A Saturday Post

The weekend is here. Jo is dozing in the family room and watching old Lewis's. Clyde and I are in the den; he's also sleeping while I write this quick post. No big plans this weekend although we will need to make Jo an appointment as she broke a tooth yesterday. Luckily no pain. 🤞. It's FA Cup weekend games today. Brighton is winning their game; 4-0 last time I checked. Yay!

Nothing new to report on the reading front. I made progress on A Darker Domain, the second Karen Pirie mystery by Val McDermid this morning. And no new books, even though I did drop into Books 4 Brains yesterday, but just looked around. Such will power!

So today, I'll continue with my ongoing look at women authors whose works I've been enjoying. I finalized my list of addendums yesterday.

Women Authors Whose Work I've Been Enjoying - Leigh Brackett

Leigh Brackett

Leigh Douglass Brackett was born in California in 1915 and lived until 1978. According to Wikipedia, she was one of the pre-eminent women Sci Fi authors during the 'Golden Age of Science Fiction'. She was also a screen writer, working primarily on westerns and mysteries. An interesting tidbit for you; weeks before her death, she turned in the 1st screenplay of The Empire Strikes Back and the film was posthumously dedicated to her. She was also married to fellow Sci Fi author I've enjoyed, Edmond Hamilton. They died within a year of each other. I've enjoyed 4 of her novels thus far, 3 Sci Fi and one mystery. I'll look at the 3 I enjoyed the most to give you a flavor for her writing style.

1. The Sword of Rhiannon (1953).

"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 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)"

2. The Tiger Among Us (also published as 13 West Street) (1957).

"The Tiger Among Us by American author Leigh Brackett. From what I've read she was best known as the 'Queen of the Space Opera' but was also a script writer; The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, and she also wrote crime fiction, The Tiger Among Us being one such. It was also turned into a movie, 13 West Street.

Walter Sherris is a middle-aged accountant, a family man with two young children and a lovely wife. He is working late at his company one night finalizing financial statements and decides to take a break and go for a walk and get a coffee down the road. While walking down a dark alley, he is accosted by 5 young men and viciously assaulted. He ends up with a broken leg and is in a coma for nine days. His wife indicates she has received a threatening letter from the attackers and leaves town with the children, heading to relatives in Boston.

When Walter wakes up he finds the police have little to nothing to go on. There have been attacks in recent days of alcoholic derelicts (the attack on Walter seems to have been a mistake, as the 'boys' thought he was such a derelict). So Walter begins his own investigation.

Thus begins a tense, thrilling story as Walter tries to find clues to give to the police, in the person of Detective Koleski, who is frustrated in his own investigation and trying to keep Walter out of the whole thing. It's a fascinating, dark noir thriller as Walter investigates the attack, tries to find motives for the attack and analyses his own actions. What is he looking for; revenge, justification, trying to get his own life back in order? It's a well-written story. The characters are well-drawn, even minor ones like Noddy, the bartender who assists Walter and the story moves along nicely and with increasing tension and excitement. It's also a very thoughtful story, the characters are three-dimensional and there is an attempt at insight for everyone's actions. I will continue to explore 

Brackett's writing as I have some of her Sci-Fi on my bookshelves now (4.5 stars)"

3. The Big Jump (1955).

"The Big Jump by Leigh Brackett was a surprisingly good Sci Fi story, short but very well-written and interesting. I've read three other of Brackett's books; an excellent crime thriller, The Tiger Among Us and two other Sci Fi novels which were mostly just entertaining; The Sword of Rhiannon and The Nemesis from Terra.

The Big Jump refers to a new space technology that permits mankind to move to the other galaxies with no time lapse. It's all done in real time. One voyage has been attempted with a crew of five. The story starts with the return of this voyage and a break in at the compound on Mars where the 'survivors are being kept. Arch Comyn needs to find out if an old friend, Paul Rogers, returned from the expedition. Rogers saved him many years ago.

What Comyn finds is disturbing and will start a chain of events that leads to a 2nd voyage to Barnard's star. Only one of the crew has returned, Ballantyne, and he has been changed by whatever he discovered. He has not spoken to the people holding him; all belonging to the Cochrane Company. But when Comyn breaks in, Ballantyne tells him something and begins screaming.

Comyn won't tell Cochrane what he has heard unless they will let him go on the next trip to Barnard's star so he can try to find his friend. The Cochranes believe a new energy has been discovered. So there you go, another voyage is planned and sets off and something is discovered.

It's a short, well-crafted, taut Sci-Fi adventure. The characters are all interesting. The plot is neat and not too technical. Everything happens quickly, holds your attention and draws you in. A most enjoyable Sci Fi story. (4.0 stars)"

You can find her complete catalogue listed at this link. Enjoy your weekend.