Novel
Number of words : 60000
Percent of complex words : 6.9
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 12.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.8
Flesch : 75.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.9
PEOPLE
Eric John Stark
N'Chaka, wild man of Mercury. The Dark Man of prophecy.
Simon Ashton
Stark's mentor and father figure. Reunited after finding him on Skaith, and now Stark's counsel.
Gelmar
Chief Wandsman of Skeg.
Baya
A Farer woman working for Gelmar. Hates Stark deeply.
Gerrith
Wise woman of Irnan, and prophet.
Yarrod
An Irnanese leader and martyr. Now a rallying cry for his people in battle.
Breca
Halk's shieldmate, slain in battle.
Halk
An apostate Wandsman, now with Yarrow, a warrior. Breca's shieldmate.
Mordach
Chief Wandsman of Irnan.
Kazimni
An Irnan military leader.
Hargoth
Priest-king of the Towers. The Corn King.
Kell a Marg
A leader of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. The Skaith-Daughter.
Gerd
The leader of the Northhounds with Stark.
Ferdias
One of the Lords Protector.
Klatlekt
Hairless, horny, four-armed and tentacled doorkeeper of the Fallarin.
Alderyk
King of the Fallarin.
Houndmaster
Keeper of the Northhounds at Yurunna.
Grith
One of Stark's Northhounds.
Tuchvar
From Tregad, an apprentice houndmaster.
Pedrallon
A red Wandsman Coordinator, disgraced for being pro-migration. In captivity and despair.
Sabak
Ildann's son.
Delvor
Warlord of Tregad.
Sanghalain
Ruler of Iubar, in the White South.
Morn
Comrade of Sanghalain, has the mind-touch.
Jal Bartha
A Wandsman.
Llandric
A Wandsman of Pedrallon's.
Penkawr-Che
A raider ship captain. An Antarean.
Gorrel
One of the Lords Protector. Dying.
Norverann
Priestess of the Nithi.
Cethlin
The Bridegroom.
Ceidrin
Cethlin's brother.
Ironmaster
Thyran warleader.
Vaybars
Fallarin friend of Alderyk.
Delbane
Oldest of the Kings of the White Islands.
Aud
Youngest of the Kings of the White Islands.
Wendor
An Irnan man.
PLACES
Pax
The chief habitable planet of Vega.
Skaith
A newly discovered world in the Orion Spur, with a dying sun.
Skeg
The spaceport on Skaith.
Fertile Belt
Most of the Skaith population live past here.
The Barrens
Area of Skaith interior.
Worldheart
Where lies the Citadel of the Lords Protector.
Irnan
A city-state of Skaith in the temperate zone.
Izvand
A city in the Barrens.
Bleak Mountains
A large range.
Witchfires
Mountain range near Thyra.
House of the Mother
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother dwelling.
The Citadel
Dwelling of the Lords Protector. Now a smoking ruin.
Yurunna
A strong city. Where the Yur are bred, and other mutations.
Ged Darod
City of the Wandsmen.
The Place of Winds
Where the Fallarin live.
Tregad
A city-state, east of Irnan and north of Ged Darod.
Iubar
A City-state.
Sol One
Mercury.
Andapell
Pedrallon's city.
Plain of Worldheart
Where Penkawr-Che held Stark captive.
Leaning Man
A rock formation.
Thermal Pits
Near the Witchfires.
House of Winter
Nithi ritual dwelling.
Thyra
Skaith city-state.
Cereleng
Chief seaport and capital of Andapell.
Hall of Joyful Rest
Inside the Children of Skaith's House.
Sea of Skorva
Where the Izvand live. Froze early.
Palace of the Twelve
Seat of authority in Ged Darod.
Shallafonh
City of the Ssussminh.
Holy Isle
Of the White Islanders, a giant iceberg.
Sun Temple
In Ged Darod.
Temple of the Dark Goddess
In Ged Darod.
Hercules Cluster
Site of a ship battle between the Union and Penkawr-Che's raiders.
CONCEPTS
Galactic Union
A democratic federation of star-worlds flung across half the Milky Way.
Three Ladies
A constellation viewed from Skaith.
Strayer
A god with a hammer.
Flying Dutchman
A mythical ghost ship.
Second Wandering
Current upheaval on Skaith.
The Trinity
My lady Cold and her lord Darkness, and their daughter Hunger.
Universal
Galactic common language.
ORGANISATIONS
Ministry of Planetary Affairs
Simon Ashton's employer on Pax.
Galactic Center
Based at Pax.
Lords Protector
Skaith Rulers. Heads of the Wandsmen.
Wild Bands
Groups of bandits.
Diviners
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother priests.
Lesser Hearths of the Seven Hearths of Kheb
A suffering group of lesser tribes.
Guild of Masons
Children of Skaith builders.
Four Kings
Rulers of the White Islands.
RACES
Harsenyi
Nomads.
Farers
Wanderers and hedonists.
Children of the Sea-Our-Mother
Ocean dwellers that find people tasty. A genetic hybrid experiment that is reverting.
Little Sisters of the Sun
Desert altered humans.
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother
White furred people, genetically modified.
Wandsmen
The ruling class of Skaith.
Irnan
One of the migrating peoples. Have applied to emigrate off the dying planet via the Galactic Union.
The Ochar
A once powerful tribe. The First-Come.
The Fallarin
A winged people created through mutation. Flightless, but psychokinetic.
Hann
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Marag
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Kref
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Thuran
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Qard
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Thorn
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
The Nithi
A tribe of goddess worshippers.
People of the Towers
Hargoth's sorcerer-priests.
Ssussminh
Morn's telepathic people.
People of the White Islands
Desperate and very martial tribe.
ANIMALS
Northhounds
Large intelligent telepathic canines.
Tarf
Servants of the Fallarin.
TECHNOLOGY
Water of Vision
An Irnan tool of foresight.
Tlun
A mind-expanding drug.
Robe and the Crown
Destroyed Irnan tool of Gerrith's.
The finger-bones of the Spring Child
People of the Towers divination device.
MEDIA
Hymn of Life
Song of the Little Sisters of the Sun.
Hymn of Deliverance
Song of the People of the Towers.
VEHICLES
Planet hopper
Small transport craft from a spaceship used for in-atmosphere travel.
Arkeshti
Penkawr-Che's ship.
The book starts with a betrayal, that of the raider Penkawr-Che's. Rather than ferry Ashton to the Galactic Union, he has sold him and Stark both into captivity. So yet again Stark has to try and escape and build alliances that can hold together the cities he has taken for the rebels and others.
This time, as the title suggests, he leads his band of followers by sea, to Pedrallon's home and the white islands.
Meanwhile, all is converging on Ged Daron as the planet cools, and crops fail.
Gerrith's final sacrifice gives a boost to the pro-migration force when they need it, and Stark still commands the Northhounds left alive. He has to take the city of the Wandsmen fast, before all the technology that can communicate with the starships leaving the spaceport is destroyed, leaving them all doomed.
4 out of 5
Showing posts with label z novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label z novel. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The Hounds of Skaith - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 60000
Percent of complex words : 6.7
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.4
Flesch : 77.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.3
PEOPLE
Eric John Stark
N'Chaka, wild man of Mercury. The Dark Man of prophecy.
Simon Ashton
Stark's mentor and father figure. Reunited after finding him on Skaith.
Gelmar
Chief Wandsman of Skeg.
Baya
A Farer woman working for Gelmar.
Gerrith
Wise woman of Irnan, and prophet.
Yarrod
An Irnanese leader and martyr.
Breca
Halk's shieldmate, slain in battle.
Halk
An apostate Wandsman, now with Yarrow, a warrior. Breca's shieldmate.
Mordach
Chief Wandsman of Irnan.
Jerann
Irnan Council chief.
Kazimni
An Irnan military leader.
Amnir
A Komrey trader, that died in conflict with Stark.
Hargoth
Priest-king of the Towers.
Vasth
A Wandsman.
Kell a Marg
A leader of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. The Skaith-Daughter.
Fenn
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. A courtier.
Ferdic
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. A courtier.
Flay
The old Northhound king-dog.
Gerd
The leader of the Northhounds with Stark.
Ferdias
One of the Lords Protector.
Yetko
An Harsenyi.
Ekmal
An Ochar chief.
Jofr
Ekmal's son.
Ildann
Hearth-Keeper of the Hann.
Romek
Keeper of the Hearth of Ochar.
Klatlekt
Hairless, horny, four-armed and tentacled doorkeeper of the Fallarin.
Alderyk
King of the Fallarin.
Houndmaster
Keeper of the Northhounds at Yurunna.
Mika
The Houndmaster's favorite bitch.
Grith
One of Stark's Northhounds.
Tuchvar
From Tregad, an apprentice houndmaster.
Varik
A Farer boy.
Pedrallon
A red Wandsman Coordinator, disgraced for being pro-migration.
Sabak
Ildann's son.
Clain
A red Wandsman.
Delvor
Warlord of Tregad.
Welnic
Red Wandsman of Tregad.
Sanghalain
Ruler of Iubar, in the White South.
Morn
Comrade of Sanghalain, has the mind-touch.
Jal Bartha
A Wandsman.
Llandric
A Wandsman of Pedrallon's.
Penkawr-Che
A ship captain.
PLACES
Pax
The chief habitable planet of Vega.
Pax
The major city of the chief habitable planet of Vega.
Twilight Belt
Habitable zone on Mercury.
Skaith
A newly discovered world in the Orion Spur.
Skeg
The spaceport on Skaith.
Fertile Belt
Most of the Skaith population live past here.
The Barrens
Area of Skaith interior.
Worldheart
Where lies the Citadel of the Lords Protector.
Irnan
A city-state of Skaith in the temperate zone.
Izvand
A city in the Barrens.
Komrey
City-state of Skaith.
Bleak Mountains
A large range.
Witchfires
Mountain range near Thyra.
House of the Mother
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother dwelling.
The Citadel
Dwelling of the Lords Protector. Now a smoking ruin.
Yurunna
A strong city. Where the Yur are bred, and other mutations.
Orion Spur
Largely unexplored area of the galaxy.
Ged Darod
City of the Wandsmen.
Hearth of Hann
Where the Hann live.
Ennaker
Skaith name for a Star also called Fregor by those that live on its third world, and Chunt.
The Place of Winds
Where the Fallarin live.
Tears of Lek
A lake.
Tregad
A city-state, east of Irnan and north of Ged Darod.
Greath Sea of Skaith
An ocean to the south.
Iubar
A City-state.
CONCEPTS
Galactic Union
A democratic federation of star-worlds flung across half the Milky Way.
Three Ladies
A constellation viewed from Skaith.
Great Migrations
People moving because of the changing conditions on Skaith.
Dark Goddess
Deity worshipped by the Outdwellers.
Great Wandering
When more of Skaith was nomadic.
Strayer
A god with a hammer.
Skaith-Mother, Sea-Mother, Sky-Father
Skaith deities.
ORGANISATIONS
Ministry of Planetary Affairs
Simon Ashton's employer on Pax.
Mercury Metals and Mining
Stark's parents worked here when they were killed.
Galactic Center
Based at Pax.
Lords Protector
Skaith Rulers. Heads of the Wandsmen.
Wild Bands
Groups of bandits.
Diviners
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother priests.
Earth Police Control
Ashton's old employer when he found Stark as a boy.
Lesser Hearths of the Seven Hearths of Kheb
A suffering group of lesser tribes.
RACES
Harsenyi
Nomads.
Farers
Wanderers and hedonists.
Children of the Sea-Our-Mother
Ocean dwellers that find people tasty. A genetic hybrid experiment that is reverting.
Little Sisters of the Sun
Desert altered humans.
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother
White furred people, genetically modified.
Wandsmen
The ruling class of Skaith.
Irnan
One of the migrating peoples. Have applied to emigrate off the dying planet via the Galactic Union.
The Ochar
A powerful tribe. The First-Come.
Yur
The Well-Created. Strangely modified beings.
The Fallarin
A winged people created through mutation. Flightless, but psychokinetic.
Hann
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Marag
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Kref
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Thuran
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Qard
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Thorn
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
ANIMALS
Northhounds
Large intelligent telepathic canines.
Runners
Monsters that prey on people in the desert storms, very strong.
Swiftwing
Sky-piercer. Wind-rider. Lightning-brother. A bird of war.
Tarf
Servants of the Fallarin.
TECHNOLOGY
Water of Vision
An Irnan tool of foresight.
MEDIA
Hymn of Life
Song of the Little Sisters of the Sun.
VEHICLES
Planet hopper
Small transport craft from a spaceship used for in atmosphere travel.
Arkeshti
Penkawr-Che's ship.
