Sub-Standard Sardines, The-Jack Vance short story

Sub-Standard Sardines, The-Jack Vance short story

AKA: Case of the Substandard Sardines

The Sub-Standard Sardines is as strange a story as the title suggests.  First published January, 1949 in the magazine Startling Stories it is a 22/24 page short story. Magnus is invited to a gourmet dinner of broiled grouse with truffles and compote of Marchisand cherries, Queen Persis salad, Sirius Fifth artichokes, incredible wines from three planets, and a final course of canned sardines. The dinner is magnificent until the end when he opens the can of sardines and they explode. Magnus is then hired by the sardine firm to investigate why some of their gourmet cans of sardines are bad and appear to have been tampered with.  Magnus investigates by getting a job undercover at the sardine factory.  It is a funny, bizarre, very creative story that even involves talking fish.  I’ve read this several times and rate it a 4 “Really liked 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 Magnus Ridolph (2017, Spatterlight) MRS (pb)

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