The Sword of Rhiannon

by Leigh Brackett

Greed pulls the archaeologist Matt Carse into the forgotten tomb of the Martian god Rhiannon and plunges the unlikely hero into the Red Planet's fantastic past, when vast oceans covered the land and the legendary Sea-Kings ruled from terraced palaces of decadence and delight.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Sword and Planet, Pulp, Time Travel, Sword and Sorcery

141 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Leigh Brackett was born on December 7, 1915 in Los Angeles, and raised near Santa Monica. Having spent her youth as an athletic tom-boy - playing volleyball and reading stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and H Rider Haggard - she began writing fantastic adventures of her own. Several of these early efforts were read by Henry Kuttner, who critiqued her stories and introduced her to the SF personalities then living in California, including Robert Heinlein, Julius Schwartz, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton - and another aspiring writer, Ray Bradbury.

In 1944, based on the hard-boiled dialogue in her first novel, No Good From a Corpse, producer/director Howard Hawks hired Brackett to collaborate with William Faulkner on the screenplay of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.

Brackett maintained an on-again/off-again relationship with Hollywood for the remainder of her life. Between writing screenplays for such films as Rio Bravo, El Dorado, Hatari!, and The Long Goodbye, she produced novels such as the classic The Long Tomorrow (1955) and the Spur Award-winning Western, Follow the Free Wind (1963).

Brackett married Edmond Hamilton on New Year's Eve in 1946, and the couple maintained homes in the high-desert of California and the rural farmland of Kinsman, Ohio.

Just weeks before her death on March 17, 1978, she turned in the first draft screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back and the film was posthumously dedicated to her.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I have been reading a lot of Leigh Brackett recently, I decided it might be fun to watch the first half of "Eldorado" again--one of my all-time favorite Westerns--for which Brackett wrote the screenplay. I was struck--as always--by how elegantly and efficiently the first half is constructed, how it delivers all the necessary information of a complex back story--not to mention a wealth of memorable incidents and images--and leaves us almost a full hour for an equally rich development of the main conflict: Cole and J.P.'s stand-off with Bart Jason and his men.

This time, though, my experience was slightly different. Instead of thinking of the masterful direction of Howard Hawks, I was conscious of how each scene was classic Brackett. And out of all the titles I had recently read, one shone forth as exemplary: "The Sword of Rhiannon."

This very short novel is an excellent introduction to the efficiency and richness of the planetary romances of Brackett. Anti-hero Matthew Carse, a rogue archeologist turned tomb-looter, is not a nice guy, but the complex plot leads him naturally so far from his thievish ways that we are not surprised at how his character has deepened by story's end. The time-travel plot gives this tale an additional opulence, for it allows us to experience Mars during two very different ages (silver age with water, bronze age without), plus the glimpse of an earlier golden age in which gods like Rhiannon walked.

Brackett is so efficient in her tale-telling skill that she earns the luxury of liberty, and uses that liberty to please her reader with an abundance of incident: desert pursuit, chicanery and double-dealing, tomb exploration, magic swords and mind-reading, humanoids with gills, humanoids with wings, royal imprisonment, a military sea expedition, a galley slave revolt, serpent-monks manipulating deadly machines, and the insistent presence of a god who wishes to rule minds so that he may alter the course of history. All of this, of course, delivered in spare, evocative prose.

The adventure, however, does not conclude with the deadly climax, but with a coda emphasizing tragic waste and loss, as our transformed but melancholy hero and his woman courageously embrace a risky new world. But. this is a Brackett tale, so the characters don't waste time talking about tragedy, risk, and loss blah blah blah. They simply do what has to be done, and we know how they feel and what they must do because the logic of a well constructed plot has led us there.

[Algernon (Darth Anyan) · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a long while he reached out and took the thing in his hands. The beautiful and deadly slimness of it, the length and perfect balance, the black hilt and guard that fitted perfectly his large hand, the single smoky jewel that seemed to watch him with living wisdom, the name etched in most rare and most ancient symbols upon the blade. He spoke, and his voice was no more than a whisper:
"The Sword of Rhiannon!"



