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Eric John Stark
The Best of Leigh Brackett
There was once a young girl who created a host of strange and wonderful worlds. These were her very own planets, with such fascinating features as the Sea of Morning Opals, the Mountains of White Cloud, wicked Canal cities, and lost lands full of magic and mystery.
That girl's name is Leigh Brackett. And today, more than 35 years after selling her first science fiction story, she continues to thrill and excite all lovers of imaginative writing. Her haunting tales of ancient Mars, wind-swept Venus, and remote worlds beyond human technology have become almost instant classics in the genre; and now Edmond Hamilton, Leigh's husband and a great SF writer in his own right, has personally collected ten of her best stories into a beautiful hardcover anthology. Here's a preview of the amazing tales:
THE JEWEL OF BAS. There's an ancient legend passed down among the people of the outermost planet. It tells of Bas the Immortal, possessor of the Stone of Destiny—a jewel of such power that owning it gives a man rule over the whole world. Ciaran and Mouse, two unscrupulous gypsies, only half-believed the story until they found themselves at the mercy of Bas's fierce android army ... pawns in a sinister plan to enslave the human race.
THE VANISHING VENUSIANS. For years the space colonists had wandered the hellish eternal seas of Venus, seeking the home that was their birthright, death constantly stalking in their wake. And now they were making their final bid—three of their bravest fighting toward a promised land guarded by nightmare creatures. Who would emerge victorious? Close to 4000 desperate people waited anxiously for the answer...
THE VEIL OF ASTELLAR. Tough, hardbitten Steve Vance ... once he was human! But three hundred years ago he betrayed his homeland for a race of alien vampires who fulfilled his every desire in return for a small "favor." All he had to do was lure innocent Earth spaceships to their doom on the vampires' world. He knew his soul was forever damned. But there was one way in which he might atone...
THE QUEER ONES. Hank Temple was at the editor's desk when the hospital called him in to see the X-rays. They were of a hill girl's illegitimate baby, and they showed insides like no child ever had. That was the beginning ... and the end came on an enshrouded Ozark mountain, with deadly green lightning flickering and a sound in the sky that was not wind or thunder...
That girl's name is Leigh Brackett. And today, more than 35 years after selling her first science fiction story, she continues to thrill and excite all lovers of imaginative writing. Her haunting tales of ancient Mars, wind-swept Venus, and remote worlds beyond human technology have become almost instant classics in the genre; and now Edmond Hamilton, Leigh's husband and a great SF writer in his own right, has personally collected ten of her best stories into a beautiful hardcover anthology. Here's a preview of the amazing tales:
THE JEWEL OF BAS. There's an ancient legend passed down among the people of the outermost planet. It tells of Bas the Immortal, possessor of the Stone of Destiny—a jewel of such power that owning it gives a man rule over the whole world. Ciaran and Mouse, two unscrupulous gypsies, only half-believed the story until they found themselves at the mercy of Bas's fierce android army ... pawns in a sinister plan to enslave the human race.
THE VANISHING VENUSIANS. For years the space colonists had wandered the hellish eternal seas of Venus, seeking the home that was their birthright, death constantly stalking in their wake. And now they were making their final bid—three of their bravest fighting toward a promised land guarded by nightmare creatures. Who would emerge victorious? Close to 4000 desperate people waited anxiously for the answer...
THE VEIL OF ASTELLAR. Tough, hardbitten Steve Vance ... once he was human! But three hundred years ago he betrayed his homeland for a race of alien vampires who fulfilled his every desire in return for a small "favor." All he had to do was lure innocent Earth spaceships to their doom on the vampires' world. He knew his soul was forever damned. But there was one way in which he might atone...
THE QUEER ONES. Hank Temple was at the editor's desk when the hospital called him in to see the X-rays. They were of a hill girl's illegitimate baby, and they showed insides like no child ever had. That was the beginning ... and the end came on an enshrouded Ozark mountain, with deadly green lightning flickering and a sound in the sky that was not wind or thunder...
442 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
11 people are currently reading
878 people want to read
About the author
Edmond Hamilton
1,027 books137 followersEdmond Moore Hamilton was a popular author of science fiction stories and novels throughout the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. Something of a child prodigy, he graduated high school and started college (Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania) at the age of 14--but washed out at 17. He was the Golden Age writer who worked on Batman, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many sci-fi books.
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May 27, 2019
While reading our author's first hardboiled mystery, film director Howard Hawks was so impressed with its toughness that he told an assistant, “Get me this guy Brackett!” not knowing that “Leigh” was really a woman. Thus began a twenty-five year association that lead to her writing five good sceenplays for him, three of which--”The Big Sleep,” “Rio Bravo,” and “Eldorado”--resulted in classic films.
Although her work as a screenwriter was extraordinarily successful, it was also intermittent, and science fiction/ fantasy remained Brackett's main gig. The money wasn't as good as Hollywood, but the work was steady; besides, unlike the Tinseltown commissions, her fiction--what to write and when--remained in her complete control.
What she primarily decided to write were "planetary romances": ostensibly science fiction, such works were really sword and sorcery tales, usually set on improbable versions of our neighboring planets. Brackett inherited the dying cities, dangerous villains, mighty warriors and beautiful women of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars, but she rejected his dualism and the moribund Victorian morality that came with it. Unlike Burroughs', her cities are not merely dying but decadent, her villains not simply evil but selfish and deluded, her harsh heroes—if they are noble—keep quiet about it, and her women not only speak up when they choose but know how to take care of themselves.
This anthology, edited by her husband Edmund Hamilton, is an excellent introduction to Brackett. Her early story "The Jewel of Bas" (1944) is innovative and surprising, featuring non-traditional heroes, an android demiurge, and a plot so elemental it seems more like myth than fantasy. Like most of the other stories here, it is set on another planet, and I believe such planetary romances are Brackett's best work. Particularly noteworthy of these are "The Veil of Asteller," a nuanced variation on the vampire trope, "The Moon that Vanished," a vivid questing tale, the novella "The Enchantress of Venus," an effective adventure involving Brackett's flinty hero Eric John Stark, and the two powerful but very different imaginings of dying civilizations, "The Last Days of Shandakor" and "Shannach the Last." In addition to the these, the anthology also contains three tales of alien visits to Earth, notable for their complete lack of xenophobia--in spite of the fact that they were penned in the paranoid fifties.
Brackett's fiction occupies an awkward position between science fiction and fantasy, and for that reason, is often neglected by readers who otherwise would delight in her work. Don't let yourself be--as I was until recently--one of those unlucky, oblivious ones.
March 7, 2016
Back in the late 1970s and early '80s, Ballantine Books had a wonderful thing going with its "Best of" anthology series: 21 generously packed books celebrating 21 of the most influential authors of science fiction's Golden Age, all reasonably priced at $1.95 (I refer here to the paperback editions, all of which I managed to collect) and all featuring beautiful cover art and informative introductions by a distinguished sci-fi author or critic. I loved every one of the "Best of" collections back when (OK, I wasn’t overly fond of "The Best of John W. Campbell"), and found them all to be perfect introductions to the 21 writers involved. But of all those many volumes, one of my favorites of the bunch was "The Best of Leigh Brackett" (1977), and just recently, in my continuing celebration of the centennial of the so-called "Queen of Space Opera," I decided to reread this 400+-page affair for the first time in...can it be 35 years? And I am so glad that I did. Comprised of 10 short stories and novellas, with an introduction by Brackett's husband, pulpmaster Edmond "the World Wrecker" Hamilton, and an afterword by Brackett herself--not to mention two maps of the author's Mars by fan Margaret Howes--this volume truly is a must-read for anyone with an abiding interest in Golden Age sci-fi.
Unlike many of the other "Best of" collections, however, "The Best of Leigh Brackett" does not begin with its strongest pieces, and for a logical reason: The stories here are presented almost in perfect chronological order, and Brackett's abilities as a wordsmith continued to evolve and improve (as would be expected, I suppose) as she went along. Still, the first two stories DO manage to entertain. In "The Jewel of Bas" (from the Spring '44 issue of "Planet Stories," the pulp magazine in which so many of Brackett's early tales first appeared), the reader makes the acquaintance of a newlywed couple, the troubadour Ciaran and his wife, Mouse, who live on a red-skied planet that most readers seem to conclude is Mars--even the book's back cover refers to them as "Martian lovers"--although the story itself never tells us that (and indeed, it mentions that the action is set on the 10th planet of this solar system!). This cute, bickering couple gets into some big trouble when they are enslaved by the gray-skinned Kalds and brought to an underground installation lorded over by two scheming androids. Ultimately, the story manages to conflate a slumbering, immortal youth, Cimmeria, Dagon, Hyperborea AND Atlantis into its 53-page length; a charming novella, to be fair, but one that would perhaps have worked better as a more fully developed novel.
In "The Vanishing Venusians" (from the Spring ’45 "Planet Stories"), three men depart from the 3,800 colonists who have been roaming the seas of Venus, looking for a suitable place to make a home. The trio explores a high plateau area and encounters two different species of warring anthropomorphic plant life, one with the powers of telepathy and telekinesis. This is a rousing, exciting tale, told in true pulp fashion, and one with a surprisingly high body count, to boot, whose one major problem is some geographical descriptions that are a tad difficult to envision.
After these two stories, "The Best of Leigh Brackett" kicks into high gear and delivers at least a half dozen pieces in a row that this reader deems minor masterpieces. "The Veil of Astellar" ("Thrilling Wonder Stories," Spring ’44) gives us the tale of a spaceman from Earth who betrayed his people, thus enabling the residents of the dying world of Astellar to kidnap entire starships, and shows how he later tried to undo his terrible crimes. It is a beautifully written piece of work, unusually structured, with a story line that is at first bewildering but that eventually makes perfect sense. (I love it when Brackett tells us that one of these starship's female passengers, gazing out a porthole at the galaxy beyond, is "starry-eyed.")
