Jack Vance
|
|
John Holbrook Vance (b. August 28, 1916 in California) is generally described as an American fantasy and science fiction author, though it has been reported that Vance himself objects to that label [1] (http://www.vie-tracking.com/cosmo/Vol01No03final.htm#VanceSFAuthor). He writes chiefly under his informal name, Jack Vance. In past years he wrote mysteries under his full formal name and also as Ellery Queen, Alan Wade, Peter Held, and John van See. He has won Hugo Awards--in 1963 (for The Dragon Masters) and 1967 (for The Last Castle) — the Nebula Award in 1966 (also for The Last Castle), the Jupiter Award in 1975, the World Fantasy Award in 1984 and in 1990, a SFWA Grand Master Award in 1996, and an Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Hugo) in 1961. He is generally highly regarded by critics and colleagues, some of whom have suggested that he transcends genre labels and should be regarded as an important writer by mainstream standards. For instance, Poul Anderson once called him the greatest living American writer "in" science fiction (not "of" science fiction).
He has written over sixty books (http://isfdb.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Jack_Vance). Many fall into series: perhaps the most notable are the four-book Dying Earth series, the source of numerous imitative works by many authors; the powerful five-novel Demon Princes series, considered by some his acme; the four-novel Tschai series (also commonly known as the Planet of Adventure series); the Durdane trilogy; the Alastor Cluster threesome; the Big Planet twosome; and the Lyonesse fantasy trilogy; but there are others. Many of Vance's science-fiction series belong to a large vision of man's future called the Gaean Reach, occurring at various times in that future history, but the connections are not significant to understanding each individual series (though they allow Vance the opportunity to use in one series delightful references to certain persons, such as Navarth, the mad poet, and certain imagined books, such as the multi-volume study Life by Baron Bodissey, mentioned in others).
Vance's prose style probably attains its most perfect form in stand-alone novels such as The Last Castle and Masque: Thaery.
Vance's science fiction and fantasy novels are typically straightforward, linear narratives, which can easily seduce a careless reader into mistaking them for space opera, which they are not. Vance's tales characteristically feature a strong protagonist — sometimes strong by nature, sometimes forced to strength by circumstance — in quiet but tense opposition to an enfeebled society that he eventually redeems, often without its plaudits or even its notice. Others — a minority, but an important one in his oeuvre — display anti-heroes (such as the ironically mistitled 'Cugel the Clever' in his Dying Earth tales) receiving the slings and arrows of what they — but not we — regard as outrageous fortune. Vance's works by and large are, under the hood, morality plays, howsoever subtle.
But the chief attractions of Vance's novels are not their linear plots, but Vance's exquisite and bone-dry ironic language and his rich evocation — often in but a few words — of alien, complex, absurd, yet thoroughly human societies. Vance often creates in what amounts to a throwaway paragraph a world more fully realized than many writers manage in an entire doorstop-thick volume.
Another of Vance's special talents is the telling of tales-within-tales by use of chapter-heading quotations (notably the adventures of one Marmaduke) and footnotes (the ability of a novelist to use footnotes as an effective component is rare, close to unique). Often, Vance exposes the rather arbitrary nature of society by means of linguistic footnotes on untranslatable terms. These terms outline concepts central to the society described, but utterly alien to the reader.
Vance has spoken of his fondness for the writings of P.G. Wodehouse and a certain influence of Wodehouse can be discerned in some of Vance's writings, especially in his portrayals of overbearing aunts and their easily intimidated nephews. The Wodehouse influence, however, may not be as pronounced as that of L. Frank Baum (see Baum's Vance-like use of stilted dialogue for comic effect in The Tin Woodman of Oz). Whatever the relative weight of these and other models, Vance has proven himself a master of episodic farce in such works as Showboat World and the short story, "The Kokod Warriors."
The mystery novels of Vance are chiefly valuable today for what they reveal about his evolution as a science-fiction, fantasy and humor writer (he stopped working in the mystery genre in the early 1970s except for science-fiction mysteries--see below). Bad Ronald is especially noteworthy for its portrayal of a trial-run version of Vance's greatest character--Howard Allen Treesong of The Book of Dreams. The Deadly Isles reveals, in its protrayal of Tahiti in the 1960s, some of the secret ingredients of master chef Vance's ability to cook up alien worlds with virtually no effort. In addition, the two Sheriff Joe Bains mysteries--and especially The Fox Valley Murders--can still be read with pleasure, although more for the delightful California characters (such as Bains' New Age girl friend Luna) than for the actual crime investigations.
Vance has produced more successful mysteries set within his science-fiction universe. Most notable among these mixed-genre efforts are the "Galactic Effectuator" novelettes featuring a Sam Spade type character, and the recent Night Lamps, which borrows deftly from P.D. James' An Unusual Job for a Woman. An early 1950s short story series features Magnus Ridolph, an interstellar adventurer and amateur detective (based in part on Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar) who encounters challenges not dissimilar to those in Jack London's South Seas tales.
Vance attended the University of California, Berkeley and has lived most of his adult life in the hills above Oakland. He began his full-time writing career in the late 1940s, the period in which the San Francisco Renaissance--a broad movement of experimentation in literature and the arts (ranging from poetry through architecture)--was in its early stages. Vance's own references to Bay Area bohemian life (directly in his early mysteries and in disguised form in his science-fiction novels) suggest affinities with this movement although not with its beat-generation subdivision. Certainly Vance's "Sailmaker Beach," the bohemian quarter of Avente on the planet Alphanor, is an overlay of San Francisco's North Beach, while the mad poet Navarth is said to be based on Kenneth Rexroth.
A remarkable project, the Vance Integral Edition (http://www.vanceintegral.com/), a volunteer, nonprofit effort, has collected all of Vance's work into a uniform set of volumes, with scrupulous attention to proofing and restoration of often-corrupt texts to their intended state.
| Contents |
Selected Bibliography
Dying Earth Series
- The Dying Earth (collection of linked stories, 1950)
- The Eyes of the Overworld (collection of linked stories, 1966)
- Cugel's Saga (novel, 1983)
- Rhialto the Marvellous (collection of linked stories, 1984)
Demon Princes Series
Tschai Series (also known as Planet of Adventure
Gaean Reach (informal grouping)
Lyonesse Trilogy
- Lyonesse (subtitled Book I: Suldrun's Garden on the title page)
- The Green Pearl
- Madouc
Durdane Trilogy
Alastor Cluster Threesome
Big Planet Twosome
External links
- The Jack Vance Information page (http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/jvm/contents.html), a lengthy Vance links list
- Template:Isfdb name
- the Vance Integral Edition project (http://www.vanceintegral.com/)
- Cosmopolis (http://www.vie-tracking.com/cosmo/), an online monthly about things Vancean
- Lord of Language, Emperor of Dreams (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/jvprofile.htm), an essay on Vance by Nick Gevers
- Jack Vance, an appreciation. Includes short book reviews (http://www.ulujain.org/vance/vance.shtml)
- Jack Vance (http://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/JackVance.shtml): discussion of Vance's science-fiction and fantasy works
- Jack Vance discussion board (http://pub1.ezboard.com/bjackvance)
- Jack Vance information presented in several languages (http://www.vanceintegral.com/whoisjack.htm).
- Deserted By My Enemies: Vengeance as a Theme in the Writings of Jack Vance (http://home.earthlink.net/~mflabar/VenVance/VanceVengeance%20demon%20princes.htm)bg:Джак Ванс
de:Jack Vance fr:Jack Vance nl:Jack Vance ja:ジャック・ヴァンス sv:Jack Vance