Planetary Romance may have been invented by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but I believe it is Leigh Brackett who perfected the genre. She gained the title of "Queen of the Space Opera" for her contributions that started with the popular pulp magazines of the 1940's (Planet Stories, Astounding, Thrilling Wonder Stories) and ended with the recognition of all fans of the Star Wars francise, when George Lucas picked Brackett to write the script for what is in my opinion the best episode of the series so far - "The Empire Strikes Back".

Reading "The Sea-Kings of Mars" (the original title for "The Sword of Rhiannon") it is clear to me where the Jedi Knights and the Dark Sith originated, where sword & sorcery met with science-fiction to fire up the imagination of countless youngsters dreaming of saving the galaxy from evil empires and of conquering the hearts of warrior princesses from exotic planets.

Case in point : Matt Carse is a rogue archeologist of the future, a self-reliant and amoral opportunist (Han Solo?) who stumbles on some ancient artefacts from a long gone civilization. The Mars planet in the story has a breathable atmosphere, is mostly a desert and is home to decrepit towns and taverns of ill-repute (Tatooine and Mos Eisley ?).

The Low Canal towns never sleep, for they lie outside the law and time means nothing to them. In Jekkara and Valkis and Barrakesh night is only a darker day.

The sword found in an ancient tomb glows with an eerie power (lightsaber?) and may hold the secret of awakening a god-like entity from the time when Mars was a green planet, with oceans and fertile valleys and a rich history. Later on Matt Carse will meet not one, but two princesses in need of saving - the fair maiden Emer of Khondor and the warrior princess Ywain of Sark, he will fight pirates, evil wizards and telepathic superhumans. The fate of the whole planet will lie heavy on his shoulders.

The synopsis doesn't sound very original - it's almost like a fan-fic of John Carter of Mars. But I have read the first Barsoom novel and it left me lukewarm : it didn't age very well, and it felt quite silly in places. Brackett still feels fresh and energetic in this third millenium, her prose sparkle with mood and wit, her pacing is frenetic, packing an epic worth of adventure in a very slim volume. I was pulled in right from the first paragraph, a scene that has more in common with the classic noir murders than with science-fiction (Leigh Brackett also wrote some famous noir pulps and screenplays) :

Matt Carse knew he was being followed almost as soon as he left Madam Kan's. The laughter of the little dark women was still in his ears and the fumes of 'thil' lay like a hot sweet haze across his vision - but they did not obscure from him the whisper of sandaled feet close behind him in the chill Martian night.

Such concision and control of mood and plot makes me think of the works of Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock or Poul Anderson, even of some of the better passages of Robert E Howard. I haven't read enough of the other books by Brackett, but I have a feeling she can compete at least on equal terms with these other classic adventure writers:

The empty houses lay open to the night. Time and the scouring wind had worn away their corners and the angles of their doorways, smoothed them into the blurred and weary land. The little low moons made a tangle of conflicting shadows among them. With no effort at all the tall Earthman in his long dark cloak blended into the shadows and disappeared.

Without going into details of the plot, I was impressed not only by the atmosphere and the style of presentation, but also by the worldbuilding, a diverse tapestry of conflicting civilizations and humanoids adapted to their environment: The Sea-Kings of Khondor (pirates) fighting off the expanding empire of Sark(medieval kingdom), with a few independent merchant city-states caught in the middle. The difference between science and magic is blurred, but there appears to exist still among the Dhuvians of Caer Dhu (cloaked Wizards with a serpent nature) a set of ancient artefacts and machines of war, products of a now lost technology. In the oceans live the Swimmers, a sort of mermaid people, and in the high mountain eyries live the Sky Folk, people with wings. Brackett gives only the minimum information necessary to follow the geography and the political agendas of the different factions, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks with his own imagination or with the next issue of the pulp magazine. I look forward to returning to her imaginary Solar System, and maybe even to her crime novels. Leigh Brackett right now sounds like a sure thing for epic adventures.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, let me just get this out of the way first: Brackett's use of the name "Rhiannon", and various other Celtic terms (Caer Dhu, e.g.) just bugs me way more than it probably should. And yes, they're very nice, sounding names, but she was more than capable of coining utterly gorgeous names -- Jekkara, Valkis, etc. -- so the Irish-sounding stuff just felt really out of place.

