Published as a book, all stories original to the publication. (ref) It contains the following stories:

• Turjan of Miir
• Mazirian the Magician
• T’sais
• Liane the Wayfarer
• Ulan Dhor
• Guyal of Sfere

According to Foreverness, the original title of the collection (The Dying Earth) was strongly disapproved by Vance. Later published under the title Mazirian the Magician. Vance also preferred a different order (starting with the similarly titled “Mazirian the Magician”) for the stories from the one originally used.

Vance wrote the stories while serving in de Pacific as a merchant seaman, during the Second World War. Foreverness writes:

Thought to be influenced by various writers; influences actually mentioned by author include: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jeffery Farnol, P. G. Wodehouse and L. Frank Baum; from The Emerald City of Oz: The Phanfasms were Erbs, and so dreaded by mortals and immortals alike that no one had been near their mountain home for several thousand years. Other interesting Oz echoes occur. (ref)

Jackvance.com asserts that the stories have...

...inspired generations of fantasy writers- from Gene Wolfe and Michael Moorcock, to Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin- and has deeply influenced today’s realms of graphic novels, comics, and fantasy role-playing games (in particular, Dungeons & Dragons). (ref)

See also the Wikipedia article.

Republished as Mazirian the Magician, Spatterlight, 2012

Quotes:

“Several hundred thousand years ago,” mused Lurulu, “we had a period called ‘The Era of Insanity’; this was when the white-haired people of the south and the golden-haired people of the north purposely killed each other.” She paused, then said vaguely, “They had a culture roughly equivalent to yours.”

Lurulu ignored the onlookers, completely indifferent to the staring eyes and excited babble. Baxter, uncomfortable and somehow resentful, followed at her elbow as she turned up the street. She seemed to enjoy the sunlight, and held her hand outstretched, as if feeling the texture of the light. Her skin glowed like rich satin. She breathed deeply, glanced in at the houses which lined the street. Blackney’s little hospital was in a pleasant suburb, shaded with great elms, and the houses sat well back among gardens.

Republished in Golden Girl and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

“I want to minimize the shock on the brain,” explained the doctor. “The visual images no doubt will be confusing, to say the least. The Phalid’s color spectrum, remember, is twice as long, the field of vision three or four times as wide as that of the average human being. It has two hundred eyes, and the impressions of two hundred separate optic units must be coordinated and merged. A human brain accommodates to two images, but it’s questionable whether it could do the same for two hundred. That’s why we’ve left intact a bit of the creature’s former brain the nodule coordinating the various images.” Here Plogetz paused long enough to give the complex black head an appraising glance.

Wratch looked about the sky for familiar star-patterns, and for the first time regretted the seven new colors in his spectrum. Because the stars were entirely different in guise, some bright in over-violet, others in sub-red. (more)

Republished in Chateau d’If and Other Stories. Spatterlight, 2012

Well-phrased action story. It is the kind of action as in for example the 2011 Thor movie. Like in movies of that kind, the flow of the action should keep you from examining the unbelievable premises. And the reader is left with a big plot hole... (more)

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012

Quotes:

Magnus Ridolph compressed his lips. His micromac and powerpack had disappeared. Peering under the couch Magnus Ridolph saw a patch of slightly darker fiber in the matting. He straightened his back, just in time to see his pocket screen swinging up through the air into a hole high in the wall. Magnus Ridolph started to run outside and into the adjoining room, then thought better of it. No telling how many natives would be pillaging his room if he left for an instant. He piled everything back into his suitcases, locked them, placed them in the middle of the floor, sat on the couch, lit a cigarette. Fifteen minutes he sat in reflection. A muffled bellow made him look up.

Republished in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight, 2012.

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012

Quotes:

“Graft,” said Boek. “Graft, pure and simple. Old-fashioned Earth-style civic corruption. I should have mentioned ” another sour grin for Magnus Ridolph “ but Sclerotto City has a duly elected mayor, and a group of civic officers. There’s a fire department, a postal service, a garbage disposal unit, police force wait till you see ’em!” He chuckled, a noise like a bucket scraping on a stone floor. “That’s actually what brings the tourists the way these creatures go about making a living Earth-style.”

Republished in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

For several minutes information played across the screen. Very little seemed significant and he found no notes of his own on the topic. The sardinia pilchardus, according to the Mnemiphot, belonged to the herring family, swam in large shoals and fed on minute pelagic animals. There were further details of scale pattern, breeding habits, natural enemies, discussion of variant species.

Donnels kicked aside the rubbish, stood viewing the gear with evident satisfaction. Magnus Ridolph strained to catch a word of the conversation. Impossible the window was insul-glass. He trotted to the door, inched it open.

Republished in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight, 2012.

Comment: A “twilight zone” short story.

