Dying Earth is a speculative fiction series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984.

[5][6] 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 asserted itself as a dominant force.

Because the moon is gone and wind is often weak (the sun no longer heats the earth as much) the oceans are largely placid bodies of water with no tide and tiny waves.

In addition, the manses of magicians, protected by walls and spells and monsters, are relatively common sights in inhabited lands.

Vance wrote the stories of the first book while he served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II.

Science fiction historian Brian Stableford has noted the influence of Clark Ashton Smith and his "Zothique" stories on the "Dying Earth" series.

[8] According to pulp editor Sam Merwin, Vance's earliest magazine submissions in the 1940s were heavily influenced by the style of James Branch Cabell.

[9] Fantasy historian Lin Carter has noted several probable lasting influences of Cabell on Vance's work, and suggests that the early "pseudo-Cabell" experiments bore fruit in The Dying Earth (1950).

Michael Shea's first publication, the novel A Quest for Simbilis (DAW Books, 1974, OCLC 2128177), was an authorized sequel to Eyes.

To date these are three: Mazirian the Magician, The Sorcerer Pharesm, and The Bagful of Dreams available for free download as EPub, Mobi and PDF.

[clarification needed] Its importance was recognized with the publication of Songs of the Dying Earth, a tribute anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (Subterranean, 2009).

[19] Michael Shea's novel Nifft the Lean (1982), his second book eight years after A Quest for Simbilis, also owes much debt to Vance's creation, since the protagonist of the story is a petty thief (not unlike Cugel the Clever), who travels and struggles in an exotic world.

There is an official Dying Earth role-playing game published by Pelgrane Press with an occasional magazine The Excellent Prismatic Spray (named after a magic spell).