SOME NOTES ON
JACK VANCE'S
THE DYING EARTH
As mentioned in my previous post, I am leaving behind Nehwon (for the time being, at least) and am venturing, not to a different planet, but to the Earth in the far, far future: Jack Vance's The Dying Earth.
Note: I seem to have gone overboard with this post. TL;DR - read The Dying Earth. You'll be amazed.
Untold millennia have passed. Science has vanished and magic has returned to the world. New races of humankind have evolved, alongside new species of beasts and plants.
The ancient Sun has turned red and soars across a dark blue sky. Society has dwindled. Where once there were billions of people, now there are few, separated by vast distances, living in small enclaves, often isolated and insular, with bizarre customs and traditions. The cities, countries and even continents of old are now dust, replaced by Ascolais, Almery, The Land of the Falling Wall, Ampridatvir, Kaiin and Cil, to name a few.
We are introduced to an array of colourful characters - wizards, witches, demons and princes - with equally colourful names: Turjan of Miir, Pandelume, Mazirian the Magician, Liane the Wayfarer, Chun the Unavoidable, Blikdak the Demon. As for the beasts, well, we can list the tiny Twk-men, erbs, Deodands, grue and pelgrane. Some plants are semi-sentient, indeed, one plant in Mazirian's garden can speak, after a fashion.
And if the lands, characters, beasts and plants are vividly described, the magic is more vibrant still. We note, of the 100 or so spells left to the knowledge of man, incantations such as Phandaal's Gyrator Spell, Phandaal's Critique of the Chill, Felojun's Second Hypnotic Spell, the Excellent Prismatic Spray, The Charm of Untiring Nourishment and the Omnipotent Sphere. Magical items have similar wondrous names: the Expansible Egg, the Scintillant Dagger and the Live Boots are just some of them.
The stories in this book are concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and power. While many of the characters are already powerful, and some may be centuries old, kept young by magic, they all want more.
Turjan of Miir desires to make a perfect, vat-grown creature. His previous experiments have failed, so he uses the spell Call of the Violent Cloud to journey to the world of Embelyon to meet with Pandelume, a great wizard. At Pandelume's request, Turjan performs a task - essentially the theft of a potent magical item - and is taught the correct spells and techniques. With this new knowledge, he creates T'sain, the 'twin sister' of T'sais, one of Pandelume's creations. T'sais is flawed, however, and cannot see beauty in any way: everything is hateful to her.
Things do not go Turjan's way, however. When we next meet him, he has been captured by Mazirian the Magician, and is being held in a miniature maze, chased by a rat. Mazirian craves knowledge, too: who is the strange woman who seems to be spying on him? He questions Turjan who tries to trade capturing the woman for his freedom. Mazirian refuses and chases the woman himself, with Live Boots and a selection of spells. The woman is T'sain who, protected by magic herself, leads Mazirian on a wild chase, eventually and narrowly defeating him in a grove of vampire-weed. The chase has left her at death's door. With the last of her strength, T'sain frees Turjan and dies doing so. But Turjan has the knowledge now, and vows to recreate T'sain anew.
T'sais has her own death-defying adventures in search of 'beauty'. Pandelume gifts her with jewels, enchants her rapier, and a rune so she has some protection, and she travels from Embelyon to Earth. There she encounters Liane the Wayfarer, leaves him for dead, travels across the Modavna Moor and is set upon by ruffians. She, with her enchanted rapier, fights free of them, and flees. At last, she reaches a cottage and is given sanctuary by a man in a black hood. Etarr is his name and he tells his story about how his face was stolen by a witch and replaced with a hideous visage. He intends to retrieve his face from the witch, Javanne. At a hideous ritual on the Black Sabbath, Etarr and T'sais capture Javanne but she cannot return his face, it having been gifted to a demon which has been destroyed in the ritual. Only Pandelume and an ancient god of justice can restore it. The three travel to this god and are judged. T'sais is innocent and is granted the ability to see beauty. Etarr is also innocent and is given his face. Javanne, guilty of wickedness, is transformed and given Etarr's demon-face.
Liane the Wayfarer is given his own story, so we must assume he survived his encounter with T'sais. Liane is boastful, big-headed and full of his own self-importance. This braggadocio increases because he has found a ring which causes him to become invisible. He then journeys to visit Lith, the golden witch, with the intent to become her lover. Lith resists his advances and charges him with a quest: if he is to love her, he must retrieve half of a tapestry from Chun the Unavoidable. He journeys to the city of Kaiin and finds an inn, where he shows off his magical ring and questions some local sorcerers regarding Chun. The sorcerers blanch and go quiet. Liane reckons himself more cunning than these wizards and, equipped with his wits and magic ring, he sets off to find the tapestry. On the way he finds several bodies, each with their eyes gouged out. Liane explores Chun's lair and finds the tapestry, which he steals. Chun is behind him, wearing a cloak of eyeballs sewn with silk. Terrified, Liane flees, hounded by Chun. Thinking himself smarter than Chun, Liane hides with his magical ring. But Chun the Unavoidable cannot be hidden from in this way and Liane is found. The story closes with Chun visiting Lith. He gives her two golden threads for her tapestry, in trade for Liane's golden eyes.