The second part of the Skaith trilogy follow directly from the first. Stark has turned the Citadel of the Lords Protector into a flaming ruin, and now leads a pack of Northounds - the most powerful creatures on the planet. With Ashton at this side this allows him to attempt to put together more forces and alliances that can oppose the Wandsmen and their feudal grasp on power.
He travels to other places than in the first, to the tribes of the Lesser Hearths, and the Fallarin, and uses some lateral thrinking to help the former take down the Ochar, who work for the Wandsmen.
With new allies, he also has to break the hold the centre for mutation Yurunna has.
Finally, he needs to get Ashton off planet, with some envoys, to try and get some high tech aide via politics, in case things turn ugly back on Skaith, where he has decided to stay.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 60000
Percent of complex words : 6.7
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.4
Flesch : 77.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.3
PEOPLE
Eric John Stark
N'Chaka, wild man of Mercury. The Dark Man of prophecy.
Simon Ashton
Stark's mentor and father figure. Reunited after finding him on Skaith.
Gelmar
Chief Wandsman of Skeg.
Baya
A Farer woman working for Gelmar.
Gerrith
Wise woman of Irnan, and prophet.
Yarrod
An Irnanese leader and martyr.
Breca
Halk's shieldmate, slain in battle.
Halk
An apostate Wandsman, now with Yarrow, a warrior. Breca's shieldmate.
Mordach
Chief Wandsman of Irnan.
Jerann
Irnan Council chief.
Kazimni
An Irnan military leader.
Amnir
A Komrey trader, that died in conflict with Stark.
Hargoth
Priest-king of the Towers.
Vasth
A Wandsman.
Kell a Marg
A leader of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. The Skaith-Daughter.
Fenn
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. A courtier.
Ferdic
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. A courtier.
Flay
The old Northhound king-dog.
Gerd
The leader of the Northhounds with Stark.
Ferdias
One of the Lords Protector.
Yetko
An Harsenyi.
Ekmal
An Ochar chief.
Jofr
Ekmal's son.
Ildann
Hearth-Keeper of the Hann.
Romek
Keeper of the Hearth of Ochar.
Klatlekt
Hairless, horny, four-armed and tentacled doorkeeper of the Fallarin.
Alderyk
King of the Fallarin.
Houndmaster
Keeper of the Northhounds at Yurunna.
Mika
The Houndmaster's favorite bitch.
Grith
One of Stark's Northhounds.
Tuchvar
From Tregad, an apprentice houndmaster.
Varik
A Farer boy.
Pedrallon
A red Wandsman Coordinator, disgraced for being pro-migration.
Sabak
Ildann's son.
Clain
A red Wandsman.
Delvor
Warlord of Tregad.
Welnic
Red Wandsman of Tregad.
Sanghalain
Ruler of Iubar, in the White South.
Morn
Comrade of Sanghalain, has the mind-touch.
Jal Bartha
A Wandsman.
Llandric
A Wandsman of Pedrallon's.
Penkawr-Che
A ship captain.
PLACES
Pax
The chief habitable planet of Vega.
Pax
The major city of the chief habitable planet of Vega.
Twilight Belt
Habitable zone on Mercury.
Skaith
A newly discovered world in the Orion Spur.
Skeg
The spaceport on Skaith.
Fertile Belt
Most of the Skaith population live past here.
The Barrens
Area of Skaith interior.
Worldheart
Where lies the Citadel of the Lords Protector.
Irnan
A city-state of Skaith in the temperate zone.
Izvand
A city in the Barrens.
Komrey
City-state of Skaith.
Bleak Mountains
A large range.
Witchfires
Mountain range near Thyra.
House of the Mother
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother dwelling.
The Citadel
Dwelling of the Lords Protector. Now a smoking ruin.
Yurunna
A strong city. Where the Yur are bred, and other mutations.
Orion Spur
Largely unexplored area of the galaxy.
Ged Darod
City of the Wandsmen.
Hearth of Hann
Where the Hann live.
Ennaker
Skaith name for a Star also called Fregor by those that live on its third world, and Chunt.
The Place of Winds
Where the Fallarin live.
Tears of Lek
A lake.
Tregad
A city-state, east of Irnan and north of Ged Darod.
Greath Sea of Skaith
An ocean to the south.
Iubar
A City-state.
CONCEPTS
Galactic Union
A democratic federation of star-worlds flung across half the Milky Way.
Three Ladies
A constellation viewed from Skaith.
Great Migrations
People moving because of the changing conditions on Skaith.
Dark Goddess
Deity worshipped by the Outdwellers.
Great Wandering
When more of Skaith was nomadic.
Strayer
A god with a hammer.
Skaith-Mother, Sea-Mother, Sky-Father
Skaith deities.
ORGANISATIONS
Ministry of Planetary Affairs
Simon Ashton's employer on Pax.
Mercury Metals and Mining
Stark's parents worked here when they were killed.
Galactic Center
Based at Pax.
Lords Protector
Skaith Rulers. Heads of the Wandsmen.
Wild Bands
Groups of bandits.
Diviners
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother priests.
Earth Police Control
Ashton's old employer when he found Stark as a boy.
Lesser Hearths of the Seven Hearths of Kheb
A suffering group of lesser tribes.
RACES
Harsenyi
Nomads.
Farers
Wanderers and hedonists.
Children of the Sea-Our-Mother
Ocean dwellers that find people tasty. A genetic hybrid experiment that is reverting.
Little Sisters of the Sun
Desert altered humans.
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother
White furred people, genetically modified.
Wandsmen
The ruling class of Skaith.
Irnan
One of the migrating peoples. Have applied to emigrate off the dying planet via the Galactic Union.
The Ochar
A powerful tribe. The First-Come.
Yur
The Well-Created. Strangely modified beings.
The Fallarin
A winged people created through mutation. Flightless, but psychokinetic.
Hann
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Marag
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Kref
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Thuran
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Qard
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
Thorn
A Lesser Hearth tribe.
ANIMALS
Northhounds
Large intelligent telepathic canines.
Runners
Monsters that prey on people in the desert storms, very strong.
Swiftwing
Sky-piercer. Wind-rider. Lightning-brother. A bird of war.
Tarf
Servants of the Fallarin.
TECHNOLOGY
Water of Vision
An Irnan tool of foresight.
MEDIA
Hymn of Life
Song of the Little Sisters of the Sun.
VEHICLES
Planet hopper
Small transport craft from a spaceship used for in atmosphere travel.
Arkeshti
Penkawr-Che's ship.
The second part of the Skaith trilogy follow directly from the first. Stark has turned the Citadel of the Lords Protector into a flaming ruin, and now leads a pack of Northounds - the most powerful creatures on the planet. With Ashton at this side this allows him to attempt to put together more forces and alliances that can oppose the Wandsmen and their feudal grasp on power.
He travels to other places than in the first, to the tribes of the Lesser Hearths, and the Fallarin, and uses some lateral thrinking to help the former take down the Ochar, who work for the Wandsmen.
With new allies, he also has to break the hold the centre for mutation Yurunna has.
Finally, he needs to get Ashton off planet, with some envoys, to try and get some high tech aide via politics, in case things turn ugly back on Skaith, where he has decided to stay.
4.5 out of 5
The Ginger Star - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 55000
Percent of complex words : 6.7
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.1
Flesch : 77.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
PEOPLE
Eric John Stark
N'Chaka, wild man of Mercury. The Dark Man of prophecy.
Simon Ashton
Stark's mentor and father figure. Missing in the field.
Gelmar
Chief Wandsman of Skeg.
Baya
A Farer woman working for Gelmar.
Gerrith
Wise woman of Irnan, and prophet. The Sun Woman.
Yarrod
An Irnanese leader who helps Stark.
Breca
A warrior in Yarrow's fake Pod. Halk's shieldmate.
Halk
An apostate Wandsman, now with Yarrow, a warrior. Breca's shieldmate.
Mordach
Chief Wandsman of Irnan.
Jerann
Irnan Council chief.
Kazimni
An Irnan military leader.
Old One
Elder of Stark's boyhood tribe on Mercury.
Atril
One of Yarrow's men. Wake's brother.
Wake
One of Yarrow's men. Atril's brother.
Amnir
A Komrey trader.
Hargoth
Priest-king of the Towers.
Kintoth
Towers fighting captain.
Slee
An Outdweller woman.
Slaifed
An Outdweller guide.
Ironmaster
Leader in the Iron House.
Vasth
A Wandsman.
Kell a Marg
A leader of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. The Skaith-Daughter.
Fenn
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother.
Ferdic
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother.
Flay
The old head Northhound.
Gerd
A young Northhound.
Ferdias
One of the Lords Protector.
PLACES
Pax
The chief habitable planet of Vega.
Pax
The major city of the chief habitable planet of Vega.
Twilight Belt
Habitable zone on Mercury.
Skaith
A newly discovered world in the Orion Spur.
Skeg
The spaceport on Skaith.
Fertile Belt
Most of the Skaith population live past here.
The Barrens
Area of Skaith.
Worldheart
Where lies the Citadel of the Lords Protector.
Irnan
A city-state of Skaith in the temperate zone.
Izvand
A city in the Barrens.
Lamp of the North
Moon of Skaith.
Komrey
City-state of Skaith.
Thyra
A Skaith city near the Witchfires.
Bleak Mountains
A large range.
Witchfires
Mountain range near Thyra.
Iron House
Thyran dwelling of authority.
House of the Mother
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother dwelling.
Tlavia
Queen City of the High North before the Wandering.
Plain of Worldheart
Where the Northhounds prowl.
CONCEPTS
Galactic Union
A democratic federation of star-worlds flung across half the Milky Way.
Galactic Arbitrary Time
A standard reference for use on multiple planets.
Three Ladies
A constellation viewed from Skaith.
Great Migrations
People moving because of the changing conditions on Skaith.
Pod
A collection of people so thoroughly sensitized by a species of group therapy that they no longer existed as individuals but only as interdependent parts of a
single organism.
Total Fulfillment
Endgame desire of Pods.
Pod-Master
Trainer of Pods.
Darkness, and his lady Cold, and their daughter Hunger
Tower deities.
Winter Dreaming
Towers ritual.
Dark Goddess
Deity worshipped by the Outdwellers.
Great Wandering
When more of Skaith was nomadic.
ORGANISATIONS
Ministry of Planetary Affairs
Simon Ashton's employer on Pax.
Mercury Metals and Mining
Stark's parents worked here when they were killed.
Galactic Center
Based at Pax.
Lords Protector
Skaith Rulers.
Wild Bands
Groups of bandits.
Diviners
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother priests.
Earth Police Control
Ashton's old employer when he found Stark as a boy.
RACES
Harsenyi
Nomads.
Outdwellers
Iron-clawed beastly band near Thyra.
People of the Towers
The Thyrans say they're great magicians. The Gray Maggots.
Farers
Wanderers and hedonists.
Children of the Sea-Our-Mother
Ocean dwellers that find people tasty. A genetic hybrid experiment that is reverting.
Little Sisters of the Sun
Desert altered humans.
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother
White furred people, genetically modified.
Wandsmen
The ruling class of Skaith.
People of the Barrens
Those who live in the interior.
Irnan
One of the migrating peoples. Have applied to emigrate off the dying planet via the Galactic Union.
ANIMALS
Rock-lizard
Large reptile.
Northhounds
Large intelligent telepathic canines.
Snow-dragon
Really large winged reptile.
PLANTS
Love-weed
A plant used as an euphoric drug.
TECHNOLOGY
The Robe and Crown of Fate
Worn by Gerrith, a veil and diadem.
Water of Vision
An Irnan tool of foresight.
Holy Breath of the Goddess
Freezing death weapon.
The Eye of the Mother
A large crystal and telepathic device.
FOOD
Khamm
An Irnan booze, like sweet white lightning.
MEDIA
The Long Wandering, The Destruction of the Red Hunters, The Coming of Strayer
Thyran ballads.
The Hymn of Deliverance
Ritual song of the Towers.
Eric John Stark discovers that his mentor Simon Ashton has gone missing while ona field assignment for his his employers in the Galactic Union.
His investigations take him to the newly discovered and primitive planet Skaith, an exotic place currently rife with conflict, because the sun is dying, making life harder and harder all the time.
Here, a minority class in the Wandsmen rule the rest of the planet, but rebellion is in the offing, as people in the inner areas want to migrate and take the past offer of being shipped off a planet that is no longer livable. Conservative feudal rulers dont like their labor base just leaving, of course.
Further, there is a prophecy that matches Stark's arrival, that of the Dark Man. This religious symbolism is an aid to the cause and morale of the rebels. The hereditary prophetess Gerrith becomes an ally through all the treachery and betrayal and violence, including parts of the the civil war, that Stark has to endure to find his mentor at the Citadel of the Lords Protector, on the plain of Worldheart where the telepathic Northhounds roam.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 55000
Percent of complex words : 6.7
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.1
Flesch : 77.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
PEOPLE
Eric John Stark
N'Chaka, wild man of Mercury. The Dark Man of prophecy.
