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| SFReader Forums > Book, Magazine, and eZine Publishers > Flashing Swords > Bracket on Sword and Planet | Forum Quick Jump
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jonesha
Forum Moderator
      
Date Joined Jun 2004
Total Posts : 655
| Posted 8/11/2005 6:41 AM (GMT -4) |   | Hello all,
As you may or may not know, the late Leigh Brackett is one of my favorite writers.
The second of two related birthday presents arrived in the mail yesterday. While at Pulpcon I ordered a copy of the Leigh Brackett/Ed Hamilton collection titled "Stark and the Star Kings" which includes
the never before printed story of Eric John Stark that Harlan Ellison
has been sitting on for close to thirty years. I look forward
to reading it when I'm all through with the Harold Lamb project.
Haffner Press sure puts out fabulous product (www.haffnerpress.com -- they also have a hardback, the first of a proposed three,
collecting all of Brackett's short fiction). It's a beautiful
hardback with a half dozen interior illustrations, and a wrap around
full-color cover. An intro by John Jakes which is interesting
but not especially revealing. On the inside back
cover is a picture of Brackett and Hamilton, the first I've
ever seen of either of them in younger days. Brackett looks in
her mid-thirties, possibly a little younger or older (the pic
is slightly blurry). Hamilton looks in his forties, which is
about right, since he was 11 years older than she. Anyway, it
is interesting to see Brackett when she was about my age. She
is tall, trim, smiling faintly, exudes easy confidence. Hands
tucked into slacks. Hamilton's clothes look dated to the time,
but Brackett somehow looks more modern and approachable (Hamilton was said to have been a great and very nice fellow). I'd sure
have liked to have sat down and talked to her of Martian heroes and
space opera and clashing swords.
The FIRST half of the present arrived much earlier, closer to
my birthday, and is part of the Millenium Press fantasy
series. There's one out now titled Sea Kings of Mars. I had to
order it from England, as for some reason the U.S. doesn't
carry this series. Yet more Brackett, and this with some
revealing words from the lady herself I thought might be of
interest.
Brackett is quoted as saying some things about Space Opera.
She is almost certain to have included her sword and planet stories
under the wider umbrella of space opera, and thus her words
might as well be read as "adventure fiction." Here's Brackett:
--------------
"Space opera, as every reader doubtless knows, is a
prejorative term often applied to a story that has an element
of adventure. Over the decades, brilliant and talented new
writers appear, receiving great acclaim, and each and every
one of them can be expected to write at least one article
stating flatly that the day of space opera is over and done,
thank goodness, and that henceforth these crude tales of
interplanetary nonsense will be replaced by whatever type of
story that writer happens to favour -- closet dramas,
psychological dramas, sex dramas, etc., but by God IMPORTANT
dramas, containing nothing but Big Thinks.
"Ten years later, the writer in question may or may not still
be around, but space opera can be found right where it always
was, sturdily driving its dark trade in heroes."
---------------
It really seemed to fit into a lot of the things we're saying here on the forum.
Best,
Howard
Managing Editor
www.swordandsorcery.org
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PaulMc
Adept
Date Joined May 2005
Total Posts : 990
| Posted 8/11/2005 6:50 AM (GMT -4) | | quote:
Originally posted by jonesha
"Ten years later, the writer in question may or may not still
be around, but space opera can be found right where it always
was, sturdily driving its dark trade in heroes."
Ooo, I like the sound of that! The Dark Trade
Sounds like a good anthology title!
Now that I've read "Lorelei of the Red Mist", I'm interested in finding more of Brackett's work.
Thanks for the quote!
-- Paul McNamee
http://writer.paulmcnamee.net
http://www.dorancoyle.net | | Back to Top | | |
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Daniel
Carl Jung's Waterboy
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 4515
| Posted 8/11/2005 6:51 AM (GMT -4) | | Great post, Howard.
Daniel
www.pitchblackbooks.com | | Back to Top | | |
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Red Viper
Acolyte
Date Joined Mar 2005
Total Posts : 439
| Posted 8/11/2005 9:50 AM (GMT -4) | | Howard: I recently read "Sword of Rhiannon" after reading some of your posts lauding her work. I picked it up at a used-book store, along with a collection of shorts entitled "The Best of Leigh Brackett." Brackett is one of those authors who always fell under my radar; I was familiar with the name, but I had never actually picked up her work and read it. Your posts prompted me to correct that error, and I have to say I love her work. "Rhiannon" was excellent, and the short stories I've read thus far are outstanding.
That's one of the joys of this forum -- informed opinion that prompts me to try authors I might otherwise miss out on. Thanks!
Red Viper, aka Steve Goble
Fantasy writer with stories appearing soon in "Flashing Swords" and "Amazing Journeys Magazine" | | Back to Top | | |
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jonesha
Forum Moderator
Date Joined Jun 2004
Total Posts : 655
| Posted 8/11/2005 10:18 AM (GMT -4) | | oooh--Best of Leigh Brackett has some great ones. Enchantress of Venus, right, as well as that one about Venus's lost moon... very haunting.
First two Stark books are good, but kind of Burroughsian with the plotting of frying pan to fire. Third was overkill. (All three still had enviable world building though, at which Brackett was a master--eh, mistress.) But the Stark short stories rock, and so does a lot of her output. I can hardly wait to get volumes 2 and 3 of her complete short fiction from Haffner, but both are still in the works.
If you dig her, by all means to go amazon UK and get yourself a copy of Sea Kings of Mars. And we should all give business to Steve Haffner over at www.haffnerpress.com -- what fabulous books he produces.
best,
Howard
Managing Editor
www.swordandsorcery.org
Flashing Swords E-Zine | | Back to Top | | |
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Bruce Durham
Crom's Administrator & Drinking Buddy
Date Joined Jan 2005
Total Posts : 609
| Posted 8/11/2005 2:10 PM (GMT -4) | | Talk of Leigh Brackett had me routing around my library again, coming up with The Ginger Star (great cover by Steranko). I haven't read that book since 1974. Time to dust it off. As an aside, LB was also an accomplished screenwriter. She collaborated with William Faulkner on The Big Sleep and wrote the remake of The Long Goodbye. Other credits included Rio Bravo and El Dorado.
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Admin: Community Forums for the Official Site of Conan the Barbarian
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FraserR
Neophyte
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 65
| Posted 8/11/2005 5:56 PM (GMT -4) | | And don't forget "Empire Strikes Back" with Lawrence Kasdan!
---
Fraser Ronald, Editor
"Sword's Edge" http://www.swordsedge.net/ | | Back to Top | | |
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erazmus
Master
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4475
| Posted 8/11/2005 7:36 PM (GMT -4) | | I picked up a pile of Early Brackett paperbacks while on my recent hunt. I don't recall the titles except TSoR. Mostly fifties or early sixties PB's in good shape. I am going to ration them.
Mike
Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Two Ravens" in Amazing Journeys Magazine coming Sept. 05 | | Back to Top | | |
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JMP
Stablehand
Date Joined Jun 2005
Total Posts : 21
| Posted 8/12/2005 11:30 AM (GMT -4) | | Brackett is a blast. Her worlds are almost always pure pulp legend, but they have a lot of legroom-- a reality you can't get from Hal Clement style diagrams and charts. As far as style goes, she wielded a pretty deft typewriter, but she's not one of these writers where a self-conscious style can obscure her meaning (as opposed to, say, Hodgson in _The Night Land_ or A. Merritt). And Eric John Stark has a more complicated identity than most heroes of heroic fantasy.
JMP
James M. Pfundstein | | Back to Top | | |
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