The Dying Earth subgenre is a sub-category of science fantasy which takes place at the end of Time, when the Sun slowly fades and the laws of the Universe themselves fail, with the science becoming indistinguishable from magic. More generally, the Dying Earth sub-genre encompasses science fiction works set in the far distant future in a milieu of stasis or decline. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy and the hope of renewal tend to pre-dominate. A genre is any of the traditional divisions of art forms from a single field of activity into various kinds according to criteria particular to that form. ... Science fantasy is a mixed genre of story which contains some science fiction and some fantasy elements. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Innocence is a term that describes the lack of guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. ... see also: Entropy (disambiguation) Ice melting - classic example of entropy increasing[1] described in 1862 by Rudolf Clausius as an increase in the disgregation of the molecules of the body of ice. ...

Apocalyptic genre is nearly as old as literature itself, but the Dying Earth genre differs in that it deals not with destruction, but with entropic exhaustion of the Earth. The genre was prefigured by the Romantic tales. Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville's Le Dernier Homme (1805) narrates the tale of Omegare, the Last Man on Earth. It is bleak vision of the future when the Earth has become totally sterile. Lord Byron's poem Darkness (1816) shows Earth after the Sun has died. Mary Shelley's novel The Last Man shows mankind dying out because of a plague. For other uses, see Apocalypse (disambiguation). ... Jean-Baptiste François Xavier Cousin De Grainville (Born 1746-Died 1805) was a French writer who penned a very important, seminal work of fantastic literature: Le Dernier Homme (1805). ... 1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Lord Byron, English poet Lord Byron (1803), as painted by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824) was the most widely read English language poet of his day. ... Darkness is a poem written by Lord Byron in July 1816. ... 1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... Mary Shelleys The Last Man, first published in 1826, is often overshadowed by one of Shelleys earlier works, Frankenstein, and as a result has been largely ignored by the reading public. ...

The first SF work belonging to the genre is H. G. Wells' novella The Time Machine (1895), at the end of which the time traveller travels into the far future. There he sees the last few living things on a dying Earth, before returning to his own time to relate his tale to a circle of contemporaries. Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doctor Moreau. ... The Time Machine is a novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895, later made into two films of the same title. ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Two brooding works by William Hope Hodgson would elaborate on Wells' vision. The House on the Borderland (1908) takes place in a house besieged by unearthly forces. The narrator then travels perhaps psychically, and without explanation, into a distant future in which humanity has died and then even further, past the death of Earth. Hodgson's later The Night Land (1912) describes a time, millions of years in the future when the Sun had gone dark. The last few millions of the Human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt (probably the first arcology in literature) under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was an English author. ... The House on the Borderland is a supernatural or horror novel by British fantasist William Hope Hodgson. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Night Land is a novel by William Hope Hodgson, first published in 1912. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Try2004 Arcology or Megacity as featured on the Discovery Channels Extreme Engineering programs. ...

Beginning in the 1930s. Clark Ashton Smith wrote a series of stories situated in Zothique, the last continent of Earth. As Smith himself described it in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953: This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893-August 14, 1961) was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. ... Zothique is an imagined future continent figuring in a series of tales by Clark Ashton Smith, and also the title of the cycle of tales which take place there. ...

"Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves.

[...]

The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms—only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity."

Under influence of Clark Ashton Smith, Jack Vance wrote a series of fantasy books, called the Dying Earth series, which give the sub-genre its name. Jack Vance John Holbrook Vance (b. ... For other definitions of fantasy see fantasy (psychology). ... Dying Earth is a series of fantasy books by Jack Vance. ...

• The Dying Earth (collection of linked stories, 1950)
• The Eyes of the Overworld (collection of linked stories, 1966)
• Cugel's Saga (novel, 1983)
• Rhialto the Marvellous (collection of linked stories, 1984)

Other Fantasy and Science Fantasy Examples

• C. J. Cherryh — Sunfall, a collection of dying earth short stories set in various locations on Earth in the far future. The tone, themes and fantasy conventions employed in this collection differ by story. (Later reprinted in The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh).

• Gene Wolfe — The Book of the New Sun, chronicling the journey of a disgraced torturer named Severian to the highest position in the land. Severian, who has a perfect memory, tells the story in first person. New Sun takes place in the distant future, where the sun has dimmed considerably, and the world is slowly freezing. Wolfe has stated that Vance's series influenced him directly.

• Mark S. Geston — Lords of the Starship, Out of the Mouth of the Dragon, The Day Star and The Siege of Wonder. Though similar in style and ambience, these four novels do not form a series.

• M. John Harrison — a series called Viriconium. Viriconium is the capital city in which much of the action takes place. Viriconium lies on a dying Earth littered with the detritus of the millennia, seemingly now its own hermetic universe where chronology no longer applies.

• Michael Moorcock — The Dancers at the End of Time series.

• Matthew Hughes — Fools Errant, Fool Me Twice, Black Brillion - in a style heavily influenced by Jack Vance.

• Paul Park — Starbridge Chronicles. (Not explicitly set either on Earth or in any specific time but tied to the same dark science fantasy ambience, for example city with the ironic name Paradise.) The three novels, Soldiers of Paradise, Sugar Rain, and The Cult of Loving Kindness comprise the series. As the planet does not show any tendency to dying, the classification is rather doubtful.

• Fred Saberhagen — Books of the Swords takes place in the far future, when magic has replaced science, but the general atmosphere of the book is more similar to the usual fantasy, and lacks the weight of history and the premonitions of the end, so typical for the Dying Earth books.