Quotes:

Everything was breathlessly quiet. The house stood ghostly white in the moonlight among old trees, three stories of archaic elegance, with lights showing dim yellow along the bottom floor.

“Ah,” and Trasek passed on to the second, an abstraction. “Now this,” and Trasek nodded, “is a nightmare.” Indeed, the shapes seemed unreal, and when the mind reached to grasp them, they appeared to slip away from comprehension, and the colors equally odd - nameless off-tones, bright tints the eye saw but could not name. Trasek shook his head disapprovingly, to Horzabky’s amusement, and passed on to the third. This was likewise an abstraction, but composed in a quieter spirit - horizontal lines and stripes of gold, silver, copper, and other metallic colors.

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012.

Quotes:

They put down at the cottage. Magnus Ridolph alighted, walked to the edge of the field, bent over. The plants were thick, luxuriant, amply covered with clusters of purple tubes. Magnus Ridolph straightened, looked sidelong at Blantham, who had come up behind him.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Blantham mildly.

This time the cries were louder, mournful, close at hand, and Magnus Ridolph, peering through the peep-hole in the door, saw the tumble of figures come storming down the hill, black against the sky. He dipped a brush into a pan of liquid nearby, slid the door up a trifle, reached out, swabbed the resilian plate, slid the door shut. Rising, he put his eye to the peep-hole.

Reprinted in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight 2012

Quotes:

Before long, however, Thomm came to feel that Covill paid only lip-service to the Bureau philosophy. Some of his actions seemed dense and arbitrary to the well-indoctrinated Thomm. He built an Earth-style office on Penolpan’s main canal, and the concrete and glass made an inexcusable jar against Penolpan’s mellow ivories and browns. He kept strict office hours and on a dozen occasions a delegation of Mi-Tuun, arriving in ceremonial regalia, had to be turned away with stammered excuses by Thomm, when in truth Covill, disliking the crispness of his linen suit, had stripped to the waist and was slumped in a wicker chair with a cigar, a quart of beer, watching girl-shows on his telescreen.

“At the age of fourteen he goes forth from his home with a hammer, a mortar, a pound of bone lime. He must mine clay, lead, sand, spar. He must find iron for brown, malachite for green, cobalt earth for blue, and he must grind a glaze in his mortar, shape and decorate a tile, and set it in the Mouth of the Great Burn. If the tile is successful, the body whole, the glaze good, then he is permitted to enter the long pottery and know the secrets of the craft.”

Full story on the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v45n03_1950-05_cape1736/page/n87

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012

Quotes:

Paddy stared aghast. “They’d draw and quarter me! They’d wear out their nerve-suits! They’d—”

She said coolly, “We could be tourists from Earth, making the Lantry Line.”

“The situation has backfired now, Paddy. Today we’re the root-stock, and all these splits and changes brought about by the differences in light, food, atmosphere, gravity they may produce a race as much better than men as men were superior to the proto-simians.”

“Paddy!” cried Fay as if her soul were dissolving. She could not close the outer door as his leg hung out, twisted at an odd engle. Shou could not open the inner door lest she lose all the air inside the ship. (more)

Republished in the Rapparee, Spatterlight 2012.

Quotes:

“Ah,” said Magnus Ridolph, “you think I dealt with you unfairly. And you brought me to Jexjeka to work in your mines.”
“You got it right mister. I’m a hard man to deal with when I’m crowded.”

“Your unpleasant threats are supererogatory.” (more)

Republished in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

“Just wait till the noise of those accidents dies down... They’ll be back like flies. After all, we got a lot of publicity-” “Publicity! Huh! Nine bathers killed by sea-beetles the first day. The gorilla-things dragging those girls into the jungle. Not to mention the flying snakes and the dragons-Lord, the dragons! And you talk about publicity!”

It was a rude awakening for Magnus Ridolph. Eye to eye he stared at the dragon. The dragon opened its maw, darted its head forward, snapped. Magnus Ridolph rolled over, escaped by an inch.

Republished in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

“She’s okay,” said Carr. “It was that kapok stuff from Deneb Kaitos. Now let’s see I’ve got to set up this phony code. Hey, Scotty,” he called down to Allixter, “made your will yet? This is like stepping out of an airplane holding your nose and hoping you’ll hit water.”

Encouraged, Allixter proceeded to Step Two Enumeration. The screen depicted symbols representing the agglomerative numerals a series of lines, one dot in the first line, two dots in the second line, three in the third, four in the fourth, in such fashion up to twenty. Joe, alive to his task, made sounds for the numbers. Then the screen displayed a random multitude of dots and Joe created another sound.

The speaker made a bleating sound which once more seemed to carry near-human overtones. Allixter set his shoulder to the mobile unit.

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories

Quotes:

The young man stared, taken aback. “Brotherhood?...You mean fraternity?” Enlightenment spread over his face. “Is this some kind of hell-week stunt?” He laughed. “If it is, they sure go all the way.”

