In the Winter 1948 issue of Planet Stories, Leigh Brackett published one of her more famous space opera stories, “The Beast-Jewel of Mars”. The tale borrows from the ideas of her husband, Edmond Hamilton, a Science Fiction writer fond of tales involving devolution. In this case, as the title suggests, baddies of Mars are devolving people into beasts with a strange jewel. Imagine my surprise when I came across “The Beast-Jewel of Mars” again in the Spring 1955 issue. But this time it was by a “V. E. Thiessen”. This was the second-to-last issue of that great old magazine and I suspected that Malcolm Reiss was recycling old stories in a last ditch effort to keep the magazine afloat.
But I was wrong. This “The Beast-Jewel of Mars” was a different – if inferior—story. Not involving devolution or jewels much at all. Who was this V. E. Thiessen, with his (her?) obvious pseudonymous name? Had Brackett written a different version? For a short time I was puzzled.
But research is a good thing for puzzles. The truth was that Valor E. Thiessen (1917-2005) was an actual writer, known mostly for Westerns and detective stories. Val actually held a position at the University of Oklahoma in Creative Writing. His output in non-SF fields was fairly large in the 1950s. But he started in Science Fiction. His first publication was “Afraid” in Startling Stories (Fall 1946). The by-line was W. E. Thiessen.
Other SF stories include:
“Prisoner in Time” (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, April 1947)
“Asteriod Justice” (Planet Stories, Fall 1947)
“Spiders of Saturn” (Amazing Stories, February 1950)
“Reach For the Stars” (Fantasy Stories, November 1950)
“They Who Sleep” (Amazing Stories, May 1951)
“The Beast-Jewel of Mars” (Planet Stories, Spring 1955)
“There Will Be School Tomorrow” (Fantastic Universe, November 1956)
The plot of Thiessen’s “The Beast-Jewel of Mars” has Eric and Garve North, two Earthmen come to Mars by spaceship, discovering an old Martian machine that creates the illusion of a beautiful (should I dare say Brackettian) city. The machine was created when Mars dried up and most of her inhabitants left for other planets. It’s purpose was to cast the illusion that Mars was still beautiful and amazing. It feeds off the collective will of the inhabitants.
The two brothers fall for Lorette, the Daughter of the City. A prophecy says a dark-skinned man named Eric North will destroy the city. Despite knowing this, Eric fulfills the prophecy as he tries not to, doing things such as marrying Lorette. In the end, Garve destroys the machine and Eric meets the real Lorette, a tall, attractive woman but the not the goddess of loveliness of the city’s mental magic. The two decide to remain married anyway and return to Earth.
Several things pop out at me. First off, there is no beast jewel, Martian or otherwise, anywhere. Second, the story has a Brackett feel to it, making it an homage I suppose. I can understand why I thought it was written by Brackett with its illusionary city like that in “the Last Days of Shandakor” (Startling Stories, April 1952). Even Eric suffering between the vision and the reality is Brackettesque.
One mystery still remains, thank goodness. Why had Malcolm Reiss used the same title for both stories? There seems very little connection between the title and the story. Had Thiessen or Reiss chosen the title? Perhaps we will never know though I suspect it was Reiss and done in haste.
