- Cugel's Saga
-
Cugel's Saga
Dust-jacket from the first editionAuthor(s) Jack Vance Illustrator Stephen E. Fabian Cover artist Stephen E. Fabian Country United States Language English Series Dying Earth series Genre(s) Fantasy novel Publisher Underwood-Miller Publication date 1983 Media type Print (Hardback) Pages 334 pp ISBN 0934438838 OCLC Number 14344660 Preceded by The Eyes of the Overworld Followed by Rhialto the Marvellous Cugel's Saga is a 1983 work of science fantasy by Jack Vance, and the sequel to his 1966 book The Eyes of the Overworld. The story picks up where the protagonist, Cugel the Clever, had been left at the end of the previous book: sitting disconsolately on a barren beach far to the north of his homeland of Almery.
As in The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's goal is to return home and avenge himself upon Iucounu, the Laughing Magician, whom Cugel regards as indirectly responsible for his second banishment. Taking a different route this time, Cugel obtains a deadly relic of an Overworld being, Sadlark; takes service as worminger (a crewmember responsible for the maintenance of huge marine worms) aboard a worm-propelled merchant ship, which he steals along with its owner's wife and his three comely daughters. Cugel is outwitted by the owner's wife and forced to abandon ship and females; and has various other adventures and setbacks, until with the aid of some new friends, he encompasses the defeat of Iucounu. Like its predecessor, the structure of the story is picaresque, and Cugel remains as ambiguously appealing a character as before.
The book is currently out of print in its original form, but is included (with The Eyes of the Overworld) in the omnibus collection, Tales of the Dying Earth. In the Vance Integral Edition, it is volume 35, retitled by its editor as Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight.
An earlier sequel, A Quest for Simbilis by author Michael Shea, was published in 1974.
References
- Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd.. pp. 669.
- Vance, Jack (1984). Cugel's Saga. Pocket Books. ISBN 067146499X.
Dying Earth series Demon Princes series Planet of Adventure series Durdane series Alastor series Trullion: Alastor 2262 · Marune: Alastor 933 · Wyst: Alastor 1716Lyonesse series Suldrun's Garden · The Green Pearl · MadoucThe Cadwal Chronicles Araminta Station · Ecce and Old Earth · ThroyOther novels The Five Gold Bands · Vandals of the Void · To Live Forever · Big Planet · The Languages of Pao · Slaves of the Klau · Space Opera · The Houses of Iszm · The Blue World · Emphyrio · The Gray Prince · Showboat World · Maske: Thaery · Galactic Effectuator · Night Lamp · Ports of Call · LuruluShort stories/novellas "Telek" · "Gateway to Strangeness" · "The Dragon Masters" · "The Last Castle" · "The Moon Moth" · "Son of the Tree" · "Monsters in Orbit" · "The Brains of Earth" · "Rumfuddle" · "The New Prime" · "Men of the Twelve Books" · "Noise" · "Ullward's Retreat"This article about a 1980s fantasy novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.