Actual title Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight. Cover art by Geoff Taylor. Another cover: Stephen Fabian. Underwood-Miller, 1983.
The Seventeen Virgins – British Fantasy Award short story nomination 1975.
The fantastic quests and adventures of Cugel, the greatest rogue in the realms of fantasy.
For the second time, Cugel the Clever has been carried north over the Ocean of Sighs and dumped half a world away from home, on Shanglestone Strand. Swearing revenge on the Laughing Magician, Cugel sets off through mud pits and bars, through villages, manor houses and across the seas. At last, after many an extraordinary adventure, he comes once more to the land of Almery and the chance to exact the vengeance he craves.
The series
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.
#1 · 1950The Dying Earth 
#2 · 1966The Eyes of the Overworld 
#3 · 1983Cugel's Saga 
#4 · 1984Rhialto the Marvellous 
1974A Quest for Simbilis 
1979Morreion 
1979The Seventeen Virgins 
1979The Bagful of Dreams 
1999Tales of the Dying Earth 
2005The Laughing Magician: The Adventures of Cugel 
2009Songs of the Dying Earth 
2013The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderoz Be the first reviewer
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