Cosmic Hotfoot-Jack Vance short story

Cosmic Hotfoot-Jack Vance short story

AKA: To B or Not to C or D (author’s preferred title)

To B or Not to C or to D is a 20/21 page (7,500 words) short story that was first published in Startling Stories magazine in September, 1950. It is also known as "Cosmic Hotfoot." Ridolph is deeply in debt and trying to hide from bill collectors when he is approached with an offer that will pay off his bills if he investigates why minors keep dying on a private planet called Jexjeka.  Magnus is in debt because of the expenses of managing his own personal zoo, "that howling menagerie of monsters," so accepts the assignment after cleverly negotiating a contract.  Magnus puts himself at great risk to investigate and is unsure if he can trust his employer, a "scowling man" with "carbuncle eyes" who has a reputation for being an "unscrupulous blackguard." I’ve read this story several times and rated it a 3 “liked it.”

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1980, DAW)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled The Complete Magnus Ridolph (1990)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Gadget Stories (2005) part of VIE

Included in Magnus Ridolph (2017, Spatterlight) MRS (pb)

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: Jack Vance Writers of the 21st Century Tim Underwood & Chuck Miller

Book Review: Jack Vance Writers of the 21st Century Tim Underwood & Chuck Miller Vancealot: Jack Vance in Review, TJ Jones Taplinger Publishing Co., hardcover, 252 pages Release Date: 1980 Availability: It is out of print but used copies are readily available on the Internet. Having read all of Vance's published writings, most of them several times, I have been seeking intelligent, insightful, critical writings about the works of Jack Vance.   This book provides just that.   It is a 252 page collection of articles about Vance’s writings that includes eight thoughtful chapters, each by a different author.   It was edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, two well known publishers and admirers of Jack Vance.   The collection was published in 1980 and is currently out of print but available as an affordable used book.   If you admire Vance's writings you should really love reading this book.   Below is a brief summary of the introduction, eight ...
Read more

Book Review: Demon Prince: The Dissonant Worlds of Jack Vance-Jack P. Rawlins

Book Review: Demon Prince: The Dissonant Worlds of Jack Vance-Jack P. Rawlins Vancealot: Jack Vance in Review, TJ Jones Borgo Press/Wildside Press, trade paperback & hardcover, 104 pages Release Date: 1986, reissued 2007 Availability: Paperback and hardcover edition may be purchased new from Amazon as of 2/24. Published in 1986 this is volume forty of the series "The Milford Series: Popular Writers of Today."   Jack P. Rawlins has a Ph D from Yale University and is a retired Professor of English from California State University in Chico.   He has taught courses in composition, language education, linguistics, and literature.   Other books he has written are "The Writer's Way" and "Thackeray's Novels: A Fiction That Is True."   He also wrote the forward to the Spatterlight edition of Jack Vance's Night Lamp.   Rawlins indicated that he began reading Vance when he was an undergraduate at Berkeley and that Vance became one of his ...
Read more

Jack Vance Novels (56) And Novellas (18)

Jack Vance Novels (56) And Novellas (18) Works in bold are the preferred titles when work has multiple titles Total: 56 novels Total: 18 novellas 11 novellas NIA-never issued as stand-alone works 5 novellas IBI-issued by itself Total novels plus novellas=74 1 stand-alone novelette-Sjambak 1 stand-alone short story-Moon Moth 1 autobiography-This Is Me, Jack Vance!   Standard set forth by the Science Fiction Writers of America: Flash Fiction: 53 - 1,000 words Short Stories: 3,500 - 7,500 [usually under 22 pages] Novelettes: 7,500 - 17,000 [usually around 22-53 pages] Novellas: 17,000 - 40,000 [usually around 53-121 pages] Novels: 40,000 + words [usually around 121 pages or more]   Novels and Novellas Abercrombie Station (1952 TWS) 62 pgs, novella, later issued in collection Monsters in  Orbit, NIA. "Alastor Cluster" Series (see individual listings): 1.      Trullion: Alastor 2262 2.      Ma...
Read more