Shannach the Last - Leigh Brackett

Novella

Number of words : 20000
Percent of complex words : 5.5
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 12.10


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 7.0
Flesch : 78.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.3


SETTING

Caves

In Mercury's Twilight Belt.

Solar City

On Mercury.


CHARACTERS

Trevor

Downed on Mercury.

Jen

Escaped slave.

Galt

Korin hunt leader.

Hugh

Taken escaped slave.

Saul

Slave man.

Shannach

An alien, last of his group. A silicon based lifeform and as such very long-lived.


TECHNOLOGY

Sun-stone

Used in electronics, and for the Korins to control the hawk-lizards. Very valuable.


ANIMALS

Hawk-lizard

Jet black except for a saffron belly.

Crested beasts

"The beasts they rode were taller and slighter than horses. They were not hoofed, but clawed. They had narrow, vicious-looking heads with spiny crests that stood up erect and arrogant."


ORGANISATIONS

Korins

The Lords of Korith, descended from convicts.


PLOT

A man downed on Mercury stumbles into an air-filled pocket of habitability on Mercury, where he finds hawk-lizards flying and hunting a woman. He goes to her aid and finds she is an escaped slave, from the Korins.

The Korins in turn are controlled by an alien, Shannach - and he has used the sunstones to help the Korins control the animals and rule the slaves for him.

The slaves resist, but Trevor is captured and made to work on the shat that brought the humans here. Trevor fights, and finds a way to get outside help for himself and the rest.


3.5 out of 5