Praise for Songs of the Dying Earth

Among my favourite works of fantasy fiction are the Dying Earth stories and the Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance. I’ve read the Lyonesse trilogy three times and most of the Dying Earth stories twice since I first discovered them as a teenager. While I preferred the Lyonesse trilogy when I was younger, as it was (despite its many quirks and abundant dry Vancian humour) closer to the “high fantasy” style that I adored then, I now think that I prefer many of the Dying Earth tales overall, especially the two Cugel sagas, due to the remarkable uniqueness of the setting and characters. In any case, they’re all well worth reading if you’re a fan of fantasy fiction. 

I recently finished an excellent collection of short stories written in honour of Jack Vance called Songs of the Dying Earth. It actually took me a few years to get all the way through the twenty-two stories included in the volume. This isn’t a criticism – after reading a few stories I would put aside the volume in order to read something else for a while (a new novel or whatever). That’s the nice thing about short story collections: they’re easy to dip into if you want to read a few tales and then put aside without “forgetting” anything important to continue onwards later.

The collection includes a preface from Jack Vance and stories from an impressive set of authors. I especially enjoyed the stories by Robert Silverberg (“The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale”), Jeff Vandermeer (“The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod”), Glen Cook (“The Good Magician”), Byron Tetrick (“The Collegeum of Mauge”), and Tanith Lee (“Evillo the Uncunning”).

But in my judgement the best one of the bunch – and the one that is a proper novella because of its length – is “The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderõz” by Dan Simmons. It is a wonderfully bizarre tale that captures the flavour and “ethos” of the Dying Earth delightfully well, but without simply trying to imitate Vance’s style. It’s worth the price of the book alone. 

One thing I especially like about many of the stories in this collection, as well as Vance’s own classic Dying Earth tales, is that the protagonists often are magicians. I love mages (or wizards or sorcerers or whatever) and regret that they are only rarely the main characters in fantasy stories. 

My 2 Campaigns in 2 Paragraphs

Over at the RPG pub (the only RPG forum I regularly visit these days) there’s an interesting thread asking people to describe their campaigns in one paragraph each.

So here are the paragraphs for my two campaigns (lightly edited from my post in that thread).

Game system: Against the Darkmaster.

Campaign: Against the Court of Urdor.

Setting: The island-continent of Urdor (heavily inspired by the old ICE campaign module, The Court of Ardor) in my homebrew world of Ukrasia.

Premise: After some initial adventuring in the “Cursed Lands,” the adventures (a Dwarf animist and a Green Elf rogue) ally with the “Company of the Morning Star” (which is based in the Cursed Lands) and the “Guild of Elements” (which is based in the elvish realm of Taaliraan) in order to oppose the “Court of Urdor.” The Court is an ancient cabal of powerful “Night Elves” who wish to use the eldritch “Stones of Unlight” to bring about the return of Queen Everekka – the “Pale Queen of Mists”. Complicating matters is the involvement of Zepheus the necromancer, an ally of convenience to the Court but someone with his own dark agenda.

[The "Cursed Lands" in central Urdor.]

Game system: Against the Darkmaster.

Campaign: Against the Witch-King.

Setting: Eriador in Middle-earth, the year 1964 of the Third Age (the first year of the reign of King Arvedui of Arthedain).

Premise: Driven together in order to pursue a variety of personal quests, a fellowship of diverse heroes – a Dúnedan champion and lady of Fornost, a Dwarf sage from the Blue Mountains, two Lossoth brothers (one an animist who can change into a polar bear and the other a charming rogue) from the far north (the Forodwaith), and a Sinda Elf champion and noble from the Grey Havens – has become enmeshed in a plot involving a new ‘king’ of Rhudaur. It is clear that the royal pretender is a pawn of the Witch-King of Angmar (whether witting or unwitting is not known). These events unfold while the shadow of the north darkens over Arthedain, Breeland, and Rivendell.

[Rhudaur, 1964 of the Third Age.]

[Both of the above maps are by Peter Fenlon, created for ICE's Middle-earth line of campaign modules. I've inserted some additional locations and notes into both of them.]