Jack Vance

Jack Vance (1916 – 2013) was a SF and fantasy writer with a distinctive and enjoyable style, famous for terrific evocations of place and situation. Few wrote about different worlds with as much colour and vibrancy to bring the cosmos to life. I've not yet read a huge amount of Vance (only half a dozen or so books) but I've read enough to know I like his work very much and intend reading more over the next few years. 

Jack Vance wrote and published over a long and distinguished writing career, with his first publication appearing in the summer 1945 issue of Trilling Wonder Stories (The World-Thinker), and would eventually comprise dozens of respected novels and scores of short stories. He won numerous awards for his work, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984 and the SFWA Grand Master Award in 1997.

SF Awards
1963  Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction - The Dragon Masters 
1967  Hugo Award for Best Novelette - The Last Castle 
1967  Nebula Award for Novella - The Last Castle  
1984  World Fantasy Life Achievement
1990  World Fantasy Award for Best Novel - Lyonesse: Madouc  
1997  Nebula SFWA Grand Master Award
2010  Hugo Award for Best Related Work - This Is Me, Jack Vance!

Bibliography - SF Novels

Jack Vance wrote many books in series, so to make it easy to follow the series order, the following bibliography is arranged by series, with these presented in chronological publication order of the first book in each series. Non-series novels are shown in publication order where they fall beteen series and are noted as being 'non-series'.

The Dying Earth Series - perhaps his most famous series (fantasy)
   The Dying Earth (1950)   
   The Eyes of the Overworld (1966)
   Cugel's Saga (1983)  
   Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

The Five Gold Bands (1953) - non-series novel
Vandals of the Void (1953) - YA non-series novel
To Live Forever (1956) - non-series novel
Big Planet (1957) - non-series novel - fun, exciting early novel
The Languages of Pao (1958) - non-series novel
Slaves of the Klau (1958) - non-series novel
Space Opera (1965) - non-series novel

Demon Princes Series - terrific SF series, all books warmly recommended
   The Star King (1964) - the first Vance I read - excellent
   The Killing Machine (1964)
   The Palace of Love (1967)
   The Face (1979) - great, perhaps best of the quintet?
   The Book of Dreams (1981)

The Blue World (1966) - non-series novel

Planet of Adventure  - well regarded SF
   City of the Chasch (1968) 
   Servants of the Wankh (1969)
   The Dirdir (1969) 
   The Pnume (1970)

Emphyrio (1969) - non-series novel

Durdane series 
   The Anome (1973) 
   The Brave Free Men (1973) 
   The Asutra (1974)

Alastor Cluster  - well regarded SF
   Trullion: Alastor 2262 (1973) 
   Marune: Alastor 933 (1975) 
   Wyst: Alastor 1716 (1978)

The Gray Prince (1974) - non-series novel
Showboat World (1975) - non-series novel
Maske: Thaery (1976) - non-series novel

Lyonesse Trilogy - very highly regarded fantasy 
   Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden (1983)
   Lyonesse: The Green Pearl (1985) 
   Lyonesse: Madouc (1989) 

Cadwal Chronicles
   Araminta Station (1987)
   Ecce and Old Earth (1991)
   Throy (1992)

Night Lamp (1996) - non-series novel
Ports of Call (1998) - non-series novel
Lurulu (2004) - non-series novel