The stories included in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisdom and beauty, lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk-men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home in Vance’s lyrically described fantastic landscapes like Embelyon where, “The sky [was] a mesh of vast ripples and cross-ripples and these refracted a thousand shafts of colored light, rays which in mid-air wove wondrous laces, rainbow nets, in all the jewel hues....” The dying Earth itself is otherworldly: “A dark blue sky, an ancient sun.... Nothing of Earth was raw or harsh—the ground, the trees, the rock ledge protruding from the meadow; all these had been worked upon, smoothed, aged, mellowed. The light from the sun, though dim, was rich and invested every object of the land...with a sense of lore and ancient recollection.” Welcome.“The Dying Earth and its sequels comprise one of the most powerful fantasy/science-fiction concepts in the history of the genre. They are packed with adventure but also with ideas, and the vision of uncounted human civilizations stacked one atop another like layers in a phyllo pastry thrills even as it induces a sense of awe [at]...the fragility and transience of all things, the nobility of humanity’s struggle against the certainty of an entropic resolution.” —Dean Koontz, author of the Odd Thomas novels“He gives you glimpses of entire worlds with just perfectly turned language. If he’d been born south of the border, he’d be up for a Nobel Prize.” —Dan Simmons author of The Hyperion Cantos
THE BOOK BEHIND THE SECOND SEASON OF GAME OF THRONES, AN ORIGINAL SERIES NOW ON HBO.In this sequel to A Game of Thrones, George Martin pursues the embattled Seven Kingdoms through a bitter 10-year winter in which good and evil contend for ...
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, Book One of the Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep acro...
My name is Kvothe.I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than mos...
NOW THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONESNominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadFrom a master of contemporary fantasy comes the first novel of a landmark series unlike any you’ve eve...
"These veteran narrators keep the plot moving and the narration fresh" — AudioFile MagazineThis program is read by Audie Award-winning narrators Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, and includes a bonus interview with the author. The Wheel of Time...
THE BOOK BEHIND THE FOURTH SEASON OF THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONESFew books have captivated the imagination and won the devotion and praise of readers and critics everywhere as has George R. R. Martin’s monumental epic cycle of high...
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • THE BOOK BEHIND THE FIFTH SEASON OF THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONESDubbed “the American Tolkien” by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental ...
Inspired by The Hobbit, and begun in 1937, The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy that Tolkien created to provide “the necessary background of history for Elvish tongues.” From these academic aspirations was born one of the most popular and...
THE BOOK BEHIND THE THIRD SEASON OF GAME OF THRONES, AN ORIGINAL SERIES NOW ON HBO.Here is the third volume in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. As a whole, this series...
