JACK VANCE DISCUSSION

Who'll get your Jack Vance collection when you die?

feeds@yuku.com (Philip) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:02:44 GMT

Perhaps a bit of an odd topic, but following a relative's death, I was discussing making a will with my wife - we don't have any children so if we had a simultaneous (fatal) mishap, there'd be a complex mess to sort out.

This got me to thinking about a future home for my Vance collection - there's a VIE and several Underwood Miller limited editions. There's no one our families who would appreciate them. I guess I could leave them to the science fiction...

Madouc's magical hut

feeds@yuku.com (halsey) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:47:36 GMT

Twisk gave Madouc a magical kercheif that responded to the command aroisus by growing into a pavilion, and to deplectus by shrinking again to a kerchief.

I was just thinking that these two opposed words make a fine example of Jack Vance's almost miraculous way with the English language.

Both words end with us, a common ending for English cantraps (because they sound Latin, as hocus pocus dominocus). Leaving this off, we have:
...

A contemporary review of The Dragon Masters

feeds@yuku.com (David B Williams) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:53:26 GMT

How did I miss this? While compiling my sketch of Jack Vance, his life and works, I included James Blish's critical remarks about JV's early stories:

"James Blish, writing in 1952, opined that Vance was 'a fascinating study in the technical development of a freelance writer. He began with three apparently natural gifts: a free, witty, unmannered style; an almost frighteningly fertile imagination; and a special talent for the visualization...

Hard Luck Diggings

feeds@yuku.com (MikeTransreal) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:30:53 GMT

News from Subterranean Press!
Hard Luck Diggings collection announced (with contents list)
.
But please remind me which story The Absent-Minded Professor is; I don't recall it.

A quiz from The Inscrutable One himself

feeds@yuku.com (David B Williams) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:01:46 GMT

Here's Jack Vance doing a tease. SF:4, Author's Choice was an anthology published 1974, editor Harry Harrison. This volume included "Ullward's Retreat", with an introductory note by Vance supposedly to explain why this story is a favorite of the author. I'll quote the whole thing, since it may contain clues.

"Ullward's Retreat" is in certain ways a precursor to a novelette I've just finished--"The...

Brrrr!

feeds@yuku.com (halsey) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:34:50 GMT

Paul mentioned Vance's dislike - or at least avoidance - of the cold. I'm not sure this is because he lacked experience of it. I suspect the he, as a sailor, had ample experience of being uncomfortably cold.

I had never though about Vance and climate before.

For hot, I can think of Dar Sai, a very hot place indeed. Hot and dry. Ecce is a jungle continent, and my impression is it's steamy - is it really hot?

But about cold, I cannot think of cold...

The Book of Dreams

feeds@yuku.com (Matt Hughes) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:54:45 GMT

A fascinating piece in the New York Times Magazine over the weekend about Carl Jung's long wondered-about Red Book, now being translated and prepared for publication. He also referred to it as his Book of Dreams. A Vancean connection?

Tidbits re Dragon Masters, Miracle Workers

feeds@yuku.com (David B Williams) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:44:07 GMT

In all my reading, I am of course keenly alert to mentions of Jack Vance. I recently came across two art-related tidbits.

JV has always given a lot of credit to Jack Gaughan's illustrations in Galaxy magazine for the success of The Dragon Masters. Editor Frederik Pohl also played a role behind the scenes. According to Pohl's autobiography*:

"Jack Vance and his wife lived just a mountain or two away [from Poul Anderson], in the hilly parts north of...

recommendations for teens?

feeds@yuku.com (toddmars) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:59:01 GMT

HI folks,
My kid is a big reader, 15. We read every Baum Oz book and every Lofting Doolittle(about 11 in all most out of print) book together 10 years ago. Several times each.
I just finished Marune 933, 2nd of Alastor. My common sensibilities verbal and autonomous habits have already expanded greatly.
Please recommend a great intro JV book for a sophisticated young reader! (he's way beyond and over Potter).
Thanks!
Todd.

