Planet Stories (Two)

(2006 continued and moving into 2007...)

Leigh Brackett: Martian Quest: The Early Brackett.

Made up of: Queen of the Martian Mysteries (Michael Moorcock); Martian Quest; The Treasure of Ptakuth; The Tapestry Gate; The Stellar Legion; The Demons of Darkside; Water Pirate; Interplanetary Reporter; The Dragon-Queen of Venus; Lord of the Earthquake; No Man's Land in Space; A World is Born; Retreat to the Stars; Child of the Green Light; The Sorcerer of Rhiannon; Child of the Sun; Out of the Sea; Cube from Space; Outpost on Io; The Halfling; The Citadel of Lost Ships; Meet the Author (Leigh Brackett).

A collection of Brackett's early works. So pulpy, for the most part, that you have to brush wood chips off the pages! Two-fisted heroes (usually with some hidden secret or flaw), stellar heroines, evil villains and more!

Seriously, a fun collection. Some of the best include The Halfling (a space carnival), The Sorcerer of Rhiannon (one of the best of her Mars tales in the short form) and Retreat to the Stars (I wonder if Andre Norton read this and was inspired to write They Shall Have Stars!). Substitute Mars for Arizona or New Mexico, Venus for an Amazonian jungle...Brackett clearly was writing to fill the cupboard and not to create great literature. But out of financial need comes some brilliance. I'm looking forward to the next volume in the collection.

Counts as nine (9) entries in the 2006 Short Story Project.

Counts as sixteen (16) 2007 Short Story Project (initial stories re-read in 2007).

Posted by Fred Kiesche at July 6, 2007 06:55 PM