Wiki Fiction: Martha Chickering

May 8, 2020

Martha Chickering

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Earle Bergey

"The Kokod Warriors" by Jack Vance was first published in the October 1952 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. In need of ca$h, Magnus Ridolph cannot ignore a plea from Martha Chickering (secretary of the Women's League Committee for the Preservation of Moral Values) that he help clean up the disgraceful conditions on planet Kokod. Tourists travel to Kokod from distant worlds intent on the opportunity to bet on outcomes of bloody battles between warring tribes of native creatures.

Sadly, having set Ridolph in motion, Martha is absent during most of the action in "The Kokod Warriors". Two other members of the Women's League are present at the luxurious Shadow Valley Inn on Kokod during Ridolph's visit; Mrs. Chaim and Mrs. Borgas, the president and treasure, respectively of the League. These two ladies get caught up in the Kokod warfare.

Mrs. Chaim and Mrs. Borgas returning to Shadow Valley Inn after an altercation with Kokod warriors.

interior art for "The Kokod Warriors" by Paul Orban

As a reader of Jack Vance's Cadwal Chronicles, many aspects of "The Kokod Warriors" struck me as familiar. Ridolph is depicted as drinking Blue Ruin 🍸, just as Chilke and Glawen do in Throy. In Throy, Chilke and Glawen visit Stronsi Ranch on the planet Rosalia where Chilke falls in love with Felitzia Stronsi (commonly known as "Flitz"), the owner of the Ranch.

Related: Vance writes for television.

After visiting Rosalia, Chilke, Glawen and Flitz return to Glawan's home planet, Cadwal, a world that is similar to Kokod, where warfare between native tribes on a remote planet provokes both opposition (from the Life, Peace and Freedom movement) and also a steady stream of tourists who enjoy the spectacle of the endless battles.

On Page 63 of the October 1952 issue of Thrilling is the notice shown to the right on this page. When he was hired by Fox, Vance moved to Los Angeles and began working on $alary, a big $tep up from selling short stories to Sci Fi magazines.

One of the printing errors in "The Kokod Warriors".

However, that Hollywood cash cow died before much progress was made towards getting a Magnus Ridolph adventure onto the screen. 🙁

"... two personable young women were issuing betting vouchers..."

Samuel Mines, the editor of Thrilling expressed doubt that the folks in Hollywood would successfully capture the quirks of Ridolph as expressed in Vance's written stories. Mines says nothing of the many typographical errors that exist in the text of "The Kokod Warriors" as printed by Thrilling.

In "The Kokod Warriors", Magnus Ridolph makes a quick study of the Kokod warriors and discovers that only one human speaks their language, the local representative of the Commonwealth's agency that is tasked with protecting native life on planets of the galaxy, a man named Everley Clark.

Martha and Altamira
Click image to enlarge.

Making use of Clark's linguistic skill and his knowledge of the warriors, Ridolph arranges for several nearby tribes to all attack Shadow Valley Inn, quickly putting it out of business, as originally requested by Martha Chickering.

While at Shadow Valley Inn, Ridolph learned that Mrs. Altamira Borgas came to Kokod in order to place bets on the battles. Immediately after the attack on Shadow Valley Inn by native tribes, the next tourist space ship (the Archaeornyx) arrives, bringing Martha to Kokod. When Mrs. Olga Chaim sees Martha, she says, "Get us clothes. Those frightful savages tore us to shreds."

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover by David Mattingly

Upon Marth'a arrival at the devastated ruins of Shadow Valley Inn, Vance describes her as "... a woman of notable bust, correctly tinted, massaged, coiffed, scented and decorated". Ridolph diplomatically says nothing to Martha about the fact that Altamira had been betting on some of the battles being fought by the Kokod warriors.

Stepping out of the Archaeornyx, Martha is dismayed to see her two friends from the Women's League running around in an agitated state, wearing shredded clothing. "The Kokod Warriors" ends with Altamira showing her battle bruises to Martha and Ridolph quietly booking passage off of Kokod aboard the waiting Archaeornyx.

By this time, the warriors of Kokod have returned to their Tumbles after the battle. Vance often imagined special roles for trees in his stories. At the center of each native village (Tumble) is a stele (which started as a single tree) where "each victory is celebrated by the addition of a shoot, which joins and augments the main body of the stele. The Rock River Stele is 17 feet in diameter, and is estimated to be 4,000 years old".

The rules of war on Kokod
re-imagined in the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover by Henry Van Dongen

Don't worry too much... the Inn's guests, including the ladies of the League of Women survived; the warriors of Kokod are only two feet tall, but a swarm of them completely ransacked the Inn while trying to claim the battle flag that Ridolph planted on its roof. Also, don't worry about the owners of Shadow Valley Inn.

Ridolph's Revenge

Julius See and Bruce Holpers Realty™

Vance devotes considerable effort to creating a backstory in which Ridolph was previously cheated out of a large investment in real estate by the owners of the Inn, Julius See and Bruce Holpers. Before Ridolph puts See and Holpers out of business, he wagers on the outcome of a battle and takes most of their money. Since Ridolph never gambles, he plants land mines in the battle field as a way of making sure that he will win his wager.

in the Ekcolir Reality - original
cover art by Earle Bergey

To add injury to injury, Mrs. Chiam was also cheated in a real estate deal crafted by See and Holpers. At the end of "The Kokod Warriors" she is not only outraged that the staff of Shadow Valley Inn did not protect its guests from the rampaging natives, she is also ready to have See and Holpers arrested for their shady real estate dealings.

Near the end of the story, Vance includes a report from a Kokod warrior as trascribed by Clark. The natives refer to Shadow Valley Inn as "Big Square Tumble". The warrior described the behavior of Mrs. Chiam and Mrs. Borgas during the battle: "We encountered a first line of defense consisting of two rather ineffectual warriors... uttering terrible cries, the two warriors retreated, luring us towards prepared positions inside the tumble..."