Leigh Brackett 3 hr 53 min read

On Midsummer night behind St. Malo, a stranger speaks to Michael Trehearne by the light of the sacred bonfires, the first glimmering of a vision that will end his familiar life on Earth.

Leigh Brackett's 1952 novel is a rousing, lyrical space-opera adventure. Vivid, romantic, superbly styled. Read it for classic Brackett, an Earthman discovering his secret kinship with a hidden race of star-wanderers, and the wonder and peril of the wider galaxy, in a beautifully told tale of belonging, freedom, and the call of the stars.

In its time

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

Reading it

3 hr 53 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).