Leigh Brackett 1 hr 35 min read

For hours the beast has fled across the Martian desert until it drops spent in the lee of a sandhill, and Eric John Stark turns to face the four black shadows racing to run him down.

Leigh Brackett's 1949 novella introduces her iconic hero Eric John Stark in a lush planetary romance. Vivid, atmospheric, superbly told. Read it for sword-and-planet adventure at its finest, as the outlaw Stark is drawn into the intrigues of a barbarian queen and an ancient Martian secret.

In its time

Published in 1949, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

1 hr 35 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).