Leigh Brackett 1 hr 45 min read

On the frozen Norland of Mars, the barbarian outlander Eric John Stark carries a dying man's talisman toward the walled city of Kushat, and a reckoning.

Leigh Brackett's 1951 novella is prime planetary romance, sending her iconic hero Stark across a windswept polar wasteland toward ancient towers, a warrior-queen, and a menace older than the city itself. Muscular, atmospheric, and gorgeously written. Read it for Brackett at her best, the queen of sword-and-planet adventure and one of her greatest heroes.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 45 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).