He was an amazing author. I remember picking up Suldrun's Garden (Lyonesse) at far too young an age to understand it. I read it again as an adult and came to appreciate it so much more. He will certainly live on through his fiction and I hope he inspires many writers to come.
Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :
I remember reading some of his books and enjoying them but it's been a while.
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
My favorite author. He wrote to a formula for a long time... a formula that I really liked. The Demon Prince series, Emphyrio, the stories of the Gaean Reach. The later ones were good too, but he had a unique style and approach to his writing... generally with his tongue in his cheek.
May he rest in peace.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Vance was never a favorite, but he was influential on me...
Posted by History (Member # 9213) on :
Jack is, and always will be, one of my favorite authors. I know of none in the genre who has ever equaled him him in the variety and depth and imagination in world-building--from the Dying Earth, to Durdane, to Tschai, to Big Planet, to the many worlds of the Gaean Reach, etc. etc. etc. The writing I am engaged in presently this year is strongly influenced by him. May he find the next world as wonderful and thrilling as he made this one for all of us.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :
I recall "The Big Planet? but not "Gaean Reach".
Posted by History (Member # 9213) on :
The Gaean Reach is a section of space with multiple worlds on and about which Jack wrote a number of novels.
I found Vance to be a writer capable of creating an interesting world with great images...populated by characters I had a hard time relating to. It wasn't like, say, Varley, whose characters I tended to dislike heartily---I just couldn't emphasize with them.
Oh, but the images and the worlds...who could forget the Dying Earth, or Tschai, or stories like "Son of the Tree" or "The Dragon Masters"?
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
You know, I always thought I met him. In 1971, I moved to an apartment complex in Cupertino, CA and ran into an author and his son. He'd be about the right age. I hadn't really started reading fantasy then and didn't pick up the name but the guy fit with Vance's biography and looking at his picture in Wikipedia, I do think it was him.
I checked my collection with the list and I've got all of his series and most of his single SF novels. I moved recently and finally let a bunch of my old paperbacks go in the pursuit of downsizing. I did keep all of my Jack Vance books.
Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :
quote:Originally posted by History: The Gaean Reach is a section of space with multiple worlds on and about which Jack wrote a number of novels.
Hmm, I need to take a closer look at some of those books. I know I've read a few of his but I don't recall most of those titles. Of course I may have read them without paying that much attention to the title. I've done that a few times.