Brackett's novels
Jul. 9th, 2008 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randy_byersSo I'm working my way through Leigh Brackett's novels. I probably should have started with her first novel, a mystery called No Good from a Corpse (1944), but I read it not too long ago and didn't think enough of it to want to read it again. So far I've read Nemesis from Terra (aka The Shadow over Mars, 1944), The Starmen of Llyrdis (aka The Starmen, 1951), and Sea Kings of Mars (1949). Sea Kings of Mars was the magazine title of the novel published in book form as The Sword of Rhiannon, which I've read before. It is published under its original title in the Orion collection, Sea Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories, which is where I read it this time. I'm not sure if this is actually the magazine version, or if they just used the old title. I've e-mailed the editor of the collection, Stephen Jones, but haven't heard back from him yet. I couldn't tell any difference, but it's been a while since I read The Sword of Rhiannon.
Since I had the collection with me in Oregon and had finished the novel, I also reread the Eric John Stark novella, "Queen of the Martian Catacombs". This is, in fact, the magazine version of the story, which was later rewritten (allegedly by her husband, Edmond Hamilton) and slightly expanded as The Secret of Sinharat, which I'm now reading in the Ace Double form. This is Brackett at her best -- an exotic adventure story full of pungent details and powerful atmosphere and heightened-through-suppression eroticism. There's a one-sentence description of a kiss of broken, thirsty lips that beautifully captures a sadomasochistic sensuality. The first part of The Secret of Sinharat seems identical to "Queen of the Martian Catacombs," but I've reached the point where changes begin. I'm curious to see what was done to the ending, which I found very powerful in the original version -- a typical moment of renunciation and separation, the price of crimes committed.
Nemesis from Terra isn't very good, although it has some of the usual great sensual and sadomasochistic detail. The Starmen of Llyrdis is a bit rambling or episodic, but it successfully moves from a mundane Earth to a far-flung space opera. The central idea is a strain of humanity that has been bred to survive faster-than-light interstellar flight. This idea has been used over and over, including by Delany in "Ay, and Gomorrah" (IIRC) and "The Star Pit". I wonder what the earliest usage was? In any event, there's a terrific horror scene in The Starmen of Llyrdis involving a normal human who stows away aboard an FTL flight.
Sea Kings of Mars/The Sword of Rhiannon is one of Brackett's best-known books. The adventures (as often in Brackett) are largely formulaic, and what is remarkable about the novel is its vision of an ancient Mars with oceans and sea-going civilizations. The clash of pre-gunpowder cultures and super-science is straight out of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but Brackett layers on the torn loyalties, torn consciousness, and sadomasochism. It's a potent cocktail of pulp psychosexual histrionics. The mild telepathy of the Martian halflings perhaps represents our naked vulnerability, our inability to hide, though we desperately wish to, like prey trying to hide from predator, like a lover trying to hide his betrayal at the height of passion.
Since I had the collection with me in Oregon and had finished the novel, I also reread the Eric John Stark novella, "Queen of the Martian Catacombs". This is, in fact, the magazine version of the story, which was later rewritten (allegedly by her husband, Edmond Hamilton) and slightly expanded as The Secret of Sinharat, which I'm now reading in the Ace Double form. This is Brackett at her best -- an exotic adventure story full of pungent details and powerful atmosphere and heightened-through-suppression eroticism. There's a one-sentence description of a kiss of broken, thirsty lips that beautifully captures a sadomasochistic sensuality. The first part of The Secret of Sinharat seems identical to "Queen of the Martian Catacombs," but I've reached the point where changes begin. I'm curious to see what was done to the ending, which I found very powerful in the original version -- a typical moment of renunciation and separation, the price of crimes committed.
Nemesis from Terra isn't very good, although it has some of the usual great sensual and sadomasochistic detail. The Starmen of Llyrdis is a bit rambling or episodic, but it successfully moves from a mundane Earth to a far-flung space opera. The central idea is a strain of humanity that has been bred to survive faster-than-light interstellar flight. This idea has been used over and over, including by Delany in "Ay, and Gomorrah" (IIRC) and "The Star Pit". I wonder what the earliest usage was? In any event, there's a terrific horror scene in The Starmen of Llyrdis involving a normal human who stows away aboard an FTL flight.
Sea Kings of Mars/The Sword of Rhiannon is one of Brackett's best-known books. The adventures (as often in Brackett) are largely formulaic, and what is remarkable about the novel is its vision of an ancient Mars with oceans and sea-going civilizations. The clash of pre-gunpowder cultures and super-science is straight out of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but Brackett layers on the torn loyalties, torn consciousness, and sadomasochism. It's a potent cocktail of pulp psychosexual histrionics. The mild telepathy of the Martian halflings perhaps represents our naked vulnerability, our inability to hide, though we desperately wish to, like prey trying to hide from predator, like a lover trying to hide his betrayal at the height of passion.