"The Moon That Vanished" ("Thrilling Wonder Stories," 10/48) is perhaps the greatest story in this collection. Here, an Earthman explorer, a wreck of a man since approaching the fringes of the mutating Moonfire (a giant, crash-landed chunk of Venus' long-gone lunar neighbor), agrees to escort a Venusian barbarian and a temple girl into the very heart of the zone, in the hopes of acquiring godlike powers. The three embark on a journey across the minidragon-infested Sea of Morning Opals, all the while evading the killer priests known as the Children of the Moon, and ultimately arrive at their fateful destination. I really can't say enough about this story. It is at once exciting, suspenseful, colorful, hyper-imaginative and beautifully written, concluding with one incredible sequence in the heart of the Moonfire itself. Some truly brilliant work by Brackett here, in a story a bit reminiscent of her mentor Henry Kuttner's 1946 classic "Valley of the Flame." Brackett often wrote like a man, by the way (don't jump on me, ladies--that's Hamilton talking, also), and never more so than when depicting scenes of carnage...and in this description of temple girl Alor: "Her body was everything a woman’s body ought to be...which was wide shouldered and leggy...."
Up next in the collection is "Enchantress of Venus" ("Planet Stories," Fall '49), the second story that Leigh wrote featuring her most famous character, Eric John Stark. I have already written at some length regarding this superb novella under a separate heading on this site, so will just say now again that this is still another great wonder of Golden Age sci-fi; a bravura piece of work.
"The Woman from Altair" ("Startling Stories," 7/51) brings us to planet Earth for the first time in this collection. It is the tale of a space explorer, David McQuarrie, who brings his new lavender-haired bride, Ahrian from you-know-where, back to his family in the NYC area. But when the family dog and David's kid sister both go berserk and are killed under mysterious circumstances, David's older brother and his fiancée start to do some snooping into their new sister-in-law's exotic background. This is a story of gradually escalating paranoia, and a wholly satisfying one.
Next, we have the only tale in this bunch that is unequivocally set on the Red Planet: "The Last Days of Shandakor" (from the 4/52 issue of "Startling Stories"). In this one, a "planetary anthropologist" from Earth explores the ruins of the dead titular city and discovers that it is populated by the ghosts of its past...and by a few actual survivors. He falls in love with Duani, a young Shandakor girl, leading to a tragic end for the entire population. As Hamilton tells us in his intro, this was "the last, finest, and saddest of all her Mars stories...a summing-up, a valedictory, of the Brackett Mars." Suitably elegiac in tone, it really is a beautiful piece of storytelling.
The collection's next masterpiece, "Shannach--The Last" ("Planet Stories," 11/52), finds us in the desolate and forbidding Twilight Belt on Mercury, where Eric John Stark was raised. In this novella, a man looking for superprecious sun-stones comes upon an enslaved people in thrall to a dying alien intelligence, one that beat "Star Trek"'s the Horta to the silicic punch by a good 15 years. In this tale's harrowing opening sequence, our intrepid miner is trapped deep beneath the planet's surface in an ever-narrowing cave system...a sequence that I well remembered from 35 years back, and one that should prove a rough ride for all claustrophobics! Flying lizard hawks, telepathy, a mountain hike above the limits of the Mercurian atmosphere, and an alien who truly is alien are all melded by Brackett into one tasty stew here.
To wrap up "The Best of Leigh Brackett," we have two more stories that transpire right here on good ol' Mother Earth. In "The Tweener" ("The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction," 2/55), a spaceman returns from Mars with a most unique souvenir for his young niece and nephew: a "tweener," so called because it resembles something between a rabbit and a groundhog. (In a tip of the hat to the Edgar Rice Burroughs books that so influenced Brackett as a child, the author has the kids name the tweener...John Carter!) This is another tale of escalating paranoia, and a good object lesson for anyone prone to a little xenophobia.
Finally, "The Queer Ones" ("Venture Science Fiction," 3/57) gives us the story of a 2 ½-year-old mountain boy who is discovered to have marked physical abnormalities, as well as a blood type that nobody has ever seen before. In fact, he is of an entirely new species entirely, and for good reason, as it turns out: He is the love child of a hillbilly girl and a visitor from the planet Hrylliannu! And before long, newspaperman Hank Temple learns that many TV sets in the small town of Newhale have been oddly tampered with, that green lightnings have begun to slay, and that a conflagration at the local hospital has been deliberately started, all pointing to...a possible invasion from the stars? "The Queer Ones" brings this wonderful collection to a most appropriate close, engendering as it does a true sense of cosmic wonder.
So there you have it...10 marvelous pieces from the woman who surely did earn her crown as the "Queen of Space Opera," every one of which would make for a terrific sci-fi film. I so enjoyed reacquainting myself with "The Best of Leigh Brackett," as a matter of fact, that I am now considering rereading those other 20 books in the classic Ballantine series. Stay tuned....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ .... a perfect destination for all fans of Leigh Brackett....)
Unlike many of the other "Best of" collections, however, "The Best of Leigh Brackett" does not begin with its strongest pieces, and for a logical reason: The stories here are presented almost in perfect chronological order, and Brackett's abilities as a wordsmith continued to evolve and improve (as would be expected, I suppose) as she went along. Still, the first two stories DO manage to entertain. In "The Jewel of Bas" (from the Spring '44 issue of "Planet Stories," the pulp magazine in which so many of Brackett's early tales first appeared), the reader makes the acquaintance of a newlywed couple, the troubadour Ciaran and his wife, Mouse, who live on a red-skied planet that most readers seem to conclude is Mars--even the book's back cover refers to them as "Martian lovers"--although the story itself never tells us that (and indeed, it mentions that the action is set on the 10th planet of this solar system!). This cute, bickering couple gets into some big trouble when they are enslaved by the gray-skinned Kalds and brought to an underground installation lorded over by two scheming androids. Ultimately, the story manages to conflate a slumbering, immortal youth, Cimmeria, Dagon, Hyperborea AND Atlantis into its 53-page length; a charming novella, to be fair, but one that would perhaps have worked better as a more fully developed novel.
In "The Vanishing Venusians" (from the Spring ’45 "Planet Stories"), three men depart from the 3,800 colonists who have been roaming the seas of Venus, looking for a suitable place to make a home. The trio explores a high plateau area and encounters two different species of warring anthropomorphic plant life, one with the powers of telepathy and telekinesis. This is a rousing, exciting tale, told in true pulp fashion, and one with a surprisingly high body count, to boot, whose one major problem is some geographical descriptions that are a tad difficult to envision.
After these two stories, "The Best of Leigh Brackett" kicks into high gear and delivers at least a half dozen pieces in a row that this reader deems minor masterpieces. "The Veil of Astellar" ("Thrilling Wonder Stories," Spring ’44) gives us the tale of a spaceman from Earth who betrayed his people, thus enabling the residents of the dying world of Astellar to kidnap entire starships, and shows how he later tried to undo his terrible crimes. It is a beautifully written piece of work, unusually structured, with a story line that is at first bewildering but that eventually makes perfect sense. (I love it when Brackett tells us that one of these starship's female passengers, gazing out a porthole at the galaxy beyond, is "starry-eyed.")
"The Moon That Vanished" ("Thrilling Wonder Stories," 10/48) is perhaps the greatest story in this collection. Here, an Earthman explorer, a wreck of a man since approaching the fringes of the mutating Moonfire (a giant, crash-landed chunk of Venus' long-gone lunar neighbor), agrees to escort a Venusian barbarian and a temple girl into the very heart of the zone, in the hopes of acquiring godlike powers. The three embark on a journey across the minidragon-infested Sea of Morning Opals, all the while evading the killer priests known as the Children of the Moon, and ultimately arrive at their fateful destination. I really can't say enough about this story. It is at once exciting, suspenseful, colorful, hyper-imaginative and beautifully written, concluding with one incredible sequence in the heart of the Moonfire itself. Some truly brilliant work by Brackett here, in a story a bit reminiscent of her mentor Henry Kuttner's 1946 classic "Valley of the Flame." Brackett often wrote like a man, by the way (don't jump on me, ladies--that's Hamilton talking, also), and never more so than when depicting scenes of carnage...and in this description of temple girl Alor: "Her body was everything a woman’s body ought to be...which was wide shouldered and leggy...."
Up next in the collection is "Enchantress of Venus" ("Planet Stories," Fall '49), the second story that Leigh wrote featuring her most famous character, Eric John Stark. I have already written at some length regarding this superb novella under a separate heading on this site, so will just say now again that this is still another great wonder of Golden Age sci-fi; a bravura piece of work.
"The Woman from Altair" ("Startling Stories," 7/51) brings us to planet Earth for the first time in this collection. It is the tale of a space explorer, David McQuarrie, who brings his new lavender-haired bride, Ahrian from you-know-where, back to his family in the NYC area. But when the family dog and David's kid sister both go berserk and are killed under mysterious circumstances, David's older brother and his fiancée start to do some snooping into their new sister-in-law's exotic background. This is a story of gradually escalating paranoia, and a wholly satisfying one.
Next, we have the only tale in this bunch that is unequivocally set on the Red Planet: "The Last Days of Shandakor" (from the 4/52 issue of "Startling Stories"). In this one, a "planetary anthropologist" from Earth explores the ruins of the dead titular city and discovers that it is populated by the ghosts of its past...and by a few actual survivors. He falls in love with Duani, a young Shandakor girl, leading to a tragic end for the entire population. As Hamilton tells us in his intro, this was "the last, finest, and saddest of all her Mars stories...a summing-up, a valedictory, of the Brackett Mars." Suitably elegiac in tone, it really is a beautiful piece of storytelling.
The collection's next masterpiece, "Shannach--The Last" ("Planet Stories," 11/52), finds us in the desolate and forbidding Twilight Belt on Mercury, where Eric John Stark was raised. In this novella, a man looking for superprecious sun-stones comes upon an enslaved people in thrall to a dying alien intelligence, one that beat "Star Trek"'s the Horta to the silicic punch by a good 15 years. In this tale's harrowing opening sequence, our intrepid miner is trapped deep beneath the planet's surface in an ever-narrowing cave system...a sequence that I well remembered from 35 years back, and one that should prove a rough ride for all claustrophobics! Flying lizard hawks, telepathy, a mountain hike above the limits of the Mercurian atmosphere, and an alien who truly is alien are all melded by Brackett into one tasty stew here.
