Rhialto the Marvellous
core collection 1984 The Dying Earth
Record
| First published | 1984 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | collection |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.87 (2,455 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 219 |
| First-edition ISBN | 0671559915 |
Synopsis
Set in the twenty-first Aeon of the Dying Earth, in the old territories of Ascolais and Almery, Rhialto the Marvellous centers on the wealthy, flamboyantly dressed wizard Rhialto, so nicknamed for his taste in ostentatious clothing, and his close friendship with Ildefonse, the elected Preceptor who presides over the loose association of the era's most powerful magicians. The wizards are bound by a code called the Blue Principles, and the book combines an explanatory essay with three interlinked stories of magical intrigue among them. When a jealous rival named Hache-Moncour maneuvers the other wizards into ransacking Rhialto's estate while he is away, Rhialto seeks to clear his name by consulting the original Blue Principles document, only to discover that it has been secretly replaced with a forgery, launching him on a journey through time in search of the genuine text and of a missing colleague.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Dying Earth
- Series: The Dying Earth Series core; position 4 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jack Vance
Notes
- From the series record (The Dying Earth Series): 4-volume foundational series (1950-1984) whose spell-memorization magic system directly inspired what is now universally called 'Vancian magic' in tabletop RPG design (D&D's spell-preparation mechanic). Volume 1 (6 independent stories) and Volume 4 (foreword + 3 novellas) are genuine short-fiction collections admitted Core under the collection-as-Core exception; Volumes 2-3 are fix-ups of previously-published novelettes but are marketed, bound, and read as single continuous novels, qualifying as Core on ordinary single-work grounds. Volume 1's first edition (Hillman Periodicals, 1950) was later retitled 'Mazirian the Magician' in some 21st-century reissues; the 1950 title is treated as canonical per this project's established practice of registering a work's original title/edition rather than a later marketing retitle. Rhialto the Marvellous's chronological position relative to the two Cugel volumes could not be corroborated from any source found (only 'same setting, different characters' is stated) and no internal chronology is recorded for it, the same treatment used elsewhere for disputed or unrecorded chronologies (a case affecting one volume of four, not the whole series, unlike Dragaera/Conan/Pern).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Dying Earth Series: position 4 of 4: previous Cugel's Saga (1983)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dying_Earth
- https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/vance_jack
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhialto_the_Marvellous
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