Where to Start With Jack Vance
We’re celebrating the release of DCC Dying Earth all this Month with articles in honor of Jack Vance. Where to Start With Jack Vance by Bill Ward John Holbrook “Jack” Vance (1916-2013) was an extraordinarily prolific and award-winning author across multiple genres, but it is for his work in the science fiction field that he is most celebrated. ‘Science Fiction’ as a genre and marketing category is an extremely big...
Vancian Quotations
We’re celebrating the release of DCC Dying Earth all this Month with articles in honor of Jack Vance. Vancian Quotations by Bill Ward “When you want to describe something that’s flamboyant, weird and strange, anything a little bit outrageous, wicked or nasty, you don’t do it by exposition, which can become long-winded and tiresome. You have one of your characters describe it to somebody else . . . this is almost a trade secret:...
Heroes Behaving Badly: Jack Vance
Heroes Behaving Badly: The Wondrous and Bastardly Creations of Jack Vance by Brian Murphy Cugel the Clever probably isn’t a guy you want to invite to dinner. You’d be guaranteed belly laughs and an unforgettable night’s entertainment … until later, when the check comes due. And you discover he made off with the priceless silverware set you inherited from your grandmother, and tried to make time with your wife. Bastard! Cugel is a...
Classic Covers: Jack Vance
One of the benefits of being an extraordinarily productive and highly-reprinted genre writer during the mass market paperback publishing boom of the mid-twentieth century is you get a terrific amount of amazing visual art forever associated with your name. Jack Vance, author of over 60 books (whenever you see ‘over’ a certain number, that’s a pretty big clue that the author in question is so prolific that it’s...
A Look at Jack Vance’s The Blue World
Sic Semper Tyrannis Piscis: A Look at Jack Vance’s The Blue World by Bill Ward The water world has no name – nor seasons, nor strife, nor struggle. The weather is placid, the conditions mild, the planet’s vast all-encompassing ocean lacks tides, storms, or surges of any kind. Life on the Home Floats is gentle, food is easy to acquire and dependably regular, and conflict virtually unknown. In the twelve generations since...
Adventures in Fiction: Jack Vance
Our Adventures in Fiction series is meant to take a look at the writers and creators behind the genre(s) that helped to forge not only our favorite hobby but our lives. We invite you to explore the entirety of the series on our Adventures In Fiction home page. Adventures in Fiction: Jack Vance By Marc Bruner Jack Holbrook Vance was summoned into this world just over a century ago in San Francisco on August 28, 1916. A...