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Dan Simmons and Jack Vance

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:29 pm
by Omphalos
I found this on Dan Simmons website today. For those of you who dont know Jack Vance was a New Wave era writer who published a few very memorable pieces, including this series of stories, The Dying Earth, which inspired Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Vance seemed to me to often write fantasies more than SF, but he did blur the lines quite a bit.

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:43 pm
by A Thing of Eternity
That looks super cool, even Tad Williams is on the list.

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:38 pm
by SandChigger
Could be fun.

Hadn't heard about the Drood book yet, either. I really enjoyed The Terror last winter. ;)

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 1:46 am
by tanzeelat
Vance wasn't New Wave! He predates it by a decade at least. If not more. He wrote, chiefly, baroque space opera, and some of it was excellent - the Demon Princes series, for example.

The Songs of Dying Earth will be published by Subterranean Press - see here for the latest update.

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 2:38 am
by Omphalos
Yea, youre right. I guess I just got the 60's stuck in my head.

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 3:19 am
by Robspierre
I have the collected Demon Prince series, excellent reading. Vance wote damn good material.

Rob

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:47 am
by SandChigger
What do you all think of Dean Koontz?

I can't recall reading anything by him. I know he collaborated with The Beast (KJA) on a book or two....

They seem to be making a big deal of him over on the Subterranean Press page. Was just wondering.

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:59 am
by Omphalos
SandChigger wrote:What do you all think of Dean Koontz?

I can't recall reading anything by him. I know he collaborated with The Beast (KJA) on a book or two....

They seem to be making a big deal of him over on the Subterranean Press page. Was just wondering.
I always thought of him as Stephen King's more optimistic mini-me. IMHO his books are barely suitable for a flight or a long shit. Though when I was a kid I really liked him. Ive read dozens of his books.

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:32 pm
by Liege-Killer
Didn't Simmons make a passing reference to Vance in Hyperion? I know he mentioned several sf writers in there, and I think Vance was one of them.
SandChigger wrote:What do you all think of Dean Koontz?
I read a bunch of his stuff when I was a teenager, and really liked him back then. I have no idea how he'd strike me today. I haven't been too interested in that sf/horror/mystery/thriller blend for a long time. But I have generally favorable memories of his books.