Reviews

Black Amazon of Mars by Leigh Brackett

koki_siringo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

tessisreading2's review against another edition

4.0

Super fun collection of old pulp stories; this is old-school science fiction with the emphasis on the fiction (the science is... dubious at best). Reading it reminded me of watching original Star Trek episodes - the best of these have that same sense of wonder and crazy fun.

daivarep's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

The world-building is great. The story is meh.

arthurbdd's review against another edition

4.0

Wild planetary romance from the pulp glory days. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/forgotten-queen-of-mars/

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

2.0

I read this for a class. Interesting to see the multiple representations of Amazons in various locations and periods of history or the future. Here, the trope of the warrior "revealing" her true gender to a shocked audience is present. Think Britomart in Faerie Queene, Eowyn in The Return of the King. I thought Ciaran lost a lot of her interesting character dynamics once she was Ciara. Especially frustrating was the way that her character was reduced to the damsel-in-distress through romance and exhibiting femininity publicly.

absentminded_reader's review against another edition

4.0

Very concise prose, almost terse, yet extremely descriptive. I've never read anything by this author before, but I'd heard of her in hushed, reverent tones. Now I understand why her work on the early Star Wars scripts was so phenomenal. She had been writing science fantasy for years. This story wasn't nearly as captivating as that later work, but there was a gripping quality to the tale. She took the fossilized sword & sorcery genre and infused new life into it by including science fiction elements. At first I wasn't sure if they fit well, but by the time the story ended I had changed my mind.

Ofttimes, the main character was more animal than man, and I didn't feel his character had been fleshed out near enough, but if you are looking for some classic SciFi derring-do escapism on a fantastical world, this is a good read.

ketutar's review against another edition

3.0

The Amazon herself was amazing. Wow. (And, the "black" refers to her armor, not her skin color. What did you expect, this is 50s pulp after all.)
And I love that cover, even though...

Spoiler

NOBODY would think she's a man if THAT was what she was wearing :-D

But, I don't like the Manly Man.
Of course he would kiss her against her will. :-(
And, of course he cannot be "tamed". Of course. He's a MANly MAN. Grrr.
He probably has steel grey eyes and black hair. Don't really know, don't care either.

I wanted to read something by Leigh Brackett, and the cover got me. Who wouldn't want to know who THAT is?
But - uh... I'm not that into 50s space pulp.

robertcollins's review

adventurous

4.0

morgandhu's review against another edition

3.0

This was another of the novels in the collection of Golden Age pulp collection of Golden Age pulps published by Halcyon Classics. Leigh Brackett was a master of the planetary romance, and in this novel, one of her sequence of tales about mercenary-adventurer Eric John Stark, she weaves the hallmarks of the genre together in a splendid fast-moving tale of lost cities and ancient battles refought. Black Amazon of Mars was later revised and expanded, and re-published as The People of the Talisman, and I am strongly tempted to find a copy of that and see just how the story changed.

tolkientalker's review

3.0

Actually 3.5 stars. It was a fun romp with a strong, anti-cliche, female character compared to most pulp of it's time. Similar to Barsoom, and equally enjoyable.