Comments on: Thoughts on the Dying Earth genre

By: dnix

dnix — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:35:46 +0000

Gene Wolfe is over rated. His works always start strong, but then become repetitive with characters who start to sound or feel alike. I think reviewers always fall for his command of the language and miss the lack of good story movement.

By: jeff h

jeff h — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:57:59 +0000

Matthew Hughes’ Archonate novels and stories are often compared to Vance’s work. They’re great reads.

By: Alex Carnegie

Alex Carnegie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:51:10 +0000

Compendium sounds like a good idea, especially one that gives a sense of a timeline – stretching back from the likes of The Night Land up to Villjamur in the present day.

Re. the Masterwork edition – it includes a great essay by China Mieville on Hodgson which I would consider essential reading if you’re interested in the author. Nobody has yet adequately explained his mysterious loathing of pigs however (no, I’m not making that up).

By: Mark C Newton

Mark C Newton — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:34:51 +0000

Hi f. I’ve read Hothouse – but didn’t include it in the major list. For some reason, I never got on with the prose. And I do enjoy Ballard’s novels so I’ll have to find out more about the Vermillion Sands collection.

Hi Georges – The Night Land – I believe Gollancz to a Masterwork edition of that in the UK. (And I’m off to google Death of the Earth now!)

It would be good to have a complete compendium of Dying Earth books, and a brief description of each text. Maybe I should start one based on some of these very useful comments.

By: Georges Dodds

Georges Dodds — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:29:50 +0000

One of the best dying earth stories I’ve come across is J.H. Rosny’s 1910 “La Mort de la Terre’ (or “The Death of the Earth) which was available in English translation from Ayer Publ. and appears in Preview format on Google books (search for The Xipehuz and The death of the earth). It has ferromagnetic life forms reprocessing much of the grand structures built by man, and man dying out in a world where the sun is fading. Another excellent dying Earth novel, as mentioned by ‘Alex’ would be William Hope Hodgson’s “The Night Land.” I must say that the writing style (pseudo-Elizabethan) never really bothered me, but that was in the days that I was reading “The Fairie Queene” and “The Worm Ouroboros.”

By: f.

f. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:28:14 +0000

I’m not sure what it is I love about this genre, being it usually a mix of elegy with picaresque (with everything else in the case of Wolfe’s New Sun) and as such a strange mix between melancholy and joy, or some kind of melancholy and joy, but I must celebrate too the inclusion of The Time Machine. Clever point.
And I second as well the mention of The Dancers at the End of Time.
Though I’m not sure Joe was referring to those, his comment reminded me of other Clarke works: “Againts the Fall of Night” and its expansion into novel, The City and the Stars.
Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse and Samuel Delany’s The Einstein Intersection (I think I read this one not long after The Book of the New Sun and it was impossible not to see some similarities) are also the kind of stories I’d include.
Finally, I can’t remember who or where but somebody included J.G. Ballard’s Vermilion Sands in a dying earth bibliography. It may not be your classic dying earth story or an orthodox one, but it is something worth musing on.

By: New Feature: News from a 140 characters – NextRead

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By: Mark C Newton

Mark C Newton — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:13:57 +0000

Hi Laurie – yeah, that book certainly does divide people. Glad you’re a fan though, and thanks for the other link – I’ll check it out.

Hey Alex! You know, I still need to read Dancers at the End of Time – it’s been on my list for a long time. I like the comparison to a sunset beauty – there’s something dignified about that melancholy.

Hi Patton – thanks for those recommendations. I’ll certainly add them to my next Amazon binge.

By: G. Arthur Brown

G. Arthur Brown — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:18:33 +0000

I think the Buried Earth genre is under blown and under written.

By: Patton McGinley

Patton McGinley — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:55:11 +0000

My entrants to the sub-genre’s roll-call have to be Elizabeth Hand’s first three novels: Winterlong, Aestival Tide and Icarus Descending. Though they have minor drawbacks (especially the last two) the sheer exuberance of Winterlong is captivating. And speaking of “melancholy fatalism,” these books have it in spades. The entire “end of time” element may not specifically fit for the “un-trilogy,” but by the end of Icarus Descending it is quite obvious that it’s the “end” of the current iteration of the Earth.