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Dying Earth
''Dying Earth'' is a speculative fiction series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984. Some have been called picaresque. They vary from short story collections to a fix-up (novel created from older short stories), perhaps all the way to novel. Retrieved 2012-05-09. The first book in the series, ''The Dying Earth'', was ranked number 16 of 33 "All Time Best Fantasy Novels" by '' Locus'' in 1987, based on a poll of subscribers, although it was marketed as a collection and the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) calls it a "loosely connected series of stories". The ''Dying Earth'' series has been described as a "sword and sorcery" series, as the plots of the various stories often revolve around picaresque exploits, swordplay, and magic. Setting The stories of the ''Dying Earth'' series are set in the distant future, at a point when the sun is almost exhausted and magic has reasserted itself as a dominant f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dying Earth
''The Dying Earth'' is a collection of science fantasy/fantasy short fiction by American writer Jack Vance, published by Hillman in 1950. Vance returned to the setting in 1965 and thereafter, making it the first book in the ''Dying Earth'' series. It was retitled ''Mazirian the Magician'' in the Vance Integral Edition (2005), according to Jack Vance's expressed preference. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database calls it a "slightly connected series of stories" but it was ranked number 16 of 33 "All Time Best Fantasy Novels" by '' Locus'' in 1987, based on a poll of subscribers. Similarly, it was one of five finalists for the Best Novel "Retro Hugo" in 2001 when the World Science Fiction Society provided 50th anniversary recognition for a publication year without Hugo Awards. Contents * "Turjan of Miir" * " Mazirian the Magician" * "T'sais" * "Liane the Wayfarer" * "Ulan Dhor" * "Guyal of Sfere" Notes All stories are original to the collection. The Vance Integral Edi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Merchant Marine
The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, and engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine primarily transports domestic and international cargo and passengers during peacetime, and operate and maintain deep-sea merchant ships, tugboats, towboats, ferry, ferries, dredger, dredges, excursion vessels, charter boats and other waterborne craft on the oceans, the Great Lakes, rivers, canals, harbors, and other waterways. In times of war, the Merchant Marine can be an auxiliary to the United States Navy, and can be called upon to deliver military personnel and materiel for the military. In the 19th and 20th centuries, various laws fundamentally changed the cour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbarians And Black Magicians
A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to an aggressive, brutal, cruel, and insensitive person, particularly one who is also dim-witted, while cultures, customs and practices adopted by peoples and countries perceived to be primitive may be referred to as "barbaric". The term originates from the (; ). In Ancient Greece, the Greeks used the term not only for those who did not speak Greek and follow classical Greek customs, but also for Greek populations on the fringe of the Greek world with peculiar dialects. In Ancient Rome, the Romans adapted and applied the term to tribal non-Romans such as the Germanics, Celts, Iberians, Helvetii, Thracians, Illyrians, and Sarmatians. In the early modern period and sometimes later, the Byzantine Greeks used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F&SF
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. The first issue was titled ''The Magazine of Fantasy'', but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. ''F&SF'' was quite different in presentation from the existing science-fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science-fiction historian Mike Ashley "set ''F&SF'' apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine". ''F&SF' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". There is disagreement regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words; at 250 words per page, this equates to 70 to 160 pages. See below for definitions used by other organisations. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, princip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Kells
The Book of Kells (; ; Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. [58], sometimes known as the Book of Columba) is an illustrated manuscript and Celts, Celtic Gospel book in Latin, containing the Gospel, four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created in a Columban monastery in either Ireland or Scotland, and may have had contributions from various Columban institutions from each of these areas. It is believed to have been created 800 AD. The text of the Gospels is largely drawn from the Vulgate, although it also includes several passages drawn from the earlier versions of the Bible known as the ''Vetus Latina''. It is regarded as a masterwork of Western calligraphy and the pinnacle of Insular art, Insular illumination. The manuscript takes its name from the Abbey of Kells, County Meath, which was its home for centuries. The illustrations and ornamentation of the Book of Kells surpass those of other Insular Gospel books in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liane The Wayfarer
Liane the Wayfarer is a science fantasy short story by American writer Jack Vance John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. He also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen. Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Ach ..., the fourth in his '' The Dying Earth'' series. It first appeared in the December 1950 issue of the magazine '' Worlds Beyond''. It is sometimes published under the alternate title "The Loom of Darkness". Plot summary A vain, overconfident, utterly amoral adventurer who calls himself Liane the Wayfarer is traveling through the forest, contemplating a magic ring he has just found. The ring allows him to hide himself by stretching it into a hoop and lowering it over himself, transporting him into a mysterious world of complete darkness. Liane encounters a creature called a Twk-Man, tiny blue men who ride dragonflies and exchange gossip for tiny quantiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mazirian The Magician
"Mazirian the Magician" is a sword and sorcery short story by American writer Jack Vance. It was first published in 1950 as part of ''The Dying Earth'', a collection of loosely linked tales. It has been reissued in numerous anthologies since 1965, including '' The Spell of Seven'', edited by L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American author of science fiction, Fantasy literature, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of .... (ISFDB). Retrieved 2012-06-12. Plot summary Mazirian the Magician paces through his enchanted garden, wrestling with the problem of how to invest the humanoid creatures he has created in vats with intelligence. The secret is held by the sorcerer Turjan, who has kept the secret to himself despite his imprisonment, reduction in size, and torment by a small, vicious dragon. Mazirian is interrupted by a distantly spied beaut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, Myth, mythic tales, Folklore genre, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables, and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella, novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story remains problematic. A classic definition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omnibus Edition
An omnibus edition or omnibus is a book containing multiple creative works by the same or, more rarely, different authors. Commonly two or more of the works have been previously published as books, but a collection of shorter works, or shorter works collected with one previous book, may also be known as an omnibus. Omnibus editions help consolidate longer series into fewer books. The prices are usually equal to or less than the price of buying each individual edition separately. Examples * ''The Omnibus Jules Verne (4-Books-In-1: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Blockade Runners, From the Earth to the Moon and a Trip Around It)''. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. * ''The Biggles Omnibus'' (three volumes, 1938-1941), followed by ''The First Biggles Omnibus'' (1953), ''The Biggles Air Detective Omnibus'' (1956) and ''The Biggles Adventure Omnibus'' (1965). * ''The Sherlock Holmes illustrated omnibus: a facsimile ed. of all Arthur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. Lovecraft parody) and Grail Undwin. He is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre. Life Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy in his youth, and became broadly knowledgeable in both fields. He was also active in fandom. Carter served in the United States Army (infantry, Korea, 1951–53), and then attended Columbia University and took part in Leonie Adams's Poetry Workshop (1953–54). He was an advertising and publishers' copywriter from 1957 until 1969, when he took up writing full-time. He was also an editorial consultant. During much of his writing career h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell (; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and ''belles-lettres''. Cabell was well-regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when they were most popular. For Cabell, veracity was "the one unpardonable sin, not merely against art, but against human welfare". Although escapist, Cabell's works are ironic and satirical. Mencken disputed Cabell's claim to romanticism and characterized him as "really the most acidulous of all the anti-romantics. His gaudy heroes ... chase dragons precisely as stockbrockers play golf." According to Louis D. Rubin, Cabell saw art as an escape from life, but found that, once the artist creates his ideal world, it is made up of the same elements that make the real one. Interest in Cabell declined in the 1930s, a decline that has been attributed in part to his failu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