After grounding his air-sled Ceistan sat a few minutes inspecting the dead city Therlatch: a wall of earthen brick a hundred feet high, a dusty portal, and a few crumbled roofs lifting above the battlements. Behind the city the desert spread across the near, middle and far distance to the hazy shapes of the Altilune Mountains at the horizon, pink in the light of the twin suns Mig and Pag. (more)

Republished in The Moon Moth and Other Stories

Quotes:

Two puzzles dominated the life of Jim Root. The first, the pyramid out in the desert, tickled and prodded his curiosity, while the second, the problem of getting along with his wife, kept him keyed to a high pitch of anxiety and apprehension. At the moment the problem had crowded the mystery of the pyramid into a lost alley of his brain.

“I suppose anything’s possible,” said Root. He had noticed the acquisitive twitch to Landry’s mouth, the hook of the fingers. “You’d better not get any ideas. I don’t want any trouble with the natives. Remember that, Landry.”

Landry edged slowly forward, keeping his light on the Dicantrops. He asked Root sharply, “Are these lads dangerous?”

Republshed in Golden Girl and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

She walked down to the beach, stood looking out across the bay. A damp wind flapped the brown cloth, rumpled her hair. Perhaps it would rain. She looked anxiously at the sky. Rain made her wet and miserable. She could always take shelter among the rocks of the headland but sometimes it was better to be wet.

One of the strangers noticed the place on the beach where she had drawn her grating. He called his companions and they looked with every display of attention, studying her footprints with extreme interest. One of them made a comment which caused the others to break into loud laughter. Then they all turned and searched up and down the beach.

Republished in Golden Girl and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012

Quotes:

A: There are 97 conventions of battle which may be employed: for instance, Code 48, by which we overcame strong Black Glass Tumble, allows the lance to be grasped only by the left hand and permits no severing of the leg tendons with the dagger. Code 69, however, insists that the tendons must be cut before the kill is made and the lances are used thwart-wise, as bumpers.

The guide continued, “The Eastern Shield warriors can be seen coming over the hill...It seems as if they surmise the Ivory Dune strategy and will attempt to attack the flank...There!” His voice rose animatedly. “By the bronze tree! The scouts have made a brush...Eastern Shield lures the Ivory Dune scouts into ambush...They’re gone. Apparently today’s code is 4, or possibly 36, allowing all weapons to be used freely, without restriction.”

Magnus Ridolph made an easy gesture. “I profess an amateur’s interest in military strategy; I will assume responsibility for that phase of the plan.”

Republished in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quote:

“We have formed a band,” Mai-Mio confided. “There are six of us: Ipa, Tuiti, Hali-Sai-Iano, Zoma, Oiu-Ngo and myself. We have pledged never to leave the island.”

Comment: According to foreverness the original manuscript was lost after having been submitted to Worlds Beyond, which never published it, but was later rewritten form memory.

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012

Quotes:

“It’s catching,” said the pilot vehemently. “Look, kid, I know. I’ve ferried out to all the stations, I’ve seen ’em come and go. Each station has its own kind of weirdness, and you can’t keep away from it.” He chuckled self-consciously. “Maybe that’s why I’m so batty myself...Now take Madeira Station. Gay. Frou-frou.” He made a mincing motion with his fingers. “That’s Madeira. You wouldn’t know much about that...But take Balchester Aerie, take Merlin Dell, take the Starhome ”

When Jean reached the Hotel Atlantide in Metropolis she wore a black dress and black pumps which she felt made her look older and more sophisticated. Crossing the lobby she kept wary look-out for the house detective. Sometimes they nursed unkind suspicions toward unaccompanied young girls. It was best to avoid the police, keep them at a distance. When they found that she had no father, no mother, no guardian, their minds were apt to turn to some dreary government institution. On several occasions rather extreme measures to ensure her independence had been necessary.

Comment: According to foreverness the story was based on an idea of the editor. According to www.isfdb.org Station Abercrombie and Cholwell’s Chickens were revised (fix-up) as Monsters in Orbit, 1965.

Republished in Golden Girl and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

Frayberg interrupted. “What we can use, Wilbur, is a sequence on Sirgamesk superstition. Emphasis on voodoo or witchcraft naked girls dancing stuff with roots in Earth, but now typically Sirgamesk. Lots of color. Secret rite stuff...”

The creature rose to his feet, strode springily toward Murphy. He carried a crossbow and a sword, like those of Murphy's fleet-footed guards. But he wore no space-suit. Could there be breathable traces of an atmosphere? Murphy glanced at his gauge. Outside pressure: zero.

