Customer Reviews

Complete Lyonesse

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The stories are familiar to Vance fans. The complete trilogy of Lyonesse, however, has never been reprinted in an omnibus, leatherbound, archival quality edition. And for such a price as presently offered (about 40 dollars U.S.) this is an edition no Vance fan will want to be without.
Using the Vance Integral Edition texts, this reprint offers a complete version, unedited, exactly as Vance wrote it himself (perhaps dismissing the U added to colour and honour and the like, this book being republished in London.)
It is sparesly illustrated, but they are well done, entirely appropriate to the atmosphere of the trilogy. The book itself, aesthetically, is beautiful to this beholder.
It is about 1035 pages and I was concerned it would be a bit unwieldy, and possibly becuase of its size, easily damaged. Im positive now upon seeing it that it is a durable and sturdy tome. I am very well pleased and recommend this book to veterans of Vance and newcomers alike.

(Upon finishing the book, I now realize that there is at least one error in the text (one half paragraph repeats halfway through, without finishing the second half),not negligible yet not detracting whatsoever from the story as a whole; what it did for me is dampen the atmosphere in that scene. However, such an error was not repeated, and I did not notice any spelling errors, grammatical errors, or anything else after this. And I was on guard. As another reviewer noted, the map is wonderfully drawn, but "Haut", instead of Dahaut, did irk me something fierce, as it detracted from the otherwise good looking map.)

I love these books, and am delighted to have them available in an omnibus edition. I am not going to comment on the writing - it is Jack Vance at his finest, which is saying a lot - but instead comment on this edition. Reviewers have called this volume 'gorgeous' and 'stunning,' but I have a few nits to pick.

Although it is hardcover, this massive tome is actually bound like a paperback book. That is, the pages are directly glued, not sewn, into the backing. Consequently, it does not fall open in the hand as easily as a sewn binding. I have not seen this type of construction before in a hardcover. It does seem very well made.

The binding is a black leather-like material, with a pebbled texture. I mention this because the title and other cover text, in gold, are printed on the surface, not embossed, so that the text is also pebbled. I find the effect a little cheap, and hard to read in indirect light. There appear to be at least a couple of different versions of the cover, with different art.

The map in the original version was crudely drawn, but clear. This new edition uses an artistically redrawn map for the endpapers, an excellent idea. Sadly, there are several errors immediately apparent in the new map. I can't fault the artist for not knowing the books, but how was this not noticed by the editors? (Specifically, 'Dahaut' is misspelled as 'Haut,' and 'Bulmer Skeme' appears as 'Bulmer Skerne.' Also, the forest of Tantrevalles should extend both north and south of the crossroads at Twitten Corners.)

Much has been made of the use here of the Vance Integral Edition text, and the consequent elimination of errors. Sadly, a number of typos have somehow slipped through. I also noticed minor errors in the genealogy and in the listing of Vance's published works.

Despite these quibbles, this is an exceptional quality book and a superb value. Please don't let my pickiness discourage you. If you enjoy magical fantasy, this is some of the finest ever written.

As others have said, this is the 3-books of the Lyonesse trilogy - Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, and Madouc - in a single 1000+ page volume, sturdily bound and using the Vance Integral Edition text. If you are a Jack Vance fan, the old Lyonesse paperbacks may be getting a little worn, and this is a worthy replacement. If you have not read Vance before, this is a reasonably accessable starting point, for all its length.

Lyonesse is Vance writing at the peak of his powers in the 1980's (the time he also wrote Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvellous). This is epic high fantasy, with warring kingdoms, fairies, trolls, quests, wizards and magic swords, but all told with Vance's wry perspective on humanity. People don't speak like Vance writes - but they should! The dialogue is wonderful to read, and the characters are distinct and well-written.

Lyonesse is set in the "Elder Isles" just off Cornwall, with kingdoms warring against each other and the invading Ska. The story is set around the rise of Aillas - although this is not immediately apparent. No one is necessarily who they seem: at first it looks like King Casmir will be the focus of the story, and it takes a while for this impression to change.

Madouc, the final volume, is largely focused on young Princess Madouc's quest for her own identity, almost to the exclusion of a large number of plot threads hanging from The Green Pearl. Just when you think Vance can't possibly wind this up well, he does: the story never gets away from him, despite being told in unparalled levels of depth.

Lastly, there is a short analysis of Lyonesse as a literary work, and the six short appendices from the trilogy. There is also a near-complete list of other works by Vance, so if this is your first exposure to Vance, if you like it there is plenty of direction as to what to look for next.

Thanks to Gollancz for producing the only fully correct mass-market edition of this masterwork. I would hope for a US edition, but the prices offered by the various sellers are quite reasonable and I venture you could buy with confidence. I got my copy through amazon.de, and have just posted an extensive review to amazon.co.uk, to which I humbly commend your attention. Well, not so humbly as all that.

I was the primary textual integrity worker for the VIE's Lyonesse and can attest to the correctness of this version. As noted, there is a missing line on Page 270, but another reviewer on the UK site has supplied the correct reading.

The British spellings are not Gollancz's invention, they are original Vance. More on this at the UK site as well.

It is highly probable that there will not be a better edition of Lyonesse for many years to come--if ever. Buy it, read it, savor it, reread it--then join us on the Jack Vance Message Board and tell us how glad you are to have finally discovered the work of one of the 20th Century's greatest writers.

The first time I read Suldrun's Garden, the first book in the Lyonesse series, the soft, trade back cover had been bound to the library's replacement hardback, because someone couldn't read the book in a decent fashion. They'd tortured the book, and while the librarians had tried to recover the book in one piece, there'd been a single page, ripped cleanly in half and missing. By the time I had read the Green Pearl, the second book in the series on a used paperback, I dreamed of a day that I could own the completed series in a book I could share with my family and friends as the classic deserved.

This book is that collector's item. The black cover isn't that much, but within are durable, well glued and machine sewn pages that should outlive me. Within those pages are the glowing words of Jack Vance. I have never finished this series, but loved both of the first two so much that I've enjoyed reading them, and plan on finishing the third and final volume Madouc, on a long flight from Atlanta to Honolulu. The first two stories are not your traditional hero stories. Vance does not merely follow one hero, he follows the hero and his progeny. Vance does not give you the merely Western story, where the hero always wins, he gives you a hero who usually wins and a second hero who must suffer so much and endure, that it is in his survival that you see his victory. In still a third path within the book, you follow the clever artifice of his magic system, learning of his sandestine driven and device built magic. Every tool you watch used, loved and torn away to reveal the power of his "fairy tale" as he continues page after page to write glowing prose.

To the sender, thank you, the book was lovely. It came in Good condition, my only concern was that for whatever reason, customs or someone nosy at the post office opened the packaging, so that when I got it in my over sized mailbox, the book almost fell out of the plastic sleeve it had been packed in, onto the ground. Given my struggle with this series in the past had been with the miscarriage done by other readers before me, I'd have been upset if the care in travel or in the last hop from mailbox to door had been the damaging entity. Thank you, thank you for this excellent book.

This is a very nice edition that includes everything that was in the original books. If you have never read these before your in for a treat. They did move the Original Into to "Suldruns Garden" to the back of the 3rd book with all the glossaries from all three books. Also no Dust Jacket comes with this edition.