Posted by David Pierce on March 19, 1999 at 23:34:24:
In Reply to: Big Planet: impenetrable posted by Dean McMillan on March 19, 1999 at 22:47:41:
"Big Planet," published only two years after the wretched "The Five Gold Bands" and but one after the nearly unreadable "Sons Of the Tree," represents--along with "Nopalgarth"--an early watermark in the development of Jack's writing skill; it is one of the first Vance novels in which Jack is comfortable with the writer he discovered himself to be in "The Dying Earth" stories. After "Big Planet," Vance's novels were either very good or great, and several reset the benchmark betokening readers' expectations re: the words wrought from Jack's forge.
: Is it just me--a distinct probability--or has anyone else had trouble with this one? It galls me. (Not the book, but my own inability to get into the thing.) I've tried 3 times.
: I'd just like to know why I, who've a tendency to reread complusively nearly every Vance word to see the dark of print, should have difficulty here.