While out of the country recently I learned that Jack Vance passed away on May 26. Though Vance was in his late nineties, I almost expected him to live forever. Words cannot begin to describe the effect and influence his writing has had on my appreciation of fiction in general and the sf/fantasy genre. I read my first Vance story when I was nineteen, and no other write before or since has meant as much to me as Jack Vance. Elsewhere I will write my tribute in full. The world of genre fiction is far gloomier place without him.