Plot summary
Joe Smith arrives on the planet Kyril, so distant that Earth is but a myth. He is doggedly searching for Harry Creath, his romantic rival for a woman back on Earth. Kyril is a theocracy, in which two million Druids rule over five billion peasant Laity, all of whom worship the "Tree of Life", a huge tree with a trunk five miles in diameter and twelve miles high, and yearn to join with it. The Druids are xenophobic, and consider Joe to be a spy. For unknown reasons, he is befriended by Hableyat, a self-admitted spy of the rival world Mangtse, who finds him a job as chauffeur for the Thearch of the District.
Later, he is summoned by Priestess Elfane, a daughter of the Thearch, and the high-ranking Druid Manaolo. They want him to help dispose of the corpse of the Mangtse ambassador before it is discovered. A chance remark reveals that afterwards they intend to kill him, so he refuses to drive them, instead extracting a bribe for his silence. Joe spots Hableyat watching nearby. Joe becomes a prime suspect in the murder, which was actually committed by Hableyat; Hableyat is a member of the Bluewater faction, the ambassador one of the arch-rival Red-streams.
Hableyat helps him escape on the spaceship Belsaurion, bound for Ballenkarch, last known location of Harry Creath. His fellow passengers include Hableyat, Manaolo and Elfane. Joe tries to extract himself from the political schemes of Kyril and Mangtse. During the voyage, he survives a couple of murder attempts, fights with Manaolo, and finds himself attracted to Elfane. When they arrive on Ballenkarch, Joe finds to his surprise that Harry Creath has made himself ruling prince, with the woman he left behind on Earth as his princess. However, his biggest shock is yet to come, when he discovers the horrific true nature of the so-called Tree of Life.
Elfane and Manaolo have brought an offspring of the Tree of Life to secretly plant on Ballenkarch. The plant captures and consumes several people (back on Kyril, deluded Laity eagerly give themselves to its parent by the thousands each day). Bursts from energy weapons only help it grow more quickly. However, herbicide weakens it to the point it can be killed. Hableyat's faction has fallen from power, but Harry Creath gives him a large quantity of herbicide, giving him the opportunity to score a coup by killing the Tree of Life.
John Holbrook Vance was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen.
Viriconium is a series of novels and stories written by English author M. John Harrison between 1971 and 1984, set in and around the fictional city of the same name.
Doctor Anthony Druid, also known as Doctor Droom and Druid, is a fictional mystic and a supernatural monster-hunter appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer-editor Stan Lee and penciller Jack Kirby, he debuted as Dr. Anthony Droom in Amazing Adventures #1, published in March 1961. Kirby's art was inked by artist Steve Ditko. Dr. Droom appeared in four more issues of Amazing Adventures before his stories discontinued. Over a year later, artist Steve Ditko approached Stan Lee with a new magic character called Mr. Strange. Liking the idea, Stan Lee renamed the character Dr. Strange and wrote an origin story similar to Dr. Droom's. Dr. Anthony Droom was finally reintroduced to comics in 1976 in Weird Wonder Tales #19 in a retelling of his origin story which renamed him Dr. Anthony Druid. This retelling included new writing by Larry Lieber.
The Dying Earth is a collection of science fantasy/fantasy short fiction by American writer Jack Vance, published by Hillman in 1950. Vance returned to the setting in 1965 and thereafter, making it the first book in the Dying Earth series. It was retitled Mazirian the Magician in the Vance Integral Edition (2005), according to Jack Vance's expressed preference.
The Eyes of the Overworld is a picaresque fantasy fix-up novel by American writer Jack Vance, published by Ace in 1966, the second book in the Dying Earth series that Vance inaugurated in 1950. Retitled Cugel the Clever in its Vance Integral Edition (2005), the story takes place in Vance's Dying Earth setting, where the Sun is dying and magic and technology coexist. It features the self-proclaimed Cugel the Clever in linked episodic stories. Cugel is an anti-hero character; while he is typically a crafty scoundrel who seeks to turn a profit from a situation, he retains some good values at times. In the novel, Cugel is caught stealing from a wizard, who forces Cugel to travel to a faraway realm to find a rare magical jewel.
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Roadie is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Alan Rudolph about a truck driver who becomes a roadie for a traveling rock and roll show. The film stars Meat Loaf and marks his first starring role in a film. There are also cameo appearances by musicians such as Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Jr. and supporting roles played by Alice Cooper and the members of Blondie.
The Pnume is a science fiction adventure novel by American writer Jack Vance. The last book in the tetralogy of Planet of Adventure, it tells of the efforts to return to Earth by the sole survivor of a human starship destroyed while investigating a mysterious signal from the distant planet Tschai.
Emphyrio is a science fiction adventure novel by American writer Jack Vance. It tells the story of a young man who overturns the foundations of his world.
Cugel's Saga is a picaresque fantasy novel by American writer Jack Vance, published by Timescape in 1983, the third book in the Dying Earth series, the first volume of which appeared in 1950. The narrative of Cugel's Saga continues from the point at which it left off at the end of The Eyes of the Overworld (1966).
"Mazirian the Magician" is a sword and sorcery short story by American writer Jack Vance. It was first published in 1950 as part of The Dying Earth, a collection of loosely linked tales. It has been reissued in numerous anthologies since 1965, including The Spell of Seven, edited by L. Sprague de Camp.
"Sidewise in Time" is a science fiction short story by American writer Murray Leinster that was first published in the June 1934 issue of Astounding Stories. "Sidewise in Time" served as the title story for Leinster's second story collection in 1950.
Underwood–Miller Inc. was a science fiction and fantasy small press specialty publishing house in San Francisco, California, founded in 1976. It was founded by Tim Underwood, a San Francisco book and art dealer, and Chuck Miller, a Pennsylvania used book dealer, after the two had met at a convention.
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This is a complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Jack Vance.
Slaves of the Klau is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance written in 1958. It is about an Earth man, Roy Barch, who is kidnapped into slavery by a warlike alien race, the Klau and taken to a forced labour planet. Roy develops a plan to escape back to Earth by stealing an anti-gravity ship from the Klau and turning it into a spaceship.
"A Landowner's Morning", also translated as "A Morning of a Landed Proprietor" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written and published in 1856, early in Tolstoy's career. It is a fragment of Tolstoy's unfinished Novel of a Russian Landowner.
