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Martian Quest: The Early Brackett is a collection of the twenty earliest stories by the undisputed "Queen of Space-Opera."

On a Venus that never was, on a Mars that can never be (but should have been), Leigh Brackett's early stories laid the foundation for her later classic adventures, The Sword of Rhiannon, The Nemesis from Terra, and the "Eric John Stark" series.

Table of Contents:

• xi - Queen of the Martian Mysteries: An Appreciation of Leigh Brackett - essay by Michael Moorcock
• 1 - Martian Quest
• 19 - The Treasure of Ptakuth
• 37 - The Tapestry Gate
• 51 - The Stellar Legion
• 69 - The Demons of Darkside
• 89 - Water Pirate
• 105 - Interplanetary Reporter
• 125 - The Dragon-Queen of Venus
• 145 - Lord of the Earthquake
• 175 - No Man's Land in Space
• 205 - A World Is Born
• 229 - Retreat to the Stars
• 249 - Child of the Green Light
• 269 - The Sorcerer of Rhiannon
• 299 - Child of the Sun
• 327 - Out of the Sea
• 357 - Cube from Space
• 391 - Outpost on Io
• 409 - The Halfling
• 437 - The Citadel of Lost Ships
• 473 - Meet the Author - essay by Leigh Brackett

A collection of the best stories by one of fantasy and science fiction's most evocative writers, including Sea Kings of Mars, which combines high adventure with a strongly romantic vision of an ancient, sea-girt Martian civilisation.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Letting My Imagination Go - (1976) - essay by Leigh Brackett
• The Sorcerer of Rhiannon - (1942)
• The Jewel of Bas - (1944)
• Terror Out of Space - (1944)
• Lorelei of the Red Mist - (1946)
• The Moon that Vanished - (1948)
• Sea-Kings of Mars - (1949) - novel (variant of The Sword of Rhiannon 1953)
• Queen of the Martian Catacombs - (1949)
• Enchantress of Venus - (1949)
• Black Amazon of Mars - (1951)
• The Last Days of Shandakor - (1952)
• The Tweener - (1955)
• The Road to Sinharat - (1963)
• The Afterword: Enchantress of Worlds - essay by Stephen Jones

Eerie, fascinating tales from one of Science Fiction's foremost authors. This big, new collection by one of science fiction's best-known and well-loved talents is sure to take you into worlds far beyond the one you know...

Contents:

• 7 - The Halfling - [Earth (Brackett)] - (1943) - novelette
• 39 - The Dancing Girl of Ganymede - [Jupiter (Brackett)] - (1950) - novelette
• 77 - The Citadel of Lost Ages - (1950) - novella
• 143 - All the Colors of the Rainbow - (1957) - novelette
• 171 - The Shadows - (1952) - short story
• 193 - Enchantress of Venus - [Eric John Stark] - (1949) - novella
• 274 - The Lake of the Gone Forever - (1949) - novelette
• 318 - The Truants - (1950) - novelette

One of the original novels of post-nuclear holocaust America, The Long Tomorrow is considered by many to be one of the finest science fiction novels ever written on the subject. The story has inspired generations of new writers and is still as mesmerizing today as when it was originally written.

Len and Esau are young cousins living decades after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization as we know. The rulers of the post-war community have forbidden the existence of large towns and consider technology evil.

However Len and Esau long for more than their simple agrarian existence. Rumors of mythical Bartorstown, perhaps the last city in existence, encourage the boys to embark on a journey of discovery and adventure that will call into question not only firmly held beliefs, but the boys' own personal convictions.

The Starmen follows the adventures of Matt Carse, a hard-drinking adventurer and thief, and Princess Aladoree, the daughter of the deposed ruler of a distant planet. Aladoree is seeking the aid of a legendary race of powerful beings known as the Star Men to help her reclaim her throne from Ciaran. Matt and Aladoree embark on a dangerous journey through space, encountering various alien races and facing many obstacles along the way.

As they get closer to their destination, they must navigate treacherous political intrigue and personal betrayals. In the end, they discover the true nature of the Star Men and must make a choice that will determine the fate of the universe.

Alpha Centauri or Die!

Robot alert - stop that starship!

Legend of Lost Earth

Only traitors talk of Terra.

Collision Course

The crew of the XV-ftl was looking forward to shore leave, vacation, and a chance to see their families after a month in space. But once they brought back the news that they had discovered aliens, they were doomed to another, and longer, journey. Accompanying them on the return were several technical experts, who seemed to be more interested in squabbling with each other than meeting the first alien race in the history of humankind. But face to face with the blue humanoid Norglans, everyone began to realise just how important these first meetings could be - for they could make the difference between peaceful coexistence in space and interstellar war!

