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Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories
A collection of the best stories by one of fantasy and science fiction's most evocative writers, including Sea-Kings of Mars, which combines high adventure with a strongly romantic vision of an ancient, sea-girt Martian civilisation.
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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About the author
Leigh Brackett
412 books235 followersLeigh 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 29, 2011
Well, this was quite a hefty collection containing many stories and a couple of novellas, mostly set on Mars or Venus.
In some ways, Leigh Brackett carried on the tradition of swash-buckling adventures in space started by Edgar Rice Burroughs but it's not just more of the same. There is a progression with more complex and imaginative stories and characters. Like Burroughs' John Carter or Carson Napier, she has her enigmatic heroes such as Eric John Stark but her characters are more well-rounded, warts'n'all. Frankly, they are less nauseating.
Having said that, not all of the stories worked particularly well for me although the collection seemed to get better as it went on (the stories are in bibliographical order). The novella "Lorelei of the Red Mist" that she co-wrote with Ray Bradbury wasn't that great but "The Sea Kings of Mars" felt like a cross between "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the lost Ark" and was great fun. One of the stories near the end particularly struck me, "The Tweener" as it was very different from the rest being set on earth and more of a psychological horror.
I would say that if like science-fantasy adventures but want something a little more well-rounded than Burroughs, this will be your cup of tea.
In some ways, Leigh Brackett carried on the tradition of swash-buckling adventures in space started by Edgar Rice Burroughs but it's not just more of the same. There is a progression with more complex and imaginative stories and characters. Like Burroughs' John Carter or Carson Napier, she has her enigmatic heroes such as Eric John Stark but her characters are more well-rounded, warts'n'all. Frankly, they are less nauseating.
Having said that, not all of the stories worked particularly well for me although the collection seemed to get better as it went on (the stories are in bibliographical order). The novella "Lorelei of the Red Mist" that she co-wrote with Ray Bradbury wasn't that great but "The Sea Kings of Mars" felt like a cross between "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the lost Ark" and was great fun. One of the stories near the end particularly struck me, "The Tweener" as it was very different from the rest being set on earth and more of a psychological horror.
I would say that if like science-fantasy adventures but want something a little more well-rounded than Burroughs, this will be your cup of tea.
January 5, 2016
Many books have impressed me or thrilled me throughout the years. But few have blown my mind like this collection of Leigh Brackett stories. It's one thing to have Tolkien or Lewis to really wow you as an adolescent. It's something else to have an author do the same to a jaded 30 year old.
I came to Brackett's writing long after she passed and felt a poorer fan of Sci-Fi and Fantasy for it. I'd never heard of her. I'd never seen her books in my school library (though I later found her in my public library). And I had no idea that she was the writer behind The Empire Strikes Back.
I picked this book up on my honeymoon while perusing a used book store in Hamilton, Bermuda. And it's one of my most treasured books.
Full of classic stories like:
The Sorcerer of Rhiannon
Lorelei of the Red Mist (written with Ray Bradbury)
The Jewel of Bas
Queen of the Martian Catacombs
The titles alone fired my imagination.
This is great, golden age stuff. I recommend it to everyone
I came to Brackett's writing long after she passed and felt a poorer fan of Sci-Fi and Fantasy for it. I'd never heard of her. I'd never seen her books in my school library (though I later found her in my public library). And I had no idea that she was the writer behind The Empire Strikes Back.
I picked this book up on my honeymoon while perusing a used book store in Hamilton, Bermuda. And it's one of my most treasured books.
Full of classic stories like:
The Sorcerer of Rhiannon
Lorelei of the Red Mist (written with Ray Bradbury)
The Jewel of Bas
Queen of the Martian Catacombs
The titles alone fired my imagination.
This is great, golden age stuff. I recommend it to everyone
November 1, 2014
This wonderful doorstop of a book (as Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks tend to be) is miscategorised (as again Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks tend to be) since although they have fantasy elements, they are at heart SF, although falling within that amorphous subgenre of Science Fantasy. The majority are set on Mars, with some on Venus, and were published over a period of around ten years from 1942 - 1951 (although two later stories are also included.).
Brackett has been clear in admitting that her major influence for these stories was Edgar Rice Burroughs, and this can be seen very clearly in the full length novel included, 'The Sword of Rhiannon' (vt Sea Kings of Mars).
Michael Moorcock in his 2005 Amazon review of this volume writes that Brackett was 'one of the most influential science fantasy writers of the 40s and 50s, inspiring and eventually collaborating with the young Ray Bradbury. Her stories of Eric John Stark, some of which appear in this collection, are perhaps the best examples you can find in the sf pulps of her day, appearing in the likes of PLANET STORIES, STARTLING STORIES and THRILLING WONDER STORIES. I know they were a huge influence on my own early science fantasy tales. Through Bradbury, she also influenced J.G.Ballard in such sequences as his Vermilion Sands stories. As such she can be seen as a kind of godmother to the so-called 'New Wave'.
Praise indeed, and well deserved.
This volume comprises of:-
The Sorceror of Rhiannon (Astounding Feb 1942)
A tomb-robber, lost in the Martian desert, finds an ancient ship in which ancient Martian science has held the mind of a sorcerer and his blue-haired female nemesis in suspended animation for untold millennia. The pair take possession of the robber’s body and that of his girlfriend, and head for a lost city and its possibly still active technology, pursued by Martian officials and other rapacious archaeologists.
The Jewel of Bas (Planet Stories Spring 1944)
Set on a world which could have been Mars, but doesn’t seem to be, a couple of roving gypsies are kidnapped as slaves and taken to where two androids are building a machine to take over the world, while the immortal Bas sleeps in the heart of the mountain, guarding a jewel of unlimited power.
Terror Out of Space (Planet Stories Summer 1944)
A military team on Venus has captured a form of lamia which adopts the form of seductive women and drives men insane. While being flown back the creature affects some of the crew, crashing the plane and killing all but the pilot, who escapes, meets an aquatic plant race and manages to enter into a dialogue with the creature.
Lorelei of The Red Mist (with Ray Bradbury) (Planet Stories Summer 1946)
Another Venusian tale in which Hugh Starke’s mind is snatched from his dying body and placed in the body of Conan (no, not that one). A musclebound hero, whose mind had been previously broken. He finds himself in the midst of a war between the sea-people and some land people, and then has to descend into an ocean of breathable red mist to convince another group of sea-people to intervene on behalf of the land people.
The Moon That Vanished (Thrilling Wonder Stories June 1949)
Back to Venus where a religion has evolved around a legend of Venus’ fallen moon. It is said those who have visited the moonfire either die or are made gods. The moonfire may be the radioactive remains of a fallen moon, but there may also be truth in the legends.
Sea Kings of Mars (vt The Sword of Rhiannon) (Thrilling Wonder Stories June 1949)
see review here
Queen of The Martian Catacombs (Planet Stories Summer 1949)
Eric John Stark, an Earthman, brought up on Mercury, is recruited by a mercenary army who wish to conquer and unite the warring factors of Mars. However, some of his colleagues are old enemies and seek to kill him. Stark then discovers that the leaders of the army are ancient Ramas, immortal humans who have the power to transfer themselves into young bodies when they grow old, and who plan to make the Martians their slaves.
Enchantress of Venus (Planet Stories Fall 1949)
Eric John Stark arrives ignominiously in a town where he was supposed to have been delivered as a slave to the Lhori, an inbred ancient people who are searching under the red sea for an ancient technological secret. It is a common theme in Brackett’s work that there is technology too dangerous for humans to dabble with, and seems very apt for someone working at the dawn of the atomic era.
Black Amazon of Mars (Planet Stories March 1951)
Stark agrees to accompany a dying Martian, Canar, back to his home where he must return a talisman stolen years before. Canar dies and Stark continues, escaping capture by Lord Ciaran and an army of barbarians who wish him to aid them in conquering the city.
Their ultimate aim, however, is to take their conquest to The Shining Ones, beyond The Gates of Death.
