The Coming of the Terrans

A dying planet, dried up and hostile -- a planet of countless years and countless mysteries. When the Terrans came, they found a world of dead sea-bottoms, lost civilizations, and secretive tribes bitterly resenting their intrusion on the fading glory of an ancient planet. The Earthmen looked down upon the crumbling ruins of a brilliant culture, and laughed at the stories of invincible gods and forgotten magic lingering in the forbidden cities of Jekkara, Barrakesh, Valkis ... they would not laugh for long. *** This book is such a ruby. Dark and exotic, decadent, but with a touch of rot. At times lyrical, at times disturbing in the way Bradbury's works are often disturbing, it grips you and twists. There is nothing quite like Leigh Brackett's Mars. It is a dying planet, unimaginably old, filled with races who are both cynical and jaded, perverse and vicious. These are the people who had discovered everything and forgotten it long before the first Earth human thought about the meaning of stars above his head. Yet now the Earthmen dominate the galaxy and Mars must bend its knee, like an old courtesan, a fading beauty, still wrapped in finery and adorned with sparkling jewels, and hiding a poisoned dagger in her silks. --Ilona Andrews CONTENTS 1. The Beast-Jewel of Mars (1948) 2. Mars Minus Bisha (1954) 3. The Last Days of Shandakor (1952) 4. Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon (1964) 5. The Road to Sinharat (1963)