Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 11:21:48 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: RE: (urth) Vancean influence on Wolfe

Blattid wrote:
>So are the other Dying Earth novels, uh, better? Or to put it
>differently: do they have more of the gentle irony I tend to
>associate with Vance?

Hmmm.  I'm sticking on that "gentle" bit . . . :)

Seriously, Cugel the Clever is a ribald rogue of the picaresque school, and
Rhialto's mages are . . . words escape me.  The other books are fun reads,
but if TDE is like LOTR, then the other novels are rather pythonesque in
comparison.

>I seem to recall he's also one of the various SF writers who
>stepped in pseudonymously during "Ellery Queen"'s long blocked
>period.

Yes indeed: three, iirc. One of them is very good; one is screamingly good
until it completely blows out (alas!); the other one is okay, but still
better imho than one of the ones published under his own name.

=mantis=


SIRIUS FICTION
booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley
Lexicon Urthus out of print!
http://www.siriusfiction.com/



--