The Big Jump

The Big Jump by Leigh Brackett
Ace Books, 1967
Originally published in Space Stories, February 1953
Price I paid: $1.25

“A good story, with a very good characterization and flashes of an almost Merritteque poetry…
“The story concerns itself with THE BIG JUMP from this system to another sun—Barnard’s Star. The first expedition returned: one man alive, the others missing, and that one man dying of some ghastly sort of radiation sickness.
“Comyn, tough space-bum, sets out to find what happened to Paul Rogers, close friend of his…eventually making the second Big Jump himself. What he finds at the end is not only a brilliant science fiction gimmick, but good, solid writing.”
—Inside

Continue reading →

The Sword of Rhiannon

The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett
Ace Books, 1953
Price I paid: $1.50

MARS—a million years ago…

MARS—Planet of science-lords and man-monsters…

MARS—world of mystery and marvels…

Into this lost world plunged Matt Carse, explorer of interplanetary ruins, to find himself inhabiting the body of a mythical “god” and slated to fight that immortal’s battles all over again—this time with the knowledge of Earth’s unborn future as his sole scientific secret.

Leigh Brackett’s THE SWORD OF RHIANNON is an epic of interplanetary adventure by a writer comparable only to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Continue reading “The Sword of Rhiannon” →

The Ginger Star

The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett
Ballantine Books, 1974
Price I paid: 90¢

WHERE WAS SIMON ASHTON?

Ashton had disappeared somewhere—somehow—on Skaith, and Stark had come to find him, no matter what the cost. Everyone on this exotic planet had heard of the strange Dark Man from another world, but no one was talking. Not the Farers. Not the Wandsmen. Not even the Irnanese. All clues led to the mysterious North—stronghold of the tyrannical Lords Protector. Stark was on his way, despite the price on his head…

Continue reading “The Ginger Star” →

The Starmen of Llyrdis

The Starmen of Llyrdis by Leigh Brackett
Ballantine Books, 1952
Price I paid: 50¢

Michael Trehearne had always been an outcast among his people on Earth. He knew he was different…but he did not know how or why.

Then one day, on the wind-swept coast of Brittany, a bewitchingly beautiful girl appeared and told him he had the look of the Vardda—those elite star travelers who alone could withstand the rigors of intergalactic flight.

Michael had to join them…had to find his place in the universe at last. But it would not be easy. For even when they allowed him to risk his life aboard their ship, to seal his fate upon their planet…even then, they viewed him as an outcast, a dangerous changeling who suddenly threatened them.

He was a man who sooner or later would have to be destroyed!

Continue reading “The Starmen of Llyrdis” →