Vance and Shea

Yves Meynard · 05 Jun 2007, 01:49 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: meynard at videotron.ca (Yves Meynard)
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:49:14 -0400
Subject: (urth) Vance and Shea
Message-ID: <450051F1-7683-4CA0-9712-FF1161CC15C6 at videotron.ca>

Aaron writes:

> Also, the other day, I read about the author Michael Shea and how he
> wrote a sequel to The Eyes of the Overworld.  He then went on to  
> write a few
> books about a character named Nifft the Lean who is said to be  
> Cugel-esque.
> I am intrigued and will probably try to locate a copy of this Nifft  
> the
> Lean.  Hopefully it will be worthwhile.  Any of you guys read  
> Michael Shea?

Shea's a very interesting writer. The books about Nifft are  
impressive pieces of baroque fantasy, and the sequel to _The Eyes of  
the Overworld_ is quite amusing. It starts off as a very convincing  
pastiche, but then Shea's own writerly nature comes seeping through  
the cracks and the book becomes very Nifft-like at the end -- not  
that I'm complaining.

I reread Vance pretty regularly. He was one of my first great  
literary loves, and the only one who's kept all his glamour as I've  
aged. Amusing to think the influence he's had on Wolfe when you  
consider Vance's cynical take on religion.

Yves Meynard

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