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Eric John Stark rides again! Leigh Brackett's unforgettable science-fantasy hero of The Secret of Sinharat and The Ginger Star cuts a red swath across the brutal planet Skaith Having killed the king-dog Flay in his quest to save an old friend and mentor, Stark now wanders the Worldheart in the company of nine ferocious canines that respond to his every command. Ruling the hounds of Skaith means tapping into the savagery of Stark's own mysterious past, and even a moment's hesitation could turn the pack against him! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Release the Hounds!
In Skaith, Leigh Brackett created one of the most memorable fictional worlds in science-fiction history. With The Ginger Star, the first book in the series, she introduced a world stymied in its technological advancement by the cooling of its sun where Eric John Stark, previously an adventurer on Mars and Venus, goes to find his foster father, Simon Ashton. Here, Brackett continues Stark's adventures as he fights the communistic Lords Protectors, whose desire for power has led them to condemn all the people on Skaith to death as the planet's star slowly loses its ability to provide the warmth and light necessary for life. The milieu is similar to the Dying Earth of William Hope Hodgson, Clark Ashton Smith, Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, and others, despite the difference in the planet serving as its setting. As befits such a tale, the narrative is terse and bleak. Surprisingly the characters are well developed and strongly fleshed out, making us sympathize with them in the harshness they face while defying Fate. Even the titular Hounds come across as believable and sympathetic. At the same time, Skaith itself is a character in the stories, serving various as protagonist and benefactor while Stark and his allies battle to save the remnants of a once-great civilization from becoming extinct. Of course the tale of Skaith is too broad for two novels to be able to chronicle it all, and this leaves us breathlessly awaiting Leigh Brackett's final vision of her guttering world.

The Menagerie Strikes Back!
(For additional information, please see my review of The Ginger Star.)
Having struck at the heart of power on Skaith, Stark spreads revolt, collecting an alien menagerie of allies along the way. This volume is dominated by the great battles, and is more action-packed that the first volume, building to a victorious crescendo. The characters continue to emerge, and more contemporary commentary becomes evident (Farers/Hippies; the worship of charismatic leaders), as does Brackett's later influence on the Star Wars universe. This has turned into a must-read series for me...in other words, you must read it!
Click on the customer images, as Amazon has kept the placeholder art for the cover, instead of the eye-popping final art.
... Read more

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Hugh Starke, space-rat and convict, was being pursued by spacecraft into the unknown parts of Venus. He had just pulled off the largest lone wolf heist in the history of that planet. But now it looked like he was going to pay the ultimate price for his misdeeds. But fate had a strange twist on Starke’s life when he woke up in a different body. A body that was strong and powerful. In a body of a Venusian barbarian named Conan. But was Starke anything more than a puppet in this new body? For he soon found out the strings were being pulled by the beautiful, but terrible, Rann. For Rann was like the siren, Lorelei, and it was Hugh-Starke-called-Conan that would have to fight her or be lured to his doom!

"Lorelei of the Red Mist" is one of those stories you hear about and you just have to read it. The first half was written by Leigh Brackett in 1944 who then had to drop it because she went to Hollywood to write the Bogart picture The Big Sleep (1946) with William Faulkner. This left Lorelei unfinished. Ray Bradbury, yes, that Ray Bradbury, finished the tale without any outline from Leigh. Bradbury's part starts with : "He saw the flock, herded by more of the golden hounds." --G.W. Thomas, Dark Worlds site ... Read more

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This book is about the work of science fiction writer Leigh Brackett, and is a companion to the Leigh Brackett (ology) website and collects the content found at the site.The various entries and elements can also be browsed there.

Brackett was known as the Queen of Space Opera, and famous for a series of vivid planetary romance adventures, particularly those of Eric John Stark.She was also a crime writer and screenwriter.

It contains an analysis of the elements of her published stories, plus summaries of the work explaining what they are about, and a classification.

It also contains details of and links to free works online, encyclopedia, bibliography, interview and other such reference works, as well as the autho\'s presence on the internet and other categories of interest.

There is also a concordance for each story included at the end.

