The Dying Earth

Tales of the Dying Earth, Book 1

By: Jack Vance

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The stories in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisom and beauty - lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk-men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home in Vance’s lyrically described fantastic landscapes, like Embelyon, where, “The sky [was] a mesh of vast ripples and cross-ripples and these refracted a thousand shafts of colored light, rays which in mid-air wove wondrous laces, rainbow nets, in all the jewel hues....”

The dying Earth itself is otherworldly: “A dark blue sky, an ancient sun.... Nothing of Earth was raw or harsh—the ground, the trees, the rock ledge protruding from the meadow; all these had been worked upon, smoothed, aged, mellowed. The light from the sun, though dim, was rich and invested every object of the land ... with a sense of lore and ancient recollection.” Welcome.

©2010 Jack Vance (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“ The Dying Earth and its sequels comprise one of the most powerful fantasy/science-fiction concepts in the history of the genre. They are packed with adventure but also with ideas, and the vision of uncounted human civilizations stacked one atop another like layers in a phyllo pastry thrills even as it induces a sense of awe [at] ... the fragility and transience of all things, the nobility of humanity’s struggle against the certainty of an entropic resolution.” (Dean Koontz)

"There are few enough of the writers I loved when I was 13 that I can imagine myself going back to in 20 years from now. Jack Vance I will read forever.” (Neil Gaiman)

Better Than I Thought It Would Be

Came to the book because it was sighted as one of the major influences on D&D, left loving it for being Magitech Fallout and an application for what Old Night was suppose to mimic in Warhammer 40K. The tales are amazing in they follow generic folklore narratives, but surprise you along the way.

mix of fantasy, sci-fi and almost fairy-like stories is a heady mix

Rereading this book I only love it more. The world is different and the mix of fantasy, sci-fi and almost fairy-like stories is a heady mix. I want to continue exploring it long after the book is done.
One important thing to note when reading this series is that the protagonists are not necessarily people you should like or root for. I think some people hit a stumbling block because they are so used to books that are black and white and it is just assumed that the character who makes up the point of view is someone the author holds up as a virtuous person to be imitated. Do not be fooled, that is not the case here. This becomes incredibly clear as the series continues.

Gold Standard

This is the gold standard of fantasy writing, from start to finish! The prose is masterful, and so long as you are literate, you can follow along easily. I'll be reflecting on the cultural impact of this book for years to come.

Didn't live up the hype and reverance for it.

Being an RPG gamer I've heard of the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance being the inspiration behind the magic system used in many Fantasy RPGs, to include the big one D&D. I'd also heard how it was a must read. Well I finally got around to it as I've been getting lots of audiobooks to listen to recently. My listen of it wasn't what I was expecting.

I'm not sure where to start, so I'll go with this. I found that except for about half of one chapter, I couldn't get through more than about 5 minutes before my mind drifted to other things and I couldn't follow anything in the story. I'm honestly not sure if it is the older obtuse writing style which likes to overuse colorful words and older grammatical structure or if it is just the way the narrator presented it, but I just was bored by it most of the book. I found the narrator's style and presentation to be lacking an uninspired. For some reason it just failed to capture me and draw me in. I suspect it was a combination of the prose and the narrator's presentation. It wasn't that I couldn't understand the words even, it just took too much effort to listen to and enjoy.

Perhaps I will pick up a printed copy of the book someday and try reading it the old fashioned way. I suspect that will hold my attention better. At least in this format, it turned out to not be what I was expecting. I was able to pick up on the way magic works in the book to see how it definitely inspired the magic in D&D.

The vignette and anthology style

The vignette and anthology style and aspects , love that they are just little nuggets of world building , amazing adventures are described ,absolutely and utterly wizard coded

Pleasant Writing Yet Unsatisfying

This book has many enjoyable aspects yet I found this language dry and stilted and the characters and action uninteresting. The author uses a wide vocabulary and an epic style of narration, but neither rang true to me. There is a lot of action, but the characters don’t seem to change and are not deeply explored, which left me unsatisfied. I tend not to delight in books like The Canterbury Tales for similar reasons. I tent to only enjoy an epic style when it have come from an oral tradition. The Dying Earth reminded me of novels based upon Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. The story moves from one undertaking to another, each a short mission, with a clear goal and obstacle, but with negligible building of relationships or character. In many ways the writing is quite pleasant with evocative imagery, creativity and worthy narration, yet I was really quite bored.

all the fantasy it have farthered

it was injoyeble. and if you love high fantasy and grim dark world. this is a must read

A bunch of beautiful short stories

I had heard of Jack Vance from Appendix N and the concept of Vancian magic from DnD. Even if you’re not here for that it’s worth reading. There isn’t really much in the way of character development. That’s not what it’s about. In fact, most of the characters are relatively throwaway, but the scenes and adventures are palpable and impactful. Some are better than others, of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed the daily dose of magic this book gave me.

A sense of wonder

A beautifully portrayed world at the end of it's life. I love fantasy where it's hinted that the magical might be artifacts of a lost civilization and the society that now exists has grown out of the ashes of some ancient apocalyptic event. See Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains for more of that.

The half intertwined short-stories kept it fresh and interesting, but sometimes I would have liked to see more of a couple of characters. Also, given the myriad of names and named things, you're not really given time to process them and this can get a little confusing to listen to at times.

World building

A great read to see how a magic system can be limited and used in a fantasy world. This is the foundation for the DnD magic system