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012

Quote:

It must be, I tell myself, that both objectivity and subjectivity enter into the situation. I receive impressions which my brain finds unfamiliar, and so translates to the concept most closely related. By this theory the inhabitants of this world are constantly close; I move unknowingly through their palaces and arcades; they dance incessantly around me. As my mind gains sensitivity, I verge upon rapport with their way of life and I see them. More exactly, I sense something which creates an image in the visual region of my brain. Their emotions, the pattern of their life sets up a kind of vibration which sounds in my brain as music...The reality of these creatures I am sure I will never know. They are diaphane, I am flesh; they live in a world of spirit, I plod the turf with my heavy feet.

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

Six days after the Kay had come and gone, the Beaudry arrived from Blue Star. It brought a complete ecological laboratory, with stocks of seeds, spores, eggs, sperm; spawn, bulbs, grafts; frozen fingerlings, copepods, experimental cells and embryos; grubs, larvae, pupae; amoebae, bacteria, viruses; as well as nutritive cultures and solutions. There were also tools for manipulating or mutating established species; even a supply of raw nuclein, unpatterned tissue, clear protoplasm from which simple forms of life could be designed and constructed. It was now Bernisty’s option either to return to Blue Star with the Blauelm, or remain to direct the development of New Earth. Without conscious thought he made his choice; he elected to stay. Almost two-thirds of his technical crew made the same choice. And the day after the arrival of the Beaudry, the Blauelm took off for Blue Star.

Within the Beaudry there was everywhere a sense of defeat. Bernisty walked limping along the promenade, the limp more of an unconscious attitude than a physical necessity. The problem was too complex for a single brain, he thought or for a single team of human brains. The various life-forms on the planet, each evolving, mutating, expanding into vacant niches, selecting the range of their eventual destinies they made a pattern too haphazard for an electronic computer, for a team of computers.

“Kay ships,” said Bufco. “A round dozen mountainous barrels! They made one circuit departed!”

Full story on the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/Future_Science_Fiction_v04n01_1953-05/page/n9

Quotes:

NOLAND BANNISTER, superintendent of Star Control Field Office #12, was known at the space-port and along Folger Avenue as a hell-roarer a loud-voiced man of vigorous action. He made no secret of his dislike for administrative detail and attacked paper work with a grumbling rancor. Negligence in his staff he dealt with rudely. Mistakes of a more serious nature left him grim and white with rage.

“Here’s how I see it,” said Bannister. “If there’s money to be made looting this planet, Plum will be out and away as soon as he organizes a trip. Once in space, under sky-drive, he’s gone. We can’t trace him. Unless of course we have a representative aboard. There’s where you come in. He’s practically hired you already. You return the jewel to him, tell him you’re sorry you ran off with it, and that you want a chance to pick up a few yourself.”

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012

From Wikipedia: “The Houses of Iszm is a science fiction novella by Jack Vance, which appeared in Startling Stories magazine in 1954. It was reissued in book form in 1964 as part of an Ace Double novel, together with Vance’s Son of the Tree . The story published in Startling Stories is about 22,000 words while the version that appears in the Ace Double still less than novel length at about 30,000 words. The Houses of Iszm was re-published as a stand-alone volume in 1974 by Mayflower. ” (more on Wikipedia)

Republished by Spatterlight in 2012.

Comment: A “twilight zone” short story.

Quotes:

“My partner, Andy Seguilo, disappeared vanished into nowhere; I’m alone out here.”
Superintendent Flint looked shocked. “Disappeared? What happened? Did he fall into the ocean?”

Republished in Golden Girl and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012.

Comment:

The background of the story could be the Star Trek universe, with humanoids to be found everywhere.

Quotes:

The chief was silent. Director Birch said in a whisper to Mary and Raymond, “By analyzing his concept of sanity we get a clue to his own derangement.”

“Inspector!” cried a pretty woman with fair hair. “Inspector Coble! You’ve arrived!”
Inspector Coble peered into her face. She wore a kind of patchwork jacket sewn with small iron bells. “It’s it’s Sister Mary Dunton, isn’t it?”

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012

Republished in Golden Girl and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012.

Comment:

A mystery story, set on a planet with marine life.

Quotes:

Fletcher tried to recall the line-up of barges along the dock. If Mahlberg, the barge-tender, had been busy with repairs, Raight might well have gone out himself. Fletcher drew himself a cup of coffee. “That’s where he must be.” He sat down. “It’s not like Raight to put in free overtime.”

Ahead shone the Bio-Minerals mast-head light, climbing into the sky as the barge approached. Fletcher saw the black shapes of men outlined against the glow. The entire crew was waiting for him: the two operators, Agostino and Murphy, Mahlberg the barge-tender, Damon the biochemist, Dave Jones the steward, Manners the technician, Hans Heinz the engineer.

Republished in Chateau d’If and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012.