The Last Days of Shandakor (Startling Stories April 1951)
An Oddly Clark Ashton Smith-esque tale in which a traveller agrees to take a mysterious alien back to his home city to die. The human, however, becomes trapped in the dying city as it replays scenes from thousands of years past.
The Tweener (F & SF February 1955)
Seemingly unrelated to her other Martian tales, Brackett here gives us an Earthbound tale in which a doctor, returning from Mars, brings his nephews and nieces a Martian pet, or is it a devolved member of an ancient Martian race?
The Road to Sinharat (Amazing Stories May 1963)
Back to Brackett’s more familiar Mars, we see Earth taking a superior colonial view and attempting to employ technology to ‘aid’ the primitive Martians. One Earthman and his Martian friend set off in a race against time to find the evidence that will stop the Rehabilitation Programme.
Brackett has been clear in admitting that her major influence for these stories was Edgar Rice Burroughs, and this can be seen very clearly in the full length novel included, 'The Sword of Rhiannon' (vt Sea Kings of Mars).
Michael Moorcock in his 2005 Amazon review of this volume writes that Brackett was 'one of the most influential science fantasy writers of the 40s and 50s, inspiring and eventually collaborating with the young Ray Bradbury. Her stories of Eric John Stark, some of which appear in this collection, are perhaps the best examples you can find in the sf pulps of her day, appearing in the likes of PLANET STORIES, STARTLING STORIES and THRILLING WONDER STORIES. I know they were a huge influence on my own early science fantasy tales. Through Bradbury, she also influenced J.G.Ballard in such sequences as his Vermilion Sands stories. As such she can be seen as a kind of godmother to the so-called 'New Wave'.
Praise indeed, and well deserved.
This volume comprises of:-
The Sorceror of Rhiannon (Astounding Feb 1942)
A tomb-robber, lost in the Martian desert, finds an ancient ship in which ancient Martian science has held the mind of a sorcerer and his blue-haired female nemesis in suspended animation for untold millennia. The pair take possession of the robber’s body and that of his girlfriend, and head for a lost city and its possibly still active technology, pursued by Martian officials and other rapacious archaeologists.
The Jewel of Bas (Planet Stories Spring 1944)
Set on a world which could have been Mars, but doesn’t seem to be, a couple of roving gypsies are kidnapped as slaves and taken to where two androids are building a machine to take over the world, while the immortal Bas sleeps in the heart of the mountain, guarding a jewel of unlimited power.
Terror Out of Space (Planet Stories Summer 1944)
A military team on Venus has captured a form of lamia which adopts the form of seductive women and drives men insane. While being flown back the creature affects some of the crew, crashing the plane and killing all but the pilot, who escapes, meets an aquatic plant race and manages to enter into a dialogue with the creature.
Lorelei of The Red Mist (with Ray Bradbury) (Planet Stories Summer 1946)
Another Venusian tale in which Hugh Starke’s mind is snatched from his dying body and placed in the body of Conan (no, not that one). A musclebound hero, whose mind had been previously broken. He finds himself in the midst of a war between the sea-people and some land people, and then has to descend into an ocean of breathable red mist to convince another group of sea-people to intervene on behalf of the land people.
The Moon That Vanished (Thrilling Wonder Stories June 1949)
Back to Venus where a religion has evolved around a legend of Venus’ fallen moon. It is said those who have visited the moonfire either die or are made gods. The moonfire may be the radioactive remains of a fallen moon, but there may also be truth in the legends.
Sea Kings of Mars (vt The Sword of Rhiannon) (Thrilling Wonder Stories June 1949)
see review here
Queen of The Martian Catacombs (Planet Stories Summer 1949)
Eric John Stark, an Earthman, brought up on Mercury, is recruited by a mercenary army who wish to conquer and unite the warring factors of Mars. However, some of his colleagues are old enemies and seek to kill him. Stark then discovers that the leaders of the army are ancient Ramas, immortal humans who have the power to transfer themselves into young bodies when they grow old, and who plan to make the Martians their slaves.
