Paperback, 741 pages
English language
Published Nov. 30, 2000 by Orb Books.
Jack Vance is one of the most remarkable talents to ever grace the world of science fiction. His unique, stylish voice has been beloved by generations of readers. One of his enduring classics is his 1964 novel, The Dying Earth, and its sequels--a fascinating, baroque tale set on a far-future Earth, under a giant red sun that is soon to go out forever.
This omnibus volume comprised all four books in the series The Dying Earth The Eyes of the Overworld Cugel's Saga Rialto the Marvellous
It took forever to plow through. If I read it before it left very little trace in my memory. And I don't think there's going to be much trace from this reading, either.
The bulk of this book, nearly two thirds of it, is taken up with the story of the ironically named Cugel the Clever. A tale of fast acting karma in which Cugel's selfish actions to get out of his current predicament merely lead him to his next set of troubles. Only near the very end of his travels does this pattern vary at all. The stories are interesting, but the nearly unbroken chain of completely self-centered characters gets old after a while, and that pretty much sums up the entire collection.
