Jack Vance, a prolific writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery, has died at the age of 96. He was not well known outside the small core of dedicated science fiction readers and none of his works have been turned into major motion pictures or long running TV series. His novel Bad Ronald was the basis of a not particularly faithful adaptation that aired on ABC in 1974. Still, other writers of the genre were happy to be counted among his fans, including George R.R. Martin and Frank Herbert. Herbert and Vance, both locals of the San Francisco Bay Area, were close friends and owned a houseboat together.
Looking around at tributes on the net, some of his fans say the best place for a newcomer to start reading Vance is his Hugo and Nebula winning short novel The Last Castle, published in 1966.
These days, someone who has a success in science fiction or fantasy can become rich beyond the dreams of avarice (or at least my dreams of avarice), but it's important we pay tribute to those who worked so hard with no promise of success, who wrote for a living because they loved it and couldn't think of anything they would rather do.
Today, three days after he died, we pay tribute to Jack Vance. May he never be forgotten.
wait. HE wrote Bad Ronald? That's....weird.
ReplyDeletei really hope we don't discover that Vance was a raging racist bigoted kkkonservative, like so many other sci-fi writers, Card and Hubbard most notably, but also James Hogan, and now Niven. I really enjoyed their books, its just not the same knowing they're such weirdos and racists. Heinlein is about all I can take.
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