Jack Vance Book order

The Elder Isles - an ancient land where chivalry and the realm of fairie exist side by side. A land of mystery, strange beauty, high adventure and arcane magic. Kings are at war, opposing magicians devise ever more cunning stratagems. It is a land where princesses and changelings both can become embroiled in political rivalries and the quest for the grail.The Gollancz Black Books have proved to be an immensely successful formula for getting well loved stories into the hands of people who also love well made books. Jack Vance's Complete Lyonesse is a perfect addition to the series and contains Madouc the novel for which Vance won the World Fantasy Award.

"In this second volume of a two-volume set gathering the best American science fiction from the tumultuous 1960s, R. A. Lafferty's quirky and utterly original Past Master, an unjustly neglected classic, imagines Sir Thomas More transported to the colony Astrobe in the year 2535, where he is made president of a future Utopia. In Picnic on Paradise, Joanna Russ presents her indelible heroine, Alyx, who is hired to protect a group of tourists in a hostile alien world. Samuel R. Delany's proto-cyberpunk space opera Nova, reprinted here for the first time in a text corrected by the author, combines the pacing of a revenge story with the arc of a grail-quest legend. Jack Vance's dystopian thriller Emphyrio is the coming-of-age story of Ghyl, who has been raised in a world barring the use of automation but has a strong sense of subversive individualism. The novel has been restored to the author's original text, without later editorial interventions."--Provided by publisher

Lying off the coast of Monterey, Bird Island is favored with tranquil beaches, coves and rocky hills. The island is home to a finishing school for girls, and a picturesque old hotel-in desperate need of repair. The hotel owner must sell plots of the island to finance renovation and enlargement. The buyers are an odd bunch: a whale hunter, an amateur photographer of artistic nudes, a fugitive from justice, a young poet who composes rhymes for greeting cards, and an explorer, accompanied by his pet baboon. Everything goes wrong, to the extent that even Rexie, the cheese-loving hotel cat is affected! So much for tranquility, on Bird Island... First published as Isle of Peril, Bird Isle mixes intrigue with humor, inspired by the great P.G. Wodehouse. Bird Isle is Volume 16 of the Spatterlight Press Signature Series. Released in the centenary of the author's birth, this handsome new collection is based upon the prestigious Vance Integral Edition. Select volumes enjoy up-to-date maps, and many are graced with freshly-written forewords contributed by a distinguished group of authors. Each book bears a facsimile of the author's signature and a previously-unpublished photograph, chosen from family archives for the period the book was written. These unique features will be appreciated by all, from seasoned Vance collector to new reader sampling the spectrum of this author's influential work for the first time. - John Vance II

A collection of Vance's outlines, unpublished work, and other items: Cat Island (1946, fragment), The Stark (1954, outline for series), The Telephone was Ringing in the Dark (1962, outline for novel), The Kragen (1963, novella; first version of The Blue World), The Genesee Slough Murders (1966, outline for Joe Bain novel), Guyal of Sfere (1969 , revision of same title, 1944), Wild Thyme and Violets (1976, outline for novel), The Magnificent Red-Hot Jazzing Seven (1976, movie treatment), Clang (1984, movie treatment), and Dream Castle (1962 revision of I'll Build Your Dream Castle, 1946).

The Vance Integral Edition made extensive use of the personal papers of Jack Vance, in particular his final manuscripts, as these contained Vance's last word regarding the work as he intended it. However, in the years since the VIE concluded in 2006, initial and intermediate drafts have also been studied, to shed light on Vance's creative style and process. Vance was an unsentimental editor of his own work, and for the dedicated fan or scholar it is fascinating to see what he himself cut and altered exercising his craft as storyteller and wordsmith. Nightlamp: an Outline is one revision short of being a finished work in its own right. In its present form, it is not free of blemishes, naming inconsistencies, occasional repetitions, and ideas not fully fleshed out, but is unmistakably the work of the Grandmaster - full of mordant observations on human nature and society, in characteristically graceful and ironic style. Spatterlight is proud to present the first fruit from the Jack Vance archive. Nightlamp: an Outline is a behind-the-scenes snapshot of Vance's draft work, intended for the student, archivist, completist, or serious enthusiast.

When Schaine Madduc returned to Koryphon after five years in space, her home planet was not as she left it. The several intelligent species that had lived so long in a sort of symbiotic harmony were at each other's throats. The humanoid Uldra were united in rebellion against the human land-holding community of which Schaine was part. The Uldra revolutionary leader and catalyst--the Gray Prince Jorjol--was actually an Uldra fostered in Schaine's own home, and upon whom Schaine had exerted a profound influence. An influence far more profound than Schaine would have thought possible. An influence possibly powerful enough to smash her home, her family, and her entire way of life! (Previously published as THE GRAY PRINCE)

With his silver hair, neat goatee and fastidious habits, elderly mathematician Magnus Ridolph doesn't look like the mercenary detective, troubleshooter and rascal that he is. In these ten stories, Magnus Ridolph accepts a variety of baffling assignments, from halting the tribal warfare of the Kokod warriors, to solving the mystery of exploding cans of sardines imported from Chandaria. His wits and unusual methods bring each to a surprising conclusion! Written between 1948 and 1957, the tales in this book establish Magnus Ridolph as a memorably spry and resourceful troubleshooter with nerves of steel-and a knack for getting the goods. Magnus Ridolph is Volume 2 of the Spatterlight Press Signature Series. Released in the centenary of the author's birth, this handsome new collection is based upon the prestigious Vance Integral Edition. Select volumes enjoy up-to-date maps, and many are graced with freshly-written forewords contributed by a distinguished group of authors. Each book bears a facsimile of the author's signature and a previously-unpublished photograph, chosen from family archives for the period the book was written. These unique features will be appreciated by all, from seasoned Vance collector to new reader sampling the spectrum of this author's influential work for the first time. - John Vance II