The many worlds of Magnus Ridolph were born in the Pulps. The repacking of old SF by ACE Books liked to change things up with a nice new Jack Gaughan cover. It hides the fact that Magnus first appeared in Startling Stories. The bulk, eight, of these tales by Jack Vance did. When presented in a collection for the first time (1966) they were shuffled and arranged (leaving several out). The man with the white beard who goes from adventure to adventure was a Pulp hero, even if nobody remembers that.
“Hard Luck Diggings” (Startling Stories, July 1948) begins with a quote by Ridolph in which Jack Vance basically rephrases Sherlock Holmes: “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” For Magnus it isn’t the truth but the solution to a problem. He is presented as a mathematician.
In this first story that problem is murder. Ridolph is hired to solve a rash of strangulations happening at a mining facility. Whenever the men at digging Site B are alone for a few minutes they end up dead. The manager, Rogge, has them stay in pairs but the killings continue. Magnus shows up and in an hour has a hypothesis and sets a trap. Rogge, like all customers in future stories, rails at his methods, tries to get him fired.
Ridolph goes for a nap but not before setting up a strange electrical gizmo all over his body. He wakes to find he is being strangled. The electrical gear burns the garrote from his throat. He now has proof and a solution. He calls Rogge in to see. The strangle cord is a root. The trees of the planet are intelligent and striking out at Diggings B because it endangers them. Magnus brokers a deal between humans and trees.
“Sanatoris Short-Cut” (Startling Stories, September 1948) has Ridolph presented as a mathematician in this story. He gets involved in the world of casinos and gambling. Ridolph gleans how to beat a roulette type game so that he can meet the owner of the casino, Acco May. Winning twelve million munits, Magnus becomes the target for the May’s goons. He defeats them by throwing coffee on them and getting arrested for mischief. This gives him an opportunity to talk with his bosses and get special powers. He will end May’s operations which including human trafficing and drugs. He does this by making a bet with Acco. Ridolph will prove he committed space piracy even though his alibi clears him. May gives Ridolph a signed confession and Ridolph gives him the twelve million check. Magnus then does a thirteen day space journey in twelve, proving Acco guilty. As May is being taken to the brain reassignment treatment, he asks Ridolph how he did it. Magnus remembered how Mercator maps worked on earth and applied it to space. Jack Vance’s first love was for sailing and it shows in this story.
“The Unspeakable McInch” (Startling Stories, November 1948) has Ridolph hired to find a Moriarty of a villain. McInch is a hidden criminal who plunders Schletto’s Planet at will. Those who try to figure out his identity end up dead. Not surprising, the many weird and fascinating aliens Magnus talks to don’t want to talk about it. In the end, Magnus brings all the suspects together and reveals the culprit. His clue was figured out by looking into what constituted luxury for each alien race. Once he knew that, he easily tracked McInch down through the mails.
“The Sub-Standard Sardines” (Startling Stories, January 1949) starts when Joel Karamor invites Magnus to dinner. One of the items on the menu is sardines. Karamor owns the company that produces the fish. He bought out his partner Donnels. Everything was fine until someone started sabotaging the tins. (Ridolph opens one and is showered in fish and oil.) Karamor wants Magnus to solve the mystery.
Ridolph heads to Chandaria disguised as a menial worker. He infiltrates the factory, working the sluice gate. He notices that one fish leads all the other fish into the cutting machines. The lead fish escapes through a special hole to bring more. Snooping gets Magnus into the laboratory where he encounters more intelligent fish. Using special documents he steals he is able to communicate with the mutants.
More sneaking gets him into a super-diving suit. The bad guys prove to be Donnels and his stooge, Naile. The man plans to wreck the company then buy it back cheap. Donnels has created thousands of intelligent mutant fish which will insure his wealth. Naile comes in a boat with explosives, trying to kill Magnus. Ridolph dumps his boat then heads back. He knows there is only one way back and Donnels will be guarding it. Magnus gets around him and pushes him into the water. The intelligent fish drowned him. Karamor learns he has new partners, with his profits insured, the intelligent fish will now run the factory. This story had more daring-do than most.
“The Howling Bounders” (Startling Stories, March 1949) has an offer too good to be true. Magnus gets offered a tichloma farm on Naos IV for a discount price. Only after he buys it does he find out that the entire crop is in danger from the Howling Bounders, a race of impenetrable lizard men. Magnus makes a bet with the man who sold him the farm, Blantham, that he will make his money back with the farm as the prize. First he studies the chemistry that allows the Bounders to repel weapons. Then he builds a special hut with a long chain and winch. With a little work he is able to not only get rid of the Bounders, but reap a pile of cash for their bodies. He wins his bet and makes out like a bandit.
“The King of Thieves” (Startling Stories, November 1949) finds Ridolph on Moritaba vying for a concession to mine the extremely valuable telex crystals. The stones are used in interplanetary communication and can only be found on two planets. Moritaba is inhabited by a race known as the Men-men who steal everything. The copter that drops off the mail comes with an electrified steel cage to discourage thieves. The planet is run by the King of Thieves, their monarch, a Man-man named Kanditter. Magnus is not the only applicant. Mellish also wants the telex crystals. The two men makes a bet to see who still has their possessions when they leave. Mellish spends days smoozing the king and looks to win the deal, when Magnus pulls the rug out from under him. Magnus has stolen the king’s crown, making him the King of Thieves. Mellish loses the bet and has to pay a high fee for the telex concession. Magnus wins by bringing in “ghosts” from another system, vaporous aliens that can steal anything.
