cover art by Brian Salmon |
"Temple of Han" begins with Kelly walking into the "queer dark temple" at North City. The setting is an Earth-like exoplanet in the Magra Taratempos star system, 30 light-years from Earth. In the text of the story, Vance described "salt-crusted mudflats" near the Temple, but Brian Salmon had another idea (see the image to the right on this page).
Kelly vs the god Han with some other gods looking on. Interior art by Herman Vestal |
Since "Temple of Han" appeared in Planet Stories, I feel like I was cheated by Vance. "The covers tended to emphasis sex, with pinup-style astrobabes and space princesses embroiled in scenes of derring-do and peril." and Chris Jager added, "At the time of publication, the sexual content contained in Planet Stories was considered risque and explicit." In "Temple of Han", Vance briefly mentions Kelly's love interest, Miss Lynette Mason, and how he would like to see a big green jewel gracing her brown neck, but otherwise in this short story Kelly is too busy for additional concern with the opposite sex. None of the characters in the story is female.
Upon seeing the internal art for "Temple of Han" I began suspecting that Herman Vestal might have been a comic book illustrator. When Planet Stories began as a Sci Fi magazine, there was also Planet Comics. However, as far as I can tell, Vestal did not work for Planet Comics.
In the Ekcolir Reality. Original art by Brian Salmon |
Long-Range Teleportation. I love teleportation as a plot element in Sci Fi stories, but maybe if a god is involved I shouldn't call it teleportation. As soon as Kelly makes his escape from the Temple, the planet that he is on gets magically teleported into intergalactic space. The god Han is dependent on the Temple of Han for a supply of green jewels (which are obtained by temple monks from the bottom of an 18 mile-deep mine shaft), and now Han is upset by Kelly's theft of the Seven-year Eye.
In the Ekcolir Reality. Original art by Herman Vestal |
While investigating Planet Comics I was amused to discover that for the 80th anniversary of the original comic book, some new issues had been released in 2020. One of the original characters in Planet Comics was created by Henry Kiefer: a spaceman named Spurt Hammond. Spurt was apparently a defender of the Queen of Venus against the evil King of Mars. I'm glad that Vance did not restrict himself to making stories about planets in our solar system, but Planet Stories may be most famous for continuing the tradition of Sci Fi adventures set on Mars.
Top: 80th year revival of Planet Comics. Bottom: from the original 1940 comic. |
inside the water-temple on Mars |
The September 1951 issue of Planet Stories announced that Bixby was no longer editor, but that issue ran his story "Vengeance on Mars!". The story begins with attention focused on a water-temple of Mars where a guardian has been shot, apparently as part of yet another attempt to steal a pair of twin-stones. Bixby tells us that the Martians are getting tired of temple looters.
The adventures of Captain Spurt Hammond |
I'm surprised that people were still publishing stories in 1951 that read like a John Carter story from 1912. Bixby, like many Sci Fi story tellers, was apparently in love with the idea of canals on Mars. Hale and Randy started out on Mars as farmers, but nothing worked out right for Randy, and now he wants to finance a return trip to Earth with a pair of looted twin-stones.
Over in Planet Comics, we can see the parallel development of the same corny tradition of silly stories about Mars, Venus and the rest of our Solar System. When Venus is attacked by evil Martians, Spurt comes to the aid of the Queen of Venus (see the image to the left on this page). I'm not sure if I'm more impressed by Spurt's blue miniskirt or the Queen's twin stones that are poking out against the fabric of her red top.
In the Ekcolir Reality. Original art by Brian Salmon |
Vance's first novel, Vandals of the Void was written for the kind of young audience that Planet Comics seemed to be catering to. I'm glad that Vance set most of his stories on distant exoplanets rather than fantasy versions of Mars and Venus. In the case of "Temple of Han", I wish Vance had written a sequel about Lynette Mason and what she might do when she gets her hands on the Seven-year Eye. A casual glance at the table of contents for Planet Stories indicates that it was a boys club with an occasional story by female authors like Leigh Brackett or Margaret St. Clair.
interior art by Hank Kass |
women are writing! |
In the cave. Interior art by Vincent Napoli (1949) |
Apparently St. Clair (born 1911) tried her hand at other types of writing before she discovered the Sci Fi magazines. According to the ISFDB her first speculative fiction story was published in 1946. I was intrigued by the title of her 1949 story "The Hierophants". "The Hierophants" begins with an emergency landing of a spaceship (the Lyra) on an asteroid. Soon enough, the human passengers of the spaceship are in the tight pickle shown in the image to the left. St. Clair tells us that this asteroid is made of old lava, so there are plenty of lava caves.
The Planet Stories dress code: miniskirts in space. |
Doll from Nowhere (see). |
The crew of the Lyra consists of "the girl" and "the man" who are headed for Aphrodition. Although "the man" calls "the girl" by the endearing terms "kid" and "baby", we eventually learn that her name is Nais, a name derived from the Greek river nymphs. Yes, St. Clair had a masters degree in Greek Classics, so be prepared for Greek immersion. Right there on the first page of the story we learn about Omega power™.
Green Queen |
Not only do future spaceships have Omega power, they also have other technological wonders including handy gravity control devices. When Nais must stroll across the surface of the asteroid from Lyra to the Star Rover, she simply adjusts her spacesuit's built-in "anti-gravs" and she instantly experiences one g of gravity.
Yet, in this Hi Tek™ future, once Nais is inside Star Rover, she finds and reads the hand-written (on paper) ship's logs. Poor Nais also finds the crumbly body of the 30-years-dead crewman of the Star Rover.
In the Ekcolir Reality Original cover art by Allen Anderson |
As St. Clair tells the tale, judging from what was previously found in an archeological dig on Venus, a dying race of humanoids native to the planet Venus already had a long history of interactions with the asteroidal Hierophants. Now it is the time for we humans to begin interacting with these "energy beings". I'm not sure which bothers me more, building the plot of a story around magic crystals or beings of "pure energy". Oh well, such are the standard tools of Planetoid Romance and Galactic Fantasy.
original cover art by Henry Van Dongen |
In his attempt to get published in Astounding, Vance had to depict his World-Thinker as a space alien. Writing for Planet Stories, Vance did not have to be bothered with small details like having the "gods" in "Temple of Han" make sense.
In the Ekcolir Reality. (original art) |
The super-powerful "gods" (such as Han) who can teleport people and planets across the galaxy can't defeat a single bumbling human, Kelly. I wish Vance had taken the time to turn Han into an alien. In any case, as disappointing as "Temple of Han" was for me as a science fiction fan, I still love the idea of moving planets around the galaxy, so I imagine that the Phari assembled Alastor Cluster over the course of 2,000,000,000 years by bringing together in one place all the star systems of the galaxy where human-like species evolved.
interior art by Vincent Napoli |
Chicken People of Mars. Quintal and Butch are searching Mars and they find the half-burried city of an ancient Martian civilization that had the secret of "antigravity metal". However, Quintal can't defeat the the remnants of an ancient Martian race, the winged "People of the Sky". I'd label this story as Planetary Romance, except Planetary Horror seems more fitting. 😒
Next: Vance and aliens in 1951 - the Dicantrops.
See also: Chapter 11 of "Meet the Phari".
Visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
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