The Eyes of the Overworld
Scoundrel Cugel is sent far away, by a magician he has wronged, to retrieve magical lenses that reveal the Overworld. Goaded by a homesick monster magically attached to his liver, he journeys across wastelands home to Almery. With a cult group on a pilgrimage, he crosses the Silver Desert, and meets more danger and betrayal as he betrays others.
Stats for nerds
5recommend
12mentions
9people
2015–2026years
50% recommend33% neutral17% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I’ve listened to 130 audiobooks in 2022 so far. I think I’ll get one more in before the new year but it won’t make this list. Some stood out:
Greek Mythology series by Steven Fry. Not literary adaptations nor scholarly treatises; just accessible, fun reads with enough accuracy and attention to detail for a layman like me.
I’m working my way through Cormac McCarthy. This year I read Suttree and The Crossing, which are both excellent IMO.
I discovered these beautifully written character observations: Matrix (Lauren Groff), Small Things Like These (Claire Keegan), and The Crimson Petal and the White (Michael Farber).
Not exactly unknown in the fantasy genre, but Joe Abercrombie’s Age of Madness trilogy is great. I think Abercrombie is actually an awesome writer. For instance, he has this trick for composing his big action sequences almost entirely through POV vignettes from disposable characters, which I think is a remarkable idea that essentially fixes one of the commonest problems in fantasy (plot over characters).
On Writing (Stephen King). I read a few writing guides this year and was by far freshest.
Collected Fictions (Borges).
Darkness at Noon (Arthur Koestler) is a classic in the same vein as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Shadow Divers (Robert Kurson) is a true-life story about divers discovering and exploring a remarkable wreck. Read this by accident, turned out awesome.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (George Saunders) was one of those times where I knew little about a topic going in but got swept up by the author’s eloquence and enthusiasm.
I rediscovered Michael Moorcock’s Elric series thanks to new audiobook recordings. The Witcher but good.
Second Place (Rachel Cusk) was a batshit boilerroom melodrama. My first Cusk, will read more.
The first three books of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series are great, but particularly The Eyes of the Overworld, which I was surprised to find was hilarious.
I reread some classic Philip K Dick, including Flow My Tears and Stigmata, and More than Human (Theodore Sturgeon).
The first two books of The Dark Star trilogy by Marlon James are both huge things, but worth it for fans of super dark fantasy. The setting really works for me, as far too much of this genre is basically set in a hyper caricature of medieval Europe.
Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle might be the best fantasy series for me. Tenahu might be one of my favourite books of all time.
The first two books in Gene Wolfe’s Latro series are superb and perhaps just as good as his New Sun novels.
Gateways to Abomination by Matthew Bartlett is a gross, super dark, and fun little horror collection.
I read East of Eden for the first time.
Here are some books that were enjoyable but had some problems for me:
The Royal Game (Stephan Zweig) was a super interesting novella that just sort of stopped.
The Elementals (Michael McDowell) was an awesome horror novella with a mostly excellent cast of characters and plot, whicho was almost totally let down by an unsavory trope that’s unforgivable in something written in 2014.
The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Beuhlman) is the first novel in a new grimdark series with some interesting variations on familiar tropes, although the characters were somewhat flat overall.
Here are some books I read in previous years but have stuck in my head: Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, Roadside Picnic, The Vegetarian, The House on Vesper Sands, My Name is Red, The Lathe or Heaven, The Gloaming, The Worst Journey in the World, The Fisherman, At Night All Blood is Black.
Things I read this year I wouldn’t recommend: Lord Foul’s Bane (offensive, poor writing), The Cement Garden (tries to be shocking but is quite boring), Lapvona (major disappointment), Them: Adventures with Extremists (superficial), The Wrack (feels trivial post COVID).
- The classic is Dying Earth by Jack Vance, but my favorite of the series is Eyes of the Overworld, and you'd be fine to read that first since the novels of the series are self-contained.
My opinion is that the subgenre should by definition be self-consciously set in that world or something similar, and some of the novels that do that are from
Michael Shea: https://goodman-games.com/blog/2021/07/20/the-other-cugels-s...
GRRM: https://georgerrmartin.com/grrm_book/songs-of-the-dying-eart...
Mathew Hewes: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1743870.Majestrum
I know there are others, but I'd say start with Jack Vance. He's an underrated genius.
- Jack Vance's scifi/fantasy classic "The Eyes of the Overworld" starts with a quest which has the protagonist steal magical eye glasses which make the denizens of a village who literally live drenched in shit and mud and eat garbage believe they are lords and ladies living in palaces and eating the most delicious foods.
They know it's not the truth, but for all intents and purposes, while wearing the magical eyeglasses it becomes the truth.
The rest of the book is hilarious and I fully recommend it.
- Anyone interested in D&D should understand that it originates from Jack Vance's Dying Earth novels. I highly recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyes_of_the_Overworld
- Jack Vance's The Dying Earth Series, especially The Eyes of the Overworld.
- > It makes me wonder if Moorcock has ever actually read Tolkien.
Probably he just didn't read it thoroughly enough. Recent writers put characterization and moral ambiguities at the forefront of their stories, like Moorcock wanted. Tolkien (and the pre-modern works he imitated) put those elements in the background and make the reader dig them out.
Agreed about Jack Vance. I recommend Eyes of the Overworld/Cugel the Clever.
