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language: English
country: USA
year: 1964
form: novel
genre(s): science fiction
dates read: 7.3.25-8.3.25
Leigh Brackett’s People of the Talisman was published in an Ace Double with The Secret of Sinharat. it’s set immediately following the latter, but their plots are unconnected, and People of the Talisman could be read on its own.
like The Secret of Sinharat, it follows the Terran-Mercurian mercenary-wanderer Eric John Stark, also known by his Mercurian name “N’Chaka” (though this belabors that point less than The Secret of Sinharat). here he finds himself in the far north of Mars, accompanying his Martian friend Camar back to the city of Kushat to die. unfortunately, Camar dies en route, entrusting to Stark the titular talisman, supposedly the key to a power that can defend Kushat from any invasion — like the invasion of “tribesmen” of Mekh who, led by the masked lord Ciaran, are planning to conquer the city. in Kushat, Stark collaborates with essentially the thieves’ guild to plan a desperate run through the Gates of Death to find the power supposed to have been claimed by Kushat’s founder, Ban Cruach, in order to save (or retake) the city.
a good portion of the novel is set in the tense period of waiting between Stark’s arrival in Kushat — which he and some of its citizens know is unprotected but which the aristocracy insists is still guarded by a duplicate talisman they know to be simply glass — and the arrival of the Mekhish warriors. if The Secret of Sinharat got a little repetitive with its action sequences, here Brackett does a great job ramping up the tension, balancing the agonizing wait with the final arrival of the invaders.
it has some — but not all — of the same faults as The Secret of Sinharat. once again there is the tired invocation of the Celtic barbarian — in Ciaran’s name and the fact that the Mekhish raiders are once again accompanied by pipers. notably it avoids the Orientalism of the Brackett’s Drylands stories — Kushat is also pseudo-Celtic, featuring, for example, a guard named “Lugh”, along with the Arthurian-Tolkienian “Balin”, the apparent leader of the thieves. (Stark has kind of a vibe with both Balin and Lugh, to be honest. look at this with Balin:
They went after that to a succession of poor tavern rooms, thick with smoke and the smell of people and old used leather garments. They sat for a little while in each one, drinking a cup of sour wine that came by caravan from places with a kinder climate, and in each one lean, dark-faced men took note of Stark but did not speak. When they walked home the nearer moon was close upon the Wall and the black figures of the sentries moved hugely against it.
Thanis [i.e., Balin’s sister] lay at one end of the bench bed, sleeping. They lay down quietly and did not disturb her.
and this banter with Lugh as they prepare to enter the catacombs to escape from the city:
Lugh nodded, looking at Stark and smiling a crooked smile. “But you’re afraid.”
Stark shrugged, a nervous twitch of his shoulders.
Lugh said, “I was hating you, Stark, because you’re too damned much of a man [hello???] and you make me feel like a child. But you’re only a child yourself under all that muscle.” He jumped down off the wall. “Come on, I’ll keep you safe against the dust and the dry bones.”
Stark stared at him. Then he laughed and followed him, but still reluctantly.
followed by this:
“All right,” he said when Lugh had finished. “That stone over there with the ring in it. It lifts aside.”
Underneath it was a pitch black and narrow shaft, with niches cut for the hands and feet. Lugh peered down it. Stark glanced at his face and grunted.
“What happened to your courage, fearless one?”
“It’s not the dust and the dry bones that bother me,” Lugh said. “It’s thinking what will happen if I miss my footing.”
“I’ll go first with the lantern.” Stark lowered himself over the edge, feeling for the niches, and started down, the lantern slung by a thong from his wrist. He looked up at Lugh. “Don’t miss your footing,” he said.
obviously it’s not pursued here, though; he just kisses Thanis a couple of times.) also Ban Cruach’s name, obviously from Crom Cruaich, also the origin of Conan’s “Crom”. it continues to be Weird About Stark’s Upbringing among “primitive” Mercurians, regularly describing him as either being or having the characteristics of an “aborigine”.
spoilers begin here, so be warned.
I enjoyed the reveal that Ciaran is “actually” a woman (though in point of fact what she says is, “I did not ask for my sex. I will not be bound by it.”), although I thought the additional reveal that the reason she wants to conquer Kushat is as a base from which to conquer a more prosperous city, of whose recently deceased ruler she is the illegitimate daughter — I was more interested when she was “just” a “barbarian” warlord.
the ultimate reveal that the “power” that the talisman allows access to is an alien city hidden in the mountains, whose inhabitants once helped Ban Cruach with weapons in exchange for his agreement to protect their last refuge was…a mixed bag. first, it was so heavily foreshadowed that it wasn’t actually much of a surprise when they got to it. second, it shows so clearly the influence of Lovecraft — the city is full of maddening, inhuman geometries — that I had to roll my eyes a bit. third, the aliens rely on classic ideas about “decadence”: as the technology that maintains their city has failed and their population has dwindled they have become obsessed with sadistic, “perverted”, murderous (and presumably sexual) “games”, though apparently once they had philosophers and histories and all the trappings of “civilized” high culture.
however — I was interested in the world-building implications here: in The Secret of Sinharat, we’re told that humans were “seeded” throughout the solar system by an unknown agency at some point in the distant past, and it seems as if the aliens here are in fact Mars’s indigenous sentient species who were slowly displaced by humans. this is potentially interesting, and I would have liked to see a less action-focused examination of this history. but, alas, we’re in a sword and planet book, so no luck.
I did appreciate that, in contrast to The Secret of Sinharat, the city-dwellers get to “redeem” themselves vis-à-vis the romanticization of “primitive”, “barbarian” lifeways: where the Drylands cities are decadent and full of sin, Kushat is merely sad, unable to recognize that it’s dying — and capable still of inspiring its residents to defend their homes. the end of the novel is very compelling on this point: “Build a new city,” Stark enjoins the survivors of Kushat, “and build it in the world, so that your people will never end like [the aliens] did.” there’s something here about decline not as a product of “decadence” or other moral failings but rather a product of isolation and disconnection — Kushat dies because it retreated into itself, hiding behind its walls and the legend of the talisman’s power.
all told: engaging writing and characterization, appropriately and satisfyingly tense narration, slightly weird ending, continued reliance on ideas about “primitive” cultures, better constructed than The Secret of Sinharat. enjoyable overall.
moods: adventurous, dark, grimy, tense