Having said that, what a great book! Admittedly shorter than the "what has come before" section of your average Game of Thrones installment, but dripping with atmosphere and action:

Carse walked beside the still black waters in their ancient channel, cut in the dead sea-bottom. He watched the dry wind shake the torches that never went out and listened to the broken music of the harps that were never stilled. Lean lithe men and women passed him in the shadowy streets, silent as cats except for the chime and whisper of the tiny bells the women wear, a sound as delicate as rain, distillate of all the sweet wickedness of the world.

This is the Solar System as it should be -- Mars a vast, wind-swept desert littered with the remnants of cities a million years dead, the current population eking out a predatory existence in the canal-side towns. (And Venus a world of jungles shrouded by eternal clouds; but that's not germane to this particular story.)

Matt Carse is not even remotely a nice man, and makes no bones about it. When offered the chance to help loot the legendary Tomb of Rhiannon, he leaps at the opportunity; then tries to claim the lion's share of the treasure for himself, which leads to ... complications that result in him finding himself a million years in Mars' past, when the sea-bottoms were not yet empty. And there's a woman; of course, there's a woman ...

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a strange anomaly this would have been when it first appeared in the June 1949 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Unlike most pulp SFF stories of that era, this is a superbly polished gem. While still delivering a rousing, adventuresome sword & planet odyssey as would have been expected by a pulp audience, Brackett brings so much more in the form of genuine characters, a rich alien world with a fascinating landscape and mythos and even meaningful romance. All this with spare, evocative and eloquent prose and a well balanced plot with unforeseen and inventive twists that is a pleasure to read. In short, Brackett shows a real maturity to her writing that was even more of a rarity in those days than it is today, making this as enjoyable now as it was when it first appeared.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Executive Summary: I don't really like much classic sci-fi, and unfortunately this was no different.

Full Review
This book wasn't on my radar. I only read it because it was May pick for Sword & Laser. I wish I had been able to get it from library, but at least there was a cheap ebook available.

This felt more like a pirate fantasy book than sci-fi. There are a few sci-fi elements, such as a laser gun and time travel, but the setting of Mars may as well be Middle Earth or Narnia.

The characters were thin, the sexism is thick, and the plot is light. There were a few times I thought I was getting into the book, but it just never really clicked for me.

I can't say I'm really surprised. I know these sort of stories aren't in my wheelhouse, but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it if you like classic SFF.

[S.E. Lindberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leigh Brackett's sword & planet adventure The Sword of Rhiannon is a short novel but a favorite among aficionado's. It was first published Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories in "Thrilling Wonder" Magazine in 1949 (cover artist Earle Bergey).

It is like Indiana Jones looted Cthulhu's tomb!

This really is a gem. Written before Sci-Fi and Fantasy really became substantial genres of their own, the summary of this sounds Sci-Fi but really is Fantasy. The Mars milieu features little technology; in fact, it is almost exclusively populated with fantasy creatures ("halflings" that are like reminiscent of harpies, mermaids, and man-serpents) and fantasy/historic technology (swords, pirate ships); there is a lack of laser guns and air-ships. Actually, the technology that enables some interesting time/space travel is rooted in a Lovecraftian Mythos magic associated with an elder race (Quiro).

Our protagonist is Carse, an archaeologist/criminal who is very "Indiana Jones" like (of course this was created long before Indy Jones hit theaters). The titular Sword of Rhiannon is revealed from the start to Carse; it had been hidden for centuries in a tomb, so it was rumored, and he quickly finds the tomb from which it came as sought treasure to loot. His adventure begins as he comes into contact with eldritch forces...

The adventure is high throttle action from start to finish. The reader learns more of the curse of Rhiannon. However, there is a rich history and dynamics between cultures that are not fully realized. I would have enjoyed experiencing more of: the initial/future perspective on Rhiannon's past, the Dhuvian's oppression of others, the demonstration of Rhiannon's power(s), the demonstration of the Sword's power or purpose...

