Seven previously published pieces pertaining to the science fiction of American author Jack Vance, and his voyages around the world. Topics include the curious linkages between some of Vance's novels into a sort of "Future History;" an examination of a Vancean "hard sf" novel; a look at his various globe-trotting excursions and what he wrote while out on each one; and further delvings into the methods he employed to create such memorable fiction.

A charming rogue undertakes an epic journey across a dying planet in the World Fantasy Award–winning author’s classic tale of adventure and revenge. The Earth is now a world older than memory, a place where the lowly inhabitants await the final twilight of the bloated red sun. But Cugel the Clever is nothing if not a survivor. Now, for the second time, Iucounu the Laughing Magician has magicked Cugel across the Ocean of Sighs to the faraway Shanglestone Strand. Beset by thieves and schemers, whose cunning almost equals his own, Cugel must fight the long way back to Iucounu’s manse where he intends to exact a terrible revenge before the old red sun goes out forever. Mixing sardonic humor and high adventure, World Fantasy Award–winning author Jack Vance weaves a picaresque tale of treachery and danger in his classic Tales of the Dying Earth series.