Personal musing: Vance and my grandfather

feeds@yuku.com (FaucelmeII) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:43:39 GMT

My grandfather passed away earlier this year, and it has recently occurred to me that in many ways I unconsciously identified him with Jack Vance. They were almost the same age, and though I have never met Jack, I see them as having similarly gruff and taciturn personas, overlying a more complex interior world. Their generation, now on the verge of departing for ever, is fascinating to me, as a glimpse of something alien yet part of who we are. My grandfather was only one generation removed...

Copyright infringement

feeds@yuku.com (emphyrio) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:44:55 GMT

The Google Search I have set up for "Jack Vance" today brought me this. It's a PDF of a significant proportion of Jack's work, available for free.

I don't know who 'Katz Forums' or Ron Halling are, but this is surely illegal.

Are there any sanctions against such practices?

Early warning: 28 august 2009 coming soon !

feeds@yuku.com (axolotl) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:25:07 GMT

Jack will be 93 tomorrow. Those of you who would like to express their best wishes on this momentous occasion are welcome to do so on this topic. I will collate them, wrap them up, and send them to John Jr. so he can read them to his Dad.

Please, to save me additional work, put your signature at the bottom of your post, OK ?

another Sub. Press edition in the works: "Hard Luck Diggings" and other news..

feeds@yuku.com (jasonmitchell) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:15:19 GMT

in the most recent e-newsletter from Sub. Press (http://www.subterraneanpress.com/)

Jack Vance autobiography close to being out of print... approximately 50 copies remain unsold
and
in production "but not yet announced" (but they just did)

Reflections of Tschai

feeds@yuku.com (Sarnidac the Dwarf) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:55:58 GMT

After this year's experience with a "Kluthe" truck, I'm continuously on the lookout for Vancean traces in the German countryside. A couple of days ago, returning from my towered manse high in the Tyrolean mountains to the bustling resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, I noticed a signpost "Reith" at the right side of the road. "Reith", I found, is a small mountain village next to the bigger and well-known town of Seefeld (

The Complete Lyonesse

feeds@yuku.com (Gersen) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:08:23 GMT

Anyone who look forward to this realese or do you all have Fantasy Masterworks, VEI versions ?

I get both annoyed and happy by the release. I bought Lyonesse Gollanz Milliniumm version a day or two before I saw this at their site hehehehe.

Advice re Cosmopolis and Extant content?

feeds@yuku.com (toff) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:28:08 GMT

[ retracted ]

Any Brits got their copies yet?

feeds@yuku.com (MikeTransreal) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:09:24 GMT

I'm still awaiting my copy of Songs of the Dying Earth direct from Subterranean.
Have any other UK residents got their copies yet, as a matter if interest?

I have actually received copies I ordered from a wholesaler for my shop, but to ensure I got a copy myself, I ordered one direct as well. I'm now wondering if it's likely to turn up...

Vance on the doorstep

feeds@yuku.com (Willem) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:54:35 GMT

I might have missed this but did no one report he or she got his autobiography from Jack Vance? Got mine in the mail today, good reading when going on holiday next sunday if it lives long enough to get to sunday in virgin state. glad I got it. the lettered editions were gone when i noticed it was going to be published, they will have found a way to members of this board i guess.

Songs on the Doorstep

feeds@yuku.com (Fironzelle) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:47:31 GMT

Today the package guy left "Songs of the Dying Earth" on the porch. It is huge and very heavy. The intro is excellent, but for Koontz's focus on his own problems as a youth and his odd assumptions about Jack's background. It is deeply gratifying to see so many authors I respect acknowledging Jack's impact on their early reading enjoyment and ultimate inspiration. Any comments out there about this tome? Favorite stories/authors from the book?

Eyes of the Overworld - corrected version

feeds@yuku.com (FaucelmeII) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:07:40 GMT

In the 1998 interview with Paul Rhodes here,

http://membres.lycos.fr/jackvance/jvenglish3.html

Jack says that he is not happy with the first chapter of The Eyes of the Overworld, and would like to "correct" it.

This was actually the first thing I read of Vance, and it was certainly good enough to hook me for life!

Did he in fact revise it for the VIE?