Lorelei of the Red Mist

Picking up where Martian Quest: The Early Brackett left off, this volume collects 12 more tales of strange adventures on other worlds from the undisputed "Queen of Space Opera." Drawn from Planet Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories pulp magazines, this tome revels in the 1946 titular collaboration with Ray Bradbury--who also contributes an original poem about Leigh Brackett as well as an essay about meeting & working with Brackett. Harry Turtledove, the modern master of "alternate history," provides the introduction and the book is adorned with Frank Kelly Freas' vintage illustrations from the 1953 reprint of "Lorelei of the Red Mist." In a review of Martian Quest: The Early Brackett, Paul di Filippo says "Plainly, Brackett was growing with every story she wrote, not yet 30 years old by the volume's end, with the best yet to come." Lorelei of the Red Mist: Planetary Romances is where some of that "best" can found. So, in Brackett's own words: "The trailways of space are before you, to blaze as you will . . . I ll be looking for you when I get back. Right now my little Fitts-Sothern is warming up in the launching rack, ready to blast off for Venus. There s a situation developing there, up in the high plateaus north of the Sea of Morning Opals. I ve got to see what happens."