Part of Series
Magnus Ridolph, at first glance, did not look like an interstellar troubleshooter. He was not tall and muscular, his skin had not been turned to a rugged color by the numerous distant suns he had visited, and his voice and manner seemed far too mild for an adventurer. Yet there was a chill hardness in his mild blue eyes that warned of the deceptiveness in his appearance. Throughout the galaxy, there were men and other beings - Yellowbirds, Tau Gemini ant-things, Hecatian anthropes - who could testify to the deadliness that lurked behind those eyes. In Magnus Ridolph, Jack Vance has created one of the most memorable characters of his award-winning career.
Author
Aka John Holbrook Vance, Peter Held, John Holbrook, Ellery Queen, John van See, Alan Wade. The author was born in 1916 and educated at the University of California, first as a mining engineer, then majoring in physics and finally in journalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, he contributed widely to science fiction and fantasy magazines. His first novel, The Dying Earth , was published in 1950 to great acclaim. He won both of science fiction's most coveted trophies, the Hugo and Nebula awards. He also won an Edgar Award for his mystery novel The Man in the Cage . He lived in Oakland, California in a house he designed.
