13-08-2016, 20:43
[espacement][emphase]5. Le maître mais non le favori[/emphase]
On ne s’étonnera pas, à lire ce qui précède, de trouver le Seigneur des Anneaux au sommet de la liste des conseils de lecture de G.R.R. Martin :
[citation=09/1999]Martin recommends Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Robert E. Howard's Conan and Kull stories, the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place, Fritz Leiber's stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry stories, and Jack Vance's Lyonesse, The Dying Earth, and Cugel's Saga. He also recommends historical writers such as Sharon Kay Penman, Nigel Tranter, Cecilia Holland, Thomas B. Costain, and Maurice Druon.[/citation]
Mais lorsqu’on l’interroge sur son écrivain préféré, Martin répond immédiatement, non pas Tolkien, mais
[citation=02/1999]Jack Vance. Definitely. He's incredible. He just goes on and on. So many writers of his duration hit a wall at some point in their career. They stop writing, or they continue writing, but their books turn to crap. But Vance is just as good now; Nightlamp was just as good as Big Planet. He keeps hitting these home runs as far as I'm concerned, and I can't stop reading him. I pick up a new book by him and I read one sentence and I'm hooked; he's got me in. He's terrific. I like a lot of other writers, too but Vance is definitely my single favorite.[/citation]
Car Vance non seulement est un « maître de la fantasy » mais également (pouvait-il dire en 2000) [emphase]« le plus grand écrivain vivant de science-fiction »[/emphase] :
[citation=12/2000]Jack Vance is the greatest living SF writer, in my opinion, and one of the few who is also a master of Fantasy. His The Dying Earth (1950) was one of the seminal books in the history of modern Fantasy, and I would rank him right up there with Tolkien, Dunsany, Leiber, and T.H. White as one of the fathers of the genre.[/citation]
À la mort de Vance en mai 2013, G.R.R. Martin lui rend hommage sur son blog, en faisant de lui le troisième membre d’une trinité des créateurs de mondes avec Howard et Tolkien :
[citation=29/05/2013]It is a sad day for fans of science fiction and fantasy.
Word has just gotten out that Jack Vance, one of the grandmasters of our genres, and IMNSHO one of the greatest writers of our times, passed away on Sunday. He was 96.
I had the honor of meeting Jack a few times, but I cannot claim to have known him well. But he had a huge influence on me and my work, and for the past fifty-some years has ranked among my very favorite writers. Every time a new Jack Vance book came out, I would drop whatever else I was doing and read it. Sometimes I did not mean to, but once you cracked the covers of a Vance book, you were lost.
It pleases me no end that Gardner Dozois and I were able to do our tribute anthology, Songs of the Dying Earth, when Jack was still alive, so he could hear how many of today's fantasists he had inspired. Vance's Dying Earth ranks with Howard's Hyborian Age and Tolkien's Middle Earth as one of the all-time great fantasy settings, and Cugel the Clever is the genre's greatest rogue, a character as memorable as Conan or Frodo (either of whom Cugel would likely swindle out of their smallclothes, had they ever met).
Vance was equally adept at writing SF and mystery, and will be remembered as one of the very few writers ever to win an Edgar Award along with Hugos and Nebulas. The output was prodigious, and there is scarcely a bad book among them. If you haven't read Jack Vance... well, I pity you, but I envy you as well. You have some amazing adventures ahead of you. The Dying Earth, Lyonesse, the Demon Princes, Bad Ronald, Liane the Wayfarer and Chun the Unavoidable, Emphyrio, Showboat World, Big Planet, the Dirdir and the Pnume and the Chasch and (yes) the Wankh, the Last Castle, the Dragon Masters, the Moon Moth... the list goes on and on and on and on.
Jack Vance left the world a richer place than he found it. No more can be asked of any writer.[/citation]
[espacement]S.
On ne s’étonnera pas, à lire ce qui précède, de trouver le Seigneur des Anneaux au sommet de la liste des conseils de lecture de G.R.R. Martin :
[citation=09/1999]Martin recommends Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Robert E. Howard's Conan and Kull stories, the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place, Fritz Leiber's stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry stories, and Jack Vance's Lyonesse, The Dying Earth, and Cugel's Saga. He also recommends historical writers such as Sharon Kay Penman, Nigel Tranter, Cecilia Holland, Thomas B. Costain, and Maurice Druon.[/citation]
Mais lorsqu’on l’interroge sur son écrivain préféré, Martin répond immédiatement, non pas Tolkien, mais
[citation=02/1999]Jack Vance. Definitely. He's incredible. He just goes on and on. So many writers of his duration hit a wall at some point in their career. They stop writing, or they continue writing, but their books turn to crap. But Vance is just as good now; Nightlamp was just as good as Big Planet. He keeps hitting these home runs as far as I'm concerned, and I can't stop reading him. I pick up a new book by him and I read one sentence and I'm hooked; he's got me in. He's terrific. I like a lot of other writers, too but Vance is definitely my single favorite.[/citation]
Car Vance non seulement est un « maître de la fantasy » mais également (pouvait-il dire en 2000) [emphase]« le plus grand écrivain vivant de science-fiction »[/emphase] :
[citation=12/2000]Jack Vance is the greatest living SF writer, in my opinion, and one of the few who is also a master of Fantasy. His The Dying Earth (1950) was one of the seminal books in the history of modern Fantasy, and I would rank him right up there with Tolkien, Dunsany, Leiber, and T.H. White as one of the fathers of the genre.[/citation]
À la mort de Vance en mai 2013, G.R.R. Martin lui rend hommage sur son blog, en faisant de lui le troisième membre d’une trinité des créateurs de mondes avec Howard et Tolkien :
[citation=29/05/2013]It is a sad day for fans of science fiction and fantasy.
Word has just gotten out that Jack Vance, one of the grandmasters of our genres, and IMNSHO one of the greatest writers of our times, passed away on Sunday. He was 96.
I had the honor of meeting Jack a few times, but I cannot claim to have known him well. But he had a huge influence on me and my work, and for the past fifty-some years has ranked among my very favorite writers. Every time a new Jack Vance book came out, I would drop whatever else I was doing and read it. Sometimes I did not mean to, but once you cracked the covers of a Vance book, you were lost.
It pleases me no end that Gardner Dozois and I were able to do our tribute anthology, Songs of the Dying Earth, when Jack was still alive, so he could hear how many of today's fantasists he had inspired. Vance's Dying Earth ranks with Howard's Hyborian Age and Tolkien's Middle Earth as one of the all-time great fantasy settings, and Cugel the Clever is the genre's greatest rogue, a character as memorable as Conan or Frodo (either of whom Cugel would likely swindle out of their smallclothes, had they ever met).
Vance was equally adept at writing SF and mystery, and will be remembered as one of the very few writers ever to win an Edgar Award along with Hugos and Nebulas. The output was prodigious, and there is scarcely a bad book among them. If you haven't read Jack Vance... well, I pity you, but I envy you as well. You have some amazing adventures ahead of you. The Dying Earth, Lyonesse, the Demon Princes, Bad Ronald, Liane the Wayfarer and Chun the Unavoidable, Emphyrio, Showboat World, Big Planet, the Dirdir and the Pnume and the Chasch and (yes) the Wankh, the Last Castle, the Dragon Masters, the Moon Moth... the list goes on and on and on and on.
Jack Vance left the world a richer place than he found it. No more can be asked of any writer.[/citation]
[espacement]S.