Simon Ashton
Stark's mentor and father figure. Missing in the field.
Gelmar
Chief Wandsman of Skeg.
Baya
A Farer woman working for Gelmar.
Gerrith
Wise woman of Irnan, and prophet. The Sun Woman.
Yarrod
An Irnanese leader who helps Stark.
Breca
A warrior in Yarrow's fake Pod. Halk's shieldmate.
Halk
An apostate Wandsman, now with Yarrow, a warrior. Breca's shieldmate.
Mordach
Chief Wandsman of Irnan.
Jerann
Irnan Council chief.
Kazimni
An Irnan military leader.
Old One
Elder of Stark's boyhood tribe on Mercury.
Atril
One of Yarrow's men. Wake's brother.
Wake
One of Yarrow's men. Atril's brother.
Amnir
A Komrey trader.
Hargoth
Priest-king of the Towers.
Kintoth
Towers fighting captain.
Slee
An Outdweller woman.
Slaifed
An Outdweller guide.
Ironmaster
Leader in the Iron House.
Vasth
A Wandsman.
Kell a Marg
A leader of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother. The Skaith-Daughter.
Fenn
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother.
Ferdic
One of the Children of Skaith-Our-Mother.
Flay
The old head Northhound.
Gerd
A young Northhound.
Ferdias
One of the Lords Protector.
PLACES
Pax
The chief habitable planet of Vega.
Pax
The major city of the chief habitable planet of Vega.
Twilight Belt
Habitable zone on Mercury.
Skaith
A newly discovered world in the Orion Spur.
Skeg
The spaceport on Skaith.
Fertile Belt
Most of the Skaith population live past here.
The Barrens
Area of Skaith.
Worldheart
Where lies the Citadel of the Lords Protector.
Irnan
A city-state of Skaith in the temperate zone.
Izvand
A city in the Barrens.
Lamp of the North
Moon of Skaith.
Komrey
City-state of Skaith.
Thyra
A Skaith city near the Witchfires.
Bleak Mountains
A large range.
Witchfires
Mountain range near Thyra.
Iron House
Thyran dwelling of authority.
House of the Mother
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother dwelling.
Tlavia
Queen City of the High North before the Wandering.
Plain of Worldheart
Where the Northhounds prowl.
CONCEPTS
Galactic Union
A democratic federation of star-worlds flung across half the Milky Way.
Galactic Arbitrary Time
A standard reference for use on multiple planets.
Three Ladies
A constellation viewed from Skaith.
Great Migrations
People moving because of the changing conditions on Skaith.
Pod
A collection of people so thoroughly sensitized by a species of group therapy that they no longer existed as individuals but only as interdependent parts of a
single organism.
Total Fulfillment
Endgame desire of Pods.
Pod-Master
Trainer of Pods.
Darkness, and his lady Cold, and their daughter Hunger
Tower deities.
Winter Dreaming
Towers ritual.
Dark Goddess
Deity worshipped by the Outdwellers.
Great Wandering
When more of Skaith was nomadic.
ORGANISATIONS
Ministry of Planetary Affairs
Simon Ashton's employer on Pax.
Mercury Metals and Mining
Stark's parents worked here when they were killed.
Galactic Center
Based at Pax.
Lords Protector
Skaith Rulers.
Wild Bands
Groups of bandits.
Diviners
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother priests.
Earth Police Control
Ashton's old employer when he found Stark as a boy.
RACES
Harsenyi
Nomads.
Outdwellers
Iron-clawed beastly band near Thyra.
People of the Towers
The Thyrans say they're great magicians. The Gray Maggots.
Farers
Wanderers and hedonists.
Children of the Sea-Our-Mother
Ocean dwellers that find people tasty. A genetic hybrid experiment that is reverting.
Little Sisters of the Sun
Desert altered humans.
Children of Skaith-Our-Mother
White furred people, genetically modified.
Wandsmen
The ruling class of Skaith.
People of the Barrens
Those who live in the interior.
Irnan
One of the migrating peoples. Have applied to emigrate off the dying planet via the Galactic Union.
ANIMALS
Rock-lizard
Large reptile.
Northhounds
Large intelligent telepathic canines.
Snow-dragon
Really large winged reptile.
PLANTS
Love-weed
A plant used as an euphoric drug.
TECHNOLOGY
The Robe and Crown of Fate
Worn by Gerrith, a veil and diadem.
Water of Vision
An Irnan tool of foresight.
Holy Breath of the Goddess
Freezing death weapon.
The Eye of the Mother
A large crystal and telepathic device.
FOOD
Khamm
An Irnan booze, like sweet white lightning.
MEDIA
The Long Wandering, The Destruction of the Red Hunters, The Coming of Strayer
Thyran ballads.
The Hymn of Deliverance
Ritual song of the Towers.
Eric John Stark discovers that his mentor Simon Ashton has gone missing while ona field assignment for his his employers in the Galactic Union.
His investigations take him to the newly discovered and primitive planet Skaith, an exotic place currently rife with conflict, because the sun is dying, making life harder and harder all the time.
Here, a minority class in the Wandsmen rule the rest of the planet, but rebellion is in the offing, as people in the inner areas want to migrate and take the past offer of being shipped off a planet that is no longer livable. Conservative feudal rulers dont like their labor base just leaving, of course.
Further, there is a prophecy that matches Stark's arrival, that of the Dark Man. This religious symbolism is an aid to the cause and morale of the rebels. The hereditary prophetess Gerrith becomes an ally through all the treachery and betrayal and violence, including parts of the the civil war, that Stark has to endure to find his mentor at the Citadel of the Lords Protector, on the plain of Worldheart where the telepathic Northhounds roam.
4 out of 5
Sunday, May 16, 2010
People of the Talisman - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 39500
Percent of complex words : 5.9
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 12.5
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.3
Flesch : 78.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.4
PEOPLE
Eric John Stark
N'Chaka, the Man-Without-a-Tribe. Earthman, out of Mercury.
Camar
A dying Martian.
Ciaran
The warlord of Mekh.
Ban Cruach
A great Martian king of old.
Thord
Leader of the Riders of Mekh.
Otar
One of Ciaran's men. Elderly and crazed.
Thanis
A Kushat girl who helps Stark. Balin's sister.
Lugh
The military leader in Kushat.
Balin
A soldier of Kushat. Thanis' brother.
Rogain
A noble in Kushat.
Tika
A girl Stark knew in his youth.
Narrabhar
A noble leader in Kushat.
Hrillin
One of the old race.
PLACES
Norland
A Martian desert region.
Kushat
Where Stark is heading. A city in the Martian north. The King City.
Thieves' Quarter
Where Camar was born.
Gates of Death
A pass that opens into the black mountains beyond Kushat. Domain of Ban Cruach.
Jekkara and Valkis and Barrakesh
Southern cities of Mars.
The Festival Stones
Two miles northeast of Kushat.
Quarter of the Tomb-Robbers
In Kushat. Quarter of the Blessed, a burying ground.
Kesh and Shun
Martin tribal areas.
Narrisan
The city that is Ciaran's eventual conqueror's goal.
Jekkara and Valkis
Cities of of the Sea-Kings.
Wells of Tamboin
Sand-drowned ruins.
Sinharat
City of the Ever-Living.
CONCEPTS
Lord of Silence
A deity.
High Martian
Ancient dialect.
TECHNOLOGY
Talisman
A crystal lens, some four inches across with an intricate interlocking of many
facets. Ban Cruach's, and contains his knowledge.
ORGANISATIONS
Riders of Mekh
Ciaran's barbarian warriors.
Drylanders
Martian desert dwellers.
Border States
Martian political area.
RACES
The old race
Golden skinned and large eyed, with thumb spurs.
WEAPONS
Globed weapons
Not a good idea to use, as they are not what they seem.
ANIMALS
Rock lizard
Martian desert reptile.
PLOT
Stark's friend Camar has taken the Talisman of Ban Cruach, and wants to take it back to Kushat. However, he has been mortally wounded, so passes it on to Stark.
Stark runs into a problem when he encounters the Riders of Merkh - a barbarian horde under the command of Lord Ciaran. He is brought in front of the lord, who shows both intelligence and brutality, but he manages to escape and make it to Kushat.
Despite being suspicious of Stark, they do take his advice and organise the city for war. The defense holds out for some time, but it is clear the city will fall.
Stark organises some people via Thanis to fall back to the Festival Stones, as a second line of defense. Ciaran is a strong leader and it doesn't take her long to take some men from the sacking of the city to go and put and end to this small band. However, Stark has a plan and lays a trap. He engineers a rockslide that cuts Ciaran off from all but a few of her men, and she is quickly captured after they are slain, and is now a hostage.
However, the Kushat exiles must go somewhere, and the draw of the talisman of Ban Cruach is strong, so they head for his old towers.
This place is strange, but also not empty. Dwelling there are the remnants of an old, decadent golden-skinned race. When they hear Kushat has fallen, and Ban Cruach's old promise of their safety gone, they aren't happy, but agree to arm the Kushat people with some of their advanced weaponry.
Except they don't, they aren't weapons of war. They have decided to end their days in a frenzied game of hunting and destroying humans and each other. After using the weapons, Stark has woken naked and unarmed, and is being herded. The talisman is destroyed by Hrillin.
Finally he finds the body of Rogain, and a sword. Not long after he encounters Ciaran, similarly armed, and he realised Hrillin knows they are enemies, and wants them to fight for their amusement. This pair of warriors has other plans, looking to breakout and fight their way to shutting down the mechanisms that keep the cold of the city at bay, allowing their antagonists' existence.
With the promise of power from this city gone, Stark makes a deal with Ciaran if she will take her army and leave, letting the Kushat people have their city back.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 39500
Percent of complex words : 5.9
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 12.5
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.3
Flesch : 78.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.4
PEOPLE
Eric John Stark
N'Chaka, the Man-Without-a-Tribe. Earthman, out of Mercury.
Camar
A dying Martian.
Ciaran
The warlord of Mekh.
Ban Cruach
A great Martian king of old.
Thord
Leader of the Riders of Mekh.
Otar
One of Ciaran's men. Elderly and crazed.
Thanis
A Kushat girl who helps Stark. Balin's sister.
Lugh
The military leader in Kushat.
Balin
A soldier of Kushat. Thanis' brother.
Rogain
A noble in Kushat.
Tika
A girl Stark knew in his youth.
Narrabhar
A noble leader in Kushat.
Hrillin
One of the old race.
PLACES
Norland
A Martian desert region.
Kushat
Where Stark is heading. A city in the Martian north. The King City.
Thieves' Quarter
Where Camar was born.
Gates of Death
A pass that opens into the black mountains beyond Kushat. Domain of Ban Cruach.
Jekkara and Valkis and Barrakesh
Southern cities of Mars.
The Festival Stones
Two miles northeast of Kushat.
Quarter of the Tomb-Robbers
In Kushat. Quarter of the Blessed, a burying ground.
Kesh and Shun
Martin tribal areas.
Narrisan
The city that is Ciaran's eventual conqueror's goal.
Jekkara and Valkis
Cities of of the Sea-Kings.
Wells of Tamboin
Sand-drowned ruins.
Sinharat
City of the Ever-Living.
CONCEPTS
Lord of Silence
A deity.
High Martian
Ancient dialect.
TECHNOLOGY
Talisman
A crystal lens, some four inches across with an intricate interlocking of many
facets. Ban Cruach's, and contains his knowledge.
ORGANISATIONS
Riders of Mekh
Ciaran's barbarian warriors.
Drylanders
Martian desert dwellers.
Border States
Martian political area.
RACES
The old race
Golden skinned and large eyed, with thumb spurs.
WEAPONS
Globed weapons
Not a good idea to use, as they are not what they seem.
ANIMALS
Rock lizard
Martian desert reptile.
PLOT
Stark's friend Camar has taken the Talisman of Ban Cruach, and wants to take it back to Kushat. However, he has been mortally wounded, so passes it on to Stark.
Stark runs into a problem when he encounters the Riders of Merkh - a barbarian horde under the command of Lord Ciaran. He is brought in front of the lord, who shows both intelligence and brutality, but he manages to escape and make it to Kushat.
Despite being suspicious of Stark, they do take his advice and organise the city for war. The defense holds out for some time, but it is clear the city will fall.
Stark organises some people via Thanis to fall back to the Festival Stones, as a second line of defense. Ciaran is a strong leader and it doesn't take her long to take some men from the sacking of the city to go and put and end to this small band. However, Stark has a plan and lays a trap. He engineers a rockslide that cuts Ciaran off from all but a few of her men, and she is quickly captured after they are slain, and is now a hostage.
