When Jack Vance decided to become a writer, a million-word-a-year man as he put it so pragmatically at the time, he also gave fantastic literature one of its most cherished and distinctive voices. Though primarily a novelist throughout his long and distinguished career, this Hugo, Nebula, Edgar and World Fantasy Award-winning Grand Master also produced many short and mid-length works. Wild Thyme, Green Magic collects an alien s handful of these wondrous tales, among them the author s first-ever sale, The World-Thinker, the unforgettable Chateau D If, the stylish Green Magic, the macabre, gothic Seven Exits from Bocz, and The Seventeen Virgins, a rousing adventure with Cugel the Clever set in the author s acclaimed far-future Dying Earth. Table of Contents Introduction by Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan Assault on a City Rumfuddle The Augmented Agent Green Magic Ullward's Retreat Coup de Grace Chateau d'If The Potters of Firsk The World-Thinker Seven Exits from Bocz Wild Thyme and Violets
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.