Quote:

Out on the plain one of the Organisms, Alpha, sat down, caught a handful of air, a globe of blue liquid, a rock, kneaded them together, pulled the mixture like taffy, gave it a great heave. It uncoiled from his hand like rope. The Relict crouched low. No telling what deviltry would occur to the creature. He and all the rest of them unpredictable! The Relict valued their flesh as food; but the Organisms would eat him if opportunity offered. In the competition he was at a great disadvantage. Their random acts baffled him. If, seeking to escape, he ran, the worst terror would begin. The direction he set his face was seldom the direction the varying frictions of the ground let him move. But the Organisms were as random and uncommitted as the environment, and the double set of disorders sometimes compounded, sometimes canceled each other. In the latter case the Organism might catch him...It was inexplicable. But then, what was not? The word ‘explanation’ had no meaning.

Republished in The Moon Moth and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012

Comment: short horror story.

Quote:

I’ve had all I can stand. I’ve got to get out, away from the walls, the glass, the white stone, the black asphalt. All of a sudden I see the city for the terrible place that it is. Lights burn my eyes, voices crawl on my skin like sticky insects, and I notice that the people look like insects too. Burly brown beetles, wispy mosquito-men in tight black trousers, sour sow-bug women, mantids and scorpions, fat little dung-beetles, wasp-girls gliding with poisonous nicety, children like loathsome little flies...This isn’t a pleasant thought; I must not think of people so; the picture could linger to bother me. I think I’m a hundred times more sensitive than anyone else in the world, and I’m given to very strange fancies. I could list some that would startle you, and it’s just as well that I don’t. But I do have this frantic urge to flee the city; it’s settled. I’m going.

Quote:

My name is Henry Revere. My appearance is not remarkable, my intelligence is hardly noteworthy, and my emotions run evenly. I live in a house of synthetic shell, decorated with wood and jade, and surrounded by a pleasant garden. The view to one side is the ocean, the other, a valley sprinkled with houses similar to my own. I am by no means a prisoner, although my servants supervise me with the most minute care. Their first concern is to prevent my suicide, just as mine is to achieve it.

Full story at the internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Universe_v06n03_1956-10/page/n71

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012

Comments:

According to Foreverness the version that was published by Satellite Science Fiction was shorter than the one published next year 1958 by Avalon (as intended by the author). (ref)

This is easily one of my favorite Vance novels. Wikipedia writes that Frederik Pohl:

... reported that Vance had “pretty carefully” worked out his extrapolation, but that “it isn’t terribly convincing as presented”. Pohl also noted that “Vance writes well—sometimes even brilliantly”, but that his prose sometimes seemed uneven and artificial.

When I first read the novel I was little and didn’t even know about the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. However, even then I understood from the text that the transformation involved more that simply using another language. (I’m looking forward to rereading the book.)

Also from Wikipedia:

David Langford cited Vance’s “engaging speculation”, but concluded that the protagonist “seems too weak a character for his leading role”, while “the culture and landscape of Pao are grey and ill-defined, in strong contrast to the exotically colourful societies and ecologies which became Vance’s trademark”

I remember the protagonist being weak, but accepted that simply as a fact in the story. Often he was manipulated, sometimes he managed to score a point. I don’t remember the novel ending in a jubilant victory, but that was all right. As for Pao being ill-defined—perhaps a bit, but in my recollection Pao being a somewhat blend and static society of mostly simple farmers was also exactly part of the problem that had to solved.

(Wikipedia accessed 15 March 2019)

Quote:

  The guards subjected Palafox to a most minute scrutiny. Every stitch of his clothes was examined; he was patted and prodded with complete lack of regard for dignity.
  Nothing was discovered; no tool, weapon or instrument of any kind. Bustamonte watched the search in unashamed fascination, and seemed disappointed at the negative result.

Republished by Spatterlight, 2012, The languages of Pao

Quotes:

Fair was immensely stimulated. The notes assured him that he was on the right track and further indicated a number of blind alleys from which Fair profited by avoiding. He applied himself so successfully that before the week was out he had evoked a sprite of the green cycle. It appeared in the semblance of a man with green glass eyes and a thatch of young eucalyptus leaves in the place of hair. It greeted Fair with cool courtesy, would not seat itself, and ignored Fair’s proffer of coffee. After wandering around the apartment inspecting Fair’s books and curios with an air of negligent amusement, it agreed to respond to Fair’s questions.

He found Gerald McIntyre at a wayside service station in the heart of the South Dakota prairie. McIntyre was sitting in an old wooden chair, tilted back against the peeling yellow paint of the service station, a straw hat shading his eyes from the sun. He was a magnetically handsome man, blond of hair, brown of skin, with blue eyes whose gaze stung like the touch of an icicle.

