Posted by JV Fan on June 09, 1997 at 16:12:03:
In Reply to: Re: Introductory JHV books posted by Tim Stretton on June 09, 1997 at 09:21:10:
--My first exposure to Jack Vance was in the very early 80s when I brought home a few "coverless" DAW books from a farm market(Sorry, Mr. Vance, sorry Mr. Wollheim, I know that "neither the author nor publisher has been paid for this "Stripped book" which has been reported unsold & destoyed and is
stolen property"--But what was I supposed to do--leave a bunch of brand-new SF novels for somebody else to pick up for 10 cents
apiece?)anyway I sat up all night reading "City of the Chasch"
and at the scene where the Chasch Priest presides over the bogus birth in front of the duped Chaschmen and calls out "This delightful imp..etc.,etc", I knew I was reading somebody really hot and that I wanted more. Adam Reith's chronicles would be a good place to start somebody--but PLEASE-"The Pnume" is pretty inaccessible without preamble so have your friend get the omnibus "Planet of Adventure" at the library or loan him all 4 novels. If he isn't blown completely away by the end of "The Dirdir" he must be brain dead viv-a-vis us Vance-philes. Speaking of brain-dead- at that time I was working as a security guard at a hospital morgue--I had to check ID's for police or
hospital personnel and deny ingress to anybody else, and I spent that weekend at my desk outside the morgue absorbed in the "Nopalgath/Houses of Iszm/Son of the Tree" trilogy as well as "Space Opera" - Sunday I was so distracted reading I committed the foul-up-of-all-foul-ups I could possibly do on that job--I let a grieving Loved One get past me into the Morgue--all of a sudden the phone was ringing and the Sarge was hollering he'd got a call from an MD in the "Cold Room" about a weeping old gentleman
who was in there asking "Where's my wife?" and trying to pull open slab drawers. I rushed in and as gently as I could escorted
the poor confused old gent to the chapel--A rabbi I didn't know too well and a Lutheran chaplain who was a buddy took it from there. As for me-only influential nepotistic connections kept me from getting fired- I was transferred to the hospital pharmacy walk-in closet to guard scheduled narcotics. While at that post I also committed the foul-up-of-all-foul ups--I developed a taste for Ritalin and amphetamines that has persisted to this very day (Can you tell?); I can't blame Mr. Vance for that. Obviously, though, one of the other respondents makes the critical point--is your friend mostly into fantasy or mostly into SF? If he's more into fantasy--start him out either on "The Last Castle" or even better "The Dying Earth"--the beuatiful story of lovely T'sais who saw only ugliness meeting T'sain, created in her image, should hook any Fantasy buff.
JV Fan