To wrap up "The Best of Leigh Brackett," we have two more stories that transpire right here on good ol' Mother Earth. In "The Tweener" ("The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction," 2/55), a spaceman returns from Mars with a most unique souvenir for his young niece and nephew: a "tweener," so called because it resembles something between a rabbit and a groundhog. (In a tip of the hat to the Edgar Rice Burroughs books that so influenced Brackett as a child, the author has the kids name the tweener...John Carter!) This is another tale of escalating paranoia, and a good object lesson for anyone prone to a little xenophobia.
Finally, "The Queer Ones" ("Venture Science Fiction," 3/57) gives us the story of a 2 ½-year-old mountain boy who is discovered to have marked physical abnormalities, as well as a blood type that nobody has ever seen before. In fact, he is of an entirely new species entirely, and for good reason, as it turns out: He is the love child of a hillbilly girl and a visitor from the planet Hrylliannu! And before long, newspaperman Hank Temple learns that many TV sets in the small town of Newhale have been oddly tampered with, that green lightnings have begun to slay, and that a conflagration at the local hospital has been deliberately started, all pointing to...a possible invasion from the stars? "The Queer Ones" brings this wonderful collection to a most appropriate close, engendering as it does a true sense of cosmic wonder.
So there you have it...10 marvelous pieces from the woman who surely did earn her crown as the "Queen of Space Opera," every one of which would make for a terrific sci-fi film. I so enjoyed reacquainting myself with "The Best of Leigh Brackett," as a matter of fact, that I am now considering rereading those other 20 books in the classic Ballantine series. Stay tuned....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ .... a perfect destination for all fans of Leigh Brackett....)
March 25, 2024
Check out a discussion of this book with Matt, Richard and myself HERE. This is a great collection of beautifully written short stories. Brackett’s writing is vivid and imaginative, there are a range of stories here, but my favorites were planetary stories. Many people have mentioned this, but her planetary romances are sort of a progression from what Edgar Rice Burroughs was doing. Her style and writing brings a certain nostalgia for me.
September 10, 2011
"The Jewel of Bas": Probably the closest Brackett has come to Clark Ashton Smith. A doomed couple discover an ancient evil. Very good. 4 stars.
"The Vanishing Venusians": Straight up creepy adventure, no character development. Luckily the adventure is gross and brutal. 4 stars.
"The Veil of Astelar": Good character work about a guy who sacrifices eternal life to protect a recently remembered memory. Great use of sci-fi to stress the wonders he gives up. This one is really sticking with me. 5 stars.
"The Moon That Vanished": Good beginning and great ending, but the long middle (a trek to discover the location of godlike powers) was too drawn out. It could have been great with some cuts to the middle. 3 stars.
"The Enchantress of Venus": Brackett's strengths and weaknesses are best exemplified in this Stark story concerning a cruel family ruling an island on Venus. Brilliant location and mood, but she will often include periods without physical struggle but which deal with some emotional struggle that is too drawn out and elusive. The overall plot is wonderful, but there were many moments I wanted to skip. 3.5 stars.
"The Woman From Altair": Somewhat predictable but flat out awesome. Great and fully developed main character, a nice creepyness, effective tragedy, and good pacing makes this one of her best. 5 stars.
"The Last Days of Shandakor": I couldn't focus on this one. Interesting concept about a dying race and a confused dude, but there was no immediacy to the writing. 2.5 stars.
"Shannach-The Last": Fun pulp adventure with some edge and a bite, about a treasure hunter becoming involved with a race of slaves and an ancient space goon. Not necessarily a treasure, but a solid little time waster. 3 stars.
"The Tweener": A sad one about a family possessed by paranoia concerning a pet from the depths of space. 4 stars.
"The Queer Ones": Fairly standard "mystery" about a group of immigrant space aliens. Somewhat clever but not great. Luckily Brackett's prose is lovely. There's a description of the protagonist kissing an alien girl and her cold response that is wonderful, but it doesn't raise the story above a "meh." 2.5 stars.
"The Vanishing Venusians": Straight up creepy adventure, no character development. Luckily the adventure is gross and brutal. 4 stars.
"The Veil of Astelar": Good character work about a guy who sacrifices eternal life to protect a recently remembered memory. Great use of sci-fi to stress the wonders he gives up. This one is really sticking with me. 5 stars.
"The Moon That Vanished": Good beginning and great ending, but the long middle (a trek to discover the location of godlike powers) was too drawn out. It could have been great with some cuts to the middle. 3 stars.
"The Enchantress of Venus": Brackett's strengths and weaknesses are best exemplified in this Stark story concerning a cruel family ruling an island on Venus. Brilliant location and mood, but she will often include periods without physical struggle but which deal with some emotional struggle that is too drawn out and elusive. The overall plot is wonderful, but there were many moments I wanted to skip. 3.5 stars.
"The Woman From Altair": Somewhat predictable but flat out awesome. Great and fully developed main character, a nice creepyness, effective tragedy, and good pacing makes this one of her best. 5 stars.
"The Last Days of Shandakor": I couldn't focus on this one. Interesting concept about a dying race and a confused dude, but there was no immediacy to the writing. 2.5 stars.
"Shannach-The Last": Fun pulp adventure with some edge and a bite, about a treasure hunter becoming involved with a race of slaves and an ancient space goon. Not necessarily a treasure, but a solid little time waster. 3 stars.
"The Tweener": A sad one about a family possessed by paranoia concerning a pet from the depths of space. 4 stars.
"The Queer Ones": Fairly standard "mystery" about a group of immigrant space aliens. Somewhat clever but not great. Luckily Brackett's prose is lovely. There's a description of the protagonist kissing an alien girl and her cold response that is wonderful, but it doesn't raise the story above a "meh." 2.5 stars.
April 18, 2021
This is an excellent collection of ten stories that showcase the depth, range, and diversity of Brackett's writing, edited and introduced by her husband, Edmond Hamilton, another famous science fiction writer. The stories were published from 1944-1957 in genre pulp magazines Planet Stories and Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories, except for the final pair which are from the digest-sized The Magazine of F & SF and its companion title, Venture Science Fiction. Brackett excelled in the sword & planet fantasy adventure genre, in the best tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and her depictions of Mars, particularly, are evocative and rich. My favorites of the ones included here are The Jewel of Bas, Enchantress of Venus, and The Last Days of Shandakor. She was a terrific writer, best remembered now for her films, but her science fiction prose should not be overlooked.
November 17, 2015
I can't believe how many weeks it took me to read this. A collection of science fiction short stories I thought I would devour in days but it took weeks! That said this was one of the BEST collections of science fiction stories I've ever read. Easily up their with Philip K Dick. The stories were this wonderful blend of classic science fiction, Burroughs style worlds, film noir and social commentary. The first story that made me sit up was one of the most harrowing accounts of colonialism I've read. A hostile Venusian world and the colonists desperate enough to kill off two sentient races to give themselves a home. Then there was a story that sounded like it was narrated by Humphrey Boggart. Everything was a perfect blend of film noir, and big worlds and space travel, with bizarre mental powers thrown in for good measure. There was just SO much here. I ordered another book of hers before I finished it. She is quickly becoming one of my favourite science fiction writers.
June 17, 2019
Lovely, pulpy space opera from the lady called its queen. Brackett does the old-school depictions of Venus (swampy) and Mars (Barsoomy) very well, and much more convincingly than some of her male peers. The Earthbound stories were less interesting overall but still good.
March 11, 2022
What an incredibly brilliant collection of stories. I have no idea or sense of how well-known Leigh Brackett is in the sci-fi world these days but I hope she's extremely beloved.
October 21, 2019
Better written and less adolescent than most science fiction from the same era, this collection was bursting with imagination. The technology and science in these stories may be outdated, but that didn't get in the way of a good yarn. In fact, the more fantastic the better.
Brackett's vividly realized versions of Mars, Venus and Mercury live in the imagination long after reading them. Her civilizations are both strange and familiar at the same time. I am reminded of Michael Resnick's "space western" universe and some of CJ Moore's stories, not to mention the obvious comparisons to Burroughs' John Carter of Mars.
Several of the stories shared the same themes, where the baser and more destructive instincts of man helped him prevail against the seemingly more refined and advanced alien cultures. I felt that perspective to be overly cynical and discouraging. There were also a few too many relationships between (very) young women and much older male protagonists, making some passages a bit awkward and uncomfortable.
Nonetheless I quite enjoyed this collection and may check out some of Brackett's novels in the future.
Brackett's vividly realized versions of Mars, Venus and Mercury live in the imagination long after reading them. Her civilizations are both strange and familiar at the same time. I am reminded of Michael Resnick's "space western" universe and some of CJ Moore's stories, not to mention the obvious comparisons to Burroughs' John Carter of Mars.
Several of the stories shared the same themes, where the baser and more destructive instincts of man helped him prevail against the seemingly more refined and advanced alien cultures. I felt that perspective to be overly cynical and discouraging. There were also a few too many relationships between (very) young women and much older male protagonists, making some passages a bit awkward and uncomfortable.
Nonetheless I quite enjoyed this collection and may check out some of Brackett's novels in the future.
October 7, 2023
“The Best of Leigh Brackett” is an anthology of some of Brackett’s best stories. It begins with a nice introduction from her husband - also a writer - talking about their personal life, times, and ways of writing; interesting both for the writing talk (did you know Bracket was a pantser as opposed to a planner?) and also interesting for the historical immersion as this was all some 80 or 70 years ago from my time.
The first story was “The Jewel of Bas” which stars as protagonists a romantic duo that seem rather violent towards one another. The lady, Mouse, fits the rogue/thief archetype while Ciaran seems more of an idea man. While some of the diologue didn’t really work for me this time around and the violence didn’t either I did find the action scenes beautifully well written.
“It was more than just the sheer crushing size of it, or the unfamiliar metallic construction that was like nothing he had seen or even dreamed of before. It was the thing itself. It was Power. It was Strength. It was a Titan growing there in the belly of the world, getting ready to reach out and grip it and play with it, like Mouse gambling with an empty skull.”
