The Joy of Erudition’s Reviews > Queen of the Martian Catacombs: Planet Stories, Summer '49 > Status Update

You know, I can't help wondering if Leigh Brackett got the idea for this story from Hot Cross Bunny, the Bugs Bunny cartoon that premiered the year before this story was published. A mad scientist plans to use electro-helmets to swap the minds of Bugs and a chicken.

Very rambling and aimless, but has some nice turns of phrase.

Brackett eloquently imbues her setting with a sense of history, often using genii locorum.

"The towers still stood, broken but indomitable, and in the moonlight they had a sleeping look, as though they dreamed of blue water and the sound of waves, and of tall ships coming in heavy with treasure.

The very stones whispered of age-old violence, the shadows were heavy with the lingering ghosts of passion."

This exposition essentially has Ashton saying: "As you know, Stark, I rescued you as a boy and raised you as a son."