Check out my latest post up on the blog of Goodman Games... The Dying Earth: A Case for Sword-and-Sorcery.
As I told blog editor Bill Ward after sending this one in I'm not sure I'm entirely thrilled with this piece. I don't like drawing hard lines around what is/is not S&S, like some purity test. The Dying Earth stories are bad-ass, no matter how you classify them. Vance was a master stylist and I love stories like "Liane the Wayfarer" no matter whether you consider them fantasy, science-fiction, heroic fantasy, or some other sub-genre (dying earth?)
I happen to welcome them into the S&S fold for reasons described in the linked piece. Your mileage may vary. Enjoy!
Well said. Vance, whether one considers his work to be S&S or not, is definitely worth reading.
ReplyDeleteAll that needs to be said is "Just read Vance." He was as good if not better stylist than many of the heavy weights of Literary Fiction and he could tell a rattling good story unlike many of them. (Fitzgerald I'm looking at you.)
ReplyDeleteVance never fails the reader!
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