Overall, I think this story got better the further in you got, with a nice twist here and there, and some even more powerful writing:
“It was simply that harping to him was as natural as breathing, and what was inside him had to come out some way. He wasn’t thinking about music. He was thinking about Mouse, and it just added up to the same thing.
Random chords at first, rippling up against the wall of milky light. Then the agony in him began to run out through his fingertips onto the strings, and he sent it thrumming strong across the still air. It sang wild and savage, but underneath it there was the sound of his own heart breaking, and the fall of tears.
There was no time. There wasn’t even any Ciaran. There was only the harp crying a dirge for a black haired Mouse and the world she lived in. Nothing mattered but that. Nothing would ever matter.
Then finally there wasn’t anything left for the harp to cry about. The last quiver of the strings went throbbing off into a dull emptiness, and there was only an ugly little man in yellow rags, crouched silent by a stone cross, hiding his face in his hands.”
Maybe it’s just me, but hair standing tall with the raw magic and power of that passage - Brackett got emotions, understood people, and could channel the human struggle into her stories that most post millennial authors just can’t - at least from what I have seen.
In the end, I could see why this story was included. So many twists and emotions amidst magic and science where the human, the machine, and the divine all intersect, I’d urge readers to keep with it and keep reading; you won’t regret it.
The next story was “The Vanishing Venusians”. Here we are placed on a jungle/water world version of Venus where human colonists have been running and hiding from unending terrors for a generation or two, if I understood right, though I will concede that the beginning confused me a little. Our protagonist, Harker, is as billegerent and rough a prot as your ever likely to meet, though even his meaness is an infinitesimal compared to the strange, alien lack of empathy the Venusian girl seems to have.
“‘I’m shot,’ he said. ‘I’ve been too busy for a man my age. Can’t you get hold of somebody to help me carry him?’
Again she studied him with puzzled fascination. Night was closing in, a clear indigo, less dark than at sea level. Her eyes had a curious luminosity in the gloom.
‘Why do you do that?’
‘Do what?’
‘Carry it.’
By ‘it’ Harker guessed she meant McLaren. He was suddenly, coldly conscious of a chasm between them that no amount of explanation could bring. ‘He’s my friend. He’s … I have to.’
She studied his thoughts and then shook her head. ‘I don’t understand. It’s spoiled -‘ her thought-images was a combination of ‘broken’,’finished’, and ‘useless’-‘why carry it around?’
The Venusian themselves and the casually brilliant depictions of their world and the plant-animal hybrids was also wonderful and terrible with the sort of strange beauty one would expect from a classic sci-fi variant of Venus.
A beautiful depiction of an alien place and alien people and creatures, the story is an adventure story combined with a sociological / philosophical journey, or so I thought, full of moral questions. Another great story well worth the read.
“The Veil of Astellar” is next with it’s *spoilers* inter-dimensional space vampires…a very creative piece, with some similar moral questions to the last piece, aka the nature of monsters and humanity and what makes one that or the other. Another enjoyable, strong story, I thought.
The next story “The Moon That Vanished” returns us to water world Venus, though this time the details are more cultural than biological with a sort of high seas adventure against cultists of a moon that doesn’t exist that apparently can somehow bring the dead back to life; it is a story with motifs of life and death, contempt and love. Here again too I think Brackett displays her strong ability to make characters with full formed psychologies that make them seem real, fragile, and all to human, even as they deal with otherworldly elements. *spoiler* of note I should mention the plot of the quest to become a God, a refrain carried on in speculative fiction even into my contemporary days, I.e. The Pathfinder RPG with the starspire and its test to become a God…not so different from the plot of this story written some 70+ years before at least. *end spoiler*
Now, one criticism here is how quickly and suddenly the “heroine” falls in love with the “hero” - kind of surprising I think and sort of threw me out of the story. Kind of common to that era of pulp story which was marketed to lit mags that had mostly boys and young men as readers but I think Brackett was a better writer than this. All well, what can you do? No book is perfect and Brackett’s contemporaries and publishers would have wanted that sort of, um, plot device I guess. Can’t say I’ve never used that device in my own bad stories, but, idk *shrugs*
In any event, if you’re ready for a cool sea adventure filled with a test of courage and madness and high magic and science all whirled and blended together in a classic sci-fi Venus, then I say this story is for you.
“The Enchantress of Venus” was the next story. Here as in some of the other works there is an immersive alien culture and setting, which reminded me a little of some of Brandon Sanderson’s mist born with the ever flowing talk of mists, slave mining camps, and commoner and aristocratic class struggles with a back drop of violence and action, though obviously some 70+ years separate the two works. Should be noted that this is also an adventure story if Brackett’s Stark character. Overall, I enjoyed this piece, though I felt it drifted on a bit too long perhaps, and I sort of wish there had been a happier ending … though not all endings can be, and the coda at the end capped it he work beautifully.
“The Woman from Altair” is the next story, wherein an interstellar starship captain comes back with a wife from Altair, shocking society and his family alike. The narrative, I think, was remarkable in a couple ways. First, it was first person, but from the perspective of a member of the captain’s family, his brother, allowing for sone distance between the core actors and observances, a bit of mystery and a lot of speculation. Secondly, though Brackett was obviously a female author, I think the patriarchy is particularly present in this piece - as it is in a lot of her other writing - an artifact once more of her times and the publishing outlets she sent to; however, it creates an interesting affect as I think if this story were written today, it would be very different. Here women are seen as trophies, even by other women. While the narrator is a bit of a black sheep for failing to become a space fairing family member, his sister seems to live a life as a female and little more and is never given black sheep status for failing to become a space captain; likely, in the society she lives in, it never was a possibility because of her gender. Despite that, it isn’t all bad: there is a bit of a homey, good natured vibe to the narrative, both jocular, strong, and friendly with polite society, something that post millennial culture has long ago aborted. Now, please take none of that to mean this story is bad. Far from. The prose is striking and captivating as ever:
“She glanced at us now and then, with a kind of shy terror. Bet sulked and glowered, but I managed a smile, and Martha patted Ahrian’s hand. David had taught her English. She spoke it well, but with a curious rippling accent that made it sound like a foreign tongue.
Her voice was soft and low and sweet. She did not talk much. Neither did we.
David barely noticed that we had a stranger with us. I had said vaguely that Martha was a friend of mine, and he nodded and forgot her. I was rather glad to have her along. There are times when families should not be alone together.”
Lots to unpack there. ‘Shy terror’-what a great word choice, as we expect something like shy kindness. “Barely noticed that we had a stranger with us” - yes, clearly indicating Martha, but obviously also can be used to indicate the alien woman from Altair the prots brother has brought home, rehilighting the central conflict thus far. It’s a passage with a lot of humor that zips along amusingly and lively, as does most of this story; well, until it doesn’t. Then onto drama and a bittersweet tone that is mesmerizing.
In the end, I think this was one of my favorite stories of this anthology. I am sure this is a story that has been told many times in many ways, but Brackett put a human touch on ALL the characters even at their most bizarre that was haunting and touching,
“The Last Days of Shandakor” was a sad story and more than a little strange yet very moving. It did have one debatable moment: the prot, an adult male, kissing someone previously identified as a child romantically, but pushing that aside it was worth the read.
“Shannach - the Last” seems to be a tale of survival against the elements and hunters in a “Deadliest Game” homage set on Mercury. With a hellishly vivid world, plenty of action, and an engaging male and female lead, it’s a strong story, made all the stronger by the wonderful writing, I.e.
“‘Galt,’ he read. ‘Is that your name?’
‘My name is Jen. Galt is the Korin I belong to. He led the hunt.’ She gave Trevor a look of fierce and challenging pride and said, as though she were revealing a secret earldom, ‘I am a slave.’”
See? So much better than just saying,”no, I’m Jen, a slave.” Brackett was ever a master at drawing the reader into her characters and their passions to craft powerful stories.
Here’s another example:
“For most of the day they toiled across the lava bed, and at last, when they had almost forgotten that they had ever dreamed of doing it, they rounded the shoulder and came staggering out of the badland into a narrow canyon that seemed like the scar of some cataclysmic wound in the mountain. Rock walls, raw and riven, rose out of sight on either side, the twisted strata showing streaks of crimson and white and sullen ochre. A little stream crawled in a stony bed, and not much grew beside it.”
Here even the landscape has a powerful character, and I truly feel like the setting is part of the assembled cast of this drama.
This story on its own is a clear 5 out of 5; beautifully written, engaging, offering a sociological journey of what happens to a colony cut off from earth for centuries - so good! Seriously, read this!
“The Tweener” was the next story wherein a beloved uncle, after returning from mars, comes back with a very special pet for his niece and nephews. Here the tone and setting reminded me of “The Bride from Altair” and you just knew things were going horribly askew sometime soon.
“The Queer Ones” is sort of, perhaps, a bit of an alien abduction sort of tale, a little. It’s also a little of an action-adventure mystery with a dash of Star dazzling romance. While some of the writing and characters seemed a little to folksy for my tastes, overall it was a fine tale with a few blazing, starry passages, I.e.
“And the coldness spread through me. I stood on the bank of the stream in the warm night, the bank where I had stood ten thousand times before, boy and man, and saw the strange shinning of her eyes, and I was more than cold, I was afraid. I stepped back away from her, still holding her but in a different way.”
Afterword was nice, like the bit about pantsing vs plotting again:
“Ed always knew the last line of a story before he wrote the first one, and every line he wrote aimed straight at that target. I used the opposite method - write an opening and let it grow. Outlining a plot seemed to kill it for me.”
I couldn’t agree more, the one time I plotted I realized upon completion that it was unpublishable.
Also a lot of wit and humor and lively, lovely writing in the afterword that hints at the brilliance of the author once more and her comic take on day to day life and her personality - you feel like she’s right there telling you about her life in as amusing a way as possible.
In the end, I knew this collection was special. While sone of the patriarchal undertones might fend off some readers, I feel it deserves a 5 for its brilliant writing of other worlds and people that never were yet live on in all of us. 5 out of 5 stars!
The first story was “The Jewel of Bas” which stars as protagonists a romantic duo that seem rather violent towards one another. The lady, Mouse, fits the rogue/thief archetype while Ciaran seems more of an idea man. While some of the diologue didn’t really work for me this time around and the violence didn’t either I did find the action scenes beautifully well written.
