The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett
94 pages
Published 1964 (modified version of original novella, Queen of the Martian Catacombs, published 1949)
Read March 23
Rating: ★★½ out of 5
A desert realm of barbarians, warlike tribes, and ancient, evil sorcery. Vast ruins, choking sandstorms, conniving queens, blue-eyed beefcake, ripped shirts, and necromantic relics from a long-gone age. And all of it set in the dust and dry seabeds of Old Mars. It rarely gets much pulpier than this. And yet I enjoyed The Secret of Sinharat substantially more than another of Brackett's sword-and-sorcery-in-space adventures, The Sword of Rhiannon. Our laconic hero here, despite his penchant for casual sexual assault, is far more interesting than his counterpart in Rhiannon, thanks largely to a somewhat Tarzan-esque backstory of growing up an orphan Terran boy in the canyons of Mercury, and his white-savior rage when less scrupulous Terrans arrive to exploit various "savage" natives. In fact, Eric John Stark's Mercurial boyhood and Venusian exploits would have made for a more interesting book by far -- but even limited to brief background sketches, they provide a touch of depth for the otherwise stock barbarian archetype. Despite its pulpy shallowness and the usual misogyny of its time, both only to be expected in a book from the old Ace Doubles line, this qualifies as a minor success of sword-swingin' adventure.
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