Titus Pompo

cover art by Vincent Di Fate

 In 1987, a first edition of Araminta Station was published (500 copies) and apparently each of them was signed by Jack Vance. Sadly, the cover art for that edition was generic... my guess is that Vincent Di Fate never had a chance to read Vance's novel and then create a depiction of an actual scene from the story. 

In his story, Vance described Araminta Station as a small town on a distant exoplanet (Cadwal), a setting for which Vance gives us accounts of journeys by "flyer", such a the memorable foray to Mad Mountain Lodge by Glawen Clattuc, his love interest Wayness, her brother Milo and also Julian Bohost who is Glawen's rival for the attention of Wayness. As for the tall mountain towering in the image shown to the right, nothing like that appears in Vance's story. The Araminta flyers are small and utilitarian, nothing like the futuristic passenger craft in this image.

cover art by Boris Vallejo

In 1988 there was another edition of Araminta Station with cover art by Boris Vallejo which depicts Glawen and his first girl friend, Sessily Veder. Fairly early in the story, poor Sessily is murdered. One way of looking at the novel is that it is a kind of detective story. Glawen is a policeman in training and by the end of Araminta Station he has discovered who killed Sessily.

That is a dangerous situation for Glawen and Sessily, shown in the image to the left (this scene is on page 71 in the book). However, Glawen tells Sessily, "It's one of the first things my father taught me: never go even three feet into the wilderness without a gun." In this case, they had flown out to a wilderness site of the planet Cadwal where they could collect shed butterfly wings. Sessily used the brightly-colored insect wings to decorate the costume that she wore while performing on stage during Araminta Station's annual Parilia celebration.

Wayness

Later in the story, after both Sessily's murder and the tragic death of Milo at Lake Dimple (near Mad Mountain), Wayness goes off to Earth. Glawen is left behind at Araminta Station where he is lonely and with nothing better to do, he sails out into the ocean and visits Thurben Island, a reef-encircled remnant of a dormant volcano. At Thurben, Glawen is shocked and surprised to discover a party of visitors from Yipton, the much larger island home of the "Yips", a people who through the past several centuries have illegally taken up residence on their island in defiance of the rules that govern human settlement of the planet Cadwal.

Among the party from Yipton are several "Oomps", members of the elite force that guards the ruling strong-man of Yipton, Titus Pompo. 

Wayness and her telepathic daughter

Of more immediate concern to Glawen is a woman named Sibil who is in charge of the group from Yipton. Here is Vance's description of Sibil: "... a tall heavy-boned woman, broad of shoulder, massive of leg and arm..." Glawen has to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Sibil (this comes on page 339 of the novel). That's right: Glawen went out into the wilds of Thurben Island, alone, without bringing along a gun.

Spoilers. I thoroughly enjoy Araminta Station, but there are several plot elements in the story that really make no sense. Perhaps the largest plot hole concerns the ruler of the Yips, Titus Pompo, the Oomphaw. Nobody from Araminta Station is ever allowed to meet Titus Pompo. When speaking, the voice of Titus Pompo is completely disguised by an electronic voice-altering device. Why should the king of the Yips be so secretive?

Perfection of Joy

Finally, near the end of the novel (page 546) readers learn that the real ruler of the Yips is Simonetta Clattuc, a relative of Glawen's who, some 20 years previously, departed from Araminta Station and was never seen again. Vance hardly makes any effort to explain how Simonetta took control of Yipton and her army of Oomphs. Vance needed a way to create drama so he depicted the Yips as a dangerous force (there are 100,000 Yips and only a few hundred residents at Araminta Station) that could threaten sleepy Araminta Station with annihilation and provide a backdrop for Glawen's adventures, but which could also, in the end, be easily defeated.

Old Time Gaming

 Old Time Gaming                                                I mention all of the above as part of my August celebration of Jack Vance's fiction, and nothing that I say above should dissuade anyone from reading Araminta Station. Vance had learned to write at pulp speed, and fans are grateful for the large volume of his writings, so who can quibble if his stories have a few plot holes?