The works appear here in reverse chronological order of appearance at Leigh Brackett (ology).
... Read more

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Two Complete Book-Length Novels of Strange Aventures on Other Worlds in the Universe of Future Centuries reprinted from the pages of the legendary pulp magazine of colorful, poetic space opera, Planet Stories! In Emmett McDowell's gripping adventure, death was Jaro Moynahan's stock in trade, and every planet had known his touch.  But now, on Mercury, he was selling his guns into the weirdest of all his exploits gambling his life against the soft touch of a woman's lips - the fearful Red Witch of Mercury. Leigh Brackett's incomparable classic asls. could Fand, beautiful and base, bewitch the tall swordsman from Terra? Burk Winters was a panting, shambling ape, fleeing through dark and echoing pits of horror. Behind him hissed the lashes of the jeering mob, savagely exultant at having debauched another proud Terran into something that slavered and crawled. Had the scheming Fand overlooked one crucial factor? Could the Earthbeast's love for Jill somehow free him from the superscientific thrall of her devolution ray- the Beast-Jewel of Mars? Original cover. by Allen Anderson, for the Winter 1948 Planet Stories, illustrating The Beast-Jewel of Mars. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Venus and Venusians are frequently appearing settings and characters for many of the Solar System stories of Leigh Brackett. Brackett's Venus shares some characteristics with the astronomical Venus, but in other respects functions as a consistent fantasy world with recurring landmarks and characteristics that reappear from story to story. Some of these fantasy characteristics are of Brackett's own invention; others reflect some of the scientific theories about Venus that were current before the early 1960s. ... Read more

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Chapters: Mars in the Fiction of Leigh Brackett, Leigh Brackett Solar System, Venus in the Fiction of Leigh Brackett, Mercury in the Fiction of Leigh Brackett, Jupiter in the Fiction of Leigh Brackett, Eric John Stark. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 62. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The planet Mars appears frequently as a setting for many of the stories of Leigh Brackett, and Mars and Martians are frequently mentioned in other stories of the Leigh Brackett Solar System. Brackett's Mars shares some characteristics with the astronomical Mars, but in other respects functions as a consistent fantasy world with recurring landmarks and characteristics that reappear from story to story. Some of these fantasy characteristics are of Brackett's own invention; others reflect some of the scientific theories about Mars that were current before the early 1960s, although certain of the astronomical and scientific details described in this article are not true of the real planet Mars. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system. In Brackett's Solar System, Mars has two moons, Denderon (Phobos) and Vashna (Deimos). Mars is one of the three "Triangle Worlds" and a founding member of both the League of Worlds and the United Worlds. It is the site of the headquarters of the Interworld Space Authority. Mars has only a quarter the surface area of the Earth and only one-tenth the mass, though its surface area is approximately equal to that of the Earth's dry land because Mars no longer possesses oceans. The solar day on Mars is very close to Earth's day: 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. The atmosphere of Mars is thinner than that of Earth or Venus, comparable to the high plateaus of the Andes or Himalayas on earth, but is oxygen-rich and presents few difficulties to offworld...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3994400 ... Read more

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Chapters: Mary Pickford, Dorothy Parker, Leigh Brackett, Ruth Gordon, Julie Delpy, Julie Brown, Margaret Drabble, Soleil Moon Frye, Emma Thompson, Karen Black, Bonnie Hunt, Mae West, Anita Loos, Natacha Rambova, Vera Caspary, Jay Presson Allen, Carrie Fisher, Nancy Meyers, June Mathis, Fay Kanin, Bebe Daniels, Harriet Frank, Jr., Florence Turner, Melissa Rosenberg, Sofia Coppola, Mabel Normand, Diablo Cody, Molly Louise Shepard, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Nikki Reed, Nancy Savoca, Dorothy Gibson, Clara Beranger, Mae Murray, Alice O'fredericks, Yasmin Ahmad, Nora Ephron, Suzan-Lori Parks, Janice Hally, Barbara La Marr, Dorothy Kingsley, Mary Chase, Nell Shipman, Frances Marion, Elaine May, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Marti Noxon, Granaz Moussavi, Heather Thomas, Harriet Quimby, Betty Comden, Louella Parsons, Claire Labine, Rita Mae Brown, Frances-Anne Solomon, Sharron Miller, Julia Cameron, May Miles Thomas, Lisa Loomer, Theresa Rebeck, Doris Wishman, Michelle Ferguson-Cohen, Diane Frolov, Lenore J. Coffee, Debra Hill, Lone Scherfig, Nancy Oliver, Doris Schroeder, Valerie Red-Horse, Tamara Jenkins, Pamela Wallace, Gertrude Berg, Grete Frische, Muriel Box, Leah Meyerhoff, J. J. Philbin, Valerie Landsburg, Maureen Judge, Angela Shelton, Annabelle Gurwitch, Frederica Sagor Maas, Fran Walsh, Gabrielle Stanton, Cristina Kotz Cornejo, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Pamela Ribon, Pat Silver-Lasky, Fannie Flagg, Madelyn Pugh, Zelda Sears, Gina Kaus, Fannie Hurst, Pamela Mason, Suzanne Jacob, Maria Arena Bell, Merrill Markoe, Anna Thomas, Anais Granofsky, Marsha Norman, Caroline Thompson, Jacqueline Kim, Zoë Akins, Christine Pascal, Lourdes Portillo, Lynn Marie Latham, Lorene Scafaria, Emery Bonett, D. C. Fontana, Anne Beatts, Gloria Calderon Kellett, Ouida Bergère, Elsie Janis, Susan Sackett, Karen Harris, Zoe Cassavetes, Kirsten Smith, Sara A. Bibel, Sarah Kernochan, Mara Brock Akil, Martha Ostenso, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Jill Craigie, Rita Rudn...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=173082 ... Read more

