G'day
Vance has been writing for almost fifty years (though he has mostly stopped now), so there is a lot of stuff about. He is also a writer whose style varies a lot from work to work, so there is a great variety of stuff too. His picaresque 'Dying Earth' series material has a very different tone from, say, the 'Lyonesse' triology.
The Vance works that influenced D&D were 'The Dying Earth', 'Eyes of the Overworld', 'Cugel's Saga', and 'Rhialto the Marvellous'. They are all fast-paced, clever, and fuller of twists than a big long twisty thing. The writing is mark by a pyrotechnic brillance, but is emotionally cool, and there are very few sympathetic characters (except for some of the victims). I recognise the cleverness and brilliance of this part of Vance's corpus, but I don't like the books much.
Vance's more recent fantasy work is dominated by the Lyonesse triology (which, like most such, is not really a triology of novels, but rather one gigantic three-volume novel. The use of English is less obtrusively spectacular, the stories are less episodic in nature, the protagonists are much more sympathetic, and the work is much more emotionally engaging. This work is much more to my taste than the picaresque 'Dying Earth' material.
I suggest that you give Vance's SF a chance, because I have found that a lot of people who have disliked other SF have loved Vance.
Some of the SF (eg. 'The Five Gold Bands', the Magnus Ridolph material, 'Space Opera', 'The Languages of Pao', 'Son of the Tree', 'The Last Castle' and a few others) is similar in tone to the 'Dying Earth' fantasy. So if you liked the 'Dying Earth' stuff I suggest that you start with 'The Dragon Masters', 'The Last Castle' and the Magnus Ridolph stories.
If you preferred the warmer 'Lyonesse' fantasy try the 'Cadwal Chronicles', starting with 'Araminta Station' and continuing with 'Ecce and Old Earth'. You might like to skip 'Throy' ('Cadwal Chronicles really doesn't need much winding up after 'Ecce and Old Earth'), but you might also find 'Nightlamp' and 'Emphyrio' to your liking.
Vance's most distinctive SF is marked by what one critic has termed the 'planetary romance'. Planetary romances are basically about sympathetic protagonists dealing with the vagaries of very strange but completely logical societies that Vance portrays in quick, deft strokes. Some of these contain an element of social commentary (eg. 'The Gray Prince', which satirises Australia and South Africa, or 'Whyst', which comments caustically on state communism). Other planetary romances are more fanciful (eg. 'Marune'). If you want to try this sort of stuff (and I recommend that you should), I would suggest that you start with the 'Alastor Cluster' books (they are not a series, read them in any order): 'Trullion', 'Marune, and 'Whyst', and then go on to 'Maske: Thaery', the 'Durdane' trilogy ('The Anome', 'The Brave Free Men', and 'The Asutra').
Finally, if you really like the characters Dhrun and Aillas from the 'Lyonesse' series, check out similar Vancian heros in the series 'Tchai: Planet of Adventure' ('The City of the Chasch', 'The Servants of the Wankh', 'The Dirdir', and 'The Pnume') and 'The Demon Princes' ('The Star King', 'The Killing Machine', 'The Face', 'The Palace of Love', and 'The Book of Dreams').Adam Reith and Kirth Gersen take more crap from Fate, suffer more injustice, and bounce back grimmer and more determined than Batman and Jean Valjean rolled together.
Regards,
Agback
Vance has been writing for almost fifty years (though he has mostly stopped now), so there is a lot of stuff about. He is also a writer whose style varies a lot from work to work, so there is a great variety of stuff too. His picaresque 'Dying Earth' series material has a very different tone from, say, the 'Lyonesse' triology.
The Vance works that influenced D&D were 'The Dying Earth', 'Eyes of the Overworld', 'Cugel's Saga', and 'Rhialto the Marvellous'. They are all fast-paced, clever, and fuller of twists than a big long twisty thing. The writing is mark by a pyrotechnic brillance, but is emotionally cool, and there are very few sympathetic characters (except for some of the victims). I recognise the cleverness and brilliance of this part of Vance's corpus, but I don't like the books much.
Vance's more recent fantasy work is dominated by the Lyonesse triology (which, like most such, is not really a triology of novels, but rather one gigantic three-volume novel. The use of English is less obtrusively spectacular, the stories are less episodic in nature, the protagonists are much more sympathetic, and the work is much more emotionally engaging. This work is much more to my taste than the picaresque 'Dying Earth' material.
I suggest that you give Vance's SF a chance, because I have found that a lot of people who have disliked other SF have loved Vance.
Some of the SF (eg. 'The Five Gold Bands', the Magnus Ridolph material, 'Space Opera', 'The Languages of Pao', 'Son of the Tree', 'The Last Castle' and a few others) is similar in tone to the 'Dying Earth' fantasy. So if you liked the 'Dying Earth' stuff I suggest that you start with 'The Dragon Masters', 'The Last Castle' and the Magnus Ridolph stories.
If you preferred the warmer 'Lyonesse' fantasy try the 'Cadwal Chronicles', starting with 'Araminta Station' and continuing with 'Ecce and Old Earth'. You might like to skip 'Throy' ('Cadwal Chronicles really doesn't need much winding up after 'Ecce and Old Earth'), but you might also find 'Nightlamp' and 'Emphyrio' to your liking.
Vance's most distinctive SF is marked by what one critic has termed the 'planetary romance'. Planetary romances are basically about sympathetic protagonists dealing with the vagaries of very strange but completely logical societies that Vance portrays in quick, deft strokes. Some of these contain an element of social commentary (eg. 'The Gray Prince', which satirises Australia and South Africa, or 'Whyst', which comments caustically on state communism). Other planetary romances are more fanciful (eg. 'Marune'). If you want to try this sort of stuff (and I recommend that you should), I would suggest that you start with the 'Alastor Cluster' books (they are not a series, read them in any order): 'Trullion', 'Marune, and 'Whyst', and then go on to 'Maske: Thaery', the 'Durdane' trilogy ('The Anome', 'The Brave Free Men', and 'The Asutra').
Finally, if you really like the characters Dhrun and Aillas from the 'Lyonesse' series, check out similar Vancian heros in the series 'Tchai: Planet of Adventure' ('The City of the Chasch', 'The Servants of the Wankh', 'The Dirdir', and 'The Pnume') and 'The Demon Princes' ('The Star King', 'The Killing Machine', 'The Face', 'The Palace of Love', and 'The Book of Dreams').Adam Reith and Kirth Gersen take more crap from Fate, suffer more injustice, and bounce back grimmer and more determined than Batman and Jean Valjean rolled together.
Regards,
Agback
