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trevert's review against another edition
4.0
Damn good pulp fantasy from one of the few female writers of that era. You might know Leigh Brackett better as the screenwriter of "The Empire Strikes Back", but her fantasy fiction of the 60's was right up there with the best of Edgar Rice Burroughs and the like. This is NOT a John Carter of Mars book as one might assume, it's a wholly different story of humans populating all the worlds of the solar system but it's similar in feel. Eric Stark is essentially a barbarian from Venus who grew up in the wilds and on Mars possesses strength and vitality superior to the natives. Like many fantasy novels of the time, the theme is "Wild and savage trumps civilized and backstabby".
This isn't actually one book, it's two fitted into one volume. The first story concerns Eric joining a barbarian army built on strange magical power and the second is Eric helping to defend a walled city grown soft and decadent against another barbarian horde. There's tons of swordfights, last minute escapes, and general high adventure with a bit more character and depth than the Conan books, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It's simple, honest, and fun, minus a lot of the grimdark and social issues preaching that infects a lot of modern fantasy.
Thumbs up!
This isn't actually one book, it's two fitted into one volume. The first story concerns Eric joining a barbarian army built on strange magical power and the second is Eric helping to defend a walled city grown soft and decadent against another barbarian horde. There's tons of swordfights, last minute escapes, and general high adventure with a bit more character and depth than the Conan books, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It's simple, honest, and fun, minus a lot of the grimdark and social issues preaching that infects a lot of modern fantasy.
Thumbs up!
indrabar's review
4.0
While the two stories contained felt overly short, they were nothing less than what I've previously enjoyed from Brackett. Fast pulp that's fun to read, this is my definition of a beach book.
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