However, the Kushat exiles must go somewhere, and the draw of the talisman of Ban Cruach is strong, so they head for his old towers.
This place is strange, but also not empty. Dwelling there are the remnants of an old, decadent golden-skinned race. When they hear Kushat has fallen, and Ban Cruach's old promise of their safety gone, they aren't happy, but agree to arm the Kushat people with some of their advanced weaponry.
Except they don't, they aren't weapons of war. They have decided to end their days in a frenzied game of hunting and destroying humans and each other. After using the weapons, Stark has woken naked and unarmed, and is being herded. The talisman is destroyed by Hrillin.
Finally he finds the body of Rogain, and a sword. Not long after he encounters Ciaran, similarly armed, and he realised Hrillin knows they are enemies, and wants them to fight for their amusement. This pair of warriors has other plans, looking to breakout and fight their way to shutting down the mechanisms that keep the cold of the city at bay, allowing their antagonists' existence.
With the promise of power from this city gone, Stark makes a deal with Ciaran if she will take her army and leave, letting the Kushat people have their city back.
4 out of 5
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Shadow Over Mars - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 5.7
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 9.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.1
Flesch : 80.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 4.5
CHARACTERS
Richard Gunn Urquhart
Rick, man with a destiny, and ability to cast a long Shadow.
Llaw's grandmother
A seeress who forsees Rick's destiny.
Karadok
Ancient Martian king of Ruh.
Beudach
Chief of the fighting men of the Ruh.
Llaw
A Martian dwarf.
Haral
Last of the line of Karadoc.
Parras
Seer of Ruh.
Ed Fallon
Head of the Terran Exploitations Company.
Jaffa Storm
His right hand man. Rather large Terro-Mercurian.
Hugh St. John
Unionist politician.
Vargo
Venusian muscle leader.
Mayo McCall
Anti-Terran activist and technician.
Jimmy
Press-ganged rebel.
Eran Mak
Civilised Martian Low-Canaler bandit and leader.
Christy
One of Fallon's.
Kyra
A Winged One woman.
William Lee Yancey
A young ship crewman Rick leaves money too that helps him get back on Mars.
ANIMALS
Black Apes
Used as press-gang hounds by the Terran Exploitations Company.
ORGANISATIONS
Terran Exploitations Company
Just as bad as they sound.
Crimpers
Press-gang groups.
Moderates
Political group of compromise between Earth and Mars.
Pan-Martians
Pro Mars political group.
Union Party
Unionist political group that wants to promote Earth's role on Mars.
Interplanetary Co-ordination Authority
Interworld legislative body.Has a Labor Board.
First Interplanetary Bank of Mars
Has an office in New York.
MPG
Martian Planetary Government.
MPP
Martian Planetary Patrol.
PLACES
Thieves' Quarter
Dodgy part of Ruh.
Phobos
Moon of Mars.
Street of Nine Thousand Joys
Street where you can purchase time with ladies of questionable virtue, in Ruh.
Ruh
Martian City-State.
King City
Capital of Ruh.
Deimos
The other Moon of Mars.
Administration Pylon
Large building, holds the TEC offices.
New Town
City being built.
Arianrhod
Has cliff caves.
Old City
In Ruh.
Kahora
Martian Trade city.
Polar Cities
The Thinkers live here, in a fabled cold region.
Darkside
Cold shadowed side of the planet.
Number Five Drift
Where one of the press gangs works.
Tower of Destiny
Place of seers.
Vhia
Trade City of Venus.
Jekkara
Martian Low Canal city.
Caer Hebra
Ancient city.
Thieves' Quarter
Dodgy part of Ruh.
Losanglis
Earth city.
Valkis
Low Canal city.
Jekkara Port
City spaceport.
Madame Kan's
Dodgy bar in Jekkara.
RACES
Marshies
Derogatory term for the locals.
Middle-Swampers
Venusians. Used as muscle by Fallon.
The Thinkers
First race of Mars. Still live in the Polar Cities.
Winged Ones
Ancient Martian flyers.
Shunni
Martian tribe.
PLANTS
Yrl-wood
Martian tree.
CONCEPTS
Low Martian
Common dialect.
Goliath
Biblical giant.
High Martian
Ancient dialect.
TECHNOLOGY
Venusian spider-silk
Used to make clothes.
Blaster
Energy hand weapon.
Collar of Ruh
Symbol of authority.
Visaplate
Part of a telescreen.
Fallonite
The chemically amorphous substance that was already beginning to revolutionize the Terran plastic industry.
Florent mirror
Uses infra red instead of visible light.
Tsamo
A Martian knockout drug.
Thought Projector
Thinker shield to keep people out.
MEDIA
Banner of the Twin Moons
Ruh war symbol.
Winged Victory of Samothrace
Old earth statue.
WEAPONS
Banning Shocker
Large non-lethal beam weapon.
Mickey shocker
Handgun beam weapon, non-lethal.
Disintegrators
Thinker weapon.
Mental amplifiers
Thinker weapon.
Energy projectors
Thinker weapon.
VEHICLES
Mary Ellen Dow
Ship they wanted Rick to leave on.
PLOT
Rick is not too keen on being pressganged into the rapacious and growing aptly named Terran company.
He also runs into prophecy when it is told that he will be an important player in the future of Mars - although he is not anyone of any particular note.
Others of import include a Winged Race woman, a technician who also opposes Fallon and company, a local gangster and a politician. If they can work out some sort of arrangement and leadership they will have the resources to oppose Fallon and his even less scrupulous and violent enforcer Jaffa Storm and his force of hired Venusian thugs.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 5.7
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 9.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.1
Flesch : 80.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 4.5
CHARACTERS
Richard Gunn Urquhart
Rick, man with a destiny, and ability to cast a long Shadow.
Llaw's grandmother
A seeress who forsees Rick's destiny.
Karadok
Ancient Martian king of Ruh.
Beudach
Chief of the fighting men of the Ruh.
Llaw
A Martian dwarf.
Haral
Last of the line of Karadoc.
Parras
Seer of Ruh.
Ed Fallon
Head of the Terran Exploitations Company.
Jaffa Storm
His right hand man. Rather large Terro-Mercurian.
Hugh St. John
Unionist politician.
Vargo
Venusian muscle leader.
Mayo McCall
Anti-Terran activist and technician.
Jimmy
Press-ganged rebel.
Eran Mak
Civilised Martian Low-Canaler bandit and leader.
Christy
One of Fallon's.
Kyra
A Winged One woman.
William Lee Yancey
A young ship crewman Rick leaves money too that helps him get back on Mars.
ANIMALS
Black Apes
Used as press-gang hounds by the Terran Exploitations Company.
ORGANISATIONS
Terran Exploitations Company
Just as bad as they sound.
Crimpers
Press-gang groups.
Moderates
Political group of compromise between Earth and Mars.
Pan-Martians
Pro Mars political group.
Union Party
Unionist political group that wants to promote Earth's role on Mars.
Interplanetary Co-ordination Authority
Interworld legislative body.Has a Labor Board.
First Interplanetary Bank of Mars
Has an office in New York.
MPG
Martian Planetary Government.
MPP
Martian Planetary Patrol.
PLACES
Thieves' Quarter
Dodgy part of Ruh.
Phobos
Moon of Mars.
Street of Nine Thousand Joys
Street where you can purchase time with ladies of questionable virtue, in Ruh.
Ruh
Martian City-State.
King City
Capital of Ruh.
Deimos
The other Moon of Mars.
Administration Pylon
Large building, holds the TEC offices.
New Town
City being built.
Arianrhod
Has cliff caves.
Old City
In Ruh.
Kahora
Martian Trade city.
Polar Cities
The Thinkers live here, in a fabled cold region.
Darkside
Cold shadowed side of the planet.
Number Five Drift
Where one of the press gangs works.
Tower of Destiny
Place of seers.
Vhia
Trade City of Venus.
Jekkara
Martian Low Canal city.
Caer Hebra
Ancient city.
Thieves' Quarter
Dodgy part of Ruh.
Losanglis
Earth city.
Valkis
Low Canal city.
Jekkara Port
City spaceport.
Madame Kan's
Dodgy bar in Jekkara.
RACES
Marshies
Derogatory term for the locals.
Middle-Swampers
Venusians. Used as muscle by Fallon.
The Thinkers
First race of Mars. Still live in the Polar Cities.
Winged Ones
Ancient Martian flyers.
Shunni
Martian tribe.
PLANTS
Yrl-wood
Martian tree.
CONCEPTS
Low Martian
Common dialect.
Goliath
Biblical giant.
High Martian
Ancient dialect.
TECHNOLOGY
Venusian spider-silk
Used to make clothes.
Blaster
Energy hand weapon.
Collar of Ruh
Symbol of authority.
Visaplate
Part of a telescreen.
Fallonite
The chemically amorphous substance that was already beginning to revolutionize the Terran plastic industry.
Florent mirror
Uses infra red instead of visible light.
Tsamo
A Martian knockout drug.
Thought Projector
Thinker shield to keep people out.
MEDIA
Banner of the Twin Moons
Ruh war symbol.
Winged Victory of Samothrace
Old earth statue.
WEAPONS
Banning Shocker
Large non-lethal beam weapon.
Mickey shocker
Handgun beam weapon, non-lethal.
Disintegrators
Thinker weapon.
Mental amplifiers
Thinker weapon.
Energy projectors
Thinker weapon.
VEHICLES
Mary Ellen Dow
Ship they wanted Rick to leave on.
PLOT
Rick is not too keen on being pressganged into the rapacious and growing aptly named Terran company.
He also runs into prophecy when it is told that he will be an important player in the future of Mars - although he is not anyone of any particular note.
Others of import include a Winged Race woman, a technician who also opposes Fallon and company, a local gangster and a politician. If they can work out some sort of arrangement and leadership they will have the resources to oppose Fallon and his even less scrupulous and violent enforcer Jaffa Storm and his force of hired Venusian thugs.
3.5 out of 5
Friday, January 8, 2010
Sea-Kings Of Mars - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 45000
Percent of complex words : 6.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.2
Flesch : 73.4
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.2
: The Sword Of Rhiannon - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Jekkara
Martian City.
Madam Kan's
Dodgy bar in Jekkara.
Old Town
Suburb of Jekkara. Old Jekkara, with its docks of stone and marble still standing in the dry and dust-choked harbor, was old beyond any Earth conception of the world.
New Town
Suburb of Jekkara. The New Town of Jekkara, the living town down by the canal, had been old when Ur of the Chaldees was a raw young village.
Tomb Of Rhianon
Where Penkawr finds the sword, and Carse ends up travelling back in time.
Sark
Ancient Martian city.
Khondor
Ancient Martian city.
White Sea
Where Carse is taken prisoner and made to row.
Black Banks
Off the White Sea.
Caer Dhu
Dhuvian city.
CHARACTERS
Matt Carse
"Archaeologist, renegade, looter of tombs."
Pankawr of Barrakesh
Finds The Sword of Rhiannon, and wants to give it to Carse.
Rhiannon
A Quiru. "...the Cursed One, whose sinful pride had caused some mysterious catastrophe." and "...sinned by teaching too much wisdom to the Dhuvians."
Boghaz Hoi
A Valkisian. "...big, fleshy and soft-looking, a Martian who wore a kilt that looked ridiculously scanty on his fat figure. His face was moonlike, creased and crinkled in a reassuring grin"
Scyld
A Sark slaveship captain.
Lady Ywain
Sark princess and slaver. "She stood like a dark flame in a nimbus of sunset light. Her habit was that of a young warrior, a hauberk of black mail over a short purple tunic, with a jeweled dragon coiling on the curve of her mailed breast and a short sword at her side. Her head was bare. She wore her black hair short, cut square above the eyes and falling to her shoulders. Under dark brows her eyes had smoldering fires in them. She stood with straight long legs braced slightly apart,"
King Garach
Sark ruler and Yvain's father.
Callus
Scyld's slaveship whip man.
Jaxart
Khond slave.
Shallah
A Swimmer.
Naran
Her mate.
Lorn
Slave, of the Sky Folk, wings crippled.
Rold
Ruler of the Sea-Kings in Khondor.
Emer
Rold's sister. A seer.
Ironbeard
Rold's admiral.
S'San
Dhuvian travelling on the Sark slave ship.
Thorn of Tarak
One of the Sea-Kings.
Hishah
A Dhuvian.
FOOD
Thil
Martian alcoholic drink.
WEAPONS
Proton-gun
Deadly hand weapon.
The Sword of Rhiannon
Ancient Quiru blade, made by its namesake.
PLACES
Valkis
Martian Low-Canal City.
Barrakesh
Martian Low-Canal City.
Kahora
Martian city.
Phobos
Moon of Mars.
ORGANISATIONS
Earth Police Control
After Carse.
The Wise Ones
Three Swimmer elders and judges.
