Eric John Stark, Outlaw of Mars, travels beyond the solar system for exciting science fantasy adventures on the planet of Skaith, a lawless sphere at the edge of the known universe. Raised as a savage on the hostile planet of Mercury and honed into a fearless warrior in the low canals of the Red Planet, Stark is one of science fiction's greatest adventurers and is Leigh Brackett's most famous character. In The Ginger Star, Simon Ashton, Stark's foster father, has been kidnapped by the Lords Protector, and only Stark can rescue him!
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty fantasy under Old Sun,
By
This review is from: The Ginger Star (The Book of Skaith) (v. 1) (Paperback)
The Ginger Star is the first book in the Skaith trilogy, covering the further adventures of Eric John Stark after Secret of Sinharat/People of the Talisman. Stark now finds himself on a barren world orbiting a failing star, searching for his foster father. There has been a prophecy made about this "dark man without a tribe" however, and so Stark is hindered in his search by those wishing him both weal and woe. Despite all this, Stark grimly continues his search, just wishing to find his father and get off-planet (possibly with a love interest at his side). But things are never easy.
Written in the 1970's, this book has echoes of the Dying Earth mileau created by Jack Vance. There is a dying world under a dimming sun, and a mixture of fantasy and science fiction which is wholly unsurprising to the characters: prophecy is real and taken (very) seriously, there are dark gods requiring human sacrifice, and fighting is done with swords, tooth and claw rather than laser pistols. But in all that there are starships and aliens, genetic manipulation and remnants of a greater civilisation fallen into decay. In fact, the crux of the story is not so much Stark's search for his father, as the response of Skaith to the arrival of spaceships in the last dozen years, and the effect this has had on social order and power structures. This is a great book to read - the characters are lifelike, the dialogue crackles, and the story well plotted and told. Scenes are memorable - the introduction of Gerrith, the cave of the Skaith-Children, the first meeting with a Wandsman. Brackett was a great storyteller, and she created a wonderful world here to enjoy. This book should be more widely read and loved, as it is a shame that somehow the Skaith stories were lost in the epic fantasies of the 80's.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding science fiction,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Ginger Star (The Book of Skaith) (v. 1) (Paperback)
I knew that Leigh Brackett wrote the initial story for The Empire Strikes Back, but I did not know that she had written The Ginger Star in 1974. I admit that I was not reading much science fiction in those days, so I first became aware of the book and the Stark series when I read recently that an upcoming volume would have an introduction by George Lucas. That got my attention, and I decided to give the books a try. I am certainly glad that I did.
This book is an epic science fiction tale. The hero Eric John Stark travels to the planet of Skaith, a terrible place at the edge of the known universe, in an effort to save Simon Ashton, his foster father. Stark's biological parents were killed when he was very young, and he was then raised for a number of years by aborigines before coming under the influence of Ashton. All of these influences turned him into the warrior he is in this story. The basic plot of Ms Brackett's book is that Simon Ashton goes missing on Skaith and Stark goes after him in the face of overwhelming odds. When Stark arrives on Skaith, he learns that he apparently is the key figure in a mysterious prophecy about the Dark Man. This does not simplify his mission. In his search for Ashton, Stark is accompanied by a small band of heroes that he picks up along the way. He runs into extremely memorable evil characters and manages to survive a number of perilous situations. The characters in the book will grab your attention. The descriptions of the land through which he passes are memorable, and the action is excellent. I found the book to be one that I did not want to put down. I am very pleased that there are further books to read in the Stark series. I also want to give full credit to Paizo for publishing their Planet Stories books. Their objective is to introduce classic or possibly overlooked science fiction books to a new audience, and I think they will be successful. The books are in a nice trade paperback format with slightly lurid covers. (Note: The correct cover for the book is the one shown in the customer image on Amazon.) I look forward to reading about Stark's next adventure.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The opening to Leigh Brackett's final work and magnum opus,
By Jay "SarahsJay" (Douglasville, GA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Ginger Star (The Book of Skaith) (v. 1) (Paperback)
In The Ginger Star, Leigh Brackett revives her favorite hero from decades earlier, Eric John Stark, to travel across the galaxy to find his foster father, Simon Ashton, on the dying world of Skaith. On Skaith, Stark meets intrigue complete with genetically engineered monsters, a beautiful traitress, psychic packs of wild dogs, and a secret cabal of men determined to keep Skaith separated from the rest of the universe, even if it means the death of everyone on the planet. Stark may or may not be the fulfillment of a prophecy of the Dark Man who will liberate Skaith, but his major concern is overcoming the obstacles in his path to find Ashton. Despite its clear nods to the planetary romance genre that had flourished decades before Brackett conceived and wrote this series, the Skaith trilogy avoids a lighthearted narrative and skewers Marxist economic ideas in a way few SF writers had done before. Like its sequels, this book is dark, bleak, and sad, but that doesn't prevent us from cheering for Stark to achieve his goals. The Ginger Star and the series it spawned are a fine capstone to Leigh Brackett's life and work and a fitting representation of her dark vision of the universe.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
