The Laughing Magician — Jack Vance

"The Laughing Magician combines two of the most popular novels in Jack Vance's "Dying Earth series. Both recount the adventures of Cugel, also called Cugel the Clever, forced by a mordant magician into a quest across an Earth of the far distant future. In this Rabelaisian picaresque, Cugel has only his wits -- and loose morals -- with which to survive a world teeming with tricksters, monsters, and magicians. Vance's vivid, witty prose and rich imagination is combined with Stephen Fabian's gorgeous art.