His exploration ship blasted from orbit, Terran scout Adam Reith is stranded on Tschai, a world colonized by three alien species -- the Chasch, the Dirdir, and the Wannek -- while the planet's original inhabitants, the mysterious Pnume, lurk underground. In the fourth and final book of the cycle, Reith's plans to leave Tschai are foiled by the treachery of Aila Woudiver, who delivers him into the clutches of the subterranean-dwelling Pnume. Reith escapes, and teaming with a young and reluctant Pnumekin woman, embarks on an odyssey through a somber labyrinth of tunnels and underworld waterways, to where his spaceship lies hidden. When his companion is captured by the Pnume, Reith must force a last, desperate bargain. Tschai is grandmaster Jack Vance at his unparalleled adventure-spinning peak. - Matt Hughes "The Pnume" is Book IV of the Tschai (Planet of Adventure) sequence, and Volume 37 of the Spatterlight Press Signature Series. Released in the centenary of the author's birth, this handsome new collection is based upon the prestigious Vance Integral Edition. Select volumes enjoy up-to-date maps, and many are graced with freshly-written forewords contributed by a distinguished group of authors. Each book bears a facsimile of the author's signature and a previously-unpublished photograph, chosen from family archives for the period the book was written. These unique features will be appreciated by all, from seasoned Vance collector to new reader sampling the spectrum of this author's influential work for the first time. - John Vance II

Together for the first time in one omnibus edition--City of the Chasch, Servants of the Wankh, The Dirdir, and The Pnume. Award-winning author Vance's exotic and complex world is filled with baroque landscapes, dastardly villains and warring aliens--all served up with grace and wonder.

A study of the work of John Holbrook Vance (the nom-de-plume on his mystery novels), who is most famous as science fiction writer Jack Vance. The Milford Series: Popular Writers of Today, Vol. 40.

Paperback Quarterly, Journal of the American Paperback Institute, Volume 2 Number 2, Summer 1979, contains: "PQ Interview with William Campbell Gault," "Dell Dimers," by M. C. Hill, "Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure Series," by George Kelley, "Baby, I Could Plot," "A Glance at Paperback History," by Mark Schaffer and "Paperback Firsts," by Agatha Taylor.

Future and Fantastic Worlds embodies an unusual approach to the field of bibliographic research, including over 700 annotations of every DAW book published through mid-1987, with indexes by author, artist, and title, providing a massive guide to modern SF writers and their works, with much background data. Interspersed throughout the book are numerous wry, irreverent, and amusing observations offered by the late and highly respected researcher in this extremely valuable genre tool.

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.