The Eyes of the Overworld

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

I???ve already said, numerous times, how much I love Jack Vance, so I???ll skip all that this time. You can read other reviews on this page if you missed that.

The Eyes of the Overworld is the second part of Tales of the Dying Earth and the main character is one of my favorite Vance characters: the self-titled Cugel the Clever. Cugel is not the kind of guy you want to have dealings with ??? he???s clever, sneaky, completely selfish and remorseless. He is always trying to figure out how he can take advantage of other people in order to make his own circumstances better.

In The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel decides to burglarize the house of Iucounu the Laughing Magician so he can sell some of Iucounu???s thaumaturgical artifacts. But the magician catches Cugel and punishes him by setting him on a quest to procure a lens which allows the wearer to view the overworld.

Cugel is clever, but as clever as he is, he often finds himself facing a foe who, at least temporarily, manages to outwit him (which invariably surprises Cugel). This time his quest leads him on a series of misadventures in which he: gets captured by rat people??? is forced to be the watchman of a village??? steals more than one person???s inheritance??? deals with demons??? trades a woman for information??? impersonates a god??? and travels a million years into the past. Wherever he goes, Cugel, sometimes purposely and sometimes unwittingly, leaves sorrow and destruction in his wake. He deprives people of their hope, their faith and, often, their lives.

This doesn???t sound like it should be very entertaining, but oh, it is! That???s because the story is written in Jack Vance???s singular style: high language, bizarre occurrences, and Vance???s characteristic humor. I hate to say it again, but the best comparison I can make is to Monty Python. If you???re a fan of that type of strange dark humor, then this should be your thing.

I listened to The Eyes of the Overworld in audio format. I can???t express how excited I was to learn that Brilliance Audio was producing these, and I???m pleased to report that they did an excellent job. Arthur Morey once again brought out all of the nuances of Vance???s humor and he made a perfect Cugel. In fact, The Eyes of the Overworld was even better than The Dying Earth, probably because it follows the same main character rather than being divided up into separate short stories. I loved it.