Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Songs of the Dying Earth

a collection of stories by various writers in imitation of Jack Vance is not embarassingly bad but it is not good. Nothing like Jack Vance and certainly not worth the $90.00+ delivered. I almost gave up at the travesty by Mike Resnick who is a very good writer in his own style. Glen Cook was no better. There is only one Jack Vance.

2 Comments:

Blogger Doc Rampage said...

Did they actually try to copy Vance's style or only his subject?

Fri Jan 29, 10:03:00 PM  
Blogger nk said...

They all try to copy Vance's style and mostly overdo it. The setting is Vance's Dying Earth and most of the stories are spin-offs of Vance's characters, e.g. Cugel, Ioucounou, Rhialto, Lith, etc., and prequels, interquels, and sequels, of his stories. For one embarassing example, Resnick's story is how Chun the Unavoidable came about. There are some that show some imagination and originality but they are few.

Sat Jan 30, 06:53:00 AM  

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