Collecting Brackett

I’ve read an awful lot of the work of Leigh Brackett, and much of it multiple times. I thought I’d share a photo of some of my favorite of her books.

On the top there is a great short novel, one of my very favorites by her. It’s actually included in the Sea-Kings volume immediately beneath it, but the version in that collection had so many typos I went out and re-purchased another version of the paperback I sent away to Joe McCullough, because when I’m re-reading one of my favorite stories I don’t want to be distracted by errors.

I mentioned the excellence of the compilation beneath it just last week (except for typos). The titular “Best-of” book was compiled by Brackett’s husband and is another one-stop shopping for a sample of Brackett’s best, although neither it nor Sea-Kings has ALL of her best.

Beneath that is a hardback collection of the three Skaith books. Good stuff, although I didn’t enjoy them quite as much as some of her earlier novellas. I’m still on the fence about whether or not I’ll pick up the complete Stark book that Haffner is printing, given that I already have the stories he’ll include as they appear in either this Skaith volume or the Stark and the Star Kings book beneath it. On the other hand, the complete Stark book will have notes on the unwritten fourth Skaith book… and it will also look really great on the shelf.

Speaking of which, those three Brackett volumes have ALMOST all of Brackett’s short fiction, good and more run-of-the-mill. There are plenty of goodies in there that didn’t make it into the various best-of volumes. And did I mention that the Haffner hardbacks are beautiful and very well made?