Leigh Brackett 1 hr 24 min read

On a harsh, sun-blasted world, a man faces the last of an ancient and terrible power, Shannach, in a sword-swinging adventure from a queen of planetary romance.

Leigh Brackett's 1952 story is a rich, atmospheric space-opera and sword-and-planet adventure. Vivid, romantic, superbly crafted. Read it for the incomparable Brackett, muscular, moody planetary romance in the Burroughs tradition, where a lone hero confronts the last of a dying, dreadful breed.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 24 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller