
We are pleased to announce our limited edition of The Dragon Masters and The Last Castle by Jack Vance. This edition brings together two of Vance’s most celebrated novellas, both recipients of the Hugo Award and regarded as seminal works in the science fiction genre. With an introduction by John Vance and an afterword by Michael Moorcock, this edition celebrates Vance’s singular imagination and enduring literary legacy. In The Dragon Masters, when humans on a distant world, living under primitive conditions, breed lizard-like alien creatures into fierce warriors, the unexpected arrival of a vessel from the aliens’ home planet brings not only their kindred, but something far more unsettling. In The Last Castle, a privileged aristocracy lives in towering, high-tech fortresses sustained by alien servitors, until an unexpected rebellion threatens to bring their world crashing down. The Dragon Masters first appeared in the August 1962 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine and was published in book form by Ace Books in 1963 as half of Ace Double F-185. The novella earned Jack Vance his first Hugo Award. The Last Castle made its debut in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine in 1966 and was published as half of Ace Double H-21 in 1967. It won the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. These honors contributed to Jack Vance’s recognition by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, who named the author a Grand Master in 1997, the highest honor bestowed by the SFWA. Both The Dragon Masters and The Last Castle showcase Jack Vance’s enduring mastery of imaginative world-building and inventive storytelling that define the very best of science fiction.
Author

Aka John Holbrook Vance, Peter Held, John Holbrook, Ellery Queen, John van See, Alan Wade. The author was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, he contributed widely to science fiction and fantasy magazines. His first novel, The Dying Earth , was published in 1950 to great acclaim. He won both of science fiction's most coveted trophies, the Hugo and Nebula awards. He also won an Edgar Award for his mystery novel The Man in the Cage . He lived in Oakland, California in a house he designed.