The Sea-Kings
An alliance to the West that opposes Sark.
RACES
Quiru
Hero-gods who were human yet superhuman, who had had all wisdom and power.
Sark
Slavers. Rule east, north and south of the White Sea.
Khond
People of Khondor.
Swimmers
Ancient Martian Aquatic people, Halflings.
Skyfolk
Ancient Martian winged people, Halflings.
Dhuvians
The Serpents, Halflings. Masters of Ancient technology.
TECHNOLOGY
Krypton-lamp
Runs using krypton, the element.
PLOT
Matt Carse is a tomb raider, and stumbles across a dodgy acquaintance who has beaten him to this one and found the Tomb of Rhiannon, and the Sword within. He wants to sell it to Carse because he will be able to flog it more easily and for a better price. Carse takes the sword and finds the Tomb - but is sent back in time to that of Sark and the Sea-Kings.
He is taken for a Khond spy and falls in with Bolgaz the rogue, who wants the Sword, and will try and use Carse to try and save himself from Sark slavers, but no luck. They end up manning the oars on Lady Ywain's ship, which also harbours a Dhuvian. Carse is a wild-card in the situation, and no-one is quite sure of him as he does not fit in politically. He engineers an uprising, and also has an 'I hate you, kiss me now' chemistry with Ywain. the warrior princess of Sark.
They head for Khondor, where the leader Rold's sister, a seer, foretells bad things because of Sark - and the influence of Rhiannon upon him does not help anyone into trusting him. It is Rhiannon's fault that the Dhuvians have Quiru technology and it is this which makes Sark impregnable. However, because of his time in the Tomb, Carse has actual contact with the mind of Rhiannon - which can speak through his body, so this is both good and bad. It gives the Sea-Kings an opportunity to take down Sark's forcefield through Rhiannon's help, and initiation a more just society.
This accomplished, Carse realises he should go home, even though he rather likes the ancient past. Ywain, an outcast and alive and free on sufferance asks to go with him, as she has no place left and didn't like her home anyway. Carse agrees, and they take the time trip through the Tomb back to his Jekkara.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 45000
Percent of complex words : 6.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.2
Flesch : 73.4
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.2
: The Sword Of Rhiannon - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Jekkara
Martian City.
Madam Kan's
Dodgy bar in Jekkara.
Old Town
Suburb of Jekkara. Old Jekkara, with its docks of stone and marble still standing in the dry and dust-choked harbor, was old beyond any Earth conception of the world.
New Town
Suburb of Jekkara. The New Town of Jekkara, the living town down by the canal, had been old when Ur of the Chaldees was a raw young village.
Tomb Of Rhianon
Where Penkawr finds the sword, and Carse ends up travelling back in time.
Sark
Ancient Martian city.
Khondor
Ancient Martian city.
White Sea
Where Carse is taken prisoner and made to row.
Black Banks
Off the White Sea.
Caer Dhu
Dhuvian city.
CHARACTERS
Matt Carse
"Archaeologist, renegade, looter of tombs."
Pankawr of Barrakesh
Finds The Sword of Rhiannon, and wants to give it to Carse.
Rhiannon
A Quiru. "...the Cursed One, whose sinful pride had caused some mysterious catastrophe." and "...sinned by teaching too much wisdom to the Dhuvians."
Boghaz Hoi
A Valkisian. "...big, fleshy and soft-looking, a Martian who wore a kilt that looked ridiculously scanty on his fat figure. His face was moonlike, creased and crinkled in a reassuring grin"
Scyld
A Sark slaveship captain.
Lady Ywain
Sark princess and slaver. "She stood like a dark flame in a nimbus of sunset light. Her habit was that of a young warrior, a hauberk of black mail over a short purple tunic, with a jeweled dragon coiling on the curve of her mailed breast and a short sword at her side. Her head was bare. She wore her black hair short, cut square above the eyes and falling to her shoulders. Under dark brows her eyes had smoldering fires in them. She stood with straight long legs braced slightly apart,"
King Garach
Sark ruler and Yvain's father.
Callus
Scyld's slaveship whip man.
Jaxart
Khond slave.
Shallah
A Swimmer.
Naran
Her mate.
Lorn
Slave, of the Sky Folk, wings crippled.
Rold
Ruler of the Sea-Kings in Khondor.
Emer
Rold's sister. A seer.
Ironbeard
Rold's admiral.
S'San
Dhuvian travelling on the Sark slave ship.
Thorn of Tarak
One of the Sea-Kings.
Hishah
A Dhuvian.
FOOD
Thil
Martian alcoholic drink.
WEAPONS
Proton-gun
Deadly hand weapon.
The Sword of Rhiannon
Ancient Quiru blade, made by its namesake.
PLACES
Valkis
Martian Low-Canal City.
Barrakesh
Martian Low-Canal City.
Kahora
Martian city.
Phobos
Moon of Mars.
ORGANISATIONS
Earth Police Control
After Carse.
The Wise Ones
Three Swimmer elders and judges.
The Sea-Kings
An alliance to the West that opposes Sark.
RACES
Quiru
Hero-gods who were human yet superhuman, who had had all wisdom and power.
Sark
Slavers. Rule east, north and south of the White Sea.
Khond
People of Khondor.
Swimmers
Ancient Martian Aquatic people, Halflings.
Skyfolk
Ancient Martian winged people, Halflings.
Dhuvians
The Serpents, Halflings. Masters of Ancient technology.
TECHNOLOGY
Krypton-lamp
Runs using krypton, the element.
PLOT
Matt Carse is a tomb raider, and stumbles across a dodgy acquaintance who has beaten him to this one and found the Tomb of Rhiannon, and the Sword within. He wants to sell it to Carse because he will be able to flog it more easily and for a better price. Carse takes the sword and finds the Tomb - but is sent back in time to that of Sark and the Sea-Kings.
He is taken for a Khond spy and falls in with Bolgaz the rogue, who wants the Sword, and will try and use Carse to try and save himself from Sark slavers, but no luck. They end up manning the oars on Lady Ywain's ship, which also harbours a Dhuvian. Carse is a wild-card in the situation, and no-one is quite sure of him as he does not fit in politically. He engineers an uprising, and also has an 'I hate you, kiss me now' chemistry with Ywain. the warrior princess of Sark.
They head for Khondor, where the leader Rold's sister, a seer, foretells bad things because of Sark - and the influence of Rhiannon upon him does not help anyone into trusting him. It is Rhiannon's fault that the Dhuvians have Quiru technology and it is this which makes Sark impregnable. However, because of his time in the Tomb, Carse has actual contact with the mind of Rhiannon - which can speak through his body, so this is both good and bad. It gives the Sea-Kings an opportunity to take down Sark's forcefield through Rhiannon's help, and initiation a more just society.
This accomplished, Carse realises he should go home, even though he rather likes the ancient past. Ywain, an outcast and alive and free on sufferance asks to go with him, as she has no place left and didn't like her home anyway. Carse agrees, and they take the time trip through the Tomb back to his Jekkara.
4.5 out of 5
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The Long Tomorrow - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 80000
Percent of complex words : 5.8
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 18.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.5
Flesch : 74.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.3
: The Long Tomorrow - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
A post nuclear holocaust USA where the oldest people still alive were very young children at the time. It is now politically dominated by Mennonite types who are against technology and expansion, and some of them are of the more violent persuasion. That is, they will stone offenders to death.
Piper's Run
Colter's home town, in Pennsylvania.
Refuge
A larger town, approaching the legal limit for development according to the Thirtieth Amendment. Situated on the North bank of the Ohio. Most of the people of a different sect here.
Shadwell
A commercial rival town on the Kentucky side of the Ohio.
Bartorstown
A hidden mountain settlement with a functioning computer, doing research into anti-nuclear defenses: "named for Henry Waltham Barter, the Secretary of Defense who had it built". It is near the Fall Creek mining town.
CHARACTERS
Len Colter
Boy that favors learning and advancement. Acquires some physics books and a radio against the wishes of the elders.
Esau Colter
Len's cousin, their destinies entertwined.
Amity Taylor
Girl from refuge, love interest of both and later wife of Esau.
Elijah Colter
Len's father.
Judge Taylor
Refuge authority figure and conservative.
Reba Taylor
His wife and Amity's mother.
Mike Dulinsky
Refuge businessman who wants to expand past the legal limits, forces a conflict.
Ed Hostetter
Bartorstown trader and agent keeping an eye on Len.
Gran
Len's grandmother.
David Colter
Esau's father, a conservative.
James Colter
Len's brother.
Ma
Len's mother.
Soames
Man who is stoned to death for being a progressive.
Mr. Nordholter
The schoolmaster and Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Spofford
Miller and James future father-in-law.
Mr. Glasser
Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Harkness
Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Clute
Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Fenway
Piper's Run councilman.
Fisher
New Mennonite in Refuge.
Meyerhoff
Refuge conservative.
Noah Burdette
Twin Lakes preacher who comes with farmers to confront Dulinksy and shotguns him down.
Ames
Refuge conservative that tries to lynch Len.
Watts
Refuge conservative that tries to lynch Len.
Harry Sherman
Bartorstown mine superintendent.
Joe Kovacs
Bartorstown river-boat man.
Collins
Bartorstown radio operator.
Petto
Bartorstown electronics man.
Rosen
Bartorstown administrator and canal operator.
Charlie
Bartorstown boiler operator.
Wepplo
Bartorstown man, father of Joan and hence father-in-law of Len.
Julio Gutierrez
Bartorstown chief physicist.
Frank Erdmann
Bartorstown electronics engineering chief.
Mary Sherman
Sherman's wife and manager.
Joan Wepplo
Wepplo's disaffected daughter, becomes Len's wife.
Jones
Bartorstown man.
Jim Sidney
Bartorstown steam plant chief.
Irv Rothstein
Bartorstown librarian.
ORGANISATIONS
New Mennonites
Mutated and more aggressive form of the pre-holocaust strain.
Old Mennonites
Pre holocaust religious sect.
Amish
Pre holocaust religious sect.
Church of Holy Thankfulness
Called Kellerites after the James P. Keller who founded the sect. Many such in Refuge.
Ishmaelites
Group of wandering extreme religious crazies that can be aggressively violent.
TECHNOLOGY
Clementine
The name for Bartorstown's computer.
CONCEPTS
Solution Zero
Term for the possibility that Bartorstown will never be able to discover a working forcefield as an anti-nuclear defence.
PLOT
Len and Esau Colter are older boys in a New Mennonite society that is around 3 generations removed from a nuclear war that destroyed the cities. This particular religious group grew out of the old being suited to life in this setting. They have seized political power in some places. They believe in keeping a static way of life, and have amended the Constitution to limit the size of human settlements by law. This also inclues technological proscription as work of the devil. Complete with stonings to death, etc.
Len and Esau want more, and after having their childhoods literally beaten out of them due to an incident with some purloined textbooks and a radio decide they will leave. They do, and go to Refuge. This town is run by a different sect, and is more commerce oriented, as opposed to agriculture. One local businessman is looking to expand past the limits of the law, and Len takes his side. This leads to a literally fiery and violent confrontation where Dulinsky is shot.
A Bartorstown traded named Hostetter had been keeping an eye on Len, and manages to get the boys and Amity out of trouble, and takes them on the trek to Bartorstown. They find out they have nuclear power and a computer, and are rather stunned. Their upbringings clash very hard with what they see, mentally. Esau is both less bright and now also a father, so manages to settle. Len falls in with Joan, who has teenaged boredom with being stuck in the one place, and sees Len as a way out, little understanding how things are out in the world, even though Len does. An attractive young woman, she marries him and they do make a run for it - but what to do when you have no place in particular to go and it is hard to go anywhere or be accepted anywhere is a big problem.
Hostetter tracks them down, and it is life or death decision time, absolutely, for Len. Bartorstown can't have people leading a raid to their facility, so it is up to Len as to what he will do. Joan has had enough, too.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 80000
Percent of complex words : 5.8
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 18.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.5
Flesch : 74.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.3
: The Long Tomorrow - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
A post nuclear holocaust USA where the oldest people still alive were very young children at the time. It is now politically dominated by Mennonite types who are against technology and expansion, and some of them are of the more violent persuasion. That is, they will stone offenders to death.
Piper's Run
Colter's home town, in Pennsylvania.
Refuge
A larger town, approaching the legal limit for development according to the Thirtieth Amendment. Situated on the North bank of the Ohio. Most of the people of a different sect here.
Shadwell
A commercial rival town on the Kentucky side of the Ohio.
Bartorstown
A hidden mountain settlement with a functioning computer, doing research into anti-nuclear defenses: "named for Henry Waltham Barter, the Secretary of Defense who had it built". It is near the Fall Creek mining town.
CHARACTERS
Len Colter
Boy that favors learning and advancement. Acquires some physics books and a radio against the wishes of the elders.