Brackett's prose is deeper and more poetic than one expects from pulpy Sword & Planet. Here is an excerpt:

"It was a long way to the city. Carse moved at a steady plodding pace. He did not try to find the easiest path but rammed his way through and over all obstacles, never deviating from the straight line that led to Jekkara. His cloak hampered him and he tore it off. His face was empty of all expression but sweat ran down his cheeks and mingled with the salt of tears.



He walked between two worlds. He went through valleys drowsing in the heat of the summer day, where leafy branches of strange trees raked his face and the juice of crushed grasses stained his sandals. Life, winged and furred and soft of foot, fled from him with a stir and a rustle. And yet he knew that he walked in a desert, where even the wind had forgotten the names of the dead for whom it mourned.



He crossed high ridges, where the sea lay before him and he could hear the boom of the surf on the beaches. And yet he saw only a vast dead plain, where the dust ran in little wavelets among the dry reefs. The truths of thirty years living are not easily forgotten."

This book is very well done but feels like four servings of a five-course-meal. It is a quick read and well worth it, but apparently this is a stand alone adventure. This novel could easily have been inflated to 2x its length without departing from its pulp-adventure roots (i.e., it would not become filler-saturated epic fantasy). Brackett did write more Sword and Planet, but not with Carse.








View all my reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because it was selected as the May book for the Sword and Laser book club and I hardly ever get a chance to read along! I had not heard of this author or this book in either form (it is also known as The Sea-Kings of Mars.)

It is important to look at the era a book was written. This is from 1953, pre-moon landing, pre-scientific Mars information. It isn't surprising, then that the main character (Carse) and all the other humans on Mars don't mention struggling to breath or survive. You just have to suspend a lot of disbelief.

Is this the first book with time-lords? Perhaps Doctor Who fans should be reading this book. It's like Indiana Jones on Mars meets time travel meets pirates. It was actually a lot of fun to read and I thought some of the descriptions were more beautiful than I would have expected from something pulpy, and the different groups were creatively presented. Who wouldn't want to envision Mars in a former glory era? Ah heck, I'm adding a star.

I can't remember which book it is I read, maybe Burroughs, but I remember a short tale about a trip to the moon where all the people needed were rifles and fur coats. This feels kind of like that. I didn't care for the main character who is a bully and a thief but still enjoyed the book overall.

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

El terráqueo Matt Carse es un arqueólogo y aventurero que vive en Marte, planeta desértico aunque se puede apreciar la existencia de océanos en la antigüedad. La historia comienza cuando Carse es conducido, para hacer negocio, hasta una cueva que contiene artefactos y antigüedades de Rhiannon el Maldito. Lo que no sabe Matt es la gran aventura que le espera en dicha cueva.

‘La espada de Rhiannon’ (The Sword of Rhiannon, 1953), de la escritora estadounidense Leigh Brackett, es una estupenda novela de espada y planeta que atrapa desde el primer momento. Es muy pulp, con escenas y diálogos estupendos. No hay relleno, todo es pura carne.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adequate, is a word that comes to mind - up to standard, serviceable, and so forth.

You've got a solid enough plot and setting, high stakes and tension, some nice imagery of Mars to come and Mars that once was, prose that serves, and characters that do what they need to do and (mostly, we'll get to that) have some personality and in the end more than one dimension to them. It's quite short and a quick read. No enormous flaws that come to mind. But nothing rises to the heights of anything I'd call a classic, either.

So I hovered between three and four stars, and ended up to three because of the one character I did not really like: the hero himself, Carse. He wasn't bad or anything, he was just... next to the rest of them, pretty bland. The first chapter introduced some of his backstory that never really came up, and from there on he just ran through the motions, did what anyone else would have done in his situation, felt what he conceivably should have, never demonstrated any special skill or interest or preference outside Standard Hero Dude. Could have thrown the thief Penkawr into the past in his stead, and I doubt anything would have changed.

