Stark and the Star Kings - Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton

Novelette

Number of words : 11800
Percent of complex words : 8.3
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.4


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 7.9
Flesch : 75.6
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.5



PEOPLE

Eric John Stark

N'Chaka, Man-Without-a-Tribe.

Aarl

Lord of the Third Bend. The Lord of the Abyss. Martian wizard.

Shorr Khan

King of Aldeshar in the Marches.

Song Durr

A dodgy bloke on Aldeshar.

Flane Fell

King of Tranett.

Kan Martan

One of the Lords of the Marches.

Narin Har

Chief of the joint scientific mission against the new creature.

Jhal Arn

Ruler of the Mid-Galactic Empire.


PLACES

Great Rift Valley

On Mars.

Sinharat

Ancient Martian city.

Algol

A star.

Beteleguse

A star.

Marches of Outer Space

Holds a number of the smaller star-kingdoms.

Aldeshar

A star in the Marches.

Altoh

Throne world of Aldeshar.

Donalyr

Capital of Altoh.

Strior

A planet.

Naroten

A planet.

Dendrid's Veil

A dark nebula.

Tranett

A sun.

Maktoo

A sun.

The Twins of Keldar

Suns.

Ceidri

The farthest inhabited world known.

Vega

A star-system. Has a great computer.

Rigel

A star-system. Has a great computer.

Fomalhaut

A star-system. Has a great computer.

Deneb

A star-system.

Altair

A star-system.

Antares

A star-system.

Lyra

A star-system.

Cygnus

A star-system.

Cassiopeia

A star-system.

Lepus

A star-system.

Corvus

A star-system.

Orion

A star-system.

Kesh

Martian drylands area.

Shun

Martian drylands area.



RACES

Ramas

Nearly-immortal Martians with whom Stark had once done battle in the dead city of Sinharat.

Ceidrins

People of Ceidri. Small, dark and furry.

Creature

A new being. A giant space entity of enormous power.


ORGANISATIONS

Star Kings

Men who rule a future universe.

Lords of the Marches

Rulers of the Marches region of space.

Barons of Hercules

Rulers of the Hercules cluster.


TECHNOLOGY

Helix

Amplifies Aarl's mental powers.

FTL drive

Allows travel at greater than the speed of light.

Antimatter

Possible useful for destroying young giant godlike space entities.


CONCEPTS

Dendrid

The Goddess of Death.

Galactic Arbitrary Time

Used to co-ordinate across multiple planets.


VEHICLES

Hover-cars

Flying personal transport.

Phantom scout

A fast ship.


PLOT

Aarl summons Stark, who agrees. He tells him that he is needed to help stop a great menace, and build and alliance with Shorr Khan. Something that Stark is definitely good at.

So he ends up 200,000 years in the future thanks to Aarl. He bears witness to a huge new space entity that he feels is godlike, upon contact. However, it is a stellar scale menace in this nebula void, and the Star Kings agree to try and remove it.

Stark thinks it was wrong, but Aarl reminds him survival is the higher law, and man won, here.


3.5 out of 5

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