Not being of the venerable vintage of some of you Vanceans, and weaned rather on television and big-screen SF rather than the works of the Golden Age, the fiction of C.A. Smith had hitherto escaped my attention.
Thus I was surprised to hear of his Zothique tales, which take place in the last continent of an ancient earth where the sun flickers and fades. Decadent sorcerors abound. It sounds almost identical to The Dying Earth, and one reference I have seen says that Vance's initial volume was no more than a pastiche of his predecessor.
Is this a fair assessment of what many see to be Vance's most original and influential setting? And how well does Smith's writing hold up today?
Faucelme
Thus I was surprised to hear of his Zothique tales, which take place in the last continent of an ancient earth where the sun flickers and fades. Decadent sorcerors abound. It sounds almost identical to The Dying Earth, and one reference I have seen says that Vance's initial volume was no more than a pastiche of his predecessor.
Is this a fair assessment of what many see to be Vance's most original and influential setting? And how well does Smith's writing hold up today?
Faucelme