Esau Colter
Len's cousin, their destinies entertwined.
Amity Taylor
Girl from refuge, love interest of both and later wife of Esau.
Elijah Colter
Len's father.
Judge Taylor
Refuge authority figure and conservative.
Reba Taylor
His wife and Amity's mother.
Mike Dulinsky
Refuge businessman who wants to expand past the legal limits, forces a conflict.
Ed Hostetter
Bartorstown trader and agent keeping an eye on Len.
Gran
Len's grandmother.
David Colter
Esau's father, a conservative.
James Colter
Len's brother.
Ma
Len's mother.
Soames
Man who is stoned to death for being a progressive.
Mr. Nordholter
The schoolmaster and Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Spofford
Miller and James future father-in-law.
Mr. Glasser
Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Harkness
Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Clute
Piper's Run councilman.
Mr. Fenway
Piper's Run councilman.
Fisher
New Mennonite in Refuge.
Meyerhoff
Refuge conservative.
Noah Burdette
Twin Lakes preacher who comes with farmers to confront Dulinksy and shotguns him down.
Ames
Refuge conservative that tries to lynch Len.
Watts
Refuge conservative that tries to lynch Len.
Harry Sherman
Bartorstown mine superintendent.
Joe Kovacs
Bartorstown river-boat man.
Collins
Bartorstown radio operator.
Petto
Bartorstown electronics man.
Rosen
Bartorstown administrator and canal operator.
Charlie
Bartorstown boiler operator.
Wepplo
Bartorstown man, father of Joan and hence father-in-law of Len.
Julio Gutierrez
Bartorstown chief physicist.
Frank Erdmann
Bartorstown electronics engineering chief.
Mary Sherman
Sherman's wife and manager.
Joan Wepplo
Wepplo's disaffected daughter, becomes Len's wife.
Jones
Bartorstown man.
Jim Sidney
Bartorstown steam plant chief.
Irv Rothstein
Bartorstown librarian.
ORGANISATIONS
New Mennonites
Mutated and more aggressive form of the pre-holocaust strain.
Old Mennonites
Pre holocaust religious sect.
Amish
Pre holocaust religious sect.
Church of Holy Thankfulness
Called Kellerites after the James P. Keller who founded the sect. Many such in Refuge.
Ishmaelites
Group of wandering extreme religious crazies that can be aggressively violent.
TECHNOLOGY
Clementine
The name for Bartorstown's computer.
CONCEPTS
Solution Zero
Term for the possibility that Bartorstown will never be able to discover a working forcefield as an anti-nuclear defence.
PLOT
Len and Esau Colter are older boys in a New Mennonite society that is around 3 generations removed from a nuclear war that destroyed the cities. This particular religious group grew out of the old being suited to life in this setting. They have seized political power in some places. They believe in keeping a static way of life, and have amended the Constitution to limit the size of human settlements by law. This also inclues technological proscription as work of the devil. Complete with stonings to death, etc.
Len and Esau want more, and after having their childhoods literally beaten out of them due to an incident with some purloined textbooks and a radio decide they will leave. They do, and go to Refuge. This town is run by a different sect, and is more commerce oriented, as opposed to agriculture. One local businessman is looking to expand past the limits of the law, and Len takes his side. This leads to a literally fiery and violent confrontation where Dulinsky is shot.
A Bartorstown traded named Hostetter had been keeping an eye on Len, and manages to get the boys and Amity out of trouble, and takes them on the trek to Bartorstown. They find out they have nuclear power and a computer, and are rather stunned. Their upbringings clash very hard with what they see, mentally. Esau is both less bright and now also a father, so manages to settle. Len falls in with Joan, who has teenaged boredom with being stuck in the one place, and sees Len as a way out, little understanding how things are out in the world, even though Len does. An attractive young woman, she marries him and they do make a run for it - but what to do when you have no place in particular to go and it is hard to go anywhere or be accepted anywhere is a big problem.
Hostetter tracks them down, and it is life or death decision time, absolutely, for Len. Bartorstown can't have people leading a raid to their facility, so it is up to Len as to what he will do. Joan has had enough, too.
4 out of 5
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Alpha Centauri Or Die! - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 7.0
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.2059
Flesch : 76.7072
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.2864
: Alpha Centauri Or Die - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Kahora
Martian Trade City.
Alpha Centauri
Destination for those not liking the restrictions
CHARACTERS
Phil Kirby
A widower, now with a Martian. Head escapee.
Wilson
Sally's husband and Kirby's co-conspirator.
Harry March
Brother-in-law of Kirby, Divisional superintendent and his boss. A government man.
Shari
Kirby's partner, she is Martian. Minor telepath.
Hockley
Fellow escapee.
Pop Barstow
Fellow escapee, experienced.
Sally Wilson
Objector to leaving.
Joe Zimmerman
Passenger.
Joe Marapese
Young man acts as co-pilot in the escape.
Krejewski
Ship builder.
Mrs Krejewski
His wife.
Weiss
Junior assistant in the Cybernetic Division
Fenner
The radioman.
VEHICLES
R-Ships
Ships flown without humans.
R-40
Heavy freighters.
R-10
Mixed carriers.
R-3
Planetary patrol ships.
Lucy B. Davenport
The ship Kirby and the others escape in.
TECHNOLOGY
RSS-1
A probe.
ORGANISATIONS
Pax Terrae
Government organisation.
MEDIA
Trade Stabilization
Legislative act.
Population Stabilization
Legislative act.
Crop Stabilization
Legislative act.
PLACES
King City
Ancient Martian area.
CONCEPTS
High Martian
A language.
Low Martian
A language.
ANIMALS
Espees
Animals with teleportation abilities: "They can shift atoms," Shari said. "They can hold the unstable ones so that there is no emission of particles. In fact, they have complete mental control over matter, and they can do all these things
singly or as a group with enormous potential. And in this way they feed themselves and repel their enemies and keep their wallows at just the right temperature, all without the slightest effort. It isn't fair! Men have labored so hard for thousands of years to learn just a little of what these creatures are born with but never understand!"
PLOT
Phil Kirby and other are sick of not being allowed to space travel, and decide to do something about it by taking a ship and leaving, even if it means taking some people against their will. It is a several year voyage to Alpha Centauri, and even then the robot ships may be able to find them. What they did not bank on was finding native lifeforms with immense mental powers.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 7.0
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.2059
Flesch : 76.7072
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.2864
: Alpha Centauri Or Die - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Kahora
Martian Trade City.
Alpha Centauri
Destination for those not liking the restrictions
CHARACTERS
Phil Kirby
A widower, now with a Martian. Head escapee.
Wilson
Sally's husband and Kirby's co-conspirator.
Harry March
Brother-in-law of Kirby, Divisional superintendent and his boss. A government man.
Shari
Kirby's partner, she is Martian. Minor telepath.
Hockley
Fellow escapee.
Pop Barstow
Fellow escapee, experienced.
Sally Wilson
Objector to leaving.
Joe Zimmerman
Passenger.
Joe Marapese
Young man acts as co-pilot in the escape.
Krejewski
Ship builder.
Mrs Krejewski
His wife.
Weiss
Junior assistant in the Cybernetic Division
Fenner
The radioman.
VEHICLES
R-Ships
Ships flown without humans.
R-40
Heavy freighters.
R-10
Mixed carriers.
R-3
Planetary patrol ships.
Lucy B. Davenport
The ship Kirby and the others escape in.
TECHNOLOGY
RSS-1
A probe.
ORGANISATIONS
Pax Terrae
Government organisation.
MEDIA
Trade Stabilization
Legislative act.
Population Stabilization
Legislative act.
Crop Stabilization
Legislative act.
PLACES
King City
Ancient Martian area.
CONCEPTS
High Martian
A language.
Low Martian
A language.
ANIMALS
Espees
Animals with teleportation abilities: "They can shift atoms," Shari said. "They can hold the unstable ones so that there is no emission of particles. In fact, they have complete mental control over matter, and they can do all these things
singly or as a group with enormous potential. And in this way they feed themselves and repel their enemies and keep their wallows at just the right temperature, all without the slightest effort. It isn't fair! Men have labored so hard for thousands of years to learn just a little of what these creatures are born with but never understand!"
PLOT
Phil Kirby and other are sick of not being allowed to space travel, and decide to do something about it by taking a ship and leaving, even if it means taking some people against their will. It is a several year voyage to Alpha Centauri, and even then the robot ships may be able to find them. What they did not bank on was finding native lifeforms with immense mental powers.
3.5 out of 5
Sunday, December 20, 2009
The Starmen Of Lyrdis - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 60000
Percent of complex words : 7.0
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.5
Flesch : 75.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.6
SETTING
Cornwall
Michael Trehearne is discovered here by the Vardda, at a bonfire festival.
Lyrdis
"Llyrdis is our home world, the fourth planet of the star you call Aldebaran."
Silver Tower
Shairn's family home on Lyrdis.
Hercules Cluster
Trehearne's first trade mission and trouble is to here.
Keregnac
Small town in Cornwall, Varddan base.
Thuvis
Varddan exile world.
CHARACTERS
Michael Trehearne
An Earthman of Varddan descent. "Even," said Edri gently, "for a Vardda. Trehearne, we're alone in the galaxy. Generations ago our race was founded by a man named Orthis, whose system of controlled mutation made us what we are, the
Vardda—the Starmen. It's a difference, a condition of the flesh. With us there is no doubt. With you—your blood is mixed. But you're a throwback in every other way. The mutation may have bred true, also."
Kerrel
An older Vardda man in Cornwall. A Council agent.
Shairn
A Vardda woman in Cornwall. Falls for Trehearne, and vice versa. A conservative.
Edri
A Vardda man in Cornwall, and Orthist.
Joris
Vardda on Lyrdis. Secret Orthist.
Arrin
An Orthist leader, banished to Thuvis.
Yann
Radar crew on the Saaga. Kerrel's hired killer.
Perri
Low man in the generator room on the Saaga.
Rohan
Astrogation-Computer Technician, Second Class.
Quorn
Communications officer on the rescue ship.
Weizsacker
An Earthman with a theory. He advanced the idea that most stars have planets.
Kurat
A hunter with dogs.
Torin
Boy who saves Trehearne, but stows away on the Saarga.
Orthis
Varddan rebel original, opposed Varddan monopoly control of spaceflight.
Lankar
One of the last pursuers of Orthis.
Ristin
Varddan Councillor.
RACES
Vardda
"I know it must have, but I don't believe it." Trehearne shook his head. "Of all the incredible…
What were you doing there, Edri? How can you come and go on Earth without anyone knowing? What are the Vardda, besides—well, mutants?"
"Trailers. Merchants. The most commercial race in the galaxy." Edri lifted the cover off a tray on a small table by the bunk. "I brought your breakfast. Go ahead and eat while I gabble. How we come and go is fairly simple. We land at odd intervals, here and there in the waste spaces of which Earth has a number. We do our business, and after a while are picked up again. As I told you before, we're exceedingly careful, and the fact that hardly anyone on Earth would believe the truth if they were told it is a protection. Of course, trading in secret that way, we're limited in what we can take, and Earth exports—the genuine articles and not mere copies —command very high prices. You'd be
amazed at the value of French perfumes, Scotch whiskey, and American films on planets you never heard of."
"Do you trade with them all in secret?"
"Good Lord, no! Most worlds, even the very primitive ones, we can deal with quite openly. They might not like us, but they benefit enormously from our commerce."
"Then why not Earth?"
"Well," said Edri, "I don't like to offend your sensibilities as a native of the place, but Earth is a crazy planet. Oh, it's not the only one. There's a number of them scattered about, and we avoid open contact with all of them. You see, Trehearne, most worlds develop, or remain undeveloped, more or less homogeneously in the matter of civilization. I don't mean they're entirely peaceful, because they're not, but in the long run their populations are more predictable, more stable than on the Earth-type worlds that have grown up all out of joint. You know what I mean—on one side of the world atomic power, on the other the wooden plough and the blowgun. Too big a gap, and it makes trouble
all down the line. Now, a primitive society regards war as a sport and takes an honest pleasure in it. A society in a high state of culture regards it as something outgrown and obsolete as hunting game for food. Everybody knows where they are. But when you get a world with great big overlapping mobs of population, every one of them in a different stage of cultural development and every one of them subject to a constant bombardment of outside stimuli they can't assimilate, you have got a mixture that keeps exploding in all directions. We have a healthy desire not to get blown up, and besides, it's impossible to establish any profitable trade with a world continually torn by wars.
So—does that answer your question?"
"I take it," Trehearne said sourly, "that the Vardda don't think much of Earth."
"It's a good world. It'll settle down some day. Nobody can fight forever. They either knock themselves back into barbarism again, or they grow up."
