Lorelei of the Red Mist: Planetary Romances
The currents that converge into the Sea of Brackett, creating the salty savor of her prose, are many, and are both literary and extra-literary. Among the former, we can tease out her admiration for such writers as A. Merritt, Robert E. Howard, Dashiell Hammett and a dozen other pulpsters who trafficked in over-the-top adventure. Fascinated equally by scenes of otherworldly beauty, civilized decadence, barbarian vigor and naturalistic lowlife criminality, Brackett was continually adjusting her personal equation of all these factors to produce stories showcasing varying ratios of these elements. In one tale, such as "Thralls of the Endless Night," decadence and half-remembered legends take precedence. "Terror Out of Space" verges toward Lovecraftian horror. "The Jewel of Bas" hews more toward sword and sorcery. And then some stories strike all the mingled notes perfectly, producing that unique Brackett fusion. My favorite in this volume is "The Veil of Astellar," which features spaceflight, immortality, an alien succubus, self-sacrifice and virginal innocence. As for extra-literary influences, the primary one is the cinema. Brackett was saturated with the products of Tinseltown, possessing a naturally cinematic narrative voice and sensibility. Like Will Eisner, who modeled many of his femmes fatales on Hollywood starlets, I'm convinced Brackett envisioned Humphrey Bogart as practically all of her leading men. We also have to consider the role of current events in her fiction. The 1940s arguably marked the last time our globe seemed to possess untouched exotic locales. Exploits of explorers such as Frank Buck, the animal collector, could still resonate. Orientalism still held sway. The notion of undiscovered lands seemed at least barely plausible. Brackett took these keenly felt romantic terrestrial notions and transplanted them to other worlds, in the process magnifying and bejeweling all that was alluring and mysterious about our own planet. In this sense, her seemingly outrageous fantasies resonated even more strongly on a subconscious level, as she fed her readers the outre environments that they sensed lurked just beyond America's borders, "beyond the fields we know." As always, a Haffner Press book is a sturdy, durable, delightful objet d'art, and a bargain, from its beautiful Freas cover and endpapers to the heavy stock of its pages. --Paul Di Filippo, SciFi Weekly, March 10, 2008A couple of weeks back, I received Lorelei of the Red Mist: Planetary Romances by Leigh Brackett. This is the second volume from Haffner Press collecting all of Brackett s shorter fiction into uniform volumes. Haffner Press books are real favorites of mine (along with Fedogan & Bremer and Midnight House/Darkside Press). The books are big, solid, and well made for a fair price. The font makes for easy reading, layout is good, the choice of art tasteful and not overwrought. The same reason I like the old Arkham House books (Donald Wandrei and August Derleth were real serious book people. ) Leigh Brackett was big fan of Robert E. Howard. The first Haffner Press collection, Martian Quest, included some early Brackett fiction wherein the Howard influence was easy to spot. The black haired barbarian named Crom who battles the space vampires in The Cube From Space is one of the most obvious examples. This volume finds Brackett at her peak of writing skills. This volume could just as easily be marketed as a Best of collection. Brackett s writing skills are honed and the influences are less obvious. The writing is both exotic and hard-boiled at the same time. You get to read classics such as The Moon That Vanished and the title story co-written with Ray Bradbury. Brackett wrote Lorelei of the Red Mist as an homage to Robert E. Howard. The Venusian barbarian Conan is very similar physically to the original Cimmerian. Leigh Brackett had to leave this story unfinished when Hollywood came knocking, so her youthful pal, Ray Bradbury, finished it. Interestingly, the Bradbury portion of the story is rather blood and thunder. A characteristic not associated with his fiction. Go out and buy this book. You won t regret it. This is among the finest writing in the pulp magazines of the 1940s. --Morgan Holmes, Robert E. Howard United Press Association, February 13, 2008I just got Haffner Press's second Brackett collection (or third, if you count the collection that also reprinted some Edmond Hamilton). It's glorious. Soon all of Brackett's short science adventure stories will be in lovely hardbacks, courtesy of Haffner Press . . . a great way to introduce a new generation of readers as to why having hardback sets from the Queen of Space Opera is a must. The borders between sword-and-sorcery, science fiction, and fantasy all blur when you plop down with a Brackett story. All that really matters is how good the stories are. --Howard Andrew Jones, Managing Editor, Black Gate Magazine, January 9, 2008