The issue of plot holes is relevant to my own writing. Currently, I'm 3,500 words into writing Part 3 of my new science fiction story, Old Time Gaming. The story has reached the point where Rylla realizes that she has been tricked by another Interventionist agent, Maria Green.

When Rylla was sent on her mission to Australia in 1814, she was warned to expect that her path would cross with that of Maria. In Old Time Gaming, Rylla works as an undercover agent, disguised as a school teacher: Miss Sophie McKnight of Parramatta. 

Max

When adopting that cover identity, Rylla was pleasantly surprised to learn that Sophie had a pleasing sexual relationship with her maid, Elizabeth. 

Rylla was not sent off to Australia in 1814 without support. Soon after her arrival, she meets John Smith. Smith is an experienced Interventionist who has lived on Earth for the past 6,000 years, working to accelerate the pace of technological advancement. Smith is an artificial life-form and essentially immortal. He came to Australia fresh from the North Carolina gold rush, so he is well prepared to help Rylla obtain gold from the Outback. Many Sails (see below) has arranged for there to be a fiery and insuppressible sexual attraction between her two agents in Australia. Many Sails feels obligated to make certain that her operatives are sexually active and sexually satisfied as partial payment for all the hardships that she puts them through.

Rylla also must deal with her "inherited" family, the relatives of Sophie, particularly Sophie's younger brother, Max. Rylla, Smith, Elizabeth and Max journey into the wilderness west of Sydney in search of gold.

Maria Green

In Part 3 of the story, more than 15,000 words into the tale, Rylla finally realizes that one of her acquaintances in Australia is actually Maria Green. Maria is a time traveler from the future, sent to Australia in 1814 in order to make sure that Rylla cannot complete her Interventionist mission on Earth.

In Old Time Gaming, the focus of the story is on Rylla and her adventures in Australia of the 1800s. Behind the scenes there is an ages old conflict involving alien forces who are watching over Earth and the human species. On one side of that ancient conflict are the Huaoshy, aliens from a distant galaxy. The Huaoshy are masters of advanced technologies that rely on sedrons, a type of fundamental particle that remains completely unknown to the primitive people of Earth. Struggling to attain autonomy from the technologically superior Huaoshy are R. Gohrlay and her small cadre of positronic robots.

R. Nyrtia, Viewing the Realities of Earth.

Maria Green was sent back through time to 1814 by R. Nyrtia. Nyrtia is the technology expert among the positronic robots. It was the positronic robots of Earth who first discovered how to travel through time, but the Huaoshy were able to invent their own time travel equipment and even extend their mastery over the phenomenon of time travel by inventing sophisticated Viewing technology that allows them to peer into possible futures: so-called Reality Viewing.

Rylla is in old time Australia as the agent of Many Sails, an artificial life-form known as bumpha. The bumpha are helpers of the Huaoshy and Many Sails has a clear technological advantage over the positronic robots of Earth. 

Rylla being observed (source).

However, it is not the intention of Many Sails to crush and demoralize the positronic robots of Earth. The bumpha and the positronic robots are both working to craft a viable future for Humanity.

Many Sails faces the delicate task of making sure that Rylla accomplishes her mission on Earth while at the same time allowing R. Nyrtia and Maria Green to believe that they defeated Rylla and protected Earth's historical timeline from outside interference.

Thus, I find myself in the same predicament as Vance. I'm trying to devise a formidable adversary for Rylla while at the same time making it clear that Maria really stands no chance of defeating Rylla.

Many Sails on Earth.

 Just a Game. Many Sails has been working for millions of years to craft the human species and guide Humanity into the future. While working through the ages with humans, Many Sails has learned how to mingle among the humans of Earth and have fun living disguised as a human being.  

Many Sails views her relationship with the positronic robots of Earth as a kind of game. Many Sails is not content to simply deploy her agents like Rylla on the playing field of Earth while Many Sails remains in outer space. Readers of Old Time Gaming should not be surprised if Many Sails shows up on Earth and gives Rylla a helping hand with her mission.

Related Reading: Vance's Araminta Station

Next: Part 3 of Old Time Gaming.