Customer Reviews

The Nemesis from Terra / Battle for the Stars (Tor Double)

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It was no place for a man to be.
Men were tissue, blood, bone, nerve. This place was not made for them. It was made for fire, force and radiation.
Go home, men.
But I can't, thought Jay Birrel. Not yet.
(Opening lines of _Battle for the Stars_)

Rick stood perfectly still in the black blind notch of the doorway. The thunder of his own blood in his ears drowned any other sound, but his eyes, cold pale amber under tawny brows, watched the narrow tunnel of the street.
Three shadows came slipping through the greenish pools of moonlight on the age-worn stones.
(Opening lines of _The Nemesis from Terra_)

Somebody at Tor Books had a James Q. Dandy of an idea. Why not reprint a couple of science fiction adventures by those husband and wife authors, Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett and put them back-to-back? The result is Tor Double Novel No. 8, Edmond Hamilton's _Battle for the Stars_ and Leigh Brackett's _The Nemesis from Terra_ (both originally 1961).

Both Hamilton and Brackett were old pros when it came to the use of opening hooks, as the above quotations illustrate. They knew how to grab the attention of the reader at the begining of the story. (Just where is Jay Birrel, and why can't he leave? And who -- or what-- are those three shadows in the moonlight?) And they knew how to maintain suspense the rest of the way through the story. Both authors were experts at creating tough-but-tender heroes and tender-but-tough heroines.

And both could portray vivid settings. In the Hamilton, it is a galaxy of colorful stars, glowing thundercloud nebulae, and exotic planets, where fleets of spaceships from different empires raven at one another. In the Brackett, it is an ancient Mars of red deserts, old canals, and decadent cities, where modern Earth science clashes with old Martian magic.

It might be appropriate to mention how Hamilton and Brackett influenced one another. Brackett was by far the better stylist, and she taught Hamilton how to develop a style that was more colorful and effectively emotional. But Brackett would frequntly write novels with no clear idea of where her story was going. Sometimes she would have to abandon a tale when she ran into a problem. Hamilton taught Brackett how to improve her skills at constructing plots.

These novels are not classics. But they are first class entertainments. I rate them at four stars apiece. Give them your attention.

In 1961 Edward Hamilton published Battle for the Stars. It was printed in 1964 then 1967 before the Tor double listed above. This is a pulp sci fi novel that has many facets that are similar to a world war II action novel.