LibriVox, a website dedicated to the acoustical liberation of books in the public domain, uploaded a new audio work this past weekend: Black Amazon of Mars, a science fiction novella written by the under-appreciated American author Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) starring her legendary character Eric John Stark that was originally published in the March 1951 issue of Planet Stories magazine. Read by LibriVox veteran Gregg Margarite, Black Amazon of Mars has a total running time of about 2.5 hours and is downloadable in several formats, including MP3. Here’s Margarite’s summary of Brackett’s work:Carrying out the last wishes of a comrade, mercenary Eric John Stark takes on the task of returning a stolen talisman to a walled city near the Martian pole; a city that guards the mysterious Gates of Death. Now all he has to do is get past the brutal clans of Mekh and the shadowy Lord Ciaran to get to Kushat where they’ll probably attempt to kill him. All while he tries to hold on to a talisman that imprints ancient memories of the Gates in his mind. That’s not easy for a human raised by Mercurian aborigines.
I couldn't get into Gregg Margarite’s reading style, so I only listened to about the first third of the recording. However, I am a huge fan of the pulp cover pictured above. One of my favorites! Artwork by Allen Anderson.
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