C. J. Cherryh (born September 1, 1942) is the slightly modified working name of United States science fiction and fantasy author Carolyn Janice Cherry, the sister of artist David A. Cherry. ... The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes and novella written by the United States author C. J. Cherryh between 1977 and 2004. ... Gene Wolfe (born May 7, 1931) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. ... The first two books of The Book of the New Sun, 2000 omnibus printing. ... Mark Symington Geston (b. ... Lords of the Starship, Ace Books, 1967. ... Michael John Harrison (July 26, 1945, Warwickshire ), is a UK science fiction author, fantasy author and literary fiction author, who writes as M. John Harrison. // Biography and writing career Harrisons first story was published in 1966. ... Viriconium is a fictional city created by M. John Harrison and also the name of the cycle of novels and stories set in and around it. ... Pictoral chronology of intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency Chronology is the science of locating events in time. ... Michael John Moorcock (born December 18, 1939) is a prolific British writer primarily of science fiction and science fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels. ... Bold textThe three books which form Dancers at the end of time are, An alien heat,The hollow lands and The end of all songs. ... Matt Hughes is a Canadian science-fiction author who lives in Courtenay, British Columbia. ... Paul Park (b. ... Fred Thomas Saberhagen (born 18 May 1930) is an American science fiction and fantasy fiction author most famous for his Berserker series of science fiction stories. ... The Books of the Swords is collectively a sci-fi/fantasy novel series written by Fred Saberhagen. ...

Science Fiction Examples

• Brian Aldiss — Hothouse (also known as The Long Afternoon of Earth). The Earth has stopped rotating, the Sun has increased output, and plants are engaged in a constant frenzy of growth and decay, like a tropical forest enhanced a thousandfold; a few small groups of humans still live, on the edge of extinction, beneath the giant banyan tree that covers the day side of the earth.

• Brian Aldiss — "...And the Stagnation of the Heart". Short story, sequel to "Circulation of the Blood...". In the previous story men gained immortality. Now, in the far future, they live transformed on a transformed Earth. The Sun is being slowly devoured by the mysterious beings.

• Aldiss' Helliconia Trilogy shows and decline of civilisation on the world where seasons lasts thousands of years. Admitted because of atmosphere and on a technicality — we do learn that the civilisation on Earth also declined.

• Arthur C. Clarke — The City and the Stars

• Samuel Delaney - The Einstein Intersection (1967, Nebula Award) - The alien protagonist of this novel, an inhabitant of earth in the far future, ponders the myth cycles of Orpheus and the Beatles, and the meaning they must have carried for their long vanished race.

• Philip Jose Farmer - In Dark Is the Sun a tribesman from the distant future quests across the landscape of a dying earth. As with much of "Dying Earth" science fiction, this text ruminates on the nature of ending, and the meaning of time itself.

• Edmond Hamilton — A novel, The City at World's End (1951) and the comic book story "Superman Under the Red Sun" from Action Comics #300 (1963).

• Tanith Lee — Don't Bite the Sun and its sequel, Drinking Sapphire Wine (collected in one volume as Biting the Sun), tell an often humorous coming of age story of one of a group of dissaffected transhuman teenagers living in the "Utopian" city of Four BEE.

• Paul McAuley — Confluence trilogy. Not so much a dying Earth as a dying artificial world at a time when Earth is long gone. The books are, in order, Child of the River, Ancients of Days, and Shrine of Stars.

• Robert Silverberg — Nightwings.

• Clifford D. Simak — City, a 1952 science-fiction story collection that is a series of eight connected legends of the Dogs as they look back on a mythical creature called Man.

• Cordwainer Smith — A series of short stories and a novel, Norstrilia, in The Rediscovery of Man series, are set some 14,000 years in the future at which time the Instrumentality of Mankind governs Earth and other planets colonized by humans. Thousands of years of Utopia and happiness having nearly destroyed the human race, The Instrumentality attempts to revive old cultures and languages in a process known as the Rediscovery of Man, trying to restore to it a lost vitality.

Brian Aldiss at 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005. ... Brian Aldiss at 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005. ... Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (born December 16, 1917) is a British author and inventor, most famous for his science-fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name. ... The City and The Stars is a science fiction novel by Arthur C Clarke. ... Samuel Ray Chip Delany, Jr. ... The Nebula is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years. ... The head of Orpheus, from an 1865 painting by Gustave Moreau. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Philip José Farmer (born January 26, 1918) is an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. ... Dark Is The Sun is a science fiction novel by Philip José Farmer which tells the story of the people and creatures left on Earth when the Sun is dying. ... Edmond Hamilton (November 21, 1904 - February 1, 1977) began writing science fiction with the story The Monster God of Mamurth in 1928. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ... Tanith Lee Tanith Lee (born September 19, 1947) is a British writer of science fiction, horror and fantasy. ... A bildungsroman (IPA: /, German: novel of education or novel of formation) is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity. ... Transhuman is a term that refers to an intermediary form between the human and the posthuman. ... Paul McAuley at Worldcon 2005 in Glasgow Paul McAuley (born April 23, 1955), a British botanist, award-winning author, and self-described science junkie. ... At the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005 Robert Silverberg (January 15, 1935, Brooklyn, New York) is a prolific American author best known for writing science fiction, a multiple winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. ... Clifford Donald Simak ( August 3, 1904 - April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction author. ... City is a 1952 science fiction story collection by Clifford D. Simak that present a series of eight legends by the Dogs as they look back on a mythical creature called Man. ... Cordwainer Smith – pronounced CORDwainer Smith – was the pseudonym used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966) for his science fiction works. ... It has been suggested that Rediscovery of man be merged into this article or section. ... In the fictional works of Cordwainer Smith, the Instrumentality of Mankind is the central government of the human race. ...

External links

• Notebooks A list of books belonging to Dying Earth genre.
• The Eldritch Dark — This website contains almost all of Clark Ashton Smith's written work, as well as a comprehensive selection of his art, biographies, a bibliography, a discussion board, readings, fiction tributes and more.