Cugel

The Eyes of the Overworld

Front cover of first edition
Author	Jack Vance
Cover artist	Jack Gaughan
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Dying Earth
Genre	Fantasy novel, Dying Earth subgenre
Publisher	Ace Books
Publication date	1966
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	189 pp (first edition)
Preceded by	The Dying Earth
Followed by	Cugel's Saga

The Eyes of the Overworld is a fantasy fix-up by Jack Vance, published by Ace in 1966, the second book in the Dying Earth series that Vance inaugurated in 1950. Retitled Cugel the Clever in its Vance Integral Edition (2005), the book features the self-proclaimed Cugel the Clever in linked stories.

The components of the fix-up were five short works published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from December 1965 to July 1966, and one original to the book.

Cugel is easily persuaded by the merchant Fianosther to attempt the burglary of the manse of Iucounu the Laughing Magician. Trapped and caught, he agrees that in exchange for his freedom he will undertake the recovery of a small hemisphere of violet glass, an Eye of the Overworld, to match one already in the wizard's possession. A small sentient alien entity of barbs and hooks, named Firx, is attached to his liver to encourage his "unremitting loyalty, zeal and singleness of purpose,". Firx's only form of communication with its host was to slash his liver. Iucounu then uses a spell to transport Cugel via flying demon to the remote Land of Cutz.

There, Cugel finds two villages, one occupied by wearers of the violet lenses, the other by peasants who work on behalf of the lens-wearers, in hopes of being promoted to their ranks. The lenses cause their wearers to see, not their squalid surroundings, but the Overworld, a vastly superior version of reality where a hut is a palace, gruel is a magnificent feast, etc. — "seeing the world through rose-colored glasses" on a grand scale.The people are not willing to just give Cugel an Eye, but insist that he be on a waiting list for one. Cugel gains an Eye by trickery, and escapes from Cutz. He then undertakes an arduous trek back to Iucounu, cursing the magician the entire way; this forms the principal part of the book.

After many pitfalls, setbacks, and harrowing escapes,including a voyage back in time a million years, ending in the eviction of Firx from his system,and a grateful wizard speeding him by a spell back home, Cugel returns to Iucounu's manse, where he finds the wizard's volition has been captured by a twin to Firx. This causes rather bizarre behaivor on Iucounu's part. Cugel manages to extirpate the alien, subdue the magician, and enjoy the easy life in the manse, until he tries to banish Iucounu and Fianosther (who himself has come to pilfer from Cugel) with the same spell that the magician had used on him. But Cugel's tongue slips in uttering the incantation, and the flying demon seizes him instead, delivering him to the same spot as before.