Enchantress of Venus (Planet Stories Fall 1949)
Eric John Stark arrives ignominiously in a town where he was supposed to have been delivered as a slave to the Lhori, an inbred ancient people who are searching under the red sea for an ancient technological secret. It is a common theme in Brackett’s work that there is technology too dangerous for humans to dabble with, and seems very apt for someone working at the dawn of the atomic era.
Black Amazon of Mars (Planet Stories March 1951)
Stark agrees to accompany a dying Martian, Canar, back to his home where he must return a talisman stolen years before. Canar dies and Stark continues, escaping capture by Lord Ciaran and an army of barbarians who wish him to aid them in conquering the city.
Their ultimate aim, however, is to take their conquest to The Shining Ones, beyond The Gates of Death.
The Last Days of Shandakor (Startling Stories April 1951)
An Oddly Clark Ashton Smith-esque tale in which a traveller agrees to take a mysterious alien back to his home city to die. The human, however, becomes trapped in the dying city as it replays scenes from thousands of years past.
The Tweener (F & SF February 1955)
Seemingly unrelated to her other Martian tales, Brackett here gives us an Earthbound tale in which a doctor, returning from Mars, brings his nephews and nieces a Martian pet, or is it a devolved member of an ancient Martian race?
The Road to Sinharat (Amazing Stories May 1963)
Back to Brackett’s more familiar Mars, we see Earth taking a superior colonial view and attempting to employ technology to ‘aid’ the primitive Martians. One Earthman and his Martian friend set off in a race against time to find the evidence that will stop the Rehabilitation Programme.
August 8, 2011
A book to be savored, "Sea Kings" collects the Mars stories of Leigh Bracket. She is a master of the frontier tale. A recent panel at Readercon argued that these are fantasies disguised as science fiction. I would suggest they are westerns disguised as fantasies. They are tales of the white man's burden, of endurance and often failure in the face of brutal conditions, and they are told in a rugged, inimitable style. Brackett was a screenwriter who wrote "Rio Bravo" and the first draft of "Empire Strikes Back." If you're jonesing for what it was that made the middle movie the greatest of them all, pick this collection up and work your way through tails of ray guns, swords, strange creatures, crumbling empires, and ancient wisdom.
May 21, 2013
Good old-fashioned interplanetary adventures, full of rugged men and nubile, determined girls. Unsurprisingly, they're very dated. And although the author has a dab hand with her descriptions and the stories can be marvellously (if somewhat cheesily) atmospheric at times… frankly if you've read one, you've basically read them all (she reminds me of Lovecraft in that respect.) Still, that's another entry in the Fantasy Masterworks series completed, and that makes me happy :-).
May 4, 2020
After a slow and somewhat clunky start, this collection of some of Leigh Brackett's most famous stories finally hits a groove and strong-arms John Carter and Kane of Old Mars into the dirt. Brackett's Mars has all of the decay and inertia, the corruption of time, that neither Burroughs nor Moorcock could give it. And while Brackett works a certain formula much as both Burroughs and Moorcock did with their interplanetary creations, her prose (from Sea-Kings itself onwards, at least) is far better than either. Sorry, but true.
Best stories? Easily the three Eric Stark tales, along with the closing Road to Sinharat. Mention must also be made of The Tweener, the sole Earth-set short story, which explores a strange relationship between prisoner and guard, a story that feels surprisingly modern and also a bit postmodern, with Uncle Fred telling tall tales of a Mars that never was.
Best stories? Easily the three Eric Stark tales, along with the closing Road to Sinharat. Mention must also be made of The Tweener, the sole Earth-set short story, which explores a strange relationship between prisoner and guard, a story that feels surprisingly modern and also a bit postmodern, with Uncle Fred telling tall tales of a Mars that never was.
September 1, 2013
The initial first few stories in this anthology are written beautifully, in a style reminiscent of Lovecraft and other such writers, looking at the things that can really warp your sense of things, ideas that can get under your skin - not purely horror - but a blend of horror and fantasy perhaps? Just more often or not with a clear cut ending to them.
The short stories of characters like Stark were of less interest, having muddled me in terms of time scale for each of them occurring, as well as the various mass of ideas within them, but what really irritated me about them was the min character Stark and other characters around him - just really got on my nerves. So I trawled through these.