“It was more than just the sheer crushing size of it, or the unfamiliar metallic construction that was like nothing he had seen or even dreamed of before. It was the thing itself. It was Power. It was Strength. It was a Titan growing there in the belly of the world, getting ready to reach out and grip it and play with it, like Mouse gambling with an empty skull.”
Overall, I think this story got better the further in you got, with a nice twist here and there, and some even more powerful writing:
“It was simply that harping to him was as natural as breathing, and what was inside him had to come out some way. He wasn’t thinking about music. He was thinking about Mouse, and it just added up to the same thing.
Random chords at first, rippling up against the wall of milky light. Then the agony in him began to run out through his fingertips onto the strings, and he sent it thrumming strong across the still air. It sang wild and savage, but underneath it there was the sound of his own heart breaking, and the fall of tears.
There was no time. There wasn’t even any Ciaran. There was only the harp crying a dirge for a black haired Mouse and the world she lived in. Nothing mattered but that. Nothing would ever matter.
Then finally there wasn’t anything left for the harp to cry about. The last quiver of the strings went throbbing off into a dull emptiness, and there was only an ugly little man in yellow rags, crouched silent by a stone cross, hiding his face in his hands.”
Maybe it’s just me, but hair standing tall with the raw magic and power of that passage - Brackett got emotions, understood people, and could channel the human struggle into her stories that most post millennial authors just can’t - at least from what I have seen.
In the end, I could see why this story was included. So many twists and emotions amidst magic and science where the human, the machine, and the divine all intersect, I’d urge readers to keep with it and keep reading; you won’t regret it.
The next story was “The Vanishing Venusians”. Here we are placed on a jungle/water world version of Venus where human colonists have been running and hiding from unending terrors for a generation or two, if I understood right, though I will concede that the beginning confused me a little. Our protagonist, Harker, is as billegerent and rough a prot as your ever likely to meet, though even his meaness is an infinitesimal compared to the strange, alien lack of empathy the Venusian girl seems to have.
“‘I’m shot,’ he said. ‘I’ve been too busy for a man my age. Can’t you get hold of somebody to help me carry him?’
Again she studied him with puzzled fascination. Night was closing in, a clear indigo, less dark than at sea level. Her eyes had a curious luminosity in the gloom.
‘Why do you do that?’
‘Do what?’
‘Carry it.’
By ‘it’ Harker guessed she meant McLaren. He was suddenly, coldly conscious of a chasm between them that no amount of explanation could bring. ‘He’s my friend. He’s … I have to.’
She studied his thoughts and then shook her head. ‘I don’t understand. It’s spoiled -‘ her thought-images was a combination of ‘broken’,’finished’, and ‘useless’-‘why carry it around?’
The Venusian themselves and the casually brilliant depictions of their world and the plant-animal hybrids was also wonderful and terrible with the sort of strange beauty one would expect from a classic sci-fi variant of Venus.
A beautiful depiction of an alien place and alien people and creatures, the story is an adventure story combined with a sociological / philosophical journey, or so I thought, full of moral questions. Another great story well worth the read.
“The Veil of Astellar” is next with it’s *spoilers* inter-dimensional space vampires…a very creative piece, with some similar moral questions to the last piece, aka the nature of monsters and humanity and what makes one that or the other. Another enjoyable, strong story, I thought.
The next story “The Moon That Vanished” returns us to water world Venus, though this time the details are more cultural than biological with a sort of high seas adventure against cultists of a moon that doesn’t exist that apparently can somehow bring the dead back to life; it is a story with motifs of life and death, contempt and love. Here again too I think Brackett displays her strong ability to make characters with full formed psychologies that make them seem real, fragile, and all to human, even as they deal with otherworldly elements. *spoiler* of note I should mention the plot of the quest to become a God, a refrain carried on in speculative fiction even into my contemporary days, I.e. The Pathfinder RPG with the starspire and its test to become a God…not so different from the plot of this story written some 70+ years before at least. *end spoiler*
Now, one criticism here is how quickly and suddenly the “heroine” falls in love with the “hero” - kind of surprising I think and sort of threw me out of the story. Kind of common to that era of pulp story which was marketed to lit mags that had mostly boys and young men as readers but I think Brackett was a better writer than this. All well, what can you do? No book is perfect and Brackett’s contemporaries and publishers would have wanted that sort of, um, plot device I guess. Can’t say I’ve never used that device in my own bad stories, but, idk *shrugs*
In any event, if you’re ready for a cool sea adventure filled with a test of courage and madness and high magic and science all whirled and blended together in a classic sci-fi Venus, then I say this story is for you.
“The Enchantress of Venus” was the next story. Here as in some of the other works there is an immersive alien culture and setting, which reminded me a little of some of Brandon Sanderson’s mist born with the ever flowing talk of mists, slave mining camps, and commoner and aristocratic class struggles with a back drop of violence and action, though obviously some 70+ years separate the two works. Should be noted that this is also an adventure story if Brackett’s Stark character. Overall, I enjoyed this piece, though I felt it drifted on a bit too long perhaps, and I sort of wish there had been a happier ending … though not all endings can be, and the coda at the end capped it he work beautifully.
“The Woman from Altair” is the next story, wherein an interstellar starship captain comes back with a wife from Altair, shocking society and his family alike. The narrative, I think, was remarkable in a couple ways. First, it was first person, but from the perspective of a member of the captain’s family, his brother, allowing for sone distance between the core actors and observances, a bit of mystery and a lot of speculation. Secondly, though Brackett was obviously a female author, I think the patriarchy is particularly present in this piece - as it is in a lot of her other writing - an artifact once more of her times and the publishing outlets she sent to; however, it creates an interesting affect as I think if this story were written today, it would be very different. Here women are seen as trophies, even by other women. While the narrator is a bit of a black sheep for failing to become a space fairing family member, his sister seems to live a life as a female and little more and is never given black sheep status for failing to become a space captain; likely, in the society she lives in, it never was a possibility because of her gender. Despite that, it isn’t all bad: there is a bit of a homey, good natured vibe to the narrative, both jocular, strong, and friendly with polite society, something that post millennial culture has long ago aborted. Now, please take none of that to mean this story is bad. Far from. The prose is striking and captivating as ever:
“She glanced at us now and then, with a kind of shy terror. Bet sulked and glowered, but I managed a smile, and Martha patted Ahrian’s hand. David had taught her English. She spoke it well, but with a curious rippling accent that made it sound like a foreign tongue.
Her voice was soft and low and sweet. She did not talk much. Neither did we.
David barely noticed that we had a stranger with us. I had said vaguely that Martha was a friend of mine, and he nodded and forgot her. I was rather glad to have her along. There are times when families should not be alone together.”
Lots to unpack there. ‘Shy terror’-what a great word choice, as we expect something like shy kindness. “Barely noticed that we had a stranger with us” - yes, clearly indicating Martha, but obviously also can be used to indicate the alien woman from Altair the prots brother has brought home, rehilighting the central conflict thus far. It’s a passage with a lot of humor that zips along amusingly and lively, as does most of this story; well, until it doesn’t. Then onto drama and a bittersweet tone that is mesmerizing.
In the end, I think this was one of my favorite stories of this anthology. I am sure this is a story that has been told many times in many ways, but Brackett put a human touch on ALL the characters even at their most bizarre that was haunting and touching,
“The Last Days of Shandakor” was a sad story and more than a little strange yet very moving. It did have one debatable moment: the prot, an adult male, kissing someone previously identified as a child romantically, but pushing that aside it was worth the read.
“Shannach - the Last” seems to be a tale of survival against the elements and hunters in a “Deadliest Game” homage set on Mercury. With a hellishly vivid world, plenty of action, and an engaging male and female lead, it’s a strong story, made all the stronger by the wonderful writing, I.e.
“‘Galt,’ he read. ‘Is that your name?’
‘My name is Jen. Galt is the Korin I belong to. He led the hunt.’ She gave Trevor a look of fierce and challenging pride and said, as though she were revealing a secret earldom, ‘I am a slave.’”
See? So much better than just saying,”no, I’m Jen, a slave.” Brackett was ever a master at drawing the reader into her characters and their passions to craft powerful stories.
Here’s another example:
“For most of the day they toiled across the lava bed, and at last, when they had almost forgotten that they had ever dreamed of doing it, they rounded the shoulder and came staggering out of the badland into a narrow canyon that seemed like the scar of some cataclysmic wound in the mountain. Rock walls, raw and riven, rose out of sight on either side, the twisted strata showing streaks of crimson and white and sullen ochre. A little stream crawled in a stony bed, and not much grew beside it.”
Here even the landscape has a powerful character, and I truly feel like the setting is part of the assembled cast of this drama.
This story on its own is a clear 5 out of 5; beautifully written, engaging, offering a sociological journey of what happens to a colony cut off from earth for centuries - so good! Seriously, read this!
“The Tweener” was the next story wherein a beloved uncle, after returning from mars, comes back with a very special pet for his niece and nephews. Here the tone and setting reminded me of “The Bride from Altair” and you just knew things were going horribly askew sometime soon.
“The Queer Ones” is sort of, perhaps, a bit of an alien abduction sort of tale, a little. It’s also a little of an action-adventure mystery with a dash of Star dazzling romance. While some of the writing and characters seemed a little to folksy for my tastes, overall it was a fine tale with a few blazing, starry passages, I.e.
“And the coldness spread through me. I stood on the bank of the stream in the warm night, the bank where I had stood ten thousand times before, boy and man, and saw the strange shinning of her eyes, and I was more than cold, I was afraid. I stepped back away from her, still holding her but in a different way.”
Afterword was nice, like the bit about pantsing vs plotting again:
“Ed always knew the last line of a story before he wrote the first one, and every line he wrote aimed straight at that target. I used the opposite method - write an opening and let it grow. Outlining a plot seemed to kill it for me.”
I couldn’t agree more, the one time I plotted I realized upon completion that it was unpublishable.