The Nemesis from Terra

Rick Urquhart was going to conquer the turmoil-ridden planet of Mars. He was penniless and unknown, but there could be no doubt that he would rule the Red Planet--the ancient Martian mystic had made the prophecy, there was no way fate could cheat him of his prize.

But there were powerful interests on both Earth and Mars who didn't believe in prophecies--and they were going to undo Rick's future before it had a chance to begin.

Conquest of the Space Sea

Beyond Pluto they faced a challenge no man could overcome.

The Galactic Breed

Outcast in space. Michael Trehearne had always been an outcast among his people on Earth. He knew he was different. He did not know how or why. Then one day, on the wind-swept coast of Brittany, a bewitchingly beautiful girl appeared & told him he had the look of the Vardda--those elite star travelers who alone could withstand the rigors of intergalactic flight.

Michael had to join them, had to find his place in the universe at last. But it would not be easy. For even when they allowed him to risk his life aboard their ship, to seal his fate upon their planet, even then, they viewed him as an outcast, a dangerous changeling who suddenly threatened them. He was a man who sooner or later would have to be destroyed!

The Secret of Sinharat

Eric John Stark was a hunted outlaw, a hard, merciless renegade with a twenty-year Moonprison sentence hanging over him. Men called him barbarian, wild man. Women called him beast.

But the Earth Police Control had a use for him, for they knew why he was on Mars. The Martian desert-tribesmen of Kesh and Shun had made alliance with the men of the Low Canals, and following the banner of the enigmatic chieftain Kynon, who promised them eternal life, they would sweep out of the deserts and cast a storm of blood across the planet. Stark was one of the outlaw mercenaries who'd been asked to help lead them.

But if he could lead those men, perhaps he could also stop them. And if the rumors which filtered into Mars' civilized border towns had truth, this uprising had to be stopped - for those behind it were more powerful, and infinitely older, than the barbarian armies they would unleash.

People of the Talisman

When Eric John Stark escaped from the camp of the Lord Ciaran of Mekh, he was nearly dead. His mouth, crazed with fear of the bloody thing that clung to its back, laid its belly to the ground and ran wildly through the bitter wind and snow of the Martian Norlands, and Stark held his seat by a concentration that went beyond the urge to live.

He had a purpose now - to find the city of Kushat, which guarded the mysterious Gates of Death and was in turn protected by the Talisman of Ban Cruach. But the Talisman had been secretly stolen years before, and Kushat now lay helpless before the planned attack of Ciaran's mountain hordes.

What Ciaran didn't know was that Stark himself had the Talisman, and he was grimly determined to use it to exact a savage revenge on the Lord of Mekh.

Solar Lottery

The operating principle was random selection: positions of public power were decided by a sophisticated lottery. Everyone had a chance, everyone could live in hope that they would be chosen to be the boss, the Quizmaster. But with the power came the game - the assassination game - which everyone could watch on TV. Would the new man be good enough to avoid his chosen killer? Which made for fascinating and exciting viewing, compelling enough to distract the public's attention while the Big Five industrial complexes run the world, the solar system and the people, unnoticed and completely unopposed. Then, in 2203, with the choice of a member of a maverick cult as Quizmaster, the system developed a little hitch...

The Big Jump

All signs pointed to the fact that no human could come back alive from Barnard's Star. Something elusive, beyond comprehension, existed out there; something that was a perpetual bait, a perpetual trap. But Arch Comyn knew he had to join tht second fated mission. For somehwere beyond the veil of the Transuranae lay the answer to the question that was more important than life to him.

Table of Contents:

• Story-Teller of Many Worlds - (1977) - essay by Edmond Hamilton
• The Jewel of Bas - (1944) - novella
• The Vanishing Venusians - (1945) - novelette
• The Veil of Astellar - (1944) - novelette
• The Moon that Vanished - (1948) - novelette
• Enchantress of Venus - (1949) - novella
• The Woman from Altair - (1951) - novelette
• The Last Days of Shandakor - (1952) - novelette
• Shannach - The Last - (1952) - novella
• The Tweener - (1955) - shortstory
• The Queer Ones - (1957) - novelette
• Afterword - (1977) - essay by Leigh Brackett
• Addendum - (1977) - essay by Leigh Brackett
• Mars - (1977) - shortstory by Margaret Howes
• Mars (maps) - (1977) - interior artwork by Margaret Howes

Greed pulls the archaeologist Matt Carse into the forgotten tomb of the Martian god Rhiannon and plunges the unlikely hero into the Red Planet's fantastic past, when vast oceans covered the land and the legendary Sea-Kings ruled from terraced palaces of decadence and delight. Talented enough to co-write The Big Sleep film with William Faulkner and imaginative enough to pen the original screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back, Leigh Brackett is a giant in the science-fiction field, and The Sword of Rhiannon is one of her most popular adventure tales.

