Cugel's Saga (Dying Earth Series #3) Book

It has been an awfully long time since I read this book. Thirty years probably :o

However, the fact that I can even attempt a review from memory speaks to how ... memorable ... the book is.

I think I read this the year it came out and never again. I really must dig the series out because it has stuck with me as rather fine. Cugel especially with his brand of cowardice and amoral innovation has remained a favorite.

The world Vance creates is as compelling as the characters in it, and it's great that he is content to lead us through its ruins without the need to spell it out for us in stultifying detail(*). His prose is sharp enough to cut the ambiance of the place from the stuff of the readers' imagination with economy.

(*)Vance does on occasion dive head first into detail, bringing the fanciful to life with minutiae that make it seem text-book real. Somehow he does this without boring me. I have no idea how he does it because I have a very low tolerance for info dumps.

It's a story crammed with novelty. Cugel finds himself embroiled in various strange tasks such as diving in a swamp for the scales of a fallen demi-god, scrubbing the giant worms that tow a ship, and you're never quite sure where things are heading.

I particularly like how many of the conflicts take place through the medium of agreements, laws, and obligations which are then twisted to advantage. When in another book the characters might come to blows here they are more likely to reach for legal precedent. This has the advantage of allowing Cugel's cleverness (and sometimes lack thereof) to shine.

An absurd, strangely moving, and always fascinating book.

A classic!


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