Favorite Planet Stories Book So Far?

[Erik Mona]

Which one is your favorite so far?

The Anubis Murders by Gary Gygax
City of the Beast by Michael Moorcock
Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore
Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner
The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett
Northwest of Earth by C. L. Moore
Almuric by Robert E. Howard
Lord of the Spiders by Michael Moorcock
The Samarkand Solution by Gary Gygax

[Lilith]

I'm so behind on my reading... :(

[Shade]

I've only read a few so far, but City of the Beast is my favorite. I can't wait to read Lord of the Spiders. :)

[Elorebaen]

What I have read thus far:
The Anubis Murders by Gary Gygax
Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore
Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner
The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett

Anubis Murders and Black God's Kiss are probably tied as my favs. But, honestly, they have each been very good. It has been such a pleasure watching my library grow every month with these great selections.

p.s. Is the Poll still active? I cannot seem to find anywhere to click.

Erik Mona wrote:

Which one is your favorite so far?

The Anubis Murders by Gary Gygax
City of the Beast by Michael Moorcock
Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore
Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner
The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett
Northwest of Earth by C. L. Moore
Almuric by Robert E. Howard
Lord of the Spiders by Michael Moorcock
The Samarkand Solution by Gary Gygax

[Russ Taylor]

The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett for me. I've enjoyed almost all of them, though I wasn't too wowed by Almuric.

[Douglas Draa]

ditto,
Secret of Sinahrat by Leigh Brackett.

MORE MARS Please!!!
Take care.
Doug

[Savage_ScreenMonkey]

This thread reminds me that I need to do two things:
1) Hurry up and read more Planet Stories.
2) Hurry up and Buy more Planet Stories.

[Vic Wertz]

Elorebaen wrote:

p.s. Is the Poll still active? I cannot seem to find anywhere to click.

We know it's not obvious as it needs to be, but the place to vote is at the top, in the left column.

[Elorebaen]

Ohh *chuckles* Thanks Vic.

Vic Wertz wrote:

Elorebaen wrote:

p.s. Is the Poll still active? I cannot seem to find anywhere to click.

We know it's not obvious as it needs to be, but the place to vote is at the top, in the left column.

[B_Wiklund]

I'd have to say Secret of Sinharat with City of the Beast second, Elak coming in at third.

[Shem]

Definiately The Secret of Sinharat which I am almost finished with. I will probably read the Lord of Spiders or Almuric next. I will start the next one in the next week or so...

Thank you Erik

[Daeglin]

I've come to the sobering realization that at my current speed, I'll die before i get through my "to read" pile. Doesn't stop me from adding more: never know, I might live past 115.

So far The Anubis Murders, but we'll see, i've got more in the pile.

[Robert Little]

Definitely the Secret of Sinharat best of the books so far, with Moorcock's books tied for second. I haven't really enjoyed C.L. Moore's stuff as much (way too florid for my tastes). Haven't read Almuric or Samarkand Solution yet.

[tadkil]

Northwest of Earth followed by Secret of Sinharet.

I have enjoyed everything so far, however.

[Elorebaen]

Just finished The Secret of Sinharat and I thought it was great. I think I liked the People of the Talisman story just a bit more, but they were both great.

Keep them comin' Erik!

[Matthew Morris]

I'd say the Anubis Murders, I'm a sucker for mystic Egypitan analouges. After that City of the Beast. Lord of spiders and Sinharat are locked up in storage. Jsut got Almuric back from our resident Conan-a-phile, and I need to read Samarkand solution first.

I found it interesting that Black God's Kiss was my least favourite, but I liked Northwest of Earth. Even re-reading Quest for the starstone read better.

[Andrew Turner]

Anubis Murders?! Over Elak!?

[Aubrey the Malformed]

Secret of Sinharat. Leigh Brackett was a revalation.

[Matthew Morris]

Andrew Turner wrote:

Anubis Murders?! Over Elak!?

Yeah even over Elak. The pacing of Elak was good, just seemed to be repetative after a while. Dunno, just didn't suck me in like Anubis did.

[Andrew Turner]

The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long... oh, wait...that's an I-wish-I-wish-I-wish Planet Stories book...

[Erik Mona]

Isn't that one in print from a number of other publishers?

