The post office is a tiny shore where, occasionally, wonders wash up. This afternoon I went to collect the mail and found the advance uncorrected proof of Wild Thyme, Green Magic: Stories by Jack Vance. This is the third and almost certainly final volume of the work of the great Jack Vance that I have compiled with Terry Dowling. Although I’m most proud of the tragically out of print The Jack Vance Treasury (a book I believe to be one of the field’s truly essential compilations), I have a soft spot for each of these three fine books. I’m hoping Tom Kidd will do the cover for this one, though I don’t know if that’ll be the case. Certainly, it stands happily alongside The Jack Vance Reader, the forthcoming Songs of the Dying Earth and This is Me! (Jack’s autobiography) as a wonderful shelf of Vance from Subterranean.
Given that it’s unlikely that I’ll do another Vance project, though I’d be delighted to, I’d like to thank the Vances, John Schwab, Bill Schafer, Tom Kidd and Terry for letting me work with them on these books. It’s been a privilege.
I discovered the Jack Vance Treasury too late to grab it! But I was in time to grab the Jack Vance Reader…. and have ordered the Songs of Dying Earth a long long long time ago (the signed edition)!!!
Can’t wait.
May I suggest to the Jack Vance aficionados the novels of Matt Hughes? They have a delightful vancean flavour.