杰克·万斯

杰克·万斯（Jack Vance，本名John Holbrook Vance，1916年8月28日—2013年5月26日）是一位美国作家。

生平

生于美国加州旧金山市，作家，曾先后获得埃德加奖（1961年《笼中人》）、雨果奖（1963年《龙主》、1966年《最后的城堡》）、星云奖（1966年《最后的城堡》）、1975年的土星奖、1984年和1990年的世界奇幻奖，以及1996年的科幻协会大师奖等大奖。

知名桌上角色扮演游戏《龙与地下城》（Dungeons & Dragons）的设定受其影响很大，灰鹰世界中的一大主神取名维克那（Vecna）即为了纪念万斯（Vance）。此外，龙与地下城的法术系统也被称为万斯式魔法（Vancian magic），以需要学习、准备、记忆且有限的施放次数为特色。之后在，2018年，由Monte Cook出品的桌上角色扮演游戏系统《隐日》，也向其致敬，其中一个结社便取名为Order of the Vance，系统上也属于万斯式魔法。

其重要的著作包括《濒死的地球》系列等。

John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and mysteries. He wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen.

Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984, and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 15th Grand Master in 1997, and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers.

His most notable awards included Hugo Awards in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir This Is Me, Jack Vance!; the Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle; the Jupiter Award in 1975 and the World Fantasy Award in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc, and the Edgar Award in 1961 for the best first mystery novel for The Man in the Cage.

His first publications were stories in science fiction magazines. As he became well known, he published novellas and novels, many of which were translated into French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Italian, and German. An Integral Edition of all Vance's works was published in 44 volumes and in 2010 a six-volume The Complete Jack Vance was released. A 2009 profile in The New York Times Magazine described Vance as "one of American literature's most distinctive and undervalued voices". He died at his home in Oakland, California, on May 26, 2013, aged 96.

Biography

Vance's great-grandfather is believed to have arrived in California from Michigan a decade before the Gold Rush and married a San Francisco woman. Early family records were apparently destroyed in the fire following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Vance's maternal grandfather, L. M. (Ludwig Mathias) Hoefler, was a successful lawyer in San Francisco.

Vance grew up in the family's large house in San Francisco on Filbert Street. When Vance's father left the family to live on his ranch in Mexico, the family's house in San Francisco was rented out to the father's sister. With the separation of his parents, and the loss of use of the San Francisco house, Vance's mother moved him and his siblings to their maternal grandfather's California ranch near Oakley in the delta of the Sacramento River. This setting formed Vance's love of the outdoors, and allowed him time to indulge his passion as an avid reader of his mother's large book collection, which included Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes and his Barsoom novels and Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island. When Vance explored the nearby town, he started reading pulp fiction magazines at the local drugstore.

With the death of his grandfather, who had supported the family, which coincided with the economic challenges of the Great Depression, the Vance family’s fortune dwindled, and Vance was forced to leave junior college and work to support himself, assisting his mother when able. Vance plied many trades for short stretches: as a bellhop (a "miserable year"), in a cannery, and on a gold dredge. Vance described this era as a time of personal change: “Over a span of four or five years, I developed from an impractical little intellectual into a rather reckless young man, competent at many skills and crafts, and determined to try every phase of life.”

He subsequently entered the University of California, Berkeley, and over the next six years studied mining engineering, physics, journalism, and English. Vance wrote one of his first science fiction stories for an English class assignment: his professor commented in a scornful tone, "We also have a piece of science fiction"—Vance's first negative review.

He worked as an electrician in the naval shipyards at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for "56¢ an hour," and worked for a time as part of a degaussing crew. The attack on Pearl Harbor took place about a month after he quit.