Suumis
"See those black-skinned, hawk-nosed chaps with the bronze wings?"
Zaard
"That little bluish fellow is a merchant-prince from Zaard, the outermost planet. See his diamond caste-mark?"
ORGANISATIONS
Vardda Council
Tasked with controlling Varddan bloodlines and rules.
Orthist Party
Varddan opposition. "Long after Orthis disappeared, one of the life-skiffs of his ship was picked up in space. There was nothing in it but a message, painted in big letters on the walls. It was addressed to his enemies, and it said, 'You have not destroyed me. The peoples of the Galaxy will yet be given the freedom of the stars.' You understand? There was still hope, from the Orthist point of view."
Hedarin
"The lawgivers. The wise men. The speakers of the last word." Parapsychics of Saarga.
PLACES
Antares
A star.
Fomalhaut
A star.
Algol
A star.
Omega Centauri
A bad trip.
VEHICLES
Saarga
Joris' ship.
Mirzim
Ship taken to Thuvis for the rescue.
MEDIA
Vardda Trade Laws
Manual of rules.
TECHNOLOGY
Cosmotron
Varddan ship generator.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 60000
Percent of complex words : 7.0
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 11.6
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.5
Flesch : 75.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.6
SETTING
Cornwall
Michael Trehearne is discovered here by the Vardda, at a bonfire festival.
Lyrdis
"Llyrdis is our home world, the fourth planet of the star you call Aldebaran."
Silver Tower
Shairn's family home on Lyrdis.
Hercules Cluster
Trehearne's first trade mission and trouble is to here.
Keregnac
Small town in Cornwall, Varddan base.
Thuvis
Varddan exile world.
CHARACTERS
Michael Trehearne
An Earthman of Varddan descent. "Even," said Edri gently, "for a Vardda. Trehearne, we're alone in the galaxy. Generations ago our race was founded by a man named Orthis, whose system of controlled mutation made us what we are, the
Vardda—the Starmen. It's a difference, a condition of the flesh. With us there is no doubt. With you—your blood is mixed. But you're a throwback in every other way. The mutation may have bred true, also."
Kerrel
An older Vardda man in Cornwall. A Council agent.
Shairn
A Vardda woman in Cornwall. Falls for Trehearne, and vice versa. A conservative.
Edri
A Vardda man in Cornwall, and Orthist.
Joris
Vardda on Lyrdis. Secret Orthist.
Arrin
An Orthist leader, banished to Thuvis.
Yann
Radar crew on the Saaga. Kerrel's hired killer.
Perri
Low man in the generator room on the Saaga.
Rohan
Astrogation-Computer Technician, Second Class.
Quorn
Communications officer on the rescue ship.
Weizsacker
An Earthman with a theory. He advanced the idea that most stars have planets.
Kurat
A hunter with dogs.
Torin
Boy who saves Trehearne, but stows away on the Saarga.
Orthis
Varddan rebel original, opposed Varddan monopoly control of spaceflight.
Lankar
One of the last pursuers of Orthis.
Ristin
Varddan Councillor.
RACES
Vardda
"I know it must have, but I don't believe it." Trehearne shook his head. "Of all the incredible…
What were you doing there, Edri? How can you come and go on Earth without anyone knowing? What are the Vardda, besides—well, mutants?"
"Trailers. Merchants. The most commercial race in the galaxy." Edri lifted the cover off a tray on a small table by the bunk. "I brought your breakfast. Go ahead and eat while I gabble. How we come and go is fairly simple. We land at odd intervals, here and there in the waste spaces of which Earth has a number. We do our business, and after a while are picked up again. As I told you before, we're exceedingly careful, and the fact that hardly anyone on Earth would believe the truth if they were told it is a protection. Of course, trading in secret that way, we're limited in what we can take, and Earth exports—the genuine articles and not mere copies —command very high prices. You'd be
amazed at the value of French perfumes, Scotch whiskey, and American films on planets you never heard of."
"Do you trade with them all in secret?"
"Good Lord, no! Most worlds, even the very primitive ones, we can deal with quite openly. They might not like us, but they benefit enormously from our commerce."
"Then why not Earth?"
"Well," said Edri, "I don't like to offend your sensibilities as a native of the place, but Earth is a crazy planet. Oh, it's not the only one. There's a number of them scattered about, and we avoid open contact with all of them. You see, Trehearne, most worlds develop, or remain undeveloped, more or less homogeneously in the matter of civilization. I don't mean they're entirely peaceful, because they're not, but in the long run their populations are more predictable, more stable than on the Earth-type worlds that have grown up all out of joint. You know what I mean—on one side of the world atomic power, on the other the wooden plough and the blowgun. Too big a gap, and it makes trouble
all down the line. Now, a primitive society regards war as a sport and takes an honest pleasure in it. A society in a high state of culture regards it as something outgrown and obsolete as hunting game for food. Everybody knows where they are. But when you get a world with great big overlapping mobs of population, every one of them in a different stage of cultural development and every one of them subject to a constant bombardment of outside stimuli they can't assimilate, you have got a mixture that keeps exploding in all directions. We have a healthy desire not to get blown up, and besides, it's impossible to establish any profitable trade with a world continually torn by wars.
So—does that answer your question?"
"I take it," Trehearne said sourly, "that the Vardda don't think much of Earth."
"It's a good world. It'll settle down some day. Nobody can fight forever. They either knock themselves back into barbarism again, or they grow up."
Suumis
"See those black-skinned, hawk-nosed chaps with the bronze wings?"
Zaard
"That little bluish fellow is a merchant-prince from Zaard, the outermost planet. See his diamond caste-mark?"
ORGANISATIONS
Vardda Council
Tasked with controlling Varddan bloodlines and rules.
Orthist Party
Varddan opposition. "Long after Orthis disappeared, one of the life-skiffs of his ship was picked up in space. There was nothing in it but a message, painted in big letters on the walls. It was addressed to his enemies, and it said, 'You have not destroyed me. The peoples of the Galaxy will yet be given the freedom of the stars.' You understand? There was still hope, from the Orthist point of view."
Hedarin
"The lawgivers. The wise men. The speakers of the last word." Parapsychics of Saarga.
PLACES
Antares
A star.
Fomalhaut
A star.
Algol
A star.
Omega Centauri
A bad trip.
VEHICLES
Saarga
Joris' ship.
Mirzim
Ship taken to Thuvis for the rescue.
MEDIA
Vardda Trade Laws
Manual of rules.
TECHNOLOGY
Cosmotron
Varddan ship generator.
3.5 out of 5
The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett
Novel
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 6.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.9
Flesch : 78.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
: The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Mars
Planet of the Solar System with many shipping lines having bases there.
Luna
Earth's satellite.
New York
USA City.
Barnard's Star
Site chosen for interstellar test, not being sure of Alpha and Proxima Centauri.
Barnard II
Planet of the Transuranae.
CHARACTERS
Arch Comyn
Discovers what is going on with the Cochrane's project, and goes with the ship after avoiding an assassination attempt. Falls for Sydna Cochrane.
Sydna Cochrane
Granddaughter and sister and cousin and interested in Comyn. A woman that can handle herself, but not too keen on spaceships.
Will Stanley
Married into the family, husband of Sydna's cousin. A louse.
Peter Cochrane
Runs the company, brother of Sydna and grandson of Jonas.
Ballantyne
Drive inventor makes The Big Jump possible. Comes back from the Transuranae mission a walking dead man.
Paul Rogers
Astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship. Friend of Comyn.
---
Vickrey
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Strang
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Kessel
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Dubman
Provides Comyn information of transuranic elements.
Jonas Cochrane
Corporation president and Cochrane patriarch.
Simon Cochrane
Another of the younger Cochrane generation, travels on the second trip to Barnard II.
Sally Cochrane
The Aunt.
George Cochrane
The uncle and lawyer.
Johnny
Sydna's escort. Jealous of losing her to Comyn.
Hannay
Security for the Cochranes.
Nielsen
Cochrane engineer.
Felder
Cochrane engineer.
Claudia
Cochrane cousin, wife of Stanley.
Bridget
Girl of Simon's.
Washburn
Ex-employee, attacks a Cochrane party.
Doctor French
Physician on ship.
Roth
Ship engineer on mission.
CONCEPTS
The Big Jump
Term for making the successful leap to interstellar space and back.
Groom's Theory
Principle used for the Ballantyne drive: "Groom's theory, on which Ballantyne built his drive, was that the so-called light-speed barrier was real, and that matter achieving faster-than-light velocities would shift into another
plane of atomic vibration, or matter-state, creating a closed vacuum in the continuum in which energy could be neither gained nor lost. Hence, the mass-propulsion field, the ship feeding onitself, as it were, using the kinetic energy stored up in the original acceleration. The drive works, but whether or not that proves the theory, we don't know. There's a very interesting
distortion of time ...""
RACES
The Transuranae
"They weren't things. They were life, a form of life inconceivable except among the alien elements of a transuranic world. Life, I think, seated in linkages of energy between atoms infinitely more complex than uranium. Life, self-sufficient, perhaps coeval with our universe, and able to impregnate our cruder, simpler tissues with its own transuranic chemistry ..."
Comyn thought again of what Vickrey had said: the fountainhead, the beginning.
Someone said grimly, "I know one thing: no one's getting me back there, for anything."
Peter Cochrane said, "Relax. Nobody's going back to Barnard II." Note story The Shadows.
Others came from fifth planet of Barnard's star, of eight to this planet of the Transuranae on Barnard II and were changed, and didn't make it. A whole spacefaring civilisation.
ORGANISATIONS
Cochrane Company
Transport and spaceship building company. A family dynasty.
Inter-World Engineering
Comyn's old employer.
United Tradelines
Rival spaceship company.
TECHNOLOGY
Ballantyne drive
Breakthrough propulsion for interstellar travel, named after the inventor.
PLOT
The Cochrane company wants to get the jump on The Big Jump to interstellar space, and make lots of money. There's a slight problem with their first trip to Barnard II though. The Ballantyne drive works, but what they found on the planet destroys people.
Arch Comyn, also in the industry but quit his old company was friends with Paul Rogers, astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship and mission to Barnard II. He wants to find out what happen, and his nosing around has Cochrane in-law sending people to try and kill him. Comy meets and fancies Sydna Cochrane in the process, and her old boyfriend, now on the outs gets killed in an attempt on Comyn.
Stanley's weaselness comes out on the ship, discovered by Peter and Simon Cochrane and the others, including Comyn.
At Barnard II. A strange race known as the Transuranae seduces people into staying, and slowly destroys them, too much exposure leaving people the walking dead, like Ballantyne.
The C's all return, rather disappointing tycoon grandfather with the news, but not Sydna.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 40000
Percent of complex words : 6.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.9
Flesch : 78.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.1
: The Big Jump - Leigh Brackett
SETTING
Mars
Planet of the Solar System with many shipping lines having bases there.
Luna
Earth's satellite.
New York
USA City.
Barnard's Star
Site chosen for interstellar test, not being sure of Alpha and Proxima Centauri.
Barnard II
Planet of the Transuranae.
CHARACTERS
Arch Comyn
Discovers what is going on with the Cochrane's project, and goes with the ship after avoiding an assassination attempt. Falls for Sydna Cochrane.
Sydna Cochrane
Granddaughter and sister and cousin and interested in Comyn. A woman that can handle herself, but not too keen on spaceships.
Will Stanley
Married into the family, husband of Sydna's cousin. A louse.
Peter Cochrane
Runs the company, brother of Sydna and grandson of Jonas.
Ballantyne
Drive inventor makes The Big Jump possible. Comes back from the Transuranae mission a walking dead man.
Paul Rogers
Astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship. Friend of Comyn.
---
Vickrey
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Strang
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Kessel
Also on Ballantyne's ship, stays at Barnard II.
Dubman
Provides Comyn information of transuranic elements.
Jonas Cochrane
Corporation president and Cochrane patriarch.
Simon Cochrane
Another of the younger Cochrane generation, travels on the second trip to Barnard II.
Sally Cochrane
The Aunt.
George Cochrane
The uncle and lawyer.
Johnny
Sydna's escort. Jealous of losing her to Comyn.
Hannay
Security for the Cochranes.
Nielsen
Cochrane engineer.
Felder
Cochrane engineer.
Claudia
Cochrane cousin, wife of Stanley.
Bridget
Girl of Simon's.
Washburn
Ex-employee, attacks a Cochrane party.
Doctor French
Physician on ship.
Roth
Ship engineer on mission.
CONCEPTS
The Big Jump
Term for making the successful leap to interstellar space and back.