Worth checking out if you run out of John Carter and are looking for more.

[Kaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I thought I might - it's a quick read with a plot I found interesting and fun to follow. Set on Mars, but very much a fantasy story. The single female character wasn't the worst I've ever read - actually, the characterization I liked the least was the greedy, sneaky merchant/thief who was (of course) fat and had to have that pointed out in mocking or cruel ways throughout the book.

[Octavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremadamente entretenido y con un sentido de la aventura que ya quisieran muchos para sí. Me lo he pasado teta.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its economy of writing, its sheer pacing, is amazing. There's a scene transition early on when Matthew Carse decides he will search for The Tomb of Rhiannon and after a brief piece of narration explaining Rhiannon, he is at the tomb. Everything about it respects the readers enough to let them fill in the gaps.

But in its second half I think the compactness works against it. The scope of the story has opened from Brackett's decayed Mars of decadent, inward-looking cities and dry sea beds and economic domination from younger Earth, to a living Mars of squabbling city-states and maritime adventure. But there's no room to revel in this setting and allow Matthew Carse and his merry band to adventure a bit before the next plot point lines up.

The discipline of the first half falters. Information is unnecessarily repeated to the reader (the Quiru, Rhiannon, the Dhuvians and Sarks), and Brackett takes a simple approach to the Ywain-as-love-interest problem. Finally, the Dhuvian villains act like stereotypically dense Evil Overlords at the very last, bringing the conclusion more quickly and cleanly than it really deserved.

[Stephen Richter · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is hard to rate this. D&D has had this book listed in its inspirational reading since day one. Leigh Brackett had a great career as a writer for various magazines in the 1930s & 40s, as a screenwriter in the 1940s & 50s and finished up with credit on the Star War's Empire Strikes Back screenplay. While her role in the screenplay has been downplayed through the years, it is interesting to note that the strongest movie of the series is the one she had influence on. As for this story, it first appeared in the magazine Trilling Stories in three installments. If you are interested in the early works of the genre, this will add to your knowledge of that era.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked this a lot more as a teen. It's similar to ERB's Barsoom in some ways, although the character is more complex. The story is a fast adventure that is based on SF, but reads like a fantasy. Fun, but not really my thing any more.

[Otherwyrld · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an anachronism, a relic of a heyday of Martian tales that reached its peak in the 1930s, 20 years before the publication of this story. It isn't the last tale of it's kind, that honour probably goes to A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny (which I think is actually the better story). At the time of its writing, Mars still held the possibility of life of some kind, and it would be another 10 years before that dream ended forever with the first Mariner flybys. Even so, most authors probably already realised that the ancient canals and doomed civilisations of Mars were nothing more than a fantasy, the product of over-active imaginations and flaws in Percival Lovell's eyes.

Yet for all that this is a well written and well realised fantasy story, where men were real men, women were real woman and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. Being written by a woman, it has less patriarchal domination scenes than might otherwise be expected, but they are still there. There is less Earthman domination than is seen in the Barsoom stories, for our hero has spent most of his life on Mars and is so adapted to Martian conditions. It is less bombastic than Edgar Rice Burroughs but does not share the same sense of elegaic loss as is found in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles or in the afore-mentioned Zelazny tale. It therefore falls somewhat between two stools, a transition story in the long history of Martian tales.

Probably 3 1/2 stars.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Brackett, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Even though some cliches of early SciFi and pulp novels remain (a modern man travels to a strange world, modern scientific explainations given to magic, vague strong and silent heroes, maidens in distress), those cliches exist to fill a section the writer would rather not develop so that a rich world may instead grow. It also fits with the author's habit of leaving certain details in shadow so that they can be tended to and developed in the reader's mind.

The story is incredibly well-paced, the setting is immersive and interesting, and the writing is solidly done.

