reading "classics"
Jan. 3rd, 2003 12:39 pmNow and then, I'll see a re-issue of a "classic" of SF or fantasy. Sometimes I'll pick them up. Some, like Lord Dunsanay's 'The King of Elfland's Daughter', are genuine classics, well worth reading in their own right, as well as seeing reflections of everything they influenced. Some doesn't fare as well - much of Moorcock's work, for instance, has interesting ideas, but truly awful writing. (I will refrain from commenting on Tolkien here, but I will note that Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are somewhere in the middle - when he's not fascinated by his writing for its own sake, he really knows how to buckle his swash.)
Which brings me to the semi-'classic' I picked up the other day, and read: an omnibus volume of all (I think) of Jack Vance's 'Dying Earth' books. Dating back to 1950 for the earliest ones, these are odd books. The setting is a time far, far in the future, when the sun is waning; the Earth is covered in the remnants of aeon upon aeon of civilization, and magic reigns supreme. The writing is decent, occasionally quite evocative, but my ultimate feeling is that these books are significant for only two things:
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Which brings me to the semi-'classic' I picked up the other day, and read: an omnibus volume of all (I think) of Jack Vance's 'Dying Earth' books. Dating back to 1950 for the earliest ones, these are odd books. The setting is a time far, far in the future, when the sun is waning; the Earth is covered in the remnants of aeon upon aeon of civilization, and magic reigns supreme. The writing is decent, occasionally quite evocative, but my ultimate feeling is that these books are significant for only two things:
( Read more... )