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blchandler9000's review
3.0
I don't know why I picked up this novella. The last Brackett book I read I did not love (an opinion one generous Goodreads reader recently pointed out was incorrect). Maybe I saw an old pulp illustration of pterosaur-like critters attacking half-naked Mercury colonists and hunted the book down. I'm not sure. But I read it.
It wasn't bad. Some interesting ideas sprinkled over the plot's dance between old, potboiler pulp and modern sci-fi. A lost prospector on Mercury comes upon two groups of humans: slaves and slaveholders. The slaveholders all wear a "sunstone" on their forehead, which, it turns out, connects them to an ancient mind buried deep in Mercury. (spoiler) There are flying reptiles and lots of desert.
I wasn't wild about the ending, but it gave me a better feeling about Brackett, so perhaps I'll try more of her stuff in the future.
It wasn't bad. Some interesting ideas sprinkled over the plot's dance between old, potboiler pulp and modern sci-fi. A lost prospector on Mercury comes upon two groups of humans: slaves and slaveholders. The slaveholders all wear a "sunstone" on their forehead, which, it turns out, connects them to an ancient mind buried deep in Mercury. (spoiler) There are flying reptiles and lots of desert.
I wasn't wild about the ending, but it gave me a better feeling about Brackett, so perhaps I'll try more of her stuff in the future.
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