![\"vance.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/vance.jpg\" "\\"vance.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Another item brought to light during the Great Shelf Re-ordering and Spring Clean is this 1962 Lancer paperback of The Dying Earth<\/em> by Jack Vance<\/a>, a slim collection of six short connected stories, and another favourite book. Despite the SF label this is far more a work of fantasy (science fantasy, if you must), being tales of the bizarre and occasionally grotesque inhabitants of the last days of the earth. Magic is the order of the day, not advanced technology, although Vance hints that the book’s elaborate spells may be a higher ordering of mathematics capable of manipulating reality. I like the simple cover layout of this edition; Ed Emshwiller’s illustration manages to be sparing yet fully representative of a key scene.<\/p>\n French sf portal Noosfere<\/a> has recently revamped its artwork showcase<\/a> and has a substantial collection of Emshwiller’s cover paintings. I’d prefer to see more of his earlier style but the collection includes some striking designs.<\/p>\n Sunstone (1979).<\/em><\/p>\n Emshwiller was a very prolific illustrator but from the 1960s on also developed his own style of experimental filmmaking, some examples of which can be found at YouTube. I’d actually seen Sunstone<\/em><\/a>\u2014a very early piece of computer animation\u2014years ago without registering the credit. In addition there’s also Thanatopsis<\/em><\/a>, a strange b&w short which is remarkably similar in tone to some of the films which William Burroughs and Antony Balch were making at around the same time.<\/p>\n \u2022 The genre artist<\/a> | Jack Vance profiled in the NYT<\/p>\n Elsewhere on { feuilleton } Previously on { feuilleton } Another item brought to light during the Great Shelf Re-ordering and Spring Clean is this 1962 Lancer paperback of The Dying Earth by Jack Vance, a slim collection of six short connected stories, and another favourite book. Despite the SF label this is far more a work of fantasy (science fantasy, if you must), being … Continue reading “The art of Ed Emshwiller, 1925\u20131990”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,2,42,21,7,48,20],"tags":[2921,1279,476,477,1895,1190],"class_list":["post-5396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animation","category-art","category-books","category-fantasy","category-film","category-illustrators","category-science-fiction","tag-antony-balch","tag-clark-ashton-smith","tag-ed-emshwiller","tag-jack-vance","tag-virgil-finlay","tag-william-burroughs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-1p2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"emsh.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/emsh.jpg\" "\\"emsh.jpg\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"sunstone.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/sunstone.jpg\" "\\"sunstone.jpg\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u2022 The book covers archive<\/a>
\n\u2022 The illustrators archive<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u2022 The King in Yellow<\/a>
\n\u2022 Ballantine Adult Fantasy covers<\/a>
\n\u2022 Clark Ashton Smith book covers<\/a>
\n\u2022 Revenant volumes: Bob Haberfield, New Worlds and others<\/a>
\n\u2022 The World in 2030<\/a>
\n\u2022 The art of Virgil Finlay, 1914\u20131971<\/a>
\n\u2022 Towers Open Fire<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"