so i'm thankful for that.

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Sep 13, 2009 Leon rated it it was amazing

I heard a negative review because it was a book of short stories. The reviewer seemed to have neglected that they're awesome short stories. This is my favorite Jack Vance. ...more

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