Also a lot of wit and humor and lively, lovely writing in the afterword that hints at the brilliance of the author once more and her comic take on day to day life and her personality - you feel like she’s right there telling you about her life in as amusing a way as possible.
In the end, I knew this collection was special. While sone of the patriarchal undertones might fend off some readers, I feel it deserves a 5 for its brilliant writing of other worlds and people that never were yet live on in all of us. 5 out of 5 stars!
June 29, 2021
After reading The Halfing and Other Stories I was already reasonably familiar with Leigh Brackett's work, and one of the stories from that earlier collection is found in the The Best of here: "The Enchantress of Venus." The difference between the two collections, though, is profound for me. The earlier collection was uneven, with 3 or 4 great stories mixed in with more run of the mill and odd pieces. Here every story is finely crafted and feels significant. Brackett had a mind toward social issues during a time in science-fiction when people's perception was of a genre of gadgets and monsters. Heady topics like colonialism, slavery, and illegal immigration can be found in the stories herein. I like my sci-fi to wrestle with important subjects and difficult questions (like any literary genre, truth be told) and Brackett delivers. This has made me very excited to read her novels now, particularly The Long Tomorrow which was nominated for a Hugo. There are many excellent stories to choose from here, but I think my favorite is one of the shortest called "The Tweener." An astronaut physician back from a tour of duty to Mars brings an alien pet for his sister's kids, and what develops is a very small and domestic story that ends up having resonant and chilling implications. It's a frightening story and a sad story, and it's going to stay with me a long time.
May 11, 2015
These are classic sci-fi tales of a bygone era, full of manly men rescuing beautiful women on alien worlds. Brackett's descriptions are intensely vivid, colorful, stark or lush as appropriate. Each setting is intensely real and alive, from the jewel-toned seas of Venus to the airless peaks of Mercury. Characters are of their era, but the adventures they undertake are compelling. Author's and readers' imaginations soar.
On the subject of characters: I'm baffled by a female writer who exclusively writes tales for men. (I expect it of men, but I'd expect a woman in a man's world to be more broad-minded.) The main characters are all men, and the female characters are, with a few exceptions, more decorative than functional. Is this characteristic of Brackett's work, or of her husband's taste in stories? Did Brackett believe the popular wisdom that women did not read sci fi, in spite of the evidence of her own interests? Could she imagine a future in which human beings live on other planets, but not one in which women pilot spacecraft? Was she a product of her time, or did she merely write for editors who were?
These stories are great from a classics POV - author and genre are both a big deal. On their own, however, they leave a bit too much to be desired.
On the subject of characters: I'm baffled by a female writer who exclusively writes tales for men. (I expect it of men, but I'd expect a woman in a man's world to be more broad-minded.) The main characters are all men, and the female characters are, with a few exceptions, more decorative than functional. Is this characteristic of Brackett's work, or of her husband's taste in stories? Did Brackett believe the popular wisdom that women did not read sci fi, in spite of the evidence of her own interests? Could she imagine a future in which human beings live on other planets, but not one in which women pilot spacecraft? Was she a product of her time, or did she merely write for editors who were?
These stories are great from a classics POV - author and genre are both a big deal. On their own, however, they leave a bit too much to be desired.
February 24, 2014
The Best of Leigh Brackett gets five stars precisely because it is imperfect.
The collection spans Ms. Brackett's entire corpus of science fiction, and as such the early pieces are rough, shot through with pacing problems and hobbled by limited vocabulary (count the number of times "opal" or "opalescent" is used in the first three stories).
Despite this, the early stories show the looming future greatness of Ms. Brackett's writing. By turn beautiful and terrifying, with realistic characters, high action, gorgeous landscapes and often terrible consequences, Ms. Brackett's Mars, Venus, and Mercury each pulse with unique life.
I am unsure as to which story in the collection is my favorite. Perhaps the eerie "Veil of Astellar" or "The Moon that Disappeared" or the distinctly Twilight Zone "Tweener" or "The Queer Ones". Perhaps the dark and violent "Woman from Altair." They;re all outstanding.
I intended to only read this collection, but now I'll probably go through and read her longer science fiction pieces.
The collection spans Ms. Brackett's entire corpus of science fiction, and as such the early pieces are rough, shot through with pacing problems and hobbled by limited vocabulary (count the number of times "opal" or "opalescent" is used in the first three stories).
Despite this, the early stories show the looming future greatness of Ms. Brackett's writing. By turn beautiful and terrifying, with realistic characters, high action, gorgeous landscapes and often terrible consequences, Ms. Brackett's Mars, Venus, and Mercury each pulse with unique life.
I am unsure as to which story in the collection is my favorite. Perhaps the eerie "Veil of Astellar" or "The Moon that Disappeared" or the distinctly Twilight Zone "Tweener" or "The Queer Ones". Perhaps the dark and violent "Woman from Altair." They;re all outstanding.
I intended to only read this collection, but now I'll probably go through and read her longer science fiction pieces.
June 14, 2009
The writing in this book was superb. Brackett knows how to keep you turning pages with well-written action scenes. The only thing to complain about was that the stories were written about Venus, Mars, Mercury, with people living and breathing on those planets. Of course, Brackett could get a pass on this because of the science available at the time. It just seemed a bit jarring to me now that we know what we know about the conditions on those planets. Still, I highly recommend you find a copy of this book and enjoy.
July 19, 2013
A solid collection of classic pulp space adventure stories, plus a few offbeat gems like "The Queer Ones" and "The Tweener." I'm surprised not to have encountered those two before. Surely they've been anthologized somewhere?
One thing Brackett does frequently and quite well is dread. Many of these stories have powerful undercurrents of fear, suspicion, paranoia, oppression: dread. She probably would have written wonderful straight-out horror stories if she'd ever tried.
One thing Brackett does frequently and quite well is dread. Many of these stories have powerful undercurrents of fear, suspicion, paranoia, oppression: dread. She probably would have written wonderful straight-out horror stories if she'd ever tried.
June 17, 2009
Brackett's stuff always sings. This is a collection of her short fiction.
October 3, 2024
Читалось у тандемі з Євою, адмінкою гриб з юґґота.
Колись цей день мав настати... Ми з Євою так часто згадували пані Лі, що не прочитати її творів було б максимально незручно. Тож ми вирішили почати зі збірки найкращих оповідань Брекетт і зараз ви будете читати як вона мені)
В загальному варто відмітити, що The Best of Leigh Brackett не грає такою різноманітністю, яка була в The Best of Henry Kuttner, але швидше за все тому, що Брекетт мала більш чітко визначені жанрові рамки в яких вона працювала (здебільшого це sword&planet), в той час, як Каттнер трошки кидався з тематик в тематику та з сетинґу в сетинґ. Але попри цю меншу різноманітність збірка пані Лі мені все ж таки сподобалась. Хоч Єва і жалілась на те, що засилля sword&planet в якийсь момент починає набридати, але я був у відповідному настрої та вайбі тож мені ці оповідання шикарно пішли (за виключенням одного).
Хотілось би трошки відзначити типажі з котрими працювала пані Лі. Мені було дійсно цікаво побачити, що Брекетт доволі часто працювала з персонажами, що були people pf color. Відносно часто вона робила їх головними героями й в принципі гарно їх прописувала, це приємно. З жіночими персонажами в Бреккет ситуація двояка... В усіх з наведених в збірці оповіданнях головні герої чоловіки, а жінкам завжди відведенні другі, треті й т.д. ролі. Не сказав би, що це якийсь шок підхід, як на мене, фантастика в 40-50-х була місцем чоловічих авторів, тож Брекетт вкладалася в тодішні тенденції, хоча в другій половині 40-х та в 50-х пані Лі, як на мене, вплітає все більше жіночого погляду у своїх персонажок (і я про це ще згадаю). Проте, зважаючи на специфіку sword&planet як жанру, жінки або сексуальні оголені/напівоголені танцівниці на фоні, або дами в біді, або супутниці головного героя.
В наздогін до оголених танцівниць, скажу що оповідання не настільки еротизовані, як могло б скластися, якщо ви читали наші з Євою жарти в чатику при каналі UAGeek. Хоч Брекетт полюбляє вставити максимально випадкові горні сцени в оповідання (так-так, сцена у вітальні з The Woman From Altair, я про тебе говорю).
Окремо хочу відмітити передмову Едмонда Гамільтона (чоловік Брекетт і теж письменник-фантаст, хто не знав) та післямову самої Лі Брекетт. Вони дуже милі й інформативні. Було дуже цікаво читати про те, як Едмонд та Лі ремонтували свій тільки куплений будинок, чи про те як вони звикли до того, що кожен мав кардинально різні підходи до написання творів. Ну і вважаю, що мені (і вам!) конче треба було знати, що Гамільтон називав Лі томбоєм.
Тепер я б хотів поговорити про деякі оповідання зі збірки (не про всі, чесно!):
У висновку я б сказав, що Брекетт не підвела моїх очікувань і збірка її оповідань дійсно мені сподобалась. Чесно радив би вам ознайомитись з її творами, проте підготуйтеся що буде багато sword&planet.
Колись цей день мав настати... Ми з Євою так часто згадували пані Лі, що не прочитати її творів було б максимально незручно. Тож ми вирішили почати зі збірки найкращих оповідань Брекетт і зараз ви будете читати як вона мені)
В загальному варто відмітити, що The Best of Leigh Brackett не грає такою різноманітністю, яка була в The Best of Henry Kuttner, але швидше за все тому, що Брекетт мала більш чітко визначені жанрові рамки в яких вона працювала (здебільшого це sword&planet), в той час, як Каттнер трошки кидався з тематик в тематику та з сетинґу в сетинґ. Але попри цю меншу різноманітність збірка пані Лі мені все ж таки сподобалась. Хоч Єва і жалілась на те, що засилля sword&planet в якийсь момент починає набридати, але я був у відповідному настрої та вайбі тож мені ці оповідання шикарно пішли (за виключенням одного).
