1977 |
There are no swords in science fiction.
Intrigued by the hype and publicity associated with the film, I bought a copy of the Star Wars novelization that had been written by Alan Dean Foster. I didn't like the book. It struck me as a story that was about Earthly mobsters, a story lifted out of some 1940s film and translated into lame Hollywood Sci Fi with a few spaceships and latex aliens. I had no interest in seeing the film, but at the end of the summer my parents talked me into going to see it... I did not like the film either.
C-3PO, Jabba the Hutt and Leia Organa of Alderaan, shown at Jabba's HQ on Tatooine, in Return of the Jedi. |
On film: Jabba version 1.0 |
Another version of Jabba the Hutt, from Star Wars trading cards. The Princess making her escape. |
version 2.0 - Jabba model |
Inch Worm
Interior artwork for "The Unspeakable McInch". |
The setting of "The Unspeakable McInch" is the city of Sclerotto, which Vance described as a "wretched maze of cabins and shacks". The economy of Sclerotto planet seems to be built upon the seaweed that can be harvested from the "sluggish" ocean.
This is a Magnus Ridolph story.
1948 in an alternate Reality. Original cover art by Earle Bergey |
McInch is obsessive about hiding his identity. Nobody even knows if he is a human or a member of one of the many alien species who live in Sclerotto City. Anyone who learns who McInch is, or threatens his control of Sclerotto City, is quickly killed, and the cause of death is always reported as "unclassified disease".
Magnus Ridolph does not need more than a day to figure out the identity of McInch and Ridolph survives McInch's attempt to kill him.
The Golespod Garbage Gambit and other stories of far worlds. Magnus always gets his |
McInch was a Golespod, from the world 1012 Aurigae. McInch lived and worked in the ruins of the city's one stone building, a structure built long ago by the original settlers (a colony of Ordinationalists). Here is how Vance describes McInch: "... a wide, rubbery creature, somewhat like a giant ray, though blockier, thicker in cross-section. It had a double row of pale short legs on its underside, a blank milk-blue eye on its front, a row of pliant tendrils under its eye." Below the eye was a mouth. As a Golespod, McInch was happy to have the people of Sclerotto City bring him their garbage, which he would eat.
Solo and the slimy piece of worm-ridden filth. |
Slimy piece of worm-ridden filth
The worldly Magnus Ridolph knows that the alien Golespod ferment their food using carefully-crafted bacteria that they hold internally. McInch could kill his enemies by exposing them to deadly bacterial strains and poisons that he brewed in his gut.
I wonder if Vance's evil McInch had any influence on the later crafting of Jabba as a Star Wars character.
Mi-Tuun |
Related Reading: the start of my 2020 celebration of Jack Vance
Jack Vance and the big trees
Mike Gray on Magnus
Magnus and The Kessel Run
Next: Magnus Ridolph and the resilian monopoly of Naos VI.
visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
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