As the sun is about to fade and the Earth lives its final days, Rialto the Marvelous and the circle of wizards to which he belongs are occupied with their own small and great problems. Rialto, although charming and immensely powerful, is in danger—because of his selfishness and excessive ego—of falling victim to hidden and open enemies.
Thus, he must confront Murth, the terrible sorceress who returns from the past to turn all males into effeminate servants of her will; travel back in time in search of the Blue Polyperspective, through forgotten eras of Earth, bearing engraved upon it the unbreakable laws of the wizards; and finally journey literally to the edge of the universe, where primordial darkness slowly devours the cosmos.
The final and most striking book by Jack Vance in the Dying Earth setting, featuring stories that combine caustic humor, inexhaustible imagination, and gripping plot—hallmarks of his work.