Republised in The Moon Moth and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012

Quote:

Emerson and Cope walked around the ship. Crossing the clearing in leisurely fashion were a young man and woman, a girl and the boy they had seen before. They were the most handsome beings the Earthmen had ever seen. The young man wore a skin-tight garment of emerald-green sequins, a complicated head-dress of silver spines; the boy wore red trousers, a dark blue jacket and a long-billed blue cap. The young woman and the girl wore simple sheaths of white and blue, stretching with easy elasticity as they walked. They were bare-headed; their pale hair fell flowing to their shoulders.

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Introduction to the novel from Wikipedia:

The city of Clarges in the future is a near-utopia, surrounded by barbarism throughout the rest of the world. Abundant resources and the absence of political conflict lead to a pleasant life that should be stress-free. However, nearly everyone is obsessed with a perpetual scramble for longer life, as measured by slope.

Medical technology has led to a great lengthening of the human lifespan, but, in order to prevent the Malthusian horrors of over-population, it is awarded only to those citizens who have made notable contributions. Five categories have been created for those playing the life-extension game, the first four each offering an additional twenty years of life. One’s progress can be shown as a graph, whose upward direction indicates a greater likelihood of achieving the next level. Therefore, the slope of one’s “lifeline” is a measure of success. A person whose lifeline reaches the vertical terminator is not merely deprived of life-lengthening treatment, they are deliberately eliminated by government operatives, known as “Assassins”.

The ultimate prize is the top category, called Amaranth, which offers true immortality to the fortunate few. People who achieve this distinction are accorded the honorific “The” in front of their name.

The Grayven Warlock was one of those few, but he has become a fugitive after a feud with another Amaranth resulted in the latter’s death. Masquerading as his own “relict” (clone) using the name Gavin Waylock, he lives in obscurity, looking for the accomplishment that will reinstate him among the immortals. However, Waylock’s dramatic stratagems result in changes to society far beyond anything he had intended.

(Article accessed 4 March 2019)

Republished as Clarges, Spatterlight, 2012

Quote:

Dickerman gingerly performed introductions: “Duke Gassman, Duke Holox...” and finally: “I present to you my successor, Mr. Milton Hack of Zodiac Control. He is an expert military strategist, as well as an economic authority; with your cooperation he will solve the various problems of Sabo.”

Republished as “Milton Hack from Zodiac” in Chateau d’If and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quote:

THE HUB, a cluster of bubbles in a web of metal, hung in empty space, in that region known to Earthmen as Hither Sagittarius. The owner was Pan Pascoglu, a man short, dark and energetic, almost bald, with restless brown eyes and a thick mustache. A man of ambition, Pascoglu hoped to develop the Hub into a fashionable resort, a glamor-island among the stars - something more than a mere stopover depot and junction point.

Republished in Magnus Ridolph, Spatterlight, 2012.

Comment: It’s a bit unclear to what genre this story exactly belongs (unless one reads SF simply as Speculative Fiction).

Quote:

The affair had occurred five years previously. The house was abandoned and perhaps inevitably there was talk of haunting. Jean explicitly corroborated these reports. The group had been jocular, skylarking, inviting ghosts to the feast: all ostensibly casual and careless, but all inwardly thrilling to the spooky look of the house, and the memory of the macabre killing. Jean had noticed a flickering of red light at the window of the living room. She had assumed it to be a reflection of the fire, then had looked again. There was no glass in the window. Others noticed; there were squeals and squeaks from the girls. All rose to their feet. Inside the living room, clearly visible, hung a body, twisting and writhing, clothed in flames. And from within came a series of agonized throat-wrenching sobs.

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quote:

The simulated sun hung in the western sky. Ullward led the group to a sundial. “An antique, countless years old. Pure marble, carved by hand. It works too entirely functional. Notice. Three-fifteen by the shadow on the dial...” He peered at his beltwatch, squinted at the sun. “Excuse me one moment.” He ran to the control board, made an adjustment. The sun lurched ten degrees across the sky. Ullward returned, checked the sundial. “That’s better. Notice. Three-fifty by the sundial, three-fifty by my watch. Isn’t that something now?”

Republished in The Moon Moth and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Quote:

The scouts approached at breakneck speed, at the last instant flinging their horses sidewise. Long shaggy legs kicked out, padlike hooves plowed through the moss. The scouts jumped to the ground, ran forward. “The way to Ballant Keep is blocked!”

Republished as The Miracle Workers by Spatterlight, 2012.

Quotes:

The houseboat had been built to the most exacting standards of Sirenese craftsmanship, which is to say, as close to the absolute as human eye could detect. The planking of waxy dark wood showed no joints, the fastenings were platinum rivets countersunk and polished flat. In style, the boat was massive, broad beamed, steady as the shore itself, without ponderosity or slackness of line. The bow bulged like a swan’s breast, the stem rising high, then crooking forward to support an iron lantern. The doors were carved from slabs of a mottled black-green wood; the windows were many sectioned, paned with squares of mica, stained rose, blue, pale green and violet. The bow was given to service facilities and quarters for the slaves; amidships were a pair of sleeping cabins, a dining saloon and a parlor saloon, opening upon an observation deck at the stern.