Хотілось би трошки відзначити типажі з котрими працювала пані Лі. Мені було дійсно цікаво побачити, що Брекетт доволі часто працювала з персонажами, що були people pf color. Відносно часто вона робила їх головними героями й в принципі гарно їх прописувала, це приємно. З жіночими персонажами в Бреккет ситуація двояка... В усіх з наведених в збірці оповіданнях головні герої чоловіки, а жінкам завжди відведенні другі, треті й т.д. ролі. Не сказав би, що це якийсь шок підхід, як на мене, фантастика в 40-50-х була місцем чоловічих авторів, тож Брекетт вкладалася в тодішні тенденції, хоча в другій половині 40-х та в 50-х пані Лі, як на мене, вплітає все більше жіночого погляду у своїх персонажок (і я про це ще згадаю). Проте, зважаючи на специфіку sword&planet як жанру, жінки або сексуальні оголені/напівоголені танцівниці на фоні, або дами в біді, або супутниці головного героя.
В наздогін до оголених танцівниць, скажу що оповідання не настільки еротизовані, як могло б скластися, якщо ви читали наші з Євою жарти в чатику при каналі UAGeek. Хоч Брекетт полюбляє вставити максимально випадкові горні сцени в оповідання (так-так, сцена у вітальні з The Woman From Altair, я про тебе говорю).
Окремо хочу відмітити передмову Едмонда Гамільтона (чоловік Брекетт і теж письменник-фантаст, хто не знав) та післямову самої Лі Брекетт. Вони дуже милі й інформативні. Було дуже цікаво читати про те, як Едмонд та Лі ремонтували свій тільки куплений будинок, чи про те як вони звикли до того, що кожен мав кардинально різні підходи до написання творів. Ну і вважаю, що мені (і вам!) конче треба було знати, що Гамільтон називав Лі томбоєм.
Тепер я б хотів поговорити про деякі оповідання зі збірки (не про всі, чесно!):
У висновку я б сказав, що Брекетт не підвела моїх очікувань і збірка її оповідань дійсно мені сподобалась. Чесно радив би вам ознайомитись з її творами, проте підготуйтеся що буде багато sword&planet.
March 27, 2015
I didn't realize quite how good this collection would turn out to be. There is a literary quality to the writing that shines through even when the stories themselves are rather preposterous. These are all shorter works, most seem novella length, and Brackett wrote these during the golden age of science fiction pulps. There was a period in my life when I loved reading stuff like this and which I have mostly outgrown. It was still fun to read these. Here's a listing of the stories and the dates:
The Jewel of Bas • (1944) • novelette
The Vanishing Venusians • (1945) • novelette
The Veil of Astellar • (1944) • novelette
The Moon That Vanished • (1948) • novelette
Enchantress of Venus • Eric John Stark • (1949) • novella
The Woman from Altair • (1951) • novelette
The Last Days of Shandakor • (1952) • novelette
Shannach - The Last • (1952) • novella
The Tweener • (1955) • shortstory
The Queer Ones • (1957) • novelette
This book was one of a series published by the Science Fiction Book club in the 1970's as "Best of", putting together some excellent collections in the process. Del Rey soon after published paperback versions of these collections with different cover artwork. I doubt I would have ever read a single one of these stories without this collection. The book includes an excellent introduction by Edmond Hamilton (Leigh Brackett's husband) as well as a very good afterword by Brackett. The collection was published in July 1977, just in the nick of time. Hamilton would pass away in January 1977 before this reached print. Brackett would die too young soon after from cancer in March 1978. Despite being married for 30+ years and both being writers they had never officially collaborated on a story. Brackett was active a number of years as a screenwriter on some very big movies; I recently watched the John Wayne-Robert Mitchum flick "El Dorado" in the midst of reading this book and in the opening credits saw "screenplay by Leigh Brackett." You'll also find her credited on the second Star Wars film "The Empire Strikes Back.
Hamilton reveals in the introduction (dated July 7, 1976) that they had finally written a story together (to be published the following year) for Harlan Ellison's anthology "Last Dangerous Visions." The story was titled "Stark and the Star Kings". Ellison's notorious and infamous final anthology was never published. The story would possibly have never been published at all but it somehow managed to appear in a combined omnibus of Brackett and Hamilton in 2005. The intro also notes that after writing some of these stories Brackett collaborated with William Faulkner on the screenplay for "The Big Sleep" with Humphrey Bogart. Her husband opines that one of the stories in here has a very Bogart character in it and he doesn't think it a coincidence.
I didn't read these stories all at once. I spread several of them out in between other books over many months. I enjoyed each of these stories, even the somewhat weaker ones. The writing, in my opinion, is very good for the era. On the other hand, these old science fantasies aren't really the sort of stories I want to gulp down. Despite being written by a woman, these stories tend to
portray women in a very old fashioned way, nurturing women or femme fatale sorts, inherently fragile with fainting and screams and such. There are a few strong female characters that don't fit these types scattered throughout but they are not the norm.
A few comments:
When I started the first story, 'The Jewel of Bas' I briefly thought I had stepped into some cutesy fantasy - but the story drew me in and although I thought it stretched out, it is one of the better ones. Most of these stories have interesting well developed characters and they vary quite a bit. I'd recommend this as one of the better examples of older science fiction for those who enjoy reading that era. These stories at their core are fun adventure stories. Although they have science fictional and/or fantasy settings many could just as easily be westerns or mysteries or horror stories or crime potboilers or other fictions with a few changes to settings and storyline.
I generally like to name at least a favorite story or two from collections such as this, but sometimes that isn't the easiest thing to do if there isn't a real standout. I think "The Veil of Astellar" from the Spring 1944 issue of "Thrilling Wonder Stories" is one of those favorites. It is told in such an old-fashioned way, and it reveals itself slowly for what it is. I think this might be the story with the Bogart character that Hamilton referred to in the introduction. Inventive story!
Another favorite of the collection is "Enchantress of Venus." The writing here is very good and the imagery wonderfully vivid. The story opens with Stark crossing the Red Sea of Venus, a gaseous sea that metal boats can float on and his destination is Shuruun. There is much attention to detail in the storytelling. Stark goes there to find a friend, but the piratical closed society hides secrets and Stark is captured to become a slave. There is a nasty ruling class out and Stark very quickly finds out. Eventually he becomes a pawn in a power play of the elite but not an entirely unwilling pawn. This is something of a dark story, and I thought it didn't quite live up to the initial promise. I don't believe I have read one of Brackett's "Stark" stories before. I will have to try more of them. He's an interesting character.
The story that followed, "The Woman From Altair," was a very different piece where a spacer returns from Altair with something like a war bride/trophy wife combo and it turns out that nothing is as it seems. I really enjoyed this one.
Brackett is very good at story beginnings. "The Last Days of Shandakor" is one of the middling stories I'd say, a dying race of Mars story, but still it pulls you right into it from the start. Here's how it begins: "He came alone into the wineshop, wrapped in a dark red cloak, with the cowl drawn over his head. He stood for a moment by the doorway and one of the slim dark predatory women who live in those places went to him, with a silvery chiming from the little bells that were almost all she wore."
"Shannach - The Last" was probably my least favorite story. Kind of a twisted tale set on Mercury with an ancient intelligence controlling a colony of stranded humans. "The Tweener" and "The Queer Ones" that finish the collection are very different types of stories than the earlier adventure stories. No more planetary adventures and romance here. Fear and paranoia is an element in several of the stories, but the prime one in "The Tweener." Uncle Fred brings back a small rabbit-like mammal from Mars - the kids name him John Carter. John Carter of Mars. Cute. Is John Carter harmless? "The Queer Ones" is a queer one, confusing at first, set around a small Appalachian area. X-files precursor.
Overall very good stuff.
The Jewel of Bas • (1944) • novelette
The Vanishing Venusians • (1945) • novelette
The Veil of Astellar • (1944) • novelette
The Moon That Vanished • (1948) • novelette
Enchantress of Venus • Eric John Stark • (1949) • novella
The Woman from Altair • (1951) • novelette
The Last Days of Shandakor • (1952) • novelette
Shannach - The Last • (1952) • novella
The Tweener • (1955) • shortstory
The Queer Ones • (1957) • novelette
This book was one of a series published by the Science Fiction Book club in the 1970's as "Best of", putting together some excellent collections in the process. Del Rey soon after published paperback versions of these collections with different cover artwork. I doubt I would have ever read a single one of these stories without this collection. The book includes an excellent introduction by Edmond Hamilton (Leigh Brackett's husband) as well as a very good afterword by Brackett. The collection was published in July 1977, just in the nick of time. Hamilton would pass away in January 1977 before this reached print. Brackett would die too young soon after from cancer in March 1978. Despite being married for 30+ years and both being writers they had never officially collaborated on a story. Brackett was active a number of years as a screenwriter on some very big movies; I recently watched the John Wayne-Robert Mitchum flick "El Dorado" in the midst of reading this book and in the opening credits saw "screenplay by Leigh Brackett." You'll also find her credited on the second Star Wars film "The Empire Strikes Back.
Hamilton reveals in the introduction (dated July 7, 1976) that they had finally written a story together (to be published the following year) for Harlan Ellison's anthology "Last Dangerous Visions." The story was titled "Stark and the Star Kings". Ellison's notorious and infamous final anthology was never published. The story would possibly have never been published at all but it somehow managed to appear in a combined omnibus of Brackett and Hamilton in 2005. The intro also notes that after writing some of these stories Brackett collaborated with William Faulkner on the screenplay for "The Big Sleep" with Humphrey Bogart. Her husband opines that one of the stories in here has a very Bogart character in it and he doesn't think it a coincidence.
I didn't read these stories all at once. I spread several of them out in between other books over many months. I enjoyed each of these stories, even the somewhat weaker ones. The writing, in my opinion, is very good for the era. On the other hand, these old science fantasies aren't really the sort of stories I want to gulp down. Despite being written by a woman, these stories tend to
portray women in a very old fashioned way, nurturing women or femme fatale sorts, inherently fragile with fainting and screams and such. There are a few strong female characters that don't fit these types scattered throughout but they are not the norm.
A few comments:
When I started the first story, 'The Jewel of Bas' I briefly thought I had stepped into some cutesy fantasy - but the story drew me in and although I thought it stretched out, it is one of the better ones. Most of these stories have interesting well developed characters and they vary quite a bit. I'd recommend this as one of the better examples of older science fiction for those who enjoy reading that era. These stories at their core are fun adventure stories. Although they have science fictional and/or fantasy settings many could just as easily be westerns or mysteries or horror stories or crime potboilers or other fictions with a few changes to settings and storyline.
