No Man's Land In Space - Leigh Brackett

Novelette

Number of words : 9000
Percent of complex words : 7.5
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 10.4


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 7.2
Flesch : 73.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.6



SETTING

Sark

Outlaw asteroid used as a base by space pirates. Name means bitter in Martian.

No Man's Land

Barren Sark waste.

Ashi Geyser

Eruption in No Man's Land.


CHARACTERS

Geoffrey Dana

Outlaw leader and builder of Sark community.

Loren

A young Venusian pirate.

Daddy Gibbs

Aging pirate.

Faruk

Renegade Venusian scientist, creator of monsters.

Varno

Terro-Venusian halfbreed.

Thompson

Earthman found bloodless.

Neta

Disappeared Venusian.

Jordan Andrews

Chemical industrialist.


CONCEPTS

Earth-Venus War

Interplanetary military conflict.


ORGANISATIONS

Andrews Chemical Works

Sark industrial plant.


Interplanetary Control

Not fans of pirates.


Venusian High Command

Leaders of the war effort.


ANIMALS

Lunar ape

Result of Faruk's Moreauvian experiments.


WEAPONS

Needle gun

Weapon that can fire anaesthetic or poison darts.


PLOT

Earth and Venus are at war, and Mars is considering which way to jump. On Sark, an asteroid outlaw base this is causing tensions between pirates from the various planets. A problem for Dana, their leader. More so when a young aide Loren bolts after several of Dana's men have been killed by being drained of blood, or just disappearing.

Loren has discovered ahead of Dana that mad scientist Faruk of Venus has come to Sark, seeking to create a super weapon to win the war. This super weapon comes in the form of a hybrid monster, and Faruk wants to create more.

Dana, Loren and others on confrontation realise this is really a bad thing. The fight though causes the asteroid to start breaking up. The scientist is worth a lot of money, though, so Dana has to decide if he will actually make his first non self-centred act and kill him rather than save him. He can't live on any planet because of his crimes.


3.5 out of 5