Thissell tried again, laboriously manipulating the strapan. He sang, “To an out-worlder on a foreign planet, the voice of one from his home is like water to a wilting plant. A person who could unite two such persons might find satisfaction in such an act of mercy.”

Republished in The Moon Moth and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

Comments:

First published in two parts in Galaxy, December 1963 and February 1964.

From Wikipedia:

Star King (also published as The Star King) is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, the first in his Demon Princes series. It tells the story of a young man, Kirth Gersen, who sets out to track down and revenge himself upon the first of the Demon Princes, the five arch-criminals who massacred or enslaved nearly all the inhabitants of his colony world when he was a child.

The antagonist of the book was originally known as Grendel the Monster, and was subsequently renamed Attel Malagate for the novel version. (Accessed 12 March 2019)

Quotes:

   “Will you stay awhile, Mr. Gersen?”
   “Two or three days, perhaps. I have things to think over.”
   Smade nodded in profound understanding. “We’re slack just now; just you and the Star King. You’ll find all the quiet you need.”
   “I’ll be pleased for that,” said Gersen, which was quite true; his just-completed affairs had left him with a set of unresolved qualms. He turned away, then halted and looked back as Smade’s words penetrated his consciousness. “There’s a Star King here at the tavern?”
   “He has presented himself so.”
   “I’ve never seen a Star King. Not that I know of.”
   Smade nodded politely to indicate that the gossip had reached to the allowable limits of particularity. He indicated the tavern clock: “Our local time; better set your watch. Supper at seven o’clock: just half an hour.”

   Tristano fell back, now startled. For an instant he sat laxly asprawl. Gersen caught Tristano’s leg and ankle in a lock, threw over his weight, and felt the bone snap. Tristano sucked in his breath. Snatching for his knife, he left his throat exposed; Gersen hacked backhand at the larynx. Tristano’s throat was well-muscled, and he retained consciousness, to fall back, feebly waving his knife. Gersen kicked it away, edged forward carefully, for Tristano might be equipped with one or a dozen secret built-in weapons.
   Leave me be,” croaked Tristano. “Leave me be, go your way.” He dragged himself to the wall.

Republished as The Star King and in the collection Demon Princes, both Spatterlight, 2012.

• Part one at the Internet Archive
• Part two at the Internet Archive

According to Foreverness the story was written at Amazing Stories’ editor’s request to fit an illustration. (ref) Presumably the cover, for which the ISFDB hosts an image here.

Republished in Sail 25 and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

ISFDB characterizes the novel as a “fix-up/related-story collection”. (ref)

The novel contains the following stories:

• The Overworld (first published December 1965 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
• Cil (original to the novel)
• The Mountains of Magnatz (first published February 1966 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
• The Sorcerer Pharesm (first published April 1966 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
• The Pilgrims (first published June 1966 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
• The Cave in the Forest (first published July 1966 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction as the first part of “The Manse of Iucounu” (ref))
• The Manse of Iucounu (first published July 1966 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)

Republished as Cugel the Clever, Spatterlight, 2012

Based on and expanded from the short story “The Kragen”. This is the only Vance novel that is an expansion of a short story. [ref]

Republished by Spatterlight, 2012, The Blue World.

Quote:

   “I’ve got to see you, Mr. Burke—you or one of the scientists. One of the top scientists.” The man’s voice faded, then strengthened as if he had turned his head away from the mouth-piece as he spoke.
   “If you could explain your problem,” said Burke cautiously, “I might be able to help you.”
   “No,” said the man. “You’d tell me I was crazy. You’ve got to come out here. I promise you you’ll see something you’ve never imagined in your wildest dreams.”

Republished in Chateau d’If and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

According to Vance when he wrote the introduction to Morreion (MSF meulenhoff, 1978) he wrote “Alfred’s Ark” mostly to entertain himself and meant it as a comment on the shortcomings of humanity. He admits that the story is not SF or Fantasy—or even a regular short story, but was pleased to have it published. He also asserts that it was first published by New Directions, but I haven’t been able to confirm that.

Republished in The Moon Moth and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.

[Wikipedia article]

Republished Space Opera, Spatterlight, 2012.

Comments:

There seem to be significant differences between the serialized version for Galaxy and the later book (I’m looking at the Spatterlight edition now). Most of the first two chapters of the book is missing from the magazine version. I’m guessing Vance added material to the book version, but that’s just a guess.

