Los relatos de Jack Vance de esa moribunda Tierra futura en la que el Sol se apaga y la magia ha vuelto a ocupar el lugar preeminente que tuvo en la antigüedad han intrigado, deleitado y cautivado la imaginación de dos generaciones de lectores. Tras la publicación de La Tierra moribunda, Los ojos del sobremundo y La saga de Cugel, los amantes de la fantasía y la ciencia ficción no han dejado de pedirle al autor que regresara a ese fascinante mundo futuro. Más de treinta años después de su primera incursión en él, Jack Vance vuelve a la Tierra moribunda con una nueva y apasionante aventura, la que cierra el ciclo hasta la fecha. En ella, una serie de taimados magos gobiernan una sociedad maquiavélica, extraños animales merodean por un aún más extraño paisaje, y las trampas e intrigas aguardan por todos lados a los incautos. El agonizante sol cuelga bajo y rojo en el cielo. La magia está en todas partes… y es usada para el mal tan frecuentemente como para el bien. Es en ese escenario donde se mueve el protagonista de esta nueva historia, Rhialto el Prodigioso, una mago del más alto orden… un personaje que tan sólo la fecunda mente de Jack Vance podría crear.

Read as part of 'Tales of the Dying Earth' trade p/b omnibus ( )

I've read this in the omnibus Tales Of The Dying Earth. The book here is divided into three chapters. The first is about a sorceress from a past aeon coming to the present to convert the wizards and thus restore her power. But she's again stopped by her former enemy (a good guy, obviously). Nice chapter, but it's in the next that you get to know the crew. A tale of jealousy and envy, but what goes around, comes around. The third one, Morreion, also features the same group of magicians, who tricked a former friend/colleague somehow and now they're getting him back to the present. But the poor soul recalls the wrong-doings, plans revenge, but in the end gets tricked again... by Rhialto. Throughout the stories you can read that through little things he is indeed "marvellous".

A very entertaining read, all in all. ( )

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

If you’re a fan of Jack Vance, of course you’ve read, or plan to read, Rhialto the Marvellous, last of the Dying Earth books. If you’ve not read any of Mr. Vance’s work, you can start here — it isn’t necessary to have read the previous installments.

Rhialto, who has earned the cognomen “Marvellous” (this has something to do with him being a bit of a dandy) is one of the last of Earth’s magicians, a small group of selfish and unscrupulous men who sometimes work together and sometimes oppose each other as it suits their individual inglorious purposes. The other magicians don’t care too much for Rhialto because he is aloof, popular with women, arrogant, and generally unflappable. Rhialto the Marvellous contains three stories which feature Rhialto working with and against his colleagues.

Rhialto is more passive than Cugel the Clever and not as dastardly, so he doesn’t drive the plot or leave a swath of destruction in his wake like Cugel does. Plus, he has to share the stage with several other strong personalities, making him not as vibrant as we’ve come to expect from Vance’s main characters.

Nonetheless, this novel is still chock full of the ludicrous circumstances and strange humor that Jack Vance fans love. The first story, “The Murthe,” introduces my favorite made-up Vance word: “ensqualm” — which means to turn a man into a woman. That story was hilarious as it seemed to poke fun of feminine behavior while actually ridiculing men. Arthur Morey, who narrates Brilliance Audio’s production and has become one of my favorite audiobook readers, is at top form here as he narrates Vermoulian’s dream (AXR-11 GG7, Volume Seven of the Index) in which Vermoulian meets a group of ensqualmed men and describes their behavior:

I found myself in a landscape of great charm, where I encountered a group of men, all cultured, artistic, and exquisitely refined of manner… ‘We dine upon nutritious nuts and seeds and ripe juicy fruit; we drink only the purest and most natural water from the springs. At night we sit around the campfire and sing merry little ballads. On special occasions we make a punch called opo, from pure fruits, natural honey, and sweet sessamy, and everyone is allowed a good sip… Ah, the women, whom we revere for their kindness, strength, wisdom and patience, as well as for the delicacy of their judgments!...’

He had me laughing out loud already, but when he read their answer to Vermoulian’s questions about how they procreate, I nearly spit my Starbucks onto the steering wheel. I went back and read this in my print copy — it was funny, yes, but Arthur Morey made it even better.

Rhialto the Marvellous is the last of Brilliance Audio’s Vance collection so far, and that makes me sad. I sincerely hope they’ll soon be adding more Vance titles to their catalog and that Arthur Morey will be reading them. If so, I promise that I’ll be reviewing them! ( )

Δεν είμαι βέβαιος κατά πόσο μπορώ να είμαι αντικειμενικός με το τελευταίο βιβλίο της Ετοιμοθάνατης Γης, τα τρία πρώτα βιβλία της οποίας με στοίχειωσαν στην εφηβεία. Διάβασα τις ιστορίες του Ριάλτο του Θαυμαστού με αναγνωστική κατάνυξη σε έναν κόσμο όπου ο ήλιος μπορεί να σβήσει ανά πάσα στιγμή, οπότε τίποτε νέο μοιάζει να μην έχει νόημα και οι συμβάσεις κυριαρχούν στις ανθρώπινες (και στις μη ανθρώπινες) σχέσεις. Ο Ριάλτο δεν είναι βεβαίως ο Κουζέλ, η πένα του Jack Vance μοιάζει σε σημεία κουρασμένη -σαν ο ήλιος να ετοιμάζεται να δύσει- αλλά, να πάρει, δεν μπορώ να φανταστώ πιο ταιριαστό τέλος για τις ιστορίες της Ετοιμοθάνατης Γης.

αναδημοσίευση από το sff.gr
6/3/2014 ( )