The Sword of Rhiannon

Greed pulls the archaeologist Matt Carse into the forgotten tomb of the Martian god Rhiannon and plunges the unlikely hero into the Red Planet's fantastic past, when vast oceans covered the land and the legendary Sea-Kings ruled from terraced palaces of decadence and delight. Talented enough to co-write The Big Sleep film with William Faulkner and imaginative enough to pen the original screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back, Leigh Brackett is a giant in the science-fiction field, and The Sword of Rhiannon is one of her most popular adventure tales.

Conan the Conqueror

In this epic, Conan fights to recover the throne of Aquilonia from Nemedian invaders aided by the Acheronian wizard Xaltoltun.

Enter Eric John Stark, adventurer, rebel, wildman. Raised on the sun-soaked, savage world of Mercury, Stark lives among the people of the civilized solar system, but his veneer of calm masks a warrior's spirit. In the murderous Martian Drylands the greatest criminals in the galaxy hatch a conspiracy of red revolution. Stark's involvement leads to the forgotten ruins of the Martian Low Canals, an unlikely romance and a secret so potent it could shake the Red Planet to its core.

Contents:

• The Coming of the Terrans (frontispiece) - interior artwork by uncredited
• Foreword - essay by Leigh Brackett
• The Beast-Jewel of Mars - (1948) - novella by Leigh Brackett
• Mars Minus Bisha - (1954) - short story by Leigh Brackett
• The Last Days of Shandakor - (1952) - novelette by Leigh Brackett
• Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon - (1964) - short story by Leigh Brackett
• The Road to Sinharat - [Eric John Stark] - (1963) - novelette by Leigh Brackett

Eric John Stark: a loner, able to survive unsupported even on Skaith, that mysterious closed planet; peopled but not civilised, where half-human tribes wander, burrow, fight and dream of the Dark Man who one day will lead them into the stars.

Eric John Stark rides again! Leigh Brackett's unforgettable science-fantasy hero of The Secret of Sinharat and The Ginger Star cuts a red swath across the brutal planet Skaith Having killed the king-dog Flay in his quest to save an old friend and mentor, Stark now wanders the Worldheart in the company of nine ferocious canines that respond to his every command. Ruling the hounds of Skaith means tapping into the savagery of Stark's own mysterious past, and even a moment's hesitation could turn the pack against him!

Before Eric John Stark can escape from the dying planet of the ginger star, he is betrayed by the starship captain Penkawr-Che. Abandoned by friends and besieged by enemies, Stark is a fugitive once more. Running from all those who hunt him, he embarks on a nightmare journey through deadly jungles and across predator-infested seas to risk his life for those who hunger for his death.

The Nemesis From Terra:

Rick Urquahrt was going to conquer the turmoil-ridden planet of Mars. He was penniless and unknown, but there could be no doubt that he would rule the Red Planet - the ancient Martian mystic had made the prophecy, there was no way fate could cheat him of his prize.

But there were powerful interests on both Earth and Mars who didn't believe in prophecies - and they were going to undo Rick's future before it had a chance to begin.

Battle for the Stars:

A husband and wife find themselves at odds with each other when they become the center of a whirlpool of galactic intrigue.

Divide and Rule:

On a future Earth, where invading aliens have forced humanity to revert to a feudal society and conducting scientific research is punishable by death, it's good to be the heir to a duchy. Unless your brother has been burnt as punishment for heresy. And unless you intended to do something about it...

The Sword of Rhiannon:

Greed pulls the archaeologist Matt Carse into the forgotten tomb of the Martian god Rhiannon and plunges the unlikely hero into the Red Planet's fantastic past, when vast oceans covered the land and the legendary Sea-Kings ruled from terraced palaces of decadence and delight.

Thieves' Carnival:

Prequeal to The Jewel of Bas.

The Jewel of Bas:

A quest to the Mountain of Life to save what remained by humanity from the machines that were bent on destroying them.