Stories to note/of particular interest include:
- The Sorcerer of Rhiannon
- The Jewel of Bas
- Terror out of Space
- The Tweener
These were particularly important and interesting and for me what made the anthology/collection of short stories by Leigh Brackett brilliant and a joy to read.
The short stories of characters like Stark were of less interest, having muddled me in terms of time scale for each of them occurring, as well as the various mass of ideas within them, but what really irritated me about them was the min character Stark and other characters around him - just really got on my nerves. So I trawled through these.
Stories to note/of particular interest include:
- The Sorcerer of Rhiannon
- The Jewel of Bas
- Terror out of Space
- The Tweener
These were particularly important and interesting and for me what made the anthology/collection of short stories by Leigh Brackett brilliant and a joy to read.
August 11, 2017
Swords and Sorcery is a favorite genre of mine and Leigh Brackett really knew how to do it. If you read these planetary adventures be aware that Mercury is too hot for life, Mars is too cold and dry and Venus to hot. But Brackett has filled these worlds with characters and adventures that are so entertaining. Short stories and novella’s offer hero after hero including her most famous John Eric Stark. The one short story that almost seems out of place is her science fiction story “The Tweener” that reminded me strongly of Ray Bradbury a good friend of Brackett’s. Bradbury co wrote “Lorelei of the Red Mist” with Brackett and the hero is “Conan” not Howards, but he might as well be.
August 22, 2012
Going through this one story at a time, in order. Just finished the title piece, "Sea Kings of Mars" and it was the best so far. More elegance of narrative and less "corn" than Burroughs.
May 12, 2015
Didn't like the style or the storylines. Looked like a dead cert, but no dice.
May 30, 2020
I don't remember whete this book came from and it took me a while to get reading it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures! It's an anthology of stories written by Ms Brackett back in the early days of female sci fi stories, and extremely well done.
While Mars and Venus have since been proven as unlikely homes for human life as we know it, it barely matters as the atories are about adventures in interesting and different places that have every right to exist somewhere, even if we don't actually know of them.
There are a few interlinking stories - same place, same character, for example - but different times or whatever, and I love that. The writer has kept the consistency of her universe/s throughout as if she could see them in vivid detail, and that makes it so easy for the reader to do the same.
All in all, each tale is a rollicking story of high adventure with intrigue and danger mixed in equal parts. There are also magical elements tossed in, in such a way that you can easily believe they're technology so futuristic or created by people far more advanced than we, that we can't presently understand them - in the same way that a medieval knight would have no concept of a modern car.
Beyond that though, all the stories are about the nature of people - how even people who have lived longer than is natural don't always have logic in their reasoning, and old habits die hard. The characters are vividly drawn, and while today would say there are sexist elements, in Ms Brackett's era these were the daily challenges she would have faced. She still makes the female characters she does employ strong and equally as interesting as the men. I can appreciate why she uses more male lead characters though - I have done the same in my feeble attempts to write.
If you love a good adventure in other worlds with interesting people and unexplained phenomena, these are the stories for you!
While Mars and Venus have since been proven as unlikely homes for human life as we know it, it barely matters as the atories are about adventures in interesting and different places that have every right to exist somewhere, even if we don't actually know of them.
There are a few interlinking stories - same place, same character, for example - but different times or whatever, and I love that. The writer has kept the consistency of her universe/s throughout as if she could see them in vivid detail, and that makes it so easy for the reader to do the same.
All in all, each tale is a rollicking story of high adventure with intrigue and danger mixed in equal parts. There are also magical elements tossed in, in such a way that you can easily believe they're technology so futuristic or created by people far more advanced than we, that we can't presently understand them - in the same way that a medieval knight would have no concept of a modern car.
Beyond that though, all the stories are about the nature of people - how even people who have lived longer than is natural don't always have logic in their reasoning, and old habits die hard. The characters are vividly drawn, and while today would say there are sexist elements, in Ms Brackett's era these were the daily challenges she would have faced. She still makes the female characters she does employ strong and equally as interesting as the men. I can appreciate why she uses more male lead characters though - I have done the same in my feeble attempts to write.
