Posted by Terry on March 20, 1999 at 20:10:18:
In Reply to: Big Planet: impenetrable posted by Dean McMillan on March 19, 1999 at 22:47:41:
It's not his best. Think it took Vance a couple completely plotted and charactered books after _The Dying Earth_ (a masterpiece, but not really a novel) among the many short stories, before he really hits his stride.
The early period includes _Space Pirate_, and a couple good myteries and the excellent _The Languages of Pao_ a year later ('58). In the early bunch only _To Live Forever_ stands out with all of Vance's theme's in place.
I've read and reread _Big Planet_ a few times and it's not the finest. It has be published into Dutch, Japanese, German, and French so it's not a short run like _Vandals of the Void_. _BP_ follows _VotV_ in the Vance cycle of books and is much better than that potboiler.