The Eyes of the Overworld

Tales of the Dying Earth, Book 2

By: Jack Vance

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

The Eyes of the Overworld is the first of Vance’s picaresque novels about the scoundrel Cugel. Here he is sent by a magician he has wronged to a distant unknown country to retrieve magical lenses that reveal the Overworld. Conniving to steal the lenses, he escapes and, goaded by a homesick monster magically attached to his liver, starts to find his way home to Almery. The journey takes him across trackless mountains, wastelands, and seas. Through cunning and dumb luck, the relentless Cugel survives one catastrophe after another, fighting off bandits, ghosts, and ghouls—stealing, lying, and cheating without insight or remorse leaving only wreckage behind.

Betrayed and betraying, he joins a cult group on a pilgrimage, crosses the Silver Desert as his comrades die one by one and, escaping the Rat People, obtains a spell that returns him home. There, thanks to incompetence and arrogance he misspeaks the words of a purloined spell and transports himself back to the same dismal place he began his journey.

©2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.; 1980 Jack Vance

Jack Vance was a visionary

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is the first book I read by Jack Vance. I was surprised when I realized that many of his ideas inspired many modern and much more famous authors. Even RPG games such as dungeons and dragons were inspired by his books, for example the wizards having to memorize spells and then forgetting after they have been cast.Jack Vance has not receive the credit he is entitled.

What did you like best about this story?

Dying earth is gloomy place, and the characters reflect that. You are not going to find a happy endings here if that is what you are looking for. I just did not give it 5 stars because the outline of the 5 or 6 tales are very similar. But that does not mean I'm not listening to this author again, in fact I just purchased the next book in the series

What does Arthur Morey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator is great at bringing the dying earth to life, metaphorically speaking since it's actually dying. haha

A wonderful classic

Listen or read this. One of the most picaresque characters in all of fiction.
A must in the genre.

Great listen for those who love words

The narrative style of this book is wonderfully charming, but something you need to be prepared for. At first I was expecting that the 'strange' style of writing was only for the forward, or an intro, and was impatient for it to hurry up and go to "normal" part of the story. Once I realised the whole book was written that way I was able to relax and enjoy the story. The use of language and the variety is just wonderful, and I will be looking for more. If you enjoy words you will appreciate this book. The narration was great also, suited the language of the book.
As to the story - it's a lot of fun, and I found myself making excuses to find time to listen for more, waiting to see what would happen. A good old-fashioned adventure.

Jack Vance is the Master

I began reading Jack Vance 30 years ago and have collected all of his books that I can find. It was delightful to find him on audible and Arthur Morey is the perfect narrator for his work. Listen and enjoy!

Was mit prepared for how funny this was!

A lot of people talk about how the magic of DnD is based off of Jack Vance’s novels. But what they fail to impress on anyone who hasn’t read (or in this case listened) is how much of the vibe, the weirdness, can be traced to these books.
Vance brings us a world OOZING with interesting people, places, and things. And the things that happen between our man Cugel and these things are great. Often, it’s completely unpredictable and amazing. Other times, what will happen is laughably obvious, and knowing what Cugel the Scoundrel is going to do given any chance of profit adds this simple, yet very effective layer of irony to nearly all of the book. The ending is the hilarious cherry on top!
The performance was pretty good, but I’ve definitely heard better.