Leigh Brackett - [People of the Talisman]
A science fiction fantasy novel by female science fiction writer Leigh Brackett: one of the few women writing in the so-called golden age of science fiction. It appears in an Ace double edition along with The Secret of Sinharat published in 1964. However People of the Talisman was adapted from Brackett's earlier story published in 1951 Black Amazon of Mars which appeared in the pulp magazine Planet Stories.

Planet Stories has been described as the the epitome of Pulp science fiction. It was a magazine whose garish covers promised extravagantly melodramatic interplanetary stories. Leigh Brackett is more widely known as a film screenwriter, being credited with William Faulkner and Jules Furthman for the film The Big Sleep. Brackett took a long break from screenwriting and from 1948-1955 she wrote many of her science fiction adventure stories for the pulp fiction market. Black Amazon of Mars is a typical example and proves to be a well written adventure story that builds to an exciting climax. It features the Tarzan like hero; Eric John Stark who is well matched by Ciaran the Black Amazon who leads a gathering of northern chieftains on Mars again the city of Kushat. Stark has in his possession a mysterious Talisman of crystal that seems to contain the voices of an alien species. The crystal is believed to protect the city from invasion and Stark finds himself organising the city against the tribesman from the north.

The adventure story with its science fiction ending is what this novel is all about and characters are set in motion to guide the story through to its ending. It all works well enough and provided me with an afternoon's entertainment laying out on my sun-bed under the shade of an oak tree. It's July; its hot in South West France and I don't have a swimming pool, but the oak tree is magnificent and doesn't require any maintenance. 3 stars of its genre. ( )

A what a great story. This should have been a 3 star Space Opera from the Golden Age of SF, but it is so much better. Leigh Brackett was a good writer. No wonder she went on to write for the Big Screen. This is the first in a series of three and I'm looking forward to the next book. ( )

Two Eric John Stark novellas. They're both good, though for me her descriptive writing about Mars is more interesting than the characters or plots. Nice that this old stuff is being published in attractive formats--wish it was hardcover. ( )