Whenever I can devour a book in a day, I know I've found something good!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand this book was written as an homage to the Burroughs "Carson of Venus" and "John Carter of Mars" books, and like them it is very light, but enjoyable adventure yarn, full of cliffhangers, occasional swashbuckling, and card-board thin characters (especially the protagonist). I think that for Burroughs, the undefined protagonists are meant to allow almost any reader to identify with them. Maybe Brackett intends the same thing. Either way, it is fun, with a lot of plot twists and action, very concisely written and never boring.

[terpkristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Not my thing. But not really surprising, given that one thing that Leigh Brackett is known for I've never heard of and the other thing she seems to be really known for (one of the Star Wars movies) really isn't my thing. Pulpy sci-fi, much like an Arnie movie, not particularly deep and not really my jam. I guess it was alright...at least it was short.

The audiobook was terrible. The ebook from Baen had a lot of typos.

[Jorge Fernández · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lectura entretenida y muy pulp. Podría estar ambientada en Benidorm o en Marte, porque tiene poca importancia, pero entiendo que escribir esta historia en la decada de los 40 debía tener su mérito.

Lo que sigo sin entender es que hace la cúspide del edificio Chrysler en portada.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic work of science fiction.

The Earthman Carse, walking through the night of a seedy Martian town, is followed. Which leads in turn to an offer of the title sword. Which, he knows, means the one making the offer knows where the legendary tomb is, and goes to loot it, forcing the would-be seller to come. It holds a black bubble-like sphere, of the ancient science of Mars, and Carse is too careless, and plunged into the depths of history.

It involves the ancient seas of Mars, the difficulty in piloting them, winged beings, a haughty princess and galley slaves, a war, and more.

[Nate D · Rating 1 out of 5]

Leigh Brackett caught my eye as the screenwriter adapting Chandler of course) fro Robert Altman's excellent version of The Long Goodbye. Though it's always hard to really see the screenplay through Altman's direction, all his movies seem like his movies first, regardless of source. In any event, that together with the kinda art deco cover here caused me to pick this one up. Turns out its that oh-so-antiquated sci-fi genre that's really basically fantasy in space. Following Burroughs (and still a few years before the mars probes would end the hope embodied here) this is full-on martian swords and sorcery. Economically written, reasonably intriguing (and fantasy pre-tolkein, so no orcs in sight) but still really of a middling pulp variety. Even her female characterizations are disappointedly of their times. (But come to think of it she ruined one of the more interesting female character twists in her other screen-Chandler adaptation, of The Big Sleep, working with Faulkner). Ah well.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Пърсивал Лоуъл прекарва целия си живот зад телескопа, наблюдавайки Марс в опит да докаже, че вижда мрежа от канали, опасващи повърхността на планетата, които могат да са плод само на развита цивилизация. Лоуъл не е случаен лаик, а американски астроном с университетско образование и значително богатство, позволяващо му да посвети живота си изцяло на науката. Периодът е краят на 19-ти и век и зората на 20-ти. Почти столетие ни дели от мисиите на НАСА до червената планета.

Междувременно Марс се превръща в благодатен сюжет за вълнуващи приключения и битки с чудовища в цяла фантастична вълна в средата на 20-ти век.

Ли Бракет не е изключение. Следвайки старата традиция, подета още от Бъроуз, тя мята своя земен герой на Марс отпреди милиони години, когато там са властвали могъщи богове и древни цивилизации са владели безбрежни морета.

Чиста магия! Единственият недостатък на тази повест е, че просто навремето ми се видя твърде кратка.

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This very short novel reflects the pulp era in which it was written. Most chapters end in a cliff hanger, which was a style designed for serialization across several issues of a magazine. This one looks like it was published in a single edition as a novella, but the hallmark style is still there.

Very reminiscent of the Burroughs Barsoom books overall. It shows some if it's age but still manage to come off as a decent escapist adventure yarn. Of course, the 'science' of Mars is very different to what we know today, but consistent with the period when it was written.

Read it and take into account the period in which it was written and you will probably enjoy it.

