Posted by Peter R Booth on February 09, 1998 at 05:58:31:
In Reply to: Re: Lyonesse Trilogy posted by Richard Chandler on February 09, 1998 at 04:58:30:
Richard...some people are not going to take this well, and I'm a huge fan of Vance's work, but for evocative wordplay and descriptive prose, Mervyn Peake surpasses Vance in this regard...Vance is a superior author to Peake as far as pure imagination and cultural creation goes but Peake is the yardstick for stylistic writing...his small overall output of work pales against the panoply of Vance. I agree entirely about the "dying fall" ambience of the Forest of Tantrevalles, especially that mysterious passage in the Villa Meroe (from memory) where everyone wore dominoes...what about the evocation apparent in the Dying Earth, especially his description of Kaiin ?
And the scene where he describes the Flower of Cath giving into "awaile", her standing naked on the prow while lightning crashes about her..Reith calling out her names one by one...she doesn't her his "lover's name" and she falls...that impacted upon me...
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy remain the most stylistic thing I've ever read...comparing Vance to Peake is not simple...Peake's characterisations are far superior but he dwells to far on the extreme points of those characters, whereas Vance's characters can be a touch simplistic, as if the forces occuring to them have no effect on them. Can you tell the difference between Kirth Girsen and Adam Reith? Apart from the motivation behind each man's drive, they could've been twins...