Spa of the Stars, The-Jack Vance short story

Spa of the Stars, The-Jack Vance short story

The Spa of the Stars is a 19/20 page short story that initially was printed in Startling Stories magazine in July, 1950.  A huge luxury hotel and resort is opened on the planet Kolama  but has only three paying guests because of attacks on guests by half ton "gorilla-things", flying snakes, dragons and twenty foot aquatic pincher beetles. For some reason there were no such attacks during construction, but only after opening.  Management thinks the local creatures called Mollies who assisted with building the resort were somehow able to keep these predators away, possibly by their odor.  Magnus Ridolph is hired to investigate, but the people who hire him do not act in good faith.  This is an easy to read, enjoyable story with humor and local color. I read this three times and rated it a three times so far and rate it a 4 “Really like it.”

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

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

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

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Magic Highways: The Early Jack Vance, Volume 3 (2015)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1966)

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

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