{"id":8797,"date":"2013-08-07T18:43:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-08T00:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=8797"},"modified":"2013-08-07T18:43:40","modified_gmt":"2013-08-08T00:43:40","slug":"the-dying-earth-by-jack-vance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/the-dying-earth-by-jack-vance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dying Earth by Jack Vance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the_dying_earth\"Do you remember those creepy-weird montages from those old 60s and 70s era Disney movies?\u00a0 The ones like Dumbo<\/em>, or The Three Caballeros–<\/em>or heck, the entire thing of Fantasia<\/em>–where all these weird kaleidoscopic shapes and psychedelic colors just move in and out of each other in twisted, convulsing ways?\u00a0 Well, guess what?\u00a0 Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth<\/em> is like one of those montages in written form, and I loved it.<\/p>\n

I picked up this book in order to familiarize myself a little better with the Sword & Planet subgenre, which I’d like to write in (as you may remember<\/a> … my WIP is currently on hold, but I’d like to pick it up again soon).\u00a0 This one is a lot<\/em> different from the Princess of Mars<\/em> series, with an eerie apocalyptic feel, arcane magic and forbidden knowledge, weird, monstrous creatures, and above all else, a decidedly un-Disney fairy-tale feel that pervades the book with doom and danger.<\/p>\n

If you’re looking for straight-up Science Fiction, you’re better off looking elsewhere.\u00a0 This book is even more fantastic than Ray Bradbury’s stuff, and while there’s a little bit of a sci-fi dressing thrown in, there really is no scientific justification for anything.\u00a0 The basic premise is that the Earth is dying, meaning that the sun is growing dimmer and dimmer and will soon go completely out.\u00a0 The last few people eking out an existence on this planet are mostly wizards and witches, each one intent on building their own little empire and cheating or stealing from everyone else.\u00a0 There are a few pure-hearted souls, but the world is completely lawless, and the only way to survive is through magic or brute force.<\/p>\n

The chapters are really more like interconnected short stories, where each one stands on its own, and yet may feature a recurring character, or be set in the same place as another.\u00a0 There were only six chapters in the version I read (the 1977 Pocket Book edition), which makes me wonder if I missed any.\u00a0 If I did, I would definitely like to read them, because the stories were absolutely mesmerizing!<\/p>\n

Because I read this book to get a feel for the sub-genre, I’m going to list some of the things I really enjoyed about it.\u00a0 Here they are:<\/p>\n