Jack Vance

John Holbrook “Jack” Vance was born on August 28, 1916. He was an American fantasy, mystery plus science creative writing author. Most of Vance’s work was published under his name “Jack Vance”, however, 9 of the mystery novels he wrote used his full name John Holbrook Vance, while 3 of his published books of the same genre were written under his pseudonym Ellery Queen.

The best place to start is The Dying Earth series, the earliest of Jack Vance's multi-book series: it opens with The Dying Earth / Mazirian the Magician (1950) and runs to 10 books across 1950–2009, ending with Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance (2009). Jack Vance's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Jack Vance has 138 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1950 and 2024. 56 of them belong to 14 named series — the largest being The Dying Earth series with 10 books — and 82 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Jack Vance's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are The Dying Earth (1950–2009, 10 books), Nopalgarth (1951–1966, 3 books) and Big Planet (1952–1975, 2 books), plus 11 more.

This guide splits Jack Vance's 138 books into 14 named series and 82 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: The Dying Earth (10 books, 1950–2009); Demon Princes (7 books, 1964–2024); Tschai, Planet of Adventure (6 books, 1968–2012); Alastor (4 books, 1973–2019); Cadwal Chronicles (4 books, 1987–2012), plus 9 further series.