Temple of Han, The-Jack Vance short story

Temple of Han, The-Jack Vance short story

AKA: The God and the Temple Robber (author’s preferred title)

The Temple of Han is a short story, 15 pages long, written in 1946 and first printed in the magazine Planet Stories in July, 1951 under the title “The God and the Temple Robber.” Briar Kelly, an Earth man, disguises himself as a Han, an alien species that outnumber humans on Earth, and goes to one of their temples where he steals a religious jewel called the Seven-year Eye that he hopes to sell. While fleeing, however, the sky suddenly changes and a new sun appears in place of the old one.  The Han have somehow moved Earth to a different location, and that is merely the first step in the drastic measures they will take to regain the jewel.  In the Introduction Vance explains how this story was originally part of an epic novel that was rejected for publication. This story, originally called "God and the Temple Robber," was one episode that he salvaged from the novel.  It is engaging and worth reading. I’ve read it three times and most recently rated it a 4 “Really liked it.”

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled The Dark Side of the Moon (1986 Underwood-Miller)

Included in the Vance collection titled Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Works of Jack Vance, vol. 1 (2010 Subterranean)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled World-Thinker and Other Stories (2017 Spatterlight)