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Chapters: Stars and Planetary Systems in Fiction, Leigh Brackett Solar System, Solar System in Fiction. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 60. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and its Solar System are a staple element in much science fiction. The notion that there might be inhabited extrasolar planets may be traced at least as far back as Giordano Bruno, who, in his De l'infinito universo e mondi ("Concerning the Infinite Universe and Worlds", 1584), declared that "Innumerable suns exist; innumerable Earths revolve about these suns ... Living beings inhabit these worlds". Allusions to inhabitants of other stars' planetary systems remained rare in literature for many centuries afterward. One of these is Voltaire's Micromégas (1752), which features a traveller from Sirius. As science fiction became established in the early twentieth century, destinations such as the Moon, Mars, Venus or other bodies within the Solar System became stereotyped. Authors began to invoke a variety of mechanisms for superluminal travel and placed their stories on planets in systems around other stars, a move giving them freedom to construct more exotic fictional worlds and themes. This tendency became predominant once exploration of the Solar System showed that it was increasingly unlikely that any highly-developed form of extraterrestrial life existed in the Solar System. Although some of the stars named in works of science fiction are purely imaginary, many authors and artists have preferred to use the names of real stars which are well known to astronomers, either through being notably bright in the sky as seen from Earth or being relatively near to Earth. Some of these stars appear to be unsuitable for planets with advanced life, assuming that Earth is t...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=6754695 ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Leigh Brackett Solar System is a fictional analogue to the real-world Solar System in which a majority of the planetary romances of Leigh Brackett take place. Although Brackett's stories do not form a series with a consistent chronology and causally-connected incidents, more than half of them are recognizably set in the same universe: a Solar System of the near future, with space travel and distinctive alien and human cultures on Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Asteroids, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The stories of the Brackett Universe are bound together by shared terminology, place-names, "facts" about biology and culture, and occasionally shared characters. For instance, Brackett's Mercury is a nightmare world of extremes, where powerful storms rack a narrow habitable twilight belt; her Venus is a place where the liha-trees grow in the swamps around embattled outworld cities; and Mars is a place where you can drink thil at Madame Kan's in Jekkara of the Low Canals, or wander among barbarian warriors in the northern Drylands of Kesh and Shun. Brackett's earlier works set in this universe frequently concern the struggle of settlers, from Earth or elsewhere in the solar system, against the harsh environments of their new worlds and against the hostility of the planets' native peoples. In later works, Brackett shows greater sympathy to the planetary aborigines, and the stories describe their conflict with well-intentioned but destructive individuals and bureaucracies. Brackett's stories in this universe were written over a period of twenty-four years, from 1940 to 1964 (with, however, only two stories in the last decade of this period). Her first two stories, set on Mars, are only tenuously related to the others; however, her third publ... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3843345 ... Read more

