Dying Earth

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The Dying Earth series was written by Jack Vance. It's a blend of magic and post-apocalyptic sci-fi, and the spell system was lifted whole cloth for D&D, hence the term 'Vancian Magic'.

It's set five billion years from now when the sun could go supernova at any moment, and very nearly does so like four times a week. Four books. The Dying Earth is a collection of short stories written in like 1950. Then you have The Eyes of the Overworld, where Cugel the Clever travels across the world being stupid. Rhialto the Marvellous has lots of cool wizards-- who in one story spend a lot of time trying to trick and backstab each other. Given how much Gary Gygax was a fan of Vance, this may explain a lot about the Circle of Eight. Then Cugel's Saga has Cugel travelling again, but this time with more awesome.

Most characters spend their time trying to trick each other. Or dying.

Deodands are cool though. And pelgranes. Ioun stones are awesome.