The great science fiction writer Leigh Brackett was #BOTD
The “Queen of Space Opera” wrote SF/F for the pulps of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1944 she wrote her first mystery novel, which came to the attention of legendary director Howard Hawks. When Hawks needed help on an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s ‘The Big Sleep’…
...he told his secretary to "get this guy Brackett." She then left for Hollywood, leaving a half-finished tale for Planet Stories 'Lorelei of the Red Mist'. She asked her emerging writer friend to complete it for her, which Ray Bradbury did seamlessly. Her husband was another SF/F writer of the era, Edmond Hamilton.
But instead of heading to Hollywood after the end of the pulps, Edmond ended his long career at DC Comics. She died from cancer in 1978, but not before turning in the first draft script for what would become “The Empire Strikes Back!” Although her script was rewritten by others, many key elements remain.
A rare book from the Dr. Fu Manchu man, this is a pleasant, short mystery story with all the tropes: a PI who is frenemy with the police inspector; beautiful woman with secrets, a corpse who is not really dead (at first), and so on. Very readable.
📚 #Bookmail
WEIRD TALES: 100 YEARS OF WEIRD was just delivered to my door & whooo-hoo, is it pretty. Seriously. It has a kickass dust jacket, a prismatic cover, & is CHOCK-FULL of color images inside. Jonathan Maberry edited this beauty & it has mucho talent in these pages.
The classic authors you'd expect & exciting new/current ones, too 😍
In 1929 Sax Rohmer (Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward) thought he'd try for a new super-evil antagonist. Maybe tired of Fu-Manchu?
This book was a real failure, and remains so. It jumps around, the characters are cardboard, and the plot is thin. Roscoe is no Nayland Smith, and the Zones are no Si Fan.
But it is interesting, just the same. Glad to find it in Faded Page.