Groom's Theory
Principle used for the Ballantyne drive: "Groom's theory, on which Ballantyne built his drive, was that the so-called light-speed barrier was real, and that matter achieving faster-than-light velocities would shift into another
plane of atomic vibration, or matter-state, creating a closed vacuum in the continuum in which energy could be neither gained nor lost. Hence, the mass-propulsion field, the ship feeding onitself, as it were, using the kinetic energy stored up in the original acceleration. The drive works, but whether or not that proves the theory, we don't know. There's a very interesting
distortion of time ...""
RACES
The Transuranae
"They weren't things. They were life, a form of life inconceivable except among the alien elements of a transuranic world. Life, I think, seated in linkages of energy between atoms infinitely more complex than uranium. Life, self-sufficient, perhaps coeval with our universe, and able to impregnate our cruder, simpler tissues with its own transuranic chemistry ..."
Comyn thought again of what Vickrey had said: the fountainhead, the beginning.
Someone said grimly, "I know one thing: no one's getting me back there, for anything."
Peter Cochrane said, "Relax. Nobody's going back to Barnard II." Note story The Shadows.
Others came from fifth planet of Barnard's star, of eight to this planet of the Transuranae on Barnard II and were changed, and didn't make it. A whole spacefaring civilisation.
ORGANISATIONS
Cochrane Company
Transport and spaceship building company. A family dynasty.
Inter-World Engineering
Comyn's old employer.
United Tradelines
Rival spaceship company.
TECHNOLOGY
Ballantyne drive
Breakthrough propulsion for interstellar travel, named after the inventor.
PLOT
The Cochrane company wants to get the jump on The Big Jump to interstellar space, and make lots of money. There's a slight problem with their first trip to Barnard II though. The Ballantyne drive works, but what they found on the planet destroys people.
Arch Comyn, also in the industry but quit his old company was friends with Paul Rogers, astrophysicist on Ballantyne's ship and mission to Barnard II. He wants to find out what happen, and his nosing around has Cochrane in-law sending people to try and kill him. Comy meets and fancies Sydna Cochrane in the process, and her old boyfriend, now on the outs gets killed in an attempt on Comyn.
Stanley's weaselness comes out on the ship, discovered by Peter and Simon Cochrane and the others, including Comyn.
At Barnard II. A strange race known as the Transuranae seduces people into staying, and slowly destroys them, too much exposure leaving people the walking dead, like Ballantyne.
The C's all return, rather disappointing tycoon grandfather with the news, but not Sydna.
3.5 out of 5
Saturday, December 12, 2009
No Good From A Corpse - Leigh Brackett
No Good from a Corpse, (1944, Leigh Brackett, Coward-McCann, hc)
No Good from a Corpse, (1944, Leigh Brackett, Quinn / Handi-Books, #32, $0.15, 143pp, pb)
No Good from a Corpse, (Jan 1999, Leigh Brackett, Dennis McMillan, 0-939767-32-5, $35.00, xi+564pp, hc, coll) Cover: Joe Servello
No Good from a Corpse, (Jul 2004, Leigh Brackett, Blackmask Online, 1-59654-026-5, $14.95, 156pp, pb)
No Good from a Corpse, (Aug 2007, Leigh Brackett, Blackmask.com, 978-1-59654-017-0, $7.95, ebook)
70000 words.
I had read elsewhere that this was rather Chandlerian, and it seems that is certainly the case.
The private investigator in this novel is out to help people, even if he doesn't particularly like them, and even after getting shot, bashed, abused, lied to, and more.
He has made friends (and feels a lot more than that) about a nightclub singer who has an inability to engage in any sort of monogamy, serial, or parallel. He realises that she has a rather dodgy past, and when he gets a whispered phone threat, things turn bad.
This leads to an investigation where he is a murder suspect, as well as trying to clear the name of another man and childhood friend whose innocence he is sure of. Apart from these two gentleman, it appears that almost anyone else that appears could have been involved.
A non-obvious, well done mystery follows, with all sorts of characters, and a witness and lead list that keeps getting terminally shortened.
Quite well done.
4 out of 5
No Good from a Corpse, (1944, Leigh Brackett, Quinn / Handi-Books, #32, $0.15, 143pp, pb)
No Good from a Corpse, (Jan 1999, Leigh Brackett, Dennis McMillan, 0-939767-32-5, $35.00, xi+564pp, hc, coll) Cover: Joe Servello
No Good from a Corpse, (Jul 2004, Leigh Brackett, Blackmask Online, 1-59654-026-5, $14.95, 156pp, pb)
No Good from a Corpse, (Aug 2007, Leigh Brackett, Blackmask.com, 978-1-59654-017-0, $7.95, ebook)
70000 words.
I had read elsewhere that this was rather Chandlerian, and it seems that is certainly the case.
The private investigator in this novel is out to help people, even if he doesn't particularly like them, and even after getting shot, bashed, abused, lied to, and more.
He has made friends (and feels a lot more than that) about a nightclub singer who has an inability to engage in any sort of monogamy, serial, or parallel. He realises that she has a rather dodgy past, and when he gets a whispered phone threat, things turn bad.
This leads to an investigation where he is a murder suspect, as well as trying to clear the name of another man and childhood friend whose innocence he is sure of. Apart from these two gentleman, it appears that almost anyone else that appears could have been involved.
A non-obvious, well done mystery follows, with all sorts of characters, and a witness and lead list that keeps getting terminally shortened.
Quite well done.
4 out of 5
The Tiger Among Us - Leigh Brackett
The Tiger Among Us, (1957, Leigh Brackett, Doubleday, 191pp, hc)
The Tiger Among Us, (1958, Leigh Brackett, Boardman, 187pp)
Fear No Evil, (1960, Leigh Brackett, Corgi, #SC902, 2/6, 189pp, pb)
13 West Street, (May 1962, Leigh Brackett, Bantam, #J2323, $0.40, 149pp, pb)
The Tiger Among Us, (1989, Leigh Brackett, Simon and Schuster (Blue Murder), pb)
The Tiger Among Us, (1991, Leigh Brackett, Magna Print, 1-85057-826-5, 297pp, pb)
The Tiger Among Us, (1991, Leigh Brackett, Magna Print, 1-85057-825-7, 297pp, hc (cased))
The Tiger Among Us, (Jun 2001, Leigh Brackett, Wildside Press, 1-58715-468-4, 192pp, tp)
Gang beating breakdown revenge.
An ordinary bloke goes for a walk, and ends up the target of a gang that likes to inflict violence on the less fortunate.
Set in a town in Ohio.
His recovery fractures his family for a time, and with the assistance of a sympathetic cop, a private detective and a bartender, tries to track the group down.
Their activities and crimes escalate as he searches for a breakthrough.
3.5 out of 5
The Tiger Among Us, (1958, Leigh Brackett, Boardman, 187pp)
Fear No Evil, (1960, Leigh Brackett, Corgi, #SC902, 2/6, 189pp, pb)
13 West Street, (May 1962, Leigh Brackett, Bantam, #J2323, $0.40, 149pp, pb)
The Tiger Among Us, (1989, Leigh Brackett, Simon and Schuster (Blue Murder), pb)
The Tiger Among Us, (1991, Leigh Brackett, Magna Print, 1-85057-826-5, 297pp, pb)
The Tiger Among Us, (1991, Leigh Brackett, Magna Print, 1-85057-825-7, 297pp, hc (cased))
The Tiger Among Us, (Jun 2001, Leigh Brackett, Wildside Press, 1-58715-468-4, 192pp, tp)
Gang beating breakdown revenge.
An ordinary bloke goes for a walk, and ends up the target of a gang that likes to inflict violence on the less fortunate.
Set in a town in Ohio.
His recovery fractures his family for a time, and with the assistance of a sympathetic cop, a private detective and a bartender, tries to track the group down.
Their activities and crimes escalate as he searches for a breakthrough.
3.5 out of 5
Stranger At Home - Leigh Brackett
Stranger at Home, (1946, George Sanders, Simon & Schuster, 228pp, hc)
60000 words.
A man comes back home to his wealth and his wife and a big old hound or two after a few years of hard labor. A result of amnesia after an assault on a fishing trip with some friends.
His return starts a cycle of violence and murder among the group of friends on his original trip'
“Aha!” said the M.E. “Enter the femme fatale.”
...
'By this time the reporters had arrived. Somehow the rumor had got around that Vickers had turned up silently out of the night, and that, coupled with the honey-sweet smell of murder, had brought them swarming.'
...
Vickers said, “You wanted my wife.”
“Yes.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“Twice.”
“Yes.”
Vick himself an the police have to try and work out the twists in this case before he or anyone else gets hurt, if they can.
A little California noir.
4 out of 5
60000 words.
A man comes back home to his wealth and his wife and a big old hound or two after a few years of hard labor. A result of amnesia after an assault on a fishing trip with some friends.
His return starts a cycle of violence and murder among the group of friends on his original trip'
“Aha!” said the M.E. “Enter the femme fatale.”
...
'By this time the reporters had arrived. Somehow the rumor had got around that Vickers had turned up silently out of the night, and that, coupled with the honey-sweet smell of murder, had brought them swarming.'
...
Vickers said, “You wanted my wife.”
“Yes.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“Twice.”
“Yes.”
Vick himself an the police have to try and work out the twists in this case before he or anyone else gets hurt, if they can.
A little California noir.
4 out of 5
Follow the Free Wind - Leigh Brackett
Follow the Free Wind, (1963, Leigh Brackett, Doubleday, $2.95, 215pp, hc) Cover: Ray Houlihan
Follow the Free Wind, (Jun 1974, Leigh Brackett, Ballantine, 0-345-24013-8, $1.25, 213pp, pb) Cover: Frank C. McCarthy
There's also a Large Print version from 2002 from Center Point Pub. (the one I read).
This won the Western Writers of America award.
http://leighbrackett.blogspot.com/2009/05/western-writers-of-america-award-leigh.html
A novelised version of the life of James Beckwourth, an half-breed that got into more adventures than you could imagine. Born just before the start of the 19th century, he got to live through the expansion west and more up into the 1860s.
A trailblazer with a general, a mountain man, after helping out the general's money man, a beaver trapper, a Crow warchief, running shops and trading posts, and an army scout.
Not to mention a horse thief, warrior and more. In fact, you would have been hard pressed to completely make all this up.
Towards the ends of the novel a journalist comes looking for him, wanting to recount his story, as other famous adventurers such as Kit Carson had books that sold well.
Looking it up, this book came out of these discussions:The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout, Pioneer and Chief of the Crow Nation by Thomas Bonner.
3.5 out of 5
Follow the Free Wind, (Jun 1974, Leigh Brackett, Ballantine, 0-345-24013-8, $1.25, 213pp, pb) Cover: Frank C. McCarthy
There's also a Large Print version from 2002 from Center Point Pub. (the one I read).
This won the Western Writers of America award.
http://leighbrackett.blogspot.com/2009/05/western-writers-of-america-award-leigh.html
A novelised version of the life of James Beckwourth, an half-breed that got into more adventures than you could imagine. Born just before the start of the 19th century, he got to live through the expansion west and more up into the 1860s.
A trailblazer with a general, a mountain man, after helping out the general's money man, a beaver trapper, a Crow warchief, running shops and trading posts, and an army scout.
Not to mention a horse thief, warrior and more. In fact, you would have been hard pressed to completely make all this up.
Towards the ends of the novel a journalist comes looking for him, wanting to recount his story, as other famous adventurers such as Kit Carson had books that sold well.
Looking it up, this book came out of these discussions:The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout, Pioneer and Chief of the Crow Nation by Thomas Bonner.
3.5 out of 5
Silent Partner - Leigh Brackett
Silent Partner, (1969, Leigh Brackett, Putnam, 191pp, hc)
Crime novel. Unread.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?110505
Crime novel. Unread.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?110505
An Eye For An Eye - Leigh Brackett
An Eye for an Eye, (Dec 1957, Leigh Brackett, Doubleday, 186pp, hc) Cover: Alice Smith
An Eye for an Eye, (Dec 1957, Leigh Brackett, Doubleday, 186pp, hc) Cover: Alice Smith
An Eye for an Eye, (1958, Leigh Brackett, T. V. Boardman, hc)
An Eye for an Eye, (Oct 1961, Leigh Brackett, Bantam, #A2308, $0.35, 138pp, pb)
3.5 out of 5
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?110503
An Eye for an Eye, (Dec 1957, Leigh Brackett, Doubleday, 186pp, hc) Cover: Alice Smith
An Eye for an Eye, (1958, Leigh Brackett, T. V. Boardman, hc)
An Eye for an Eye, (Oct 1961, Leigh Brackett, Bantam, #A2308, $0.35, 138pp, pb)
3.5 out of 5
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?110503
Rio Bravo - Leigh Brackett
Rio Bravo, (Jan 1959, Leigh Brackett, Bantam, #1893, $0.25, 154+6pp, pb)
Novelisation of the movie. Unread.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?110549
Novelisation of the movie. Unread.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?110549
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