If you love a good adventure in other worlds with interesting people and unexplained phenomena, these are the stories for you!
July 20, 2025
I'm not surprising anyone by saying this but OMG Brackett was a singular talent. The woman who created Yoda (though under a different name) and wrote the screenplays for some of Howard Hawk's best films and the most seminal adaptations of Chandler to the screen also cut her teeth in the 40s doing what poor Lin Carter spent his entire career trying to do: creating vivid worlds that somehow took Robert E. Howard's Sword & Sorcery, Edgar Rice Burrough's Sword & Planet and fused them into something new---not least because of her tight, noir-style prose (Zelazny was obviously reading). I'd never really sat down and *read* her original Eric John Stark stories all-together before, so I guess it never occurred to me how much better off the pastiche world would have been if it had been Brackett who'd the one to revive Conan and not de Camp; but then she didn't need to, she had a booming career.
Anyway, an excellent collection without a dog in all 600+ pages.
Anyway, an excellent collection without a dog in all 600+ pages.
April 6, 2022
This is an amazing collection of short stories and snippets of Brackett's work.
As I work my way through the Fantasy Masterworks (I am doing this by publishing date, not rank within the list), I am continually impressed with the women authors of this era. And Bracket is no exception! The hints of culture amongst the other planets in our system is really well done. There is still a bit of Sword & Sorcery feel to these, but I can also tell that the genre is starting to move away from this, as the protagonists are not always the most physically capable and brave. Brackett adds some complexity to her plots and characters, and her "world creation" is fantastic.
Really, really enjoyed this.
As I work my way through the Fantasy Masterworks (I am doing this by publishing date, not rank within the list), I am continually impressed with the women authors of this era. And Bracket is no exception! The hints of culture amongst the other planets in our system is really well done. There is still a bit of Sword & Sorcery feel to these, but I can also tell that the genre is starting to move away from this, as the protagonists are not always the most physically capable and brave. Brackett adds some complexity to her plots and characters, and her "world creation" is fantastic.
Really, really enjoyed this.
June 20, 2018
Easy read, dated
May 17, 2020
Enjoyable well written sword and planet adventures. Not profound but fun and evocative
July 24, 2022
Solid collection of some of Leigh Brackett's best planetary romance stories, marred by typos. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/200...
June 21, 2024
It is often said that if it's in the future its SF and if its past (or even specifically medieval), it is fantasy. Well the sword and planet genre definitely throws it into disorder. Taking after E. R. Burroughs' Princess of Mars, they involve familiar planets like Mars, Venus or Mercury, imagined as dreamlike kingdoms through which pulp heroes make their way. It is there that the disrepancy between imagination and what we now know about those planets hits hard -- definitely not SF.
Another test to distinguish between SF and fantasy is the presence of magic. Sword and planet has usually both, with no effort made to distinguish between them or explain anything.
Leigh Brackett with these stories and the Skaith series is one of the great authors of this interesting genre. They are stories from another era, but can be really entertaining still. They have an incredible atmosphere of fantastic yearning towards lost and faraway lands, of passionate men and women, of treachery and swordplay. They are quite repetitive by way of structure and plot points though so reading several arcs is probably too much. To pick one, I believe the novella by the name of Sea Kings of Mars or sometimes Sword of Rhiannon, is the one to read.
Another test to distinguish between SF and fantasy is the presence of magic. Sword and planet has usually both, with no effort made to distinguish between them or explain anything.
Leigh Brackett with these stories and the Skaith series is one of the great authors of this interesting genre. They are stories from another era, but can be really entertaining still. They have an incredible atmosphere of fantastic yearning towards lost and faraway lands, of passionate men and women, of treachery and swordplay. They are quite repetitive by way of structure and plot points though so reading several arcs is probably too much. To pick one, I believe the novella by the name of Sea Kings of Mars or sometimes Sword of Rhiannon, is the one to read.
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August 22, 2008Sea Kings of Mars and Otherwordly Stories (Fantasy Masterworks) by Leigh Brackett (2005)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews