Actual title Cugel the Clever. Cover art by Geoff Taylor. Another cover: Stephen Fabian. Underwood-Miller, 1978. 

Contents:

  • The Overworld (1965)
  • Cil (1966)
  • The Mountains of Magnatz (1966)
  • The Sorcerer Pharesm (1966)
  • The Pilgrims (1966)
  • The Cave in the Forest (1966)
  • The Manse of Iucounu (1966)

In the dim far future of Earth, when the sun had shrunk to a small red disk in the dark sky and the race of man lived in isolated cities that echoed with the vastness of the world's history, science, myth and magic had become one. Sorcerors who read the books of ancient times held great power, and fearsome monsters created in ages long forgotten stalked the land.

In this world of mystery and danger, the adventurer known as Cugel the Clever was forced to undertake a quest for Iucounu the Laughing Magician – a quest that was to take him to lands stranger than any he had dreamed of, and pit his wits and his sword against powers from beyond time itself.

Published
1966
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Dying Earth

The series

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The stories of the Dying Earth series are set in the distant future, at a point when the sun is almost exhausted and magic has reasserted itself as a dominant force. The various civilizations of Earth have collapsed for the most part into decadence. The Earth is mostly barren and cold, and has become infested with various predatory monsters (possibly created by a magician in a former age).

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The Moon has disappeared and the Sun is in danger of burning out at any time. A certain fatalism characterizes many of the inhabitants as a consequence.

The series shows the influence of the picaresque tale, applied to a science fiction/fantasy setting.

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