Finished reading Jack Vance's classic The Dying Earth, a science fiction/fantasy novel that defined and named an entire sub genre. This is the eponymous first book in the series, and us actually a collection of short stories. They vary in quality from good to all timers, each one chock-full of concepts that could power an entire novel. The stories feel like fairy tales set in a distant future where civilization has reverted to medievalism and the sun us burning out. A story about a symbiotic relationship between an eyeball collecting monster and a woman trying to restore a tapestry, a man with insatiable curiosity seeking the lost archives of human knowledge, an artificial woman who can only feel hate falling for a man with the face of a monster. This is most read stuff for fantasy and SF fans, elemental stuff.
Triva: the magic in Vance's world consists of memorizing mathematical equations so complex they bend reality when spoken and have to be rememorized constantly. This is thr direct inspiration for how magic works in Dungeons and Dragons.