Ulan Dhor is given a quest by Prince Kandive the Golden: travel across the forgotten ocean to the city of Ampridatvir and recover the lost tablets of Rogol Domendonfors, which are said to contain the secrets of lost magicks. Ulan Dhor sails across the Melantine Gulf, after three weeks, and encounters a strange fishing boat. The crew believe him to be a Raider because of his brightly coloured clothes but Ulan Dhor convinces them he is just a traveller. They lead him to the harbour of Ampridatvir where Ulan Dhor finds a civilisation which has two factions - those dressed in green and those in grey - each believing they are the only ones and that the other factions are ghosts to be avoided. He befriends a girl whom he calls Elai. Ulan Dhor captures, and learns how to fly, an aircar and uses this to penetrate the temples of Pansiu and Cazdal, thus stealing each half of the tablet of Rogol Domendonfors. They fly to the Tower of Fate and reassemble the two halves, revealing the words of Rogol Domendonfors. This brings the sleeping god back to life after over 5000 years. He sees the quarrels and riots between the factions and, in a fit of madness, proceeds to tear down and rebuild Ampridatvir. He punishes those who have ignored his teachings and plans for Ulan Dhor and Elai to found a new race. Ulan Dhor skewers the brain with his sword and kills the mad god. In the aircar, Ulan Dhor and Elai fly back to Kaiin.
In the last story, Guyal of Sfere has been born with some defect: an insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge. His father says that Guyal's questions can only be answered by the Curator of the Museum of Man. Guyal embarks on a quest to find the Museum and find the answers he desires. He is protected by the Extensible Egg, the Scintillant Dagger and his father's blessing, which promises safety if he stays on the trail. His first encounter is in a strange village, where the hetman desires Guyal's horse. Which is understandable as these villagers ride oasts, hulking, deformed, humans as horses. The villagers give chase but Guyal evades them. The mountains of Fer Aquila are the next obstacle but, because he stays to the blessed trail, he finds his way through to the almost deserted village of Carchasel. There he meets a girl and her flute-playing uncle. Guyal, an accomplished flautist himself, enters into a contest, of sorts. The music goes from merry to madness and Guyal flees the hall. On the other side of the mountains, he first encounters a ghost, then meets the Saponids, the inhabitants of the town of Saponce. Unfortunately for Guyal, he breaks one of their obscure laws and is given three punishments: to promise he would never again break the laws; that he would judge the upcoming beauty contest; and that the third punishment would be revealed after the contest. The girls of the village are beautiful but are trying very hard not to look so. They are dirty, unkempt and dressed in rags. Guyal chooses the daughter of the Castellan who had arrested him for the crime. The third punishment is then revealed: to travel with the girl, Shierl, to the Museum of Man as an execution or a sacrifice. They walk into the depths of the Museum, seeing wondrous artifacts from the many ages of Earth. At the end, they encounter a huge face, seemingly pushing through the wall. It will not permit them to enter while Guyal has the Scintillant Dagger bringing light and it attacks, with tendrils exuded from its tongue. Guyal and Shierl are saved by an old man, Kerlin the Curator, wielding a powerful magical rod. After some time, Kerlin tells the story of Blikdak, the demon face. With cleverness, and a search of the vast Museum of Man, Guyal, Shierl and Kerlin defeat the demon (no spoilers, here). Sadly, the exertion kills the old man but not before he has told Guyal to look for the index in his chambers. With this he may be able to find the knowledge he seeks. We are left with Guyal and Shierl wondering "What shall we do?"
So, what have I learnt?
Vance is a master of descriptive prose. The way he describes the sky above Embelyon in Turjan of Miir:
"Most strange, however, was the sky, a mesh of vast ripples and cross-ripples, and these refracted a thousand rays of coloured light, rays which in mid-air wove wondrous lace, rainbow nets, in all the jewel hues."
-- From Turjan of Miir by Jack Vance
Many other such passages appear throughout the book. I wish I was that good!
Magic in the Dying Earth is a force to be reckoned with. A number of encounters end peacefully due to the mere threat of being ensorcelled. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a roleplayer. In such games, there is usually the concept of a 'saving throw' to ward off magical effects. No such save exists in the Dying Earth. If you are on the receiving end of The Excellent Prismatic Spray, you can expect to be blasted by dozens of multicoloured laser beams, with little hope of surviving. However, runes, items and countermagicks can negate these effects but these are most jealously guarded and even harder to find than the spells themselves.
Magic is colourful in name and devastating in effect. Phandaal's Gyrator spell, for instance, lifts the affected target up in the air, to any height and at any speed. It is used by Mazirian to destroy a Deodand by making the creature spin so fast that the centrifugal force tears it limb from limb. No saving throw.
Magicians are men and women of huge ego. Witness the number of spells named after their creators, for instance. This ego drives them to compete against each other for the recognition of their peers, a classic case of 'oneupmanship'.
For my next post, I'll be leaving Earth entirely, and not by using the Call of the Violent Cloud. My next adventure will be to the far future, science fiction setting of Harry Harrison: Deathworld 1.
