Seth is joined by Dr. Sue Vazakas to discuss the 2020 Retro Hugo winner (for the year 1945), Leigh Brackett’s Shadow Over Mars.
| Start – 21:02 | Intro through “Why this book?” (along with additional background) |
| 21:03 – 31:44 | Non-Spoiler discussion |
| 31:45 – end | Spoiler discussion |
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Sue’s links:
https://twitter.com/SuetheLibrarian
Notes & Mentions:
Leigh Brackett:
Internet Speculative Fiction Database, https://www.isfdb.org/
Fantastic Fiction.com, https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/leigh-brackett/
“She read stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and H Rider Haggard and then began writing fantastic adventures of her own. Several of these early efforts were read by Henry Kuttner, who critiqued her stories and introduced her to the SF personalities then living in California, including Robert Heinlein, Julius Schwartz, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton (whom she later married), and Ray Bradbury”
- Ashley, Mike. The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the beginning to 1950. Liverpool University Press, 2000.
“One of the pulps was Planet Stories, developed remarkably by the end of the war, which was due to two writers: Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury. They were both fascinated by Mars, specifically the “romantic Mars” of Edgar Rice Burroughs.”
- Fantastic Metropolis, column by Michael Moorcock:
Queen of the Martian Mysteries – An appreciation of Leigh Brackett (2000)
http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/brackett/full/ - IMDB (Internet Movie Database): https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0102824/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
–Leigh Douglass Brackett was born in 1915 in Los Angeles. She has been referred to as the Queen of Space Opera.
–Because her first name was not obviously feminine, her fans thought that she was a man for a long while.
–The character “Sheriff Leigh Brackett” in HALLOWEEN 1978) was named after her.
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Ace Doubles:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ace_double_titles
2. University of North Carolina Wilmington (last updated 2009)
http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/ACE_doubles.html
Nemesis from Terra
— Strange at Ecbatan by Rich Horton, blogger (June 21, 2018) — A Forgotten Ace Double: The Nemesis from Terra, by Leigh Brackett/Collision Course, by Robert Silverberg
Lorelei of the Red Mist (Brackett and Bradbury)
— Available to read for free on Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63917
–Frank Ormond, on his “Speculative Fiction and Poetry” blog, https://frankormond.wordpress.com/2021/03/02/story-review-lorelei-of-the-red-mist-by-leigh-brackett-and-ray-bradbury/) :
“The story [Lorelei] is remarkable, and bears some resemblance to James Cameron’s Avatar. A man named Hugh Starke is on the run from the law when he crashes on Venus. There, he awakens in a new body by a beautiful sorceress named Rann. She tasks him with killing off a leader who caused her great trouble in the past named Faolan. There’s some romance involving the shield-maiden Beudag and lots of violence, all leading to a satisfying conclusion.“
World War II and the Publishing Industry
- Astounding’s three different magazine sizes in the same year:
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/asf - When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II. Molly Guptill Manning, Harper Collins, 2014
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/search/results?q=%22when%20books%20went%20to%20war%22 (These are inexpensive AND whenever you buy from them, they donate a book to someone who needs one.)
Retro Hugo Awards
https://www.thehugoawards.org/category/retrospective-hugo-awards/
Science Fiction Hall of Fame
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sf_hall_of_fame