Blogging Northwest Smith: Scarlet Dream

"Scarlet Dream"
C. L. Moore

This post contains content of an adult nature and is not suitable for younger readers.  You have been warned.

"Scarlet Dream" is the third Northwest Smith story.  In terms of sexually charged imagery, it's the most explicit of the ones so far, hence the warning above.  (My discussions of "Shambleau" and "Black Thirst" can be found here and here.)  There will be spoilers, as well.  You've been doubly warned.

Adventures on Strange Worlds

Strange Worlds
Jeff Doten, ed. and illus.
189 p., $27

I grew up reading classic science fiction and science fantasy from the 1930s and 1940s, and the sword and planet story has a special place in my heart.  It's a genre we don't see very often any more, but hopefully that is changing.  If nothing else, the release of John Carter next year should cause a brief resurgence in the genre. 

But if you can't wait that long, there's a new anthology out to help whet your appetite. 

Leigh Brackett

I'm still working on a post about Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp that probably won't be done before tomorrow.  In the meantime, John M. Whalen has posted an article about Leigh Brackett and her character Eric John Stark over at Home of Heroics.  If you've not read Brackett, you've missed out, although you're probably familiar with her work.  She wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to such movies as The Big Sleep (starring Humphrey Bogart), Rio Bravo (with some guy named John Wayne), and the first draft of an obscure film entitled The Empire Strikes Back.  In other words, she worked with the best.  Her collected short fiction is available from Haffner Presss and the Eric John Stark books are available from Paizo/Planet Stories as well as some other work.  Go read what John has to say and if you've not read her before, see if she's not the type of writer whose works you want on your shelf.