I cannot properly convey how much fun Jack Vance is. This is a writer who has a witch tempt a king, who then -- under her spell -- attempts to copulate with a leopard and who is then mauled to death in the effort. That's an eccentric but wildly original storytelling move! Honestly, the Lyonesse trilogy is SO underrated.

#jackvance #fantasy #lyonesse

I started Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy and, goodness me, this is wildly entertaining so far. Old World dialogue, brisk plotting, and ridiculously ambitious worldbuilding, complete with intricate family lines and a series of islands known as the Elder Isles, which sunk into the Atlantic Ocean just off the coasts of Britain and Ireland (map pictured below). I know everyone holds up Vance (rightly) for his dying earth idea (notably rifled on by Gene Wolfe in his must-read Sun books). But Vance could write vivaciously in ANY genre. And the Lyonesse books are absolutely the kind of lively fantasy I longer to read right now!

#books #jackvance #lyonesse #fantasy #reading