Posted by Patrick Dusoulier on August 12, 1998 at 11:51:46:
In Reply to: Re: Where to start ? posted by Michael Andre-Driussi on August 10, 1998 at 18:35:31:
: Right. Well, I think that the "Best First Vance Book" has to be tailored to the target reader. To this end it =might= be useful to develop "similar authors" for certain "Vance clusters": say, for instance, the target reader likes ERB a lot, in fact, she =loves= Barsoom. Then PLANET OF ADVENTURE would be a safe bet. More interested in "Ensign Flandry"/James Bond in Space? Then Demon Princes. Anthropology? "The Moon Moth." New Wave? "Noise" and "The Men Return." Biotech? THE DRAGON MASTERS. Linguistics? THE LANGUAGES OF PAO. Bildungsroman? EMPHYRIO. Name authors:
: Clarke, Herbert, Asimov. Link each toward a different Vance work.
====> an interesting concept, Michael. It's a bit like Chinese Portraits
* I don't see ANY JV book that would appeal to the Clarke or Asimov followers. Maybe someone else will submit a proposal ...
* I'd suggest 8 Fantasms and Magics for the followers of Clark Ashton Smith (in a lighter vein, of course).
* For a student in anthropology, social sciences, I'd recommend any of the Alastor series.
* For a stickler to details, I'd recommend all the footnotes of the entire works of JV.
* I would never recommend the Houses of Iszm, I really dislike that one. Neither Son of the Tree, feeble (although I haven't read it for years, who knows, it might have some redeeming features ?). Nor the "old" stuff like the Five Gold bands, except if this was for a pulp lover , a nostalgic of the Golden Age of the Thirties...
Patrick