I generally like to name at least a favorite story or two from collections such as this, but sometimes that isn't the easiest thing to do if there isn't a real standout. I think "The Veil of Astellar" from the Spring 1944 issue of "Thrilling Wonder Stories" is one of those favorites. It is told in such an old-fashioned way, and it reveals itself slowly for what it is. I think this might be the story with the Bogart character that Hamilton referred to in the introduction. Inventive story!
Another favorite of the collection is "Enchantress of Venus." The writing here is very good and the imagery wonderfully vivid. The story opens with Stark crossing the Red Sea of Venus, a gaseous sea that metal boats can float on and his destination is Shuruun. There is much attention to detail in the storytelling. Stark goes there to find a friend, but the piratical closed society hides secrets and Stark is captured to become a slave. There is a nasty ruling class out and Stark very quickly finds out. Eventually he becomes a pawn in a power play of the elite but not an entirely unwilling pawn. This is something of a dark story, and I thought it didn't quite live up to the initial promise. I don't believe I have read one of Brackett's "Stark" stories before. I will have to try more of them. He's an interesting character.
The story that followed, "The Woman From Altair," was a very different piece where a spacer returns from Altair with something like a war bride/trophy wife combo and it turns out that nothing is as it seems. I really enjoyed this one.
Brackett is very good at story beginnings. "The Last Days of Shandakor" is one of the middling stories I'd say, a dying race of Mars story, but still it pulls you right into it from the start. Here's how it begins: "He came alone into the wineshop, wrapped in a dark red cloak, with the cowl drawn over his head. He stood for a moment by the doorway and one of the slim dark predatory women who live in those places went to him, with a silvery chiming from the little bells that were almost all she wore."
"Shannach - The Last" was probably my least favorite story. Kind of a twisted tale set on Mercury with an ancient intelligence controlling a colony of stranded humans. "The Tweener" and "The Queer Ones" that finish the collection are very different types of stories than the earlier adventure stories. No more planetary adventures and romance here. Fear and paranoia is an element in several of the stories, but the prime one in "The Tweener." Uncle Fred brings back a small rabbit-like mammal from Mars - the kids name him John Carter. John Carter of Mars. Cute. Is John Carter harmless? "The Queer Ones" is a queer one, confusing at first, set around a small Appalachian area. X-files precursor.
Overall very good stuff.
April 29, 2019
4.5 because I can't get past the attitudes of "Vanishing Venusians" ("You have no soul so it's OK to kill you off and take your world is too reminiscent of real-world colonialism). But even there, the flower people are wonderfully creepy and dangerous.
Otherwise this is awesome and full of the lush otherworld details Brackett does so well. The Red Sea of Venus in the Stark adventure, "Enchantress of Venus" (Stark is what Tarzan might be like if raised on Mercury. It works). The unearthly power-giving moonfire of "The Moon That Vanished." The lovable, roguish protagonists of "Jewel of Bas" and the too-human-for-his-own-good villain of "Veil of Astellar." The nightmarish lost valley of "Shannach — the Last."
Old-fashioned (romances get started by the guy grabbing a reluctant woman and planting one on her) but if you're okay with that, these are a blast. The introduction by Brackett's husband Edmond Hamilton is delightful (the best of this particular "Best of—" series).
Otherwise this is awesome and full of the lush otherworld details Brackett does so well. The Red Sea of Venus in the Stark adventure, "Enchantress of Venus" (Stark is what Tarzan might be like if raised on Mercury. It works). The unearthly power-giving moonfire of "The Moon That Vanished." The lovable, roguish protagonists of "Jewel of Bas" and the too-human-for-his-own-good villain of "Veil of Astellar." The nightmarish lost valley of "Shannach — the Last."
Old-fashioned (romances get started by the guy grabbing a reluctant woman and planting one on her) but if you're okay with that, these are a blast. The introduction by Brackett's husband Edmond Hamilton is delightful (the best of this particular "Best of—" series).
October 6, 2018
I had read a couple of Leigh Brackett's novels and thought them well written, but this was my first attempt at her shorter works. Most of the stories in this volume are novellas and they were fine examples of planetary adventure. There was something about each and every one that I loved. I'm saddened that it took me so long to read her, but happy that there are so many more to read! Highly recommended.
March 31, 2018
He was seven years old, and the drifts were high and wide, and above them the sky was so blue and clean that he wondered if God mopped them every few days like Mom did the kitchen floor.
Most of these stories are the most amazing sword-and-planet stories, taking places on a lushly-described Mars of ancient dusty mysteries, a Venus filled with unknowable terrors, and a knife-edged forbidding Mercury where mankind will never explore more than a fraction.
My favorite were the Mercury stories, and the Eric John Stark, taking place partly beneath a gaseous ocean, breathable, dense enough to float ships, and noxious enough to preserve long-dead forests.
These are weird fantasy reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H..P. Lovecraft.
March 15, 2019
Some of the best of Brackett and the Old Mars/Venus type stories. Got me to read more Brackett and more Old Mars/Venus stories.
Want to read
October 21, 2024“(The) Veil of Astellar” (YouTube)
“The Tweener” NA
“The Tweener” NA
February 20, 2025
Faszinierende, poetische und oft melancholische Retro-Science-Fiction und Fantasy mit den besten Qualitäten von Pulp-Literatur: Nach dem ersten Satz ist es schwer, wieder aufzuhören.
December 31, 2016
I'm reading this as I work my way through Bud Webster's "Past Masters."
I hadn't heard of Leigh Brackett before, but I've known of some of her work. She wrote the screenplay to 'The Big Sleep' with Wiliam Faulkner, and worked from an outline by George Lucas and wrote the screenplay for 'The Empire Strikes Back.' It's not entirely clear how much of her original screenplay made it into the final product, but she's credited as one of the two screenwriters, so clearly she had a strong influence.
Her short fiction here feels like a direct descendant of the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars works (which I've never really enjoyed). The characters travel to Mars, Venus, and Mercury where there is a lot of telepathy and mind-control. They are often shirtless, and tend to wear loincloths. They fight lizards and weird aliens, and tend not to be too upset when they end up killing of whole cultures or species. Most of these features are not all that engaging, and my least favorite parts of her stories.
What I did really enjoy was the sense of vastness - both in space and time - that many of her stories expressed. In 'The Veil of Astellar,' some alien species crossed vast distances to feed on hapless Earth colonists traveling to new destinations. In 'Shannach - The Last,' some sentient species has been on Mercury for millennia. There is only one left, and it's old and weakening. Instead of dying quickly, they tend to slow down, fade away, and eventually freeze like statues of stone. I liked that.
And I find it impressive that she was a female writing stories and screenplays at a time in which the field was dominated by men. I think that's worth pointing out.
I hadn't heard of Leigh Brackett before, but I've known of some of her work. She wrote the screenplay to 'The Big Sleep' with Wiliam Faulkner, and worked from an outline by George Lucas and wrote the screenplay for 'The Empire Strikes Back.' It's not entirely clear how much of her original screenplay made it into the final product, but she's credited as one of the two screenwriters, so clearly she had a strong influence.
Her short fiction here feels like a direct descendant of the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars works (which I've never really enjoyed). The characters travel to Mars, Venus, and Mercury where there is a lot of telepathy and mind-control. They are often shirtless, and tend to wear loincloths. They fight lizards and weird aliens, and tend not to be too upset when they end up killing of whole cultures or species. Most of these features are not all that engaging, and my least favorite parts of her stories.
What I did really enjoy was the sense of vastness - both in space and time - that many of her stories expressed. In 'The Veil of Astellar,' some alien species crossed vast distances to feed on hapless Earth colonists traveling to new destinations. In 'Shannach - The Last,' some sentient species has been on Mercury for millennia. There is only one left, and it's old and weakening. Instead of dying quickly, they tend to slow down, fade away, and eventually freeze like statues of stone. I liked that.
And I find it impressive that she was a female writing stories and screenplays at a time in which the field was dominated by men. I think that's worth pointing out.
April 8, 2022
Like the companion book,* in that the later stories are much more worth reading, imo, than the earlier ones. But I'm not particularly interested in rereading any of them, nor particularly interested in recommending them. Too heavily influenced by Burroughs and even Lovecraft for me. And the men seemed to always want to grab and break the girl-like women who they first saw as alien enemies... and then they lusted after them (and often won them). The stories were windy, too, with small payoffs for long tellings. Some bits, some ideas, intrigued enough to round up to three stars.
I do appreciate the explication of 'reason' in The Last Days Of Shandakor. I'm sure all of you know that Man is *not* a reasoning being, but I like the way Brackett's Martian explained why we think we are, and what we really are.
Best of EH, ed. LB.
I do appreciate the explication of 'reason' in The Last Days Of Shandakor. I'm sure all of you know that Man is *not* a reasoning being, but I like the way Brackett's Martian explained why we think we are, and what we really are.
Best of EH, ed. LB.
June 29, 2022
For all your space-opera needs--Brackett understands the allure of ruined cities visible through the red-sand haze of Martian deserts, and boats sailing the Sea of Morning Opals in the eternal overcast of Venus, and the threat of Earth to older worlds and peoples. Her prose is a few shades less purple than, say, C.L. Moore, and I find Brackett's raised-by-Mercurian-tribesmen Stark more interesting than Moore's Northwest Smith, Adventurer and Evil-Alien-Lady-Bait, though they're both big tough masculine wanderers. Brackett, however, can break characters out of that mold--the protagonists of "The Jewel of Bas" are Mouse and Ciaran, two married peasants and small-time criminals, the narrator of "The Woman From Altair" has chosen to opt out of his family's fame and reputation.
She's classic for a reason!
She's classic for a reason!
March 13, 2016
A wonderful collection from the Queen of Space Opera: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
June 23, 2023
hab das für 1€ gekauft, weil das cover schön ist
es war actually echt gut und catchy
es war actually echt gut und catchy
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May 20, 2015Science-Fiction
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