So You Want to Read Dying Earth Fiction: Here’s Where to Start
Dying Earth fiction is set in a distant future in which the Earth — or maybe the universe itself — is dying. Humanity’s golden age was long ago, and cynicism and greed rule the day. Typically magic and technology have become indistinguishable, and sorcerers and thieves plot and scheme under the dimming light of a red sun. Here are three suggestions If you’re interested in trying this science-fantasy subgenre for yourself.
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Add to BookshelfThe Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies
by Clark Ashton Smith
Vance did have his influences, though, and it is very likely that one of them was Clark Ashton Smith. Smith, a contemporary of H. P. Lovecraft, had a similarly verbose and sometimes flowery prose style, and mixed elements of science-fiction and fantasy in many of his stories. Smith’s Zothique Cycle of stories at least shared some creative DNA with the Dying Earth tales. Set in a scarcely recognizable far future, the Zothique Cycle features magicians and adventurers exploring an Earth in which technology has been subsumed by savagery and superstition.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Dying of the Light
by George R. R. Martin
A whisperjewel has summoned Dirk t’Larien to Worlorn, and a love he thinks he lost. But Worlorn isn’t the world Dirk imagined, and Gwen Delvano is no longer the woman he once knew. She is bound to another man, and to a dying planet that is trapped in twilight. Gwen needs Dirk’s protection, and he will do anything to keep her safe, even if it means challenging the barbaric man who has claimed her. But an impenetrable veil of secrecy surrounds them all, and it’s becoming impossible for Dirk to distinguish between his allies and his enemies. In this dangerous triangle, one is hurtling toward escape, another toward revenge, and the last toward a brutal, untimely demise.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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3
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Viriconium
by M. John Harrison
Set in the imagined city of Viriconium, here are the masterworks that revolutionized a genre and enthralled a generation of readers: The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights. Back in print after a long absence, these singular tales of a timeless realm and its enigmatic inhabitants are now reborn and compiled to captivate a whole new generation.
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$20.00Buy from Other Retailers:
