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    Black Amazon of Mars
    Black Amazon of Mars
    Black Amazon of Mars
    Ebook94 pages1 hour

    Black Amazon of Mars

    By Leigh Douglass Brackett

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Grimly Eric John Stark slogged toward that ancient Martian city—with every step he cursed the talisman of Ban Cruach that flamed in his blood-stained belt. Behind him screamed the hordes of Ciaran, hungering for that magic jewel—ahead lay the dread abode of the Ice Creatures—at his side stalked the whispering spectre of Ban Cruach, urging him on to a battle Stark knew he must lose!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Classics
    Release dateJun 13, 2014
    ISBN9781633553088
    Author

    Leigh Douglass Brackett

    Leigh Douglass Brackett (December 7, 1915 – March 18, 1978) was an American writer, particularly of science fiction, and has been referred to as the Queen of Space Opera. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on such films as The Big Sleep (1946), Rio Bravo (1959) and The Long Goodbye (1973).

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    Reviews for Black Amazon of Mars

    3.5/5

    16 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Thoroughly enjoyable but not entirely predictable space opera. Action-oriented but with sufficient descriptive passages to persuade the reader that you are on a different world. This is really a novella, quickly read over the course of a weekend, with two short stories fleshing out the rest of the book.
    • 3/5
      I had forgotten how much I loved S&S before starting to read Brackett this week. Another terrific John Stark novel from Brackett, I've been on a Sword and Sorcery bender this past week and this story stands up to her others quite well, I particular liked the siege and the lead up to the battle.
    • 4/5
      A pretty good story, great looking book. "People of the Talisman" is a rewrite of this story, similar beginning, totally different ending.
    • 2/5
      Ah, the old pulps. :-) We have our Mighty Hero who binds himself by a promise to a dying friend, and then dares all and endures all in fulfillment of it (and to save his world as he knows it). Plus a pretty love interest to keep us occupied until the real love interest is revealed (and to be sad and wise about him near the end). The eponymous 'Amazon' is pretty cool but it's probably no real spoiler that it's Our Mighty Hero who wins the day.

    Book preview

    Black Amazon of Mars - Leigh Douglass Brackett

    I

    Through all the long cold hours of the Norland night the Martian had not moved nor spoken. At dusk of the day before Eric John Stark had brought him into the ruined tower and laid him down, wrapped in blankets, on the snow. He had built a fire of dead brush, and since then the two men had waited, alone in the vast wasteland that girdles the polar cap of Mars.

    Now, just before dawn, Camar the Martian spoke.

    Stark.

    Yes?

    I am dying.

    Yes.

    I will not reach Kushat.

    No.

    Camar nodded. He was silent again.

    The wind howled down from the northern ice, and the broken walls rose up against it, brooding, gigantic, roofless now but so huge and sprawling that they seemed less like walls than cliffs of ebon stone. Stark would not have gone near them but for Camar. They were wrong, somehow, with a taint of forgotten evil still about them.

    The big Earthman glanced at Camar, and his face was sad. A man likes to die in his own place, he said abruptly. I am sorry.

    The Lord of Silence is a great personage, Camar answered. He does not mind the meeting place. No. It was not for that I came back into the Norlands.

    He was shaken by an agony that was not of the body. And I shall not reach Kushat!

    Stark spoke quietly, using the courtly High Martian almost as fluently as Camar.

    I have known that there was a burden heavier than death upon my brother's soul.

    He leaned over, placing one large hand on the Martian's shoulder. My brother has given his life for mine. Therefore, I will take his burden upon myself, if I can.

    He did not want Camar's burden, whatever it might be. But the Martian had fought beside him through a long guerilla campaign among the harried tribes of the nearer moon. He was a good man of his hands, and in the end had taken the bullet that was meant for Stark, knowing quite well what he was doing. They were friends.

    That was why Stark had brought Camar into the bleak north country, trying to reach the city of his birth. The Martian was driven by some secret demon. He was afraid to die before he reached Kushat.

    And now he had no choice.

    I have sinned, Stark. I have stolen a holy thing. You're an outlander, you would not know of Ban Cruach, and the talisman that he left when he went away forever beyond the Gates of Death.

    Camar flung aside the blankets and sat up, his voice gaining a febrile strength.

    "I was born and bred in the Thieves' Quarter under the Wall. I was proud of my skill. And the talisman was a challenge. It was a treasured thing--so treasured that hardly a man has touched it since the days of Ban Cruach who made it. And that was in the days when men still had the lustre on them, before they forgot that they were gods.

    "'Guard well the Gates of Death,' he said, 'that is the city's trust. And keep the talisman always, for the day may come when you will need its strength. Who holds Kushat holds Mars--and the talisman will keep the city safe.'

    I was a thief, and proud. And I stole the talisman.

    His hands went to his girdle, a belt of worn leather with a boss of battered steel. But his fingers were already numb.

    Take it, Stark. Open the boss--there, on the side, where the beast's head is carved....

    * * * * *

    Stark took the belt from Camar and found the hidden spring. The rounded top of the boss came free. Inside it was something wrapped in a scrap of silk.

    I had to leave Kushat, Camar whispered. I could never go back. But it was enough--to have taken that.

    He watched, shaken between awe and pride and remorse, as Stark unwrapped the bit of silk.

    Stark had discounted most of Camar's talk as superstition, but even so he had expected something more spectacular than the object he held in his palm.

    It was a lens, some four inches across--man-made, and made with great skill, but still only a bit of crystal. Turning it about, Stark saw that it was not a simple lens, but an intricate interlocking of many facets. Incredibly complicated, hypnotic if one looked at it too long.

    What is its use? he asked of Camar.

    We are as children. We have forgotten. But there is a legend, a belief--that Ban Cruach himself made the talisman as a sign that he would not forget us, and would come back when Kushat is threatened. Back through the Gates of Death, to teach us again the power that was his!

    I do not understand, said Stark. What are the Gates of Death?

    Camar answered, It is a pass that opens into the black mountains beyond Kushat. The city stands guard before it--why, no man remembers, except that it is a great trust.

    His gaze feasted on the talisman.

    Stark said, You wish me to take this to Kushat?

    Yes. Yes! And yet.... Camar looked at Stark, his eyes filling suddenly with tears. No. The North is not used to strangers. With me, you might have been safe. But alone.... No, Stark. You have risked too much already. Go back, out of the Norlands, while you can.

    He lay back on the blankets. Stark saw that a bluish pallor had come into the hollows of his cheeks.

    Camar, he said. And again, Camar!

    Yes?

    Go in peace, Camar. I will take the talisman to Kushat.

    The Martian sighed, and smiled, and Stark was glad that he had made the promise.

    The riders of Mekh are wolves, said Camar suddenly. They hunt these gorges. Look out for them.

    I will.

    Stark's knowledge of the geography of this part of Mars was vague indeed, but he knew that the mountain valleys of Mekh lay ahead and to the north, between him and Kushat. Camar had told him of these upland warriors. He was willing to heed the warning.

    Camar had done with talking. Stark knew that he had not long to wait. The wind spoke with the voice of a great organ. The moons had set and it was very dark outside the tower, except for the white glimmering of the snow. Stark looked up at the brooding walls, and shivered. There was a smell of death already in the air.

    To keep from thinking, he bent closer to the fire, studying the lens. There were scratches on the bezel, as though it had been held sometime in a clamp, or setting, like a jewel. An ornament, probably, worn as a badge of rank. Strange ornament for a barbarian king, in the dawn of Mars. The firelight made tiny dancing sparks in the endless inner facets. Quite suddenly, he had a curious feeling that the thing was alive.

    A pang of primitive and unreasoning fear shot through him, and he fought it down. His vision was beginning to blur, and he shut his eyes, and in the darkness

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