Today, as I’m writiing this, is August 28. There are several notable birthdays today. Joseph Shridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) wrote some excellent ghost stories. Then there’s comic great Jack Kirby (1917-1994). Science fiction author Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019).

The the one I want to focus on is Jack Vance (1916-2013).

Vance was a master of both science fiction and fantasy, and much of his work was a blend of both. He also wrote a few mysteries, which Subterranean Press collected in an omnibus about a decade or so back.

Vance’s crowning achievement was The Dying Earth, a sequence of stories set in the far future, where the sun had become a red giant. The physical laws of the universe have changed, and magic works.

This setting has spawned a number of imitators to the point where an old Earth under a red giant of a sun has almost become a cliche. I’m fairly sure Vance wasn’t the first person to use such a setting. I think Kuttner and Moore set something on a far future Earth when they wrote Earth’s Last Citadel, but I read that book over forty years ago. My memory of it is a bit dim. I don’t recall if the sun had become a red giant or not.

But it’s late, and I digress.

My point was that Vance wrote so well in the Dying Earth setting that he established one of the tropes of science fantasy. An entire tribute anthology was published that focused on the Dying Earth.

But Vance wrote other things as well.

I was in high school when I read the five volume Demon Princes series. The books are The Star King (1964), The Killing Machine (1964), The Palace of Love (1967), The Face (1979), and The Book of Dreams (1981).  I read  them in the DAW editions with the yellow spines. A couple of years ago, I picked up the two volume omnibus trade paperback editions at the Friends of the Library sale. I hope to get to them soon. I want to reread them. They were great.

The basic premise is that the five most evil villains in the galaxy destroy a colony planet to prove how bad they are.They are known as the Demon Princes as a result. One man and his nephew survive. The man raises the nephew to be a hunter and killer so he can go after the five and get revenge.

He goes after a different Demon Prince in each book.

Vance waited to write the last two because he wanted to come up with something really good. the first three books are good adventure stories, and there is a mystery with clues in the first book.

The Face and The Book of Dreams are far superior. They are my favorites of the series.

I think the last page or so of The Face is brilliant. It’s also one of the best examples of humor I’ve seen in a science fiction novel that isn’t slapstick.

The Book of Dreams also has some great humor in it. Who hasn’t dreamed of going to a high school reunion adn getting revenge on the people who tormented you in your adolescence. There’s one scene where the Demon Prince who is the focus of this novel attends his reunion and settles some old scores.

That’s one of the things I don’t think people appreciate about Jack Vance. He could mix humor in his books and stories and it didn’t feel forced.

I’ve read Vance off and on, but I’ve never made a concentrated effort to read everything he wrote. My first exposure to  him was “The Dragon Masters” and “The Last Castle” in The Hugo Winners Volumes I and II. That was the giant anthology that used to be a constant selection of the Scinece Fiction Book Club.

I should try to work more Vance into my reading schedule. I don’t recall anything I’ve ever read by him that was disappointing.