Thu 16 May 2019
Pulp SF Stories I’m Reading: LEIGH BRACKETT “Child of the Green Light.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[13] Comments
LOU SAHADI, Editor – An Argosy Special: Science Fiction. One-shot reprint magazine. Popular Publications, 1977.
#3. LEIGH BRACKETT “Child of the Green Light.” Short story. First published in Super Science Stories<, February 1942; reprinted in the April 1951 issue. Reprinted in Classic Science Fiction: The First Golden Age, edited by Terry Carr (Harper & Row, hardcover, 1978). First collected in Martian Quest: The Early Brackett (Haffner Press, hardcover, 2002).
There are science fiction stories so vast in scale it is next to impossible for the human mind to comprehend them, and even though this tale takes place within the orbit of Mercury in our own solar system, this is one of them.
Son is a living creature — a mutation, perhaps — capable of existing in space without protection, the only living being in a junkyard of wrecked ships that his own space craft is part of. Nearby and at the center of this story is the Light, burning green in color, and the Veil, on the other side of which is Aona, a creature such as himself but obviously female.
Coming to investigate the Light is, for the first time in a place where time and aging have no meaning, is a ship of seven humans and other intelligent aliens. It seems that a Cloud has passed through the solar system, changing the metabolism of all the creatures it touched. Destroying the Light is the only means of survival for billions of people.
What has happened to Son to make him the being that he is? Is there any way for him to cross through the Veil to become part of the parallel universe where Aona is? And what about the one of the seven who sees Son as someone with powers that, if had them and the Light were destroyed, could rule the solar system?
Whew! One thing you can say about this story is that has a cosmic Sense of Wonder, the secret ingredient of stories such as this one, and is the absolute epitome of Super Science.
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Previously from this Lou Sahadi anthology: CHAD OLIVER “The Land of Lost Content.”
May 17th, 2019 at 6:35 am
Day-am! that does sound cosmic.
After seeing films she worked on (RIO BRAVO, THE BIG SLEEP) I found Leigh Bracket’s stories a bit disappointing. Perhaps I was expecting too much. She certainly can keep things moving, and as you noted she’s not afraid to shake the Universe and see what comes loose.
May 17th, 2019 at 10:13 am
Science fiction-wise, I like her short stories more than I have her novels. In general I think she’s remembered more for them than she is the longer ones, other than her screenwriting, of course. She was a mainstay for PLANET STORIES all through the 40s, and several collections of her stories from that period have been put out.
She also wrote a couple of mystery novels, one of which, NO GOOD FROM A CORPSE (1943), was a hard-boiled PI tale of some renown. Supposedly this was the book book that got her the job of doing THE BIG SLEEP.
May 17th, 2019 at 7:36 pm
Steve, you may recall I reviewed NO GOOD FROM A CORPSE here sometime back.
I am an unreserved fan of Brackett’s work from this grand scale tale in the Stapledon and Donald Wandrei tradition to her ERB influenced adventure tales where she often combined Burroughsian adventure with almost noirish atmosphere, to out right space opera, and serious SF. She wrote a fine novel about mountain men, and a terrific suspense novel that became a good Alan Ladd film, and a number of fine screenplays across a notable career.
They even named Brackettville where THE ALAMO and RIO BRAVO were filmed after her.
She also gave a boost to the career of a young up and coming SF writer, Ray Bradbury by collaborating with him.
Someone once described her John Carterish Eric John Stark as being what you might expect if Philip Marlowe ended up on Barsoom, it was a fair description too.
Like C.L. Moore, another rare female pulpster in the SF mags, she married another science fiction writer, no less than World Smasher Edmond Hamilton whose own career included everything from space opera and Captain Future to the adventures of Superman.
From THE BIG SLEEP to THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is a pretty good career in Hollywood too.
