Book Review: Jack Vance: A Fantasmic Imagination

Book Review: Jack Vance: A Fantasmic Imagination

"Galactic Central Bibliographies for the Avid Reader, Volume 28"

"A Working Bibliography by Phil Stephensen-Payne and Gordon Benson , Jr."

"2nd Revised Edition, " April, 1990, Galactic Central Publications

61 pages

ISBN 1-871133-02-5

Publisher's website:  http://www.philsp.com/

IFSDB information: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?872449

Book Review Vancealot: Jack Vance in Review, TJ Jones

This publication appears to still be in print.  When I ordered my copy from Amazon in the UK and they stated it was "Supplied direct from publisher."  This is not really a book but resembles photocopied papers stapled together in the center.  Given the selling price of only $4.50 it is still a bargain.  The bibliography is 59 pages long and covers publications by and about Jack Vance through 1989.  As explained in the "Introduction" it covers only English language texts, almost exclusively those printed in the U.S. or U.K.  It only covers reissues if the title was changed.

After the "Introduction" we begin with section "A. Stories."  This lists the first printing of anthologies and story collections in alphabetical order and has 119 entries.  Section "B. Fiction Books" lists all pieces of Vance's fiction that were published separately even if only in a pamphlet.  It has 75 entries.  Section "C. Series" lists nine of Vance's series.  "Poems and Songs" is section D. and has one entry, the Song of Darish from The Face.  Under section "F. Articles" there are only two listings.  Section "G. Miscellaneous" has 16 listings, and includes afterwords, comments, discussions, forewords, glossaries, interviews, introductions, letter to the editor, prefaces and an encyclopedia.  Jack's autobiography "This is Me, Jack Vance!" had not yet been issued so there are no listings under section "H. Non-Fiction Books."  Section J is "Media Presentations" and includes five Captain Video teleplays, one TV Film (Bad Ronald) an Episode of Thriller (The Man in the Cage) and one Dimension X radio series (The Potters of Firsk.)

One of the most interesting sections for me was K. "Articles on Jack Vance" that included titles of 75 articles about Jack's writings.  Perhaps even more interesting is section "L Reviews" which lists 56 Vance books with the various review sources listed under each title.  Under section M. we have "Books about Jack Vance" and seven are listed.  Section N. includes "Phantoms and Forthcoming Titles" and is especially helpful for listing phantom issues, and for false entries.  It also includes some works by a different Jack Vance and John Vance.  Section P. is "Related Items by other Authors" but lists only three entries.  Section Q. is a "Chronological Index."  The only thing in the index new to me were two "untitled stories" one written in 1940 and one in 1941.  I wonder if these manuscripts still exist.  The index ends in 1989 with Durdane and Lyonesse: Madouc.

Dedicated Vance readers will probably want this inexpensive pamphlet, but I doubt it will have much appeal to anybody else.  I rated it a 3 "liked it."  But be forewarned; you might end up like me with a long list of articles about Vance that you now want to try to track down.