Jack Vance's Dying Earth is a series I've been well aware of for a few years now, knowing its influence on fantasy as a whole, but more specifically, on the works of Gene Wolfe.

The Dying Earth is a collection of several short stories, mostly focusing on practitioners of arcane magic, usually all selfish and vain in their own right. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the characters that populate Vance's world-- they aren't typically heroic, and are usually driven by greed of some sort, whether it be for power, knowledge, riches or fame.

Though the writing feels a tad old-fashioned by modern standards (particularly in how most women characters are either eye-candy or passive), Vance does have an active imagination, and his worlds are inhabited by all sorts of strange creatures, characters and concepts that feel wholly unique within the realm of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. It's easy to see why this collection was so influential to how systems of Magic were written and conceptualized within fiction for years to come.

Excited to get into Vance's other Dying Earth-set stories when I'm able to.