In 1964, Ballantine Books published Future Tense, a short collection of stories by Jack Vance. In 1981, DAW Books reprinted the collection under the title, Dust of Far Suns.
The first story in both books is “Dust of Far Suns,” one of Jack Vance’s most famous stories. A curmudgeonly old man named Henry Belt is assigned a small group of eight young men . These Cadets have signed up for a 2-year space voyage with Henry Belt who will test them for their ability to deal with the demands of space travel. Henry Belt’s tests are clever and diabolical!
In “Dodkin’s Job,” a young man named Luke Grogatch tries to fight a dysfunctional bureaucracy. After many failure, Luke tries a completely different strategy.
“Ullward’s Retreat” is another of Vance’s well known stories. Jack Vance admitted that “Ullward’s Retreat” was one of his favorite stories. On an overcrowded future Earth, privacy and living space is in short supply. In order to impress his friends, a vastly wealthy man named Ullward leases a continent from a spaceman who has laid claim to an entire habitable world. But Ullward finds more problems with this arrangement than he had considered.
“The Gift of Gab” is a mystery story. A group of prospectors search for minerals on a planet that is supposed to be devoid of intelligent life. But when a couple of the prospectors disappear, some of the prospectors start to suspect that the decapods, a creature similar to a squid, could have intelligence higher than expected. The solution to the mystery resolves some problems but creates others.
Jack Vance, known for his Demon Princes novels, shows in this collection he’s equally adept at writing compelling short stories. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Dust of Far Suns — 7
Dodkin’s Job — 37
Ullward’s Retreat — 78
The Gift of Gab — 104
I think if there was a single volume most Vance fans would think of first among his early work, even given such gems as BIG PLANET and THE LANGUAGES OF PAO, it would be THE DYING EARH, his brilliant collection of linked short stories…sequeled by the similar collected short fiction THE EYS OF THE OVERWORLD, which introduces Cugel the Clever. just as brilliant…and, of course, as John Holbrook Vance, he published no little (and some award-winning) crime fiction. But this is a collection I’ve missed over the years, and I might do something about that…thanks for featuring it!
Or even THE DYING EARTH, even if Vance could devise a useful Earh in his fiction!
Todd, the stories in the THE DYING EARTH are brilliant!
Todd, you’re right about THE DYING EARTH being a masterpiece. Love THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD, too! I read FUTURE TENSE when it was first published, but missed this edition until I recently came across a bunch of DAW paperbacks that I quickly bought.
At 2am, I clearly couldn’t type a whole DYING EARTH-sequence title…
Todd, my typing and thinking decline precipitously after Midnight.
Sounds good. Will look out for it.
Jeff, DAW Books had the habit of changing the titles of Jack Vance’s early work when they reprinted it…or maybe Vance did it.
Reminds me of plot themes from the Apple show FOR ALL MANKIND.
Vance was a master of elegantly-written, yet grounded, interplanetary SF. I still haven’t seen the series, but from what I hear from it, it might draw some inspiration from his work.
Patti, you might be right. Vance and others used universal SF plot themes.
I will pick up the book on the basis of the title itself.
Neeru, thank you for your kind THANKSGIVING wishes! We love spending time in New York City with our children. We’re going to see some Broadway shows this weekend and eat at some swanky restaurants.
Neeru, I’m a big fan of Jack Vance’s work although for many readers Vance is an acquired taste. If you haven’t read Vance’s THE DYING EARTH, you’re in for a reading experience you won’t soon forget!