AXLER.Upenn-1100%Rand-Relay@sri-unix.UUCP (12/12/83)
From: AXLER.Upenn-1100@Rand-Relay (David M. Axler - MSCF Applications Mgr.)
I just finished reading Vance's "Cugel's Saga", and also noticed the
problems mentioned in SFL 123 -- the book did seem weaker than the previous
two in the "series". I think there are two reasons for this, though: first
of all, this is actually a series of stories that were independently printed
(mostly in F&SF, as I recall) and later welded into a novel through various
modifications. That's a common practice in sf, and one which has seldom proven
to produce a good book -- I'd much rather the author came out with a short
story collection about a single character. The other problem is simply that
it has been many years since Vance started writing about the Dying Earth, and
the subject may simply be less interesting to him these days -- as I recall,
the stories that form the new book came out over a period of five or six years,
i.e., Vance wasn't inclined (for whatever reasons) to put in the continuous
effort needed to produce a novel, he just wrote the occasional story as it
came to mind.