Sea-Kings of Mars was the original title as published in a magazine, but it was also later published as a separate novella under the title 'The Sword of Rhiannon'. Unlike many book name changes, this one works equally well.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining "sword and planet" / "planetary romance" novel with elements of "space opera" (it is set on a pre-modern Mars with swords, triremes, kings, pirates, princesses, and gods). To an extent, the protagonist Carse is a victim throughout the novel. He doesn't act so much as he is acted upon by dire circumstances. This wasn't 100% to my taste but skillfully executed. There is also an intriguing romantic / antagonistic relationship between the protagonist and a beautiful, cruel woman: Ywain. I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy classic sword and sorcery but want less of a violent barbarian protagonist and more of a roguish hero who constantly has to respond to more and complicated, quasi-diplomatic crises. Overall, it is written in a literary style.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one. Adventures on a decaying Mars. Very different than Burroughs, but just as good in it's own way.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've previously read two books by Leigh Brackett, a noir mystery, which I quite liked and a Sci-Fi adventure, which was ok. The Sword of Rhiannon is a fantasy adventure set on Mars. It seems to be a popular setting with Brackett. Like the previous one, The Nemesis from Terra, I thought this adventure to be much in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books, even more so than my first attempt of an adventure on Mars. (Did I make sense there?

Matt Carse is an Earthman on Mars. He is persuaded to go with an acquaintance to go to an ancient ruin to find artifacts, an 'easy' money maker? When the two enter the cavern, Carse is betrayed and pushed into a dark sphere, and he comes out of it, years in Mars' past; when Mars still had seas and green space. He also arrives with an unexpected passenger... You'll find out.

Thus begins an action packed adventure, where Carse finds himself first a slave of one nation, forced to man the oars of a galley. He will eventually be perceived as a god, but let's leave it at that. It's an entertaining story, an interesting setting and lots of action. Relatively light and a good read. (3.0 stars)

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many, many, many years ago I read an old Ace Double that belonged to my father that contained Brackett's The Sword of Rhiannon bound with Howard's Conan the Conqueror. I loved Conan and wasn't much impressed by the Brackett. I read quite a few more of Brackett's works over the years and enjoyed them immensely and came to believe that maybe I hadn't given it a fair shake because it was overshadowed by the grim Cimmerian superman in my young mind, and fifty years later I've given it another try. And, well, it's okay I guess, but I still didn't enjoy it as much as her other work. It's not poorly written (if just a bit too florid), and the plot is entertaining (though some of characters tend to pop in and out and cause me to loose track a little), and her descriptions of modern and ancient Mars are nonpareil. The biggest stumbling block for me, I think, were the Celtic sounding names, for which no explanation is offered. Too short to be a full novel and too long to fit Brackett's best length... it's not a bad book (especially for one written before Stevie Nicks was born, speaking of Rhiannon) though I can't call it a classic.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another enjoyable planetary romance, much better written than most. Much like "The Secret of Sinharat" and "The People of the Talisman," the story evokes ancient mystery beneath ancient mystery, and by the end, it delivers the answers. In this case, an archaeologist/tomb-robber on Mars actually time travels to ancient Mars to resolve even more ancient questions. But again, there's a problem with the thinness or emotional distance of the characters.

[Sandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked as the book of the month from Sword&Laser book club. There’s not really much to say about this book. It was a quick read, fast-paced, and overall fun.

It’s old-school Sci-fi, with a man with a destiny bigger than him, a damsel somewhat in distress/that wants to be saved (even if she doesn’t know that), and a villain(?) that everyone is happy to hate and fear.

Like it was stated in the podcast for the book club, it is a great book to read on an afternoon at the beach.

[Mamading · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is sword and superscience on an Older Mars.

If you read enough of Brackett's Mars stories, you will realise that venturing into the hills of Jekkara is never a good idea unless you are in search of adventure!

It is filled with Tombs and Caverns occupied by all sorts of strange entities including (demi)gods and monsters.

In this case, the Tomb belongs to a Promethean figure by the name of Rhiannon and the protagonist finds that this is a tomb raid too far. The ancient superscience therein flings him through deep time to a mythical Mars where there are oceans and other wonders to behold.

That's where the protagonist's real trouble begins as he finds himself caught between warring nations and the designs of an imprisoned demigod.