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Originally Posted by tsgreer
I discovered Vance because of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series--specifically The Shadow of the Torturer. I read somewhere that Wolfe's basic idea of the dying earth of the far future was very similar to Vance's The Dying Earth.
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I
love the Book of the New Sun series. It cemented my opinion that Wolfe is one of the best writers currently active, in
any genre.
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I have to say I agree. When I was reading The Dying Earth, I really felt that this book and Wolfe's New Sun series took place in the same universe. It doesn't, but I see all the similarities and am very happy to have discovered Vance.
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I never felt they took place in the same universe, but I agree that both are wonderful. For a different take on a
far future Earth, try _The Long Afternoon of Earth_, by Brian Aldiss. It's far enough in the future that the moon has slowed in its rotation around Earth so that it's always in the same relative position, and giant spiders have spun webs connecting moon and Earth...
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Also, I've never read Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, but after reading this thread, I think I'm going to start tonight. I have several of them in e-book but just figured them to be the usual Tolkien knock-offs. Um, looks like I was way off! 
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They are worth reading, though they eventually ran out of steam for me. While they
are SF, Anne has never been strong on science, and tends to substitute handwavium in her macguffins. She is a lot closer to a romance writer in terms of plots and characters. (And she did a romance at one point featuring a couple of gay trapeze artists.)
She does
not write Tolkien knock offs.
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Dennis