“The Spa of the Stars” (Startling Stories, July 1950) has Magnus brought in as a trouble-shooter. The trouble he has to shoot is a resort planet that is failing because the fierce fauna of the planet keeps eating the guests. Joe Blaine and Lucky Woolrich hire Magnus but can’t leave him alone to work. Blaine goes to the village of the local humanoids, known as Mollies, and retrieve some of their noxious black slime thinking it repels critters. The two men take Magnus unconscious to the beach to test the odor. It does nothing to stop a dragon from trying to eat him. Fortunately, Ridolph has already figured out what the Mollies do. He uses ultrasonic noise to drive off the killer. The two spa owners are happy to pay for his sound repellers but Magnus isn’t done with them yet. He refuses their pay off and tells them he plans to open a factory down the beach to process the stink fluid. He convinces the men to cover themselves in the horrid liquid, then sells them the remover.
“Cosmic Hotfoot” (aka “To B or Not to C or to D”) (Startling Stories, September 1950) has bruiser Howard Thifer hire Magnus to solve a mystery on his planet. Thifer is so rich he owns a rocky planet called Jexjeka. Trying to improve his four water sources, Thifer wanted to plant oases at site C and D, but every eighty-four days his work crew disappears entirely. No clues as to why. Magnus looks into it and discovers that one of the planet’s three suns, Noir, a black hole, is the cause. Problem solved, but Thifer is is no hurry to let Ridolph go. When Thifer decides to move the star by exploding it with atomics, he ignites Noir, making evacuation the only choice.
“The Kokod Warriors” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1952) has Magnus low on funds because he has been fleeced by two gentlemen named See and Hoplers. He gets his revenge by taking a job to end gambling on the planet of the Kokod warriors, fierce battlers who the Control can’t stop. Tourists come to Kokod to place bets and watch the terrible battles. Magnus upsets See and Holpers’ set-up by bringing the warriors’ battle to the very hotel.
Jack Vance constructed his Science Fiction like a Mystery story. This is quite evident in stories like “The Unspeakable McInch”. Ridolph could be Hercule Poirot gathering clues before the final scene in the parlour where he reveals the killer. This got me thinking of Isaac Asimov’s claim that true Science Fiction play fair mysteries did not exist until he wrote one. In this case I agree. Vance does not play fair in that he doesn’t give us all the information. The set-up is a perfect English Cozy Mystery but the details are lacking. Instead of being an actual Mystery, Vance has used the format to present a lot of alien culture and physiology, which is the actual intent of the story. Vance wants to create a wondrous universe of aliens, each coexisting with the others. George Lucas does a small version of this with Mos Eisley in the Star Wars films, as do films like Men in Black but none come close to Vance’s version.
“Coup de Grace” (aka “Worlds of Origins”)(Super-Science Fiction, February 1958) shows Asimov’s influence on Vance. Another mystery, a murder mystery this time, but Vance spends more effort on fair play. It is actually possible to solve this mystery if you think about all the information Jack throws at you. Magnus is at the Hub, a molecule-looking space station filled with all kinds of alien guests. The owner is Pan Pascoglu, a short man with a big mustache. While on holiday, Ridolph is approached by an anthropologist named Lester Bonfils. He is at the station with a group of neanderthals from the planet S-Cha 6. Bonfils problem is a woman from Journey’s End, a woman who plans to kill him.
Later Bonfils is found dead, a laser hole in his head. In the room, his anthropoid subjects are in a cage. Pascoglu asks Magnus to step in as a sort of detective since the station doesn’t have a police force. Ridolph and Pascoglu interview all the residents of the Hub, considering the background and society of each. The original title refers to this as they look at each world of origin.
I won’t ruin the fun by revealing the killer. Vance does a great job of making each seem impossible, including the woman from S-Cha 6, who kills by seduction and not weapons. The result is the first play fair mystery of the Ridolph series. Sadly, this was the last story.
Another form of Science Fiction that should be mentioned here is the “problem story” or a puzzle that has to be solved by Science Fictional means. Many of the stories that appeared in SF’s premier magazine Astounding Science Fiction were puzzle stories. The solution for editor John W. Campbell must always be seated in science. Vance approaches this in stories like “The Howling Bounders” though his solutions would probably not contain enough nuts and bolts science for JWC. No surprise, the Ridolph tales mostly appeared at Startling Stories. Personally, I find most puzzle stories dull. Vance’s version has a nice dollop of panache so I am more of a fan.
Other Science Fictional adventurers and trouble-shooters to appear after Magnus Ridolph include Keith Laumer’s Retief, Harry Harrison’s Slippery Jim de Gris and Alexei Panshin’s Anthony Villiers, who was based on Leslie Charteris’s Simon Templar. What better model could you choose? The alien-filled world of Starwell (1968) and its sequels did not come from Charteris. I suspect it was Jack Vance.
