Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 4

"Ulan Dhor" by Jack Vance. The is the most science-fictional of the Dying Earth stories (although Guyal of Sfere remains to be re-read), with its flying cars, portable force field/tents, and a Cthulhu-ish gloop monster making its appearance at the close.  Its also one of the most sword-and-sorcery-ish for that very reason.  It's a bit of a footnote compared to the first few stories, but still retains its charm.

"Guyal of Sfere" by Jack Vance. I think this is my least favorite in the Dying Earth, but it is fun and decidedly weird.  And it leaves the book on a hopeful and adventuresome note.

"Introduction" by Robert Asprin. A capable little tale that imaginatively lays out the backstory of Sanctuary, the shared-world setting of the Thieve's World books and helps set the tone.

"Sentences of Death" by John Brunner.  The first formal story in the series.  It was probably my favorite story in the book Thieve's World when I first read it in 1983, and so far it looks like it may hold onto its position; nice gritty skullduggery involving a sheet of paper with cursed sentences, a tough young street girl (the still-excellently realized character Jarveena) hell-bent on vengeance, and Enas Yorl, the mysterious magician cursed to be an involuntary (and frequent) shape-changer.

"The Face of Chaos" Lynn Abbey. It seems this was one of Abbey's first published stories.  It's a somewhat minor tale of body-switching trickery, but the character of Illyra, one of the Romany-like fortune-telling peoples of Sanctuary, is one of my favorites from the series, and there is an interesting, unresolved supernatural element, involving the mysterious Blue Star wizards and the power of fate itself.