Songs of the Dying Earth

[finarvyn]

I'm always on the lookout for Appendix N books. This isn't quite one of those, but seems closely connected. A friend of mine runs a bookstore and sends out a newsletter. One entry in it was for this:

Songs of the Dying Earth, George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois - Editors, $15.99.

An anthology prepared in tribute to the career of Jack Vance features original tales inspired by The Dying Earth and includes contributions by Neail Gaiman, Tanith Lee and Robert Silverberg.

I don't know much about it. Seems like a paperback (trade paper size?) will be released on December 20, but I guess it's been out in hardback for awhile.

Here's a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Dying-Earth ... 134&sr=1-2

[Booberry]

I've had it in hardback for some time. I will say that I enjoyed it overall but that the quality varies widely from story to story. A few are very Vancian (The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale and The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderõz in particular, seem like lost chapters from The Dying Earth, whereas others (like Caulk the Witch-chaser) are good but don't really seem to fit into the Dying Earth at all. I found only a couple straight up stinkers. Some of the authors really get Vance (Matthew Hughes does a drop-dead impersonation of Vance's Clark Ashton Smith by way of P.G. Wodehouse style), some do rather obvious imitations, and some seem to think they're writing about something else altogether. I also think too many of the stories try to link themselves to things in the original books.

Anthologies can be tough to review as a whole, but I think any fan of the original four Dying Earth books will find something to like here. And even the stories that don't quite cut it still have some interesting and sometimes game-able ideas (I'm looking at you, Hag Jelly).

[Abacus Ape]

I agree with Booberry, a Vance fan will find something to dig with Songs. Some dross, mostly decent, a few gems.