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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Star Wars Episode V: the Empire Strikes Back, Rio Bravo, the Big Sleep, the Long Goodbye, Rio Lobo, El Dorado, Hatari!, Gold of the Seven Saints. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. It was the second film released in the Star Wars saga, and the fifth in terms of internal chronology. The film is set three years after the destruction of the Death Star. The villainous Darth Vader and the elite forces of the Galactic Empire are in pursuit of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and the rest of the Rebel Alliance. While Vader chases Han and Leia across the galaxy, Luke studies the Force under Jedi Master Yoda. Vader uses Luke's friends to set a trap for him, leading to a fierce confrontation between the black-armored Sith and the young Jedi which ends with a shocking revelation. Following a difficult production, The Empire Strikes Back was released on May 21, 1980, and initially received mixed reviews from critics, although it has since grown in esteem, becoming one of the most popular chapters in the Star Wars saga and one of the most highly rated films in history. It earned more than US$538 million worldwide over the original run and several re-releases, making it the highest grossing film of 1980. When adjusted for inflation, it is the 12th highest grossing film of all time. Despite their victory over the Galactic Empire with the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire's forces have driven the Rebel Alliance into hiding, forcing the fleet to establish a hidden base on the remote ice planet Hoth. Darth Va...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=53964 ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: L. Ron Hubbard, Leigh Brackett, Karl May, Nigel Tranter, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Zane Grey, Louis L'amour, Cormac Mccarthy, Thomas C. Lea, Iii, Glendon Swarthout, Owen Wister, J. T. Edson, John D. Macdonald, Al Sarrantonio, Elmore Leonard, Elmer Kelton, Larry Mcmurtry, Thomas Piccirilli, Ernest Haycox, John H. Reese, Don Bendell, Marilyn Durham, Jack Lewis, Brett Halliday, Don Coldsmith, Fritz Steuben, Garland Roark, Michael Mcgarrity, David F. Case, Fred Grove, Lauran Paine, Donald Hamilton, List of Western Fiction Authors, Dorothy M. Johnson, Tom W. Blackburn, Frank Chester Robertson, Robert Flynn, Lee Hoffman, Max Brand, Henry Wilson Allen, Oscar J. Friend, John Myers Myers, Lewis B. Patten, Oakley Hall, John Edward Ames, Kai Starr, Ronald Kirkbride, Mel Hague, Loren D. Estleman, Diana Ossana, Robert J. Conley, Giles A. Lutz, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, William W. Johnstone, Gordon D. Shirreffs, Luke Short, Jack Schaefer, Richard Wormser, Will Cook, Andy Adams, William Colt Macdonald, B. M. Bower, Roger Margason, Peter Brandvold, Emerson Hough, Matt Braun, Frank O'rourke, Raymond S. Spears, Wiesław Wernic, T. V. Olsen, Frederick Manfred, Todhunter Ballard, Stanley Krueber, Frank H. Spearman, Chad Oliver, Wade Everett, Bob Cherry, Frank Gruber, Kjell Hallbing, Janice Woods Windle, William Robert Cox, Ralph Compton, John W. Cunningham, Terry C. Johnston, Jon Sharpe, Ralph Cotton, Terry W. Burns, Clair Huffaker, James J. Griffin, Gary Svee, Wayne D. Overholser, Leonard Frank Meares, Derek Rutherford, Milton Lott, J. Edward Leithead. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 January 24, 1986) was an American science fiction author who developed a self-help system called Dianetics, which was first published in 1950. Over t...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=17862 ... Read more

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This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Secret of Sinharat, People of the Talisman, the Long Tomorrow, the Starmen. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Secret of Sinharat is a science fiction novel by Leigh Brackett set on the planet Mars, whose protagonist is Eric John Stark. For the first seven chapters, Queen of the Martian Catacombs and The Secret of Sinharat are almost word-for-word identical; the differences are inconsequential to the plot. In Chapter 1, a brief paragraph is inserted to situate the reader in the Leigh Brackett Solar System and to excuse the presence of non-Terran humans on planets like Mars through the concept of a prehistoric "seeding" - not mentioned elsewhere in Brackett's novels. In Chapter 5, an explicit reference to the events of Brackett's story The Beast-Jewel of Mars (Planet Stories, Winter 1948) has been cut, perhaps on the assumption that readers of the novel would not know or be interested in the earlier story. The Arabic word khamsin is consistently replaced by "storm wind", perhaps on the grounds that readers might not be familiar with the word (or mistake it for a Martian technical term). From chapter 8 on the two versions diverge. The Sinharat expansion is very competently and intelligently written and very much in the mature Brackett style. The characters of Kynon and Fianna are given additional depth. Whereas in Catacombs Kynon was merely a villain and a tool of Delgaun and Berild, in Sinharat he is more intelligent and even tragic. Fianna's breaking of the crowns of the Ramas in Catacombs is a somewhat trite development; her awareness of her own weakness, and her thought for the future in Sinharat is both more tragic and more realistic, and this turn of events gives Stark's last look back at Sinharat an addit...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4206153 ... Read more

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Matt Harker and his people have journeyed for far too long. A rag-tag group of Earthmen and Venusians floating on the Sea of Morning Opals. Floating without a home and with very little hope. Victimized by hostile natives, burning fevers, bad soil, and bad luck. When land is sighted Harker makes the decision to scale the mountainous terrain in the dim hopes of finding a new home. With two companions they ascend to encounter unknown malevolent alien beings. Harker thought he'd be lucky if they found a habitable land, but now he thinks he will be lucky to just survive! ... Read more

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It is well known that Leigh Brackett has a group of stories that share a common setting, and that those are based on the planets of the Solar System primarily on Venusand Mars

However, there is much other SF included in 50+ short stories and ten novels, including the books with Eric John Stark on Skaith.

It appears that she did indeed intend them to share a common history and setting. ... Read more