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Songs of the Dying Earth [Hardcover]

George R. R. Martin , Gardner Dozois
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
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Book Description

1 Oct 2009

Return to the unique and evocative world of The Dying Earth in this tribute anthology featuring the most distinguished fantasists of our day.

A dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. The sun is feeble and red. A million cities have fallen to dust. Here live a few thousand souls, dying, as the Earth dies beneath them. Just a few short decades remain to the long history of our world. At the last, science and magic are one, and there is evil on Earth, distilled by time … Earth is dying.

Half a century ago, Jack Vance created the world of the Dying Earth, and fantasy has never been the same. Now, for the first time, Jack has agreed to open this intriguing and darkly beautiful world to other fantasists, to play in as their very own.

The list of twenty-two contributors eager to honour Jack Vance by writing for this anthology includes Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams, Elizabeth Hand, Tanith Lee, Dan Simmons, Robert Silverberg, and George R.R. Martin himself.


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Songs of the Dying Earth + Tales Of The Dying Earth (FANTASY MASTERWORKS)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 672 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Voyager; First Edition First Impression edition (1 Oct 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0007277482
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007277483
  • Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 24.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 447,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

‘The Dying Earth is one of the best and most influential fantasy works of the twentieth century’ Terry Pratchett

‘The world that Vance created ranks with Tolkien’s Middle-earth and Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age as one of fantasy’s most unforgettable and influential settings.’ George R R Martin

About the Author

George R.R. Martin is the author of the bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series and award-winning writer of books and screenplays.
Gardner Dozois is a science fiction writer and editor who has won a record fifteen Hugo Awards for his work. He was the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004.


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Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By A. Whitehead TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
Millions of years hence, the Sun has grown old, bloated and red and is about to go out. In these dying days humanity, now capable of great feats of magic, shares the much-changed Earth with hostile races such as the deodands and pelgranes. This is the vivid setting of Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, four books (now usually published in one volume) which now stand as one of the cornerstones of modern fantasy.

Songs of the Dying Earth is an all-star 'tribute album' by some of the biggest names in modern SF and Fantasy, featuring twenty-three stories set in the Dying Earth setting. Some of the authors employ existing characters (Cugel makes several appearances and is central in Kage Baker's The Green Bird, whilst Rhialto plays a strong supporting role in Glen Cook's The Good Magician), whilst most create their own characters to explore various stories and ideas. Robert Silverberg's entry deals with a peculiar form of maudlin depression brought about by the imminent end of eternity, whilst Matthew Hughes' Grolion of Almery is a crazy mash-up of the Dying Earth and Cthulu with a bit of Little Shop of Horrors chucked in for good measure. Some of the stories are extremely funny, others are tragic or very dark in tone.

One thing that stands out about the collection is its very high quality. The weakest stories in the collection are the ones where the writer tries to evoke Vance's language and fails - 'Caulk the Witch-Chaser' by Liz Williams and Jeff VanderMeer's 'Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod' are notable examples - but even they successfully capture some of the setting's tone and feel.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy tribute 16 Aug 2010
Format:Hardcover
Jack Vance's Dying Earth setting is one of my favourite of all fantasy settings. It's an Earth so far in the future that the Sun is pale and red and ready to sputter and die at any moment, all of which tends to lend the characters who inhabit the world a certain inevitable melancholy. Add to this peculiar setting Vance's own eccentric turn of phrase and you get a truly glorious fantasy sequence.

Influential too, and not just in fantasy literature. The D&D magic system was based on that in the Dying Earth and Cugel the Clever, the cunning and amoral anti-hero of 'The Eyes of the Overworld' and 'Cugel's Saga' has been identified by Gary Gygax as the model for the D&D thief class.

Vance is still with us, but he's in his nineties now. It's nice that this tribute anthology was published now and not too late for him to see.

And what an impressive anthology. I don't know who it was who assembled the authors (22 in all) who each contributed a Dying Earth short story, but there are some very good writers here (including genuine A-listers like George R R Martin, Robert Silverberg and Neil Gaiman).

Some of the authors have used existing Dying Earth characters. Some (but not all) have attempted to write in something approaching Vance's style - a tough challenge for any fantasy author I would imagine. They all, without exception, manage to capture that strange end of days melancholy that is such an important part of the original stories.

Incidentally, if you haven't read The Dying Earth, read Vance's stories first, even if you are tempted to read a short story here by your favourite author. Trust me, you will get so much more out of reading in that order.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent Anthology 28 Oct 2009
Format:Hardcover
Songs of the Dying Earth is a magnificent anthology of 22 tales authored by established writers in expressed tribute to Jack Vance's remote future Dying Earth ("DE"). Jack Vance is widely lauded as that rare writer's writer, and his unique style reaches near inimitability, so that replication is a very tall order indeed. Yet to be able to write Vancian is no sole criterion for evaluating an homage, (though if an obvious attempt is made to "sound" like Vance it is fair game for assessment). Some authors stick to their own voice, thus their tribute to Vance's DE can be adjudged on factors, such as faithfulness to Vance's DE conceptions and themes, or contributing advancements to his fantasy creations.

Seven entries are absolutely outstanding and alone make this book WORTH BUYING, so that among all 22 entries, 7 are BEST, 11 are really quite GOOD, 3 are MIXED, and 1 is WEAK. Reviews given below describe these BEST, sequenced solely by chapter order, followed by brief comments on selected GOOD, followed last by the 3 MIXED & 1 WEAK and reasons thereof.

Story 3 by Terry Dowling. Wins "Most Faithful" Award for conscientious employment of many DE allusions, all lending to the story's DE ambience and authenticity. It offers wonderful Vance-like names (Eunepheos, Sarimance), and hosts a fantastical spell competition that is marvelously visualized. The ending is suitably ironic.

Story 6 by Walter Jon Williams. The writing is stylistically quite Vancian. Great sounding neologisms, a hard-to-imitate talent Vance was renown for. Delightful throw-away digressions, something again Vance's prolific imagination was famed for. Colorful Vancian characters, all with creative Vancesque names (even Twest the donkey). Dialogue echoes the Vance quality of urbane, archaic politeness.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars did no hum this song
songs of dying earth
picked this up thinking it was an anthology of sci fi tales set in a ravaged future of no ozone and technofailure very 1990s
turned out to be... Read more
Published 16 months ago by mark1000
5.0 out of 5 stars Facsimiles in praise of Vance
An excellent compendium of short stories after the style of Jack Vance's 'Dying Earth' series. Most are so good that they could have been from the master himself. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2011 by Derek Simpson
4.0 out of 5 stars a fitting tribute
Like the various contributors, I also was captured by Vance's prose style when it first came to my attention. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2010 by A. G. L. Williams
3.0 out of 5 stars Good but .....
Whislt I would certainly recommend this intruiging collection to any appreciator of Vance (those who haven't read the originals should buy them in preference). Read more
Published on 6 July 2010 by Time Traveller
5.0 out of 5 stars A good book for a Jack Vance fan
After reading the other excellent reviews there is little to add except to say that if you, like me, have read everything that you can find by the great Jack Vance and still crave... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2010 by Michael Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars Best Tribute out there
When I originally heard about the line up for this tribute based on Jack Vance's world I was not only very excited but looked forward to its release by counting down on my... Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2009 by Gareth Wilson - Falcata Times Blog
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