May 17th, 2019 at 8:15 pm
David (and everyone else)
Here’s the link to your review NO GOOD FROM A CORPSE:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1877
Cutting to the essense, though, and I quote:
Brackett’s career needs no real introduction. She began writing moody noirish science fiction tales set on Mars and Venus (including co-scripting one with a young Ray Bradbury), ghosted books for Gypsy Rose Lee and George Sanders, married fellow science fiction author Edmond Hamilton, and wrote a handful of suspense novels, a western, and screenplays from The Big Sleep to Rio Bravo and The Long Goodbye, and something called The Empire Strikes Back.
No Good From a Corpse is her only hard-boiled private eye novel, but it’s a good one, full of snappy dialogue and Chandleresque observation. Like Chandler’s own first effort, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot,” the book is almost a parody of the form, but also like Chandler’s effort the real touch is there, and the writing has a feel for the true voice of the genre to it. It’s a shame Edmond Clive didn’t get to show his stuff in another case. He’s a memorable eye who deserved a longer run.
May 17th, 2019 at 8:24 pm
In Comment #2 in which I said I liked Brackett’s short work more than I did her novels, I was thinking mostly of the books which were halves of Ace Doubles. The Eric John Stark books slipped my mind, and it may pay me to revisit them. I started one but got distracted and for whatever reason never went back. I do dumb things like that all the time.
May 17th, 2019 at 10:44 pm
At the Windy City Pulp Convention I had the pleasure of being on the PLANET STORIES panel and I made a point of mentioning that John Campbell of ASTOUNDING had some blind spots. One of them was Leigh Brackett. She appeared in his magazine with a couple early stories but she was in PLANET STORIES 20 times.
She also appeared many times in STARTLING and THRILLING WONDER. She was not the only outstanding author that Campbell shut out. It eventually came to haunt him in the 1950’s when GALAXY and F&SF opened their pages to his rejects.
May 17th, 2019 at 11:27 pm
Leigh Brackett did NOT ghost any books for Gypsy Rose Lee. She did write STRANGER AT HOME for George Sanders and pinch-hit for Edmond Hamilton on a few stories along with two comic book scripts for DC Comics.
And to be more of a killjoy, Brackettville, Texas was NOT named after Leigh. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brackettville,_Texas
Finally, while Duke’s THE ALAMO *was* filmed north of Brackettville, RIO BRAVO’s locations were filmed in Old Tuscon, AZ (as were EL DORADO and RIO LOBO).
May 18th, 2019 at 12:06 am
Corrections always appreciated, Stephen. Thanks!
May 18th, 2019 at 6:03 am
Stephen Haffner: you forget, “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” from another film legendarily made in Brackettville!
May 18th, 2019 at 11:27 am
Roger: I “forget” nothing. In this case, there is no “legend,” merely an erroneous statement, now corrected. Leigh Brackett’s career is sufficient to stand on it’s factual merits; false embellishments are unnecessary.
May 18th, 2019 at 9:34 pm
Thanks for the corrections. Brackett was often named as the ghost for MOTHER FINDS A BODY, nice to find out the truth. Brackettville is another of those oft repeated stories I’m glad to hear the truth on.
She did, however, write the novelization of RIO BRAVO.
August 25th, 2019 at 11:10 am
I’d never heard any rumor of Brackett ghostwriting for Gypsy Rose Lee; the standard story was that Lee’s two mysteries had been ghosted by Craig Rice — though I gather the balance of opinion now is that isn’t correct either and that Lee wrote them by herself.
I think my first encounter with Brackett’s writing was that Bantam pb novelization of RIO BRAVO, which I read as a kid and thought excellent, though I’d pretty much passed through my westerns phase at the time. I didn’t actually see the movie itself (which I also enjoyed) until about twenty years later.
August 25th, 2019 at 11:48 am
Al Hubin is not his usual definitive self in the latest version of CRIME FICTION IV. He says the two mysetries under the Gypsy Rose Lee byline are “rumored” to have been done by Craig Rice.
I have also read elsewhere that Miss Lee actually wrote the books herself. It is quite possible.