Also missing from the magazine version are the extensive epigraphs which I found so charming when I first started reading Jack Vance as a teenager. Foreverness writes that Frederik Pohl, who was at that time the editor of Galaxy, had removed them. And moreover, that this cutting disgusted Vance so much that he put off writing the concluding sequels of the Demon Princess series for a long time! (ref)

Quote:

Gersen knocked at the door. There was no response. Gersen knocked again. The door was flung violently open; a sleepy unshaven man peered forth. His age was indeterminate; he was thin, spindle-shanked, with a twisted beak of a nose, rumpled hair of no particular color, eyes which though perfectly set gave the impression of looking in two directions at once. His manner was wild and truculent. “Is there no privacy left in the world? Off the boat, at once. Whenever I settle for a moment’s rest, some sheep-faced functionary, some importunate peddler of tracts insists on pounding me out of my couch. Will you not depart? Have I not made myself clear? I warn you, I have a trick or two up my sleeve …”

Republished as The Palace of Love and in the collection Demon Princes, both Spatterlight, 2012.

The serialized version on the Internet Archive:

• part one
• part two
• part three

Comments:

According to Foreverness Vance wrote the story in Tahiti. (ref)

Nebula Award for Best Novella.
Hugo Award for Best Novelette

Quote:

Castle Hagedorn occupied the crest of a black diorite crag overlooking a wide valley to the south. Larger, more majestic than Janeil, Hagedorn was protected by walls a mile in circumference and three hundred feet tall. The parapets stood a full nine hundred feet above the valley, with towers, turrets and observation eyries rising even higher. Two sides of the crag, at east and west, dropped sheer to the valley. The north and south slopes, a trifle less steep, were terraced and planted with vines, artichokes, pears and pomegranates. An avenue rising from the valley circled the crag and passed through a portal into the central plaza. Opposite stood the great Rotunda, with at either side the tall Houses of the twenty-eight families.

Republished The Last Castle, Spatterlight 2012.

→ The 1966 version at the Internet Archive

Comments:

“The narrow land” was meant as the first part of a three part sequence, as requested by an editor. (ref) The remaining two parts were never written, according to Vance for lack of time. (Morreion, MSF meulenhoff, preface).

Republished in Chateau d'If and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012.

Foreverness indicates that at the time of writing (1970) Vance was in Athens. [ref]

First publication was in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July and August 1972. [ref]

First book publication in 1973 by Dell Publishing. [ref]

Foreverness indicates that at the time of writing (1970) Vance was in Ireland. [ref]

The first publication in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (February and March 1971) involved a version that was shorter than the novel. (ref: colophon Durdane, 1976 Meulenhof)

The first book publication was as The Anome in 1973 by Dell Publishing. [ref]

The first publication in French was also serialized (in three parts, 1973). [ref]

Plot intro from Wikipedia:

It tells the story of a boy growing to manhood in the land of Shant, a society composed of many different, and wildly individual cantons, some of which are run by cults. Each adult wears an explosive torc which can be detonated by remote command, bringing about instant death by decapitation. The torcs are controlled by an anonymous dictator, the Anome, whose identity is literally unknown. Because those whose heads are exploded are selected primarily by the cantonal leaders, for violations of local law, the Anome is able to operate with only a handful of assistants, or ‘Benevolences’, who themselves do not know his identity. (accessed 7 March 2019)

First publication was in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May and July 1973. (ref: colophon Durdane, 1976 Meulenhof)

First book publication in 1974 by Dell Publishing. [ref]

Comment:

First published in two parts, July 1975—September 1975. First published as a book September 1975 by Ballantine Books.

According to Foreverness Vance resided in Spain at the time of writing. (ref)

I remember the novel as having potential, but ending too soon with a deus ex machina-like ending.

Quote:

  Pardero said somewhat ponderously: “You recognize me then?”
   Yes, Your Force, now that I have spoken with you. I admit to confusion; your presence has altered in a way which I hardly know how to explain. You seem, shall we say, more mature, more controlled, and of course your foreign garments enhance these differences. But I am certain that I am right.” The clerk peered in sudden doubt. “Am I not, Your Force?”
   Pardero smiled coolly. “How could you demonstrate the fact one way or the other without my assurance?”

Republished by Spatterlight, 2012: Marune: Alastor 933

First published in the collection Rhialto the Marvellous, which contained:

• Foreword (original to the publication)
• The Murthe (original to the publication)
• Fader’s Waft (original to the publication)
• Morreion (first published 1973)

Republished in Rhialto the Marvellous, Spatterlight 2012.

First published in the collection Rhialto the Marvellous, which contained:

• Foreword (original to the publication)
• The Murthe (original to the publication)
• Fader’s Waft (original to the publication)
• Morreion (first published 1973)

Republished in Rhialto the Marvellous, Spatterlight 2012.

Contents of this collection:

• Foreword (original to the publication)
• The Murthe (original to the publication)
• Fader’s Waft (original to the publication)
• Morreion (first published 1973)

Republished in Rhialto the Marvellous, Spatterlight 2012.