Second paragraph of third chapter:A hundred such cases were known, and while the hardheaded scoffed, none needlessly traveled the countryside by night. Indeed, if ghosts truly haunt the scenes of tragedy and heartbreak, then the landscape of Old Earth must be home to ghosts and specters beyond all numbering - especially that region across which ( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third story ("The Copsy Door", by Terry Dowling):Not for the first time that morning, Amberlin wondered if the strange lanky creature had found a new way to slip his holding spell.
This is a collection of short stories set in the world of Jack Vance's Dying Earth, which I read and enjoyed back in 2004. It bubbled to the top of my ( Read more... )

I haven't read a lot of Vance's work - just The Dying Earth and The Last Castle - but I've enjoyed what I've read, and considering the fascinating material that 90-year-old Frederik Pohl is putting on his blog these days, I was rather looking forward to reading this volume of reminiscences by Vance, who is a couple of years older ( Read more... )

1) Tales of the Dying Earth, by Jack Vance

This is an omnibus edition of four of Jack Vance's books, The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvellous, all put together as a volume in the Fantasy Masterworks series. Grand, original, rich fantasy material, all set at the end of time, on an earth where it is ( Read more... )