[Andrew Turner]

Erik Mona wrote:

Isn't that one in print from a number of other publishers?

No, no, no--it's long out-of-print. The last print was in 1978, by Jove Publishers; it was a small paperback.

[Andrew Turner]

Erik Mona wrote:

Isn't that one in print from a number of other publishers?

I should also point out that no definitive edition of THOT (original story WT 1929--and what I wouldn't pay for a mint original!) has been printed since AH's 1975 reprint; the 1978 Jove edition is extremely abbreviated. AH still lists the 1975 copy as OOP, so no getting it there.

What a great opportunity for Planet Stories to revive FBL's best collection; in fact, it would be cool to republish the original text of the complete anthology from 1946 and include the sequel story, "The Gateway to Forever", which FBL wrote in 1984--it's also not in print currently in any other anthology.

There's even an awesome picture you could throw in of HPL and FBL at a KLM meeting in NYC.

Must stop now; I'm salivating all over my keyboard...

[Erik Mona]

Huh.

[James Jacobs]

I heartily endorse and approve of any Frank Belknap Long Planet Stories endeavors. Even though the ones I'd love to see in print are set on Earth. But hey! Earth's a planet too, yeah?

[Lord Zeb]

Erik Mona wrote:

Huh.

Go get it! :) :P :D

[KaeYoss]

Anubis so far. I found that I totally love Gary's writing style.

James Jacobs wrote:

Earth's a planet too, yeah?

Infidel! Everyone knows it's banana shaped.

[Brian Carpenter]

I've only read City of the Beast thus far, so I voted for it. However, I expect to get lots of good recommendations from the Paizo folks tomorrow at Origins.

[flash_cxxi]

Lilith wrote:

I'm so behind on my reading... :(

Tell me about it! I have a backlog of around 10 books (with 2 more on order and a PS arriving every month).

So far I have only read Anubis Murders, City of the Beast and Black God's Kiss.

Loved Anubis, but I am a sucker for Ancient Egyptian stuff.
Beast was really good and I enjoyed it a lot.
Black God's kiss was a weird one for me. While I did like it, the style of writing just seemed to be not my cup of tea. It literally took me 2 months to get through it because the motivation wasn't there, even though I did like the stories.

I will be starting Samarkand Solution soon (after I finish the Eberron novel I'm almost finished - Inquisitives 4, The Darkwood Mask; Jeff LaSalla is a cool writer).
After that, I will be moving onto Lord of the Spiders. Although by that time I will probably have Infernal Sorceress, so that might just edge it out.

[KaeYoss]

flash_cxxi wrote:

Black God's kiss was a weird one for me. While I did like it, the style of writing just seemed to be not my cup of tea.

About the same here. Somehow, Moore's style's not quite for me.

[Lord Zeb]

I just finished Almuric over the weekend - wow, it was fantastic! The Secret of Sinharat is close, but I had to change my vote.

[JoelF847]

So far I've only read Elak and Black God's Kiss from Planet Stories, and liked Elak a lot, while BGK was sometimes a bit of a struggle to get into. I have read the entire Moorcock Mars trilogy and Almuric from older editions, and liked them a lot, but in terms of Planet Stories, they weren't my favorites be default, since I won't be re-buying them.

I'm still looking to make time for Northwest of Earth (which I hope I like better than BGK, especially since the story in that collection I liked the most was the one featuring N.W.) and Secret of Sinharat. The Gygax books aren't on my list yet, mainly because I have such a huge backlog of reading, and I'm really looking to Planet Stories to let me read the really old stuff that I hadn't heard of at all.

[KaeYoss]

I now read the Samarkand Solution and must say it's another good Setne Inhetep book. I don't know whether I think it's better than Anubis, but they're both way up there.

[Amardolem]

Right now I'd have to say Northwest of Earth. Some of the concepts are so strange they just throw barbed hooks into my brain and pull me in wholesale. I just keep going back to the copyright page and saying "This was written in 1934...before regular scifi serial movies, before Han Solo, before....on and on" Real cool. All the ones up to there have been just great too.

[James Laubacker]

My favorite so far has to be Samarkand Solution, closely followed by Almuric. I found Northwest of Earth to be too repetitive.

[Eric Hinkle]

Well, the Kuttner stories are cool