Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating evocative stories from a bygone era, August 29, 2007
leigh Brackett is one of a kind writer. Her melancholic Mars and luscious Venus are magnificent examples of science fiction worldbuilding, very original and with a sense of wonder and exotic mystery at par with E.R. Burroughs and Jack vance. Who cares if her Mercury, Mars, Venus, are not asthose we now know? Read her tales as alternare Reality, even as she makes the entire solar system improbably inhabited by humanoids. IMO the best story is "The Sword of Rhiannon", when the protagonist plunges from modern drying Mars to the martian oceans of the past, a past far from idyllic, where he shall confront a Martian Oromethean figure.
A must read for the lovers of Golden age science fiction!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super Reader, July 4, 2008
A fantastic selection of Leigh Brackett's work here, edited by Stephen Jones. While it might seem a bit odd that such an obvious collection of space opera as Brackett herself terms what she is writing to be published under a Fantasy Masterworks title, it does have some of that sword and sorcery feel. They also probably have many, many more candidates for SF Masterworks than Fantasy Masterworks, as well.
An average of 3.92 is extremely impressive, and shows that she was indeed the Mistress of Planet Romance Adventure.
In general longer stories of the novella variety, with the exception of one shortish novel and a shorter piece or two to balance this. So only 12 works in a 650 page odd book, but fine, fine, stuff it is.
Only one story I thought was average, and there is an introduction from Brackett herself talking about how she was hooked after coming across Burroughs' 'Gods Of Mars' - one of her characters uses this expression multiple times in a story, presumably an obvious nod to the influence of this volume upon her young mind.
A lot of the old pulp stories will be cheesy and bad. Brackett? She is the anti-bad. If Darkseid was a cheesy old pulp story, he'd be running for the Source Wall and giving up when he saw her Mother-Boxload of talent coming.
Highlights here include 'Lorelei Of the Red Mist' where Ray Bradbury actually finished the second half when Brackett suddenly gained some presumably much more lucrative Hollywood work, and he manages to make it seamless - in fact suggesting in a quote in this book that even he has trouble remembering where he started to work on the story. Also the novel 'Sea Kings Of Mars' and 'The Last Days Of Shandakor'.
The three Eric John Stark stories are strong, too, and some may have read longer different novel versions of 'Queen Of the Martian Catacombs' and 'Black Amazon Of Mars'. 'The Secret Of Sinharat' and 'The People Of the Talisman' respectively. As someone pointed out to me previously, the original titles are far superior, and way cooler, on top of that.
A not to be missed collection, whether you get the stories here, in other books, via Baen's two great Brackett collections made available recently or in expensive collectable.
There's one average story here, so not quite 5 stars on the knocker, but with the intro, afterword, and the 11/10 she gets for style, this is a book that is unreservedly five stars.
Sea Kings of Mars : The Sorcerer of Rhiannon - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : The Jewel of Bas - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : Terror Out of Space - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : Lorelei of the Red Mist - Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury
Sea Kings of Mars : The Moon That Vanished - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : Sea-Kings of Mars - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : Queen of the Martian Catacombs - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : Enchantress of Venus - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : Black Amazon of Mars - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : The Last Days of Shandakor - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : The Tweener - Leigh Brackett
Sea Kings of Mars : The Road to Sinharat - Leigh Brackett
Ancient Martian enemy awakening love for diplomacy.
4 out of 5
Cimmerians, Hyperborean forests, slave gangs, androids, monsters, immortals, priests of Dagon, energy weapons, stone of destiny, telepaths, and harpiing.
3.5 out of 5
Plant people deity defense deal.
3.5 out of 5
Power from the Greenwitch
Zombie army from the sea,
All shall find victory at last
Starke's barbarity
4.5 out of 5
"Few men have ever reached the Moonfire," the Venusian said. "They were the strong ones, the men without fear."
4 out of 5
Matt Carse, an archaeologist of the most definitely rogueish sort of tomb raider is looking to score, when the discovery of the mythical Sword of Rhiannon catapults him back into time, and into the body of a man well suited to be a barbarian adventurer.
Landing in the middle of a group of people that really don't like his country, he has to go from galley slave to dealing with possession by an ancient powerful scientist and war.
A great old-style planetary romance shortish novel that ratchets up the adventure as it goes along, hero, comic sidekick, femme fatale, winged men, fish women, ancient super weaponry and more.
Great stuff.
4.5 out of 5
Eric John Stark has to deal with plotting by the last of the serial immortals of Sinharat.
4 out of 5
Stark goes looking to find a lost friend he thinks is in trouble, and ends up fomenting a slave rebellion, among other things.
4 out of 5
Lord Ciaran, distaff discovery and Stark decide to stop trying to kill each other to prevent bad things from coming back beyond the Gates Of Death.
4 out of 5
Ancient illusions and hokey philosophies are no match for a barbarian horde at the gate, kid.
4.5 out of 5
Small, furry, John Carter from Mars meets bigger furry Fido from Earth.
3 out of 5
An environmental lesson from the serial immortals of said joint.
3.5 out of 5
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by C.L. Moore
by Leigh Brackett
by Leigh Brackett
by Leigh Brackett
by Patricia A. McKillip
