George RR Martin and Neil Gaiman among the hundreds paying tribute to a science fiction 'grandmaster'
Tributes from the great and the good of the science fictional universe have been pouring in following news of the death of author Jack Vance late on Wednesday.
Vance died in his sleep, aged 96, at home in California on Sunday, his family announced yesterday. He leaves behind more than 50 novels and 100 short stories. Perhaps best known for his Dying Earth stories, set far in the future where "the sun is feeble and red. The continents have sunk and risen. A million cities have lifted towers, have fallen to dust", and "in the place of the old peoples a few thousand strange souls live", Vance is counted as an influence by many of today's authors, from Ursula K Le Guin to George RR Martin.
Learning of his death, the Game of Thrones author – who edited a tribute anthology to Vance in 2009 featuring stories set in Vance's universe by writers including Neil Gaiman and Michael Moorcock – called Vance "one of the grandmasters of our genres, and IMNSHO one of the greatest writers of our times", and said that yesterday was "a sad day for fans of science fiction and fantasy".
"I had the honour of meeting Jack a few times, but I cannot claim to have known him well. But he had a huge influence on me and my work, and for the past 50-some years has ranked among my very favourite writers. Every time a new Jack Vance book came out, I would drop whatever else I was doing and read it. Sometimes I did not mean to, but once you cracked the covers of a Vance book, you were lost," wrote Martin on his blog.
"Vance's Dying Earth ranks with Howard's Hyborian Age and Tolkien's Middle Earth as one of the all-time great fantasy settings, and Cugel the Clever is the genre's greatest rogue, a character as memorable as Conan or Frodo (either of whom Cugel would likely swindle out of their smallclothes, had they ever met)."
Vance, said Martin, "left the world a richer place than he found it", and "no more can be asked of any writer".
The bestselling science fiction author John Scalzi described Vance as "a genuine great in the field, one whose work captivated generations of science fiction and fantasy readers and writers, many of whom went on to be greats themselves".
"To say he will be missed is obvious. To say his influence will continue to echo through the years is a reassurance," said Scalzi. "My thoughts to his family, friends and many fans today."
Steven Gould, author of the science fiction novel Jumper and new president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, said Vance was "one of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers of the 20th century", and that his novel The Dragon Masters "seized me by the throat at a young age and has never let me go".
Gaiman tweeted "thank you for the dreams and the magic, Jack Vance", while fantasy author Scott Lynch said that "every time I think I've got it tough, I remind myself that Jack Vance went legally blind around 70 and kept writing for two more decades".
"Farewell to one of the great ones," tweeted the award-winning author Elizabeth Bear. "I thought he was eternal."
Hundreds of tributes from fans have also been posted overnight on the website Foreverness, dedicated to the author, where his family also left a message for readers. "Recognised most widely as an author, family and friends also knew a generous, large-hearted, rugged, congenial, hard-working, optimistic and unpretentious individual whose curiosity, sense of wonder and sheer love of life were an inspiration in themselves. Author, friend, father and grandfather – there will never be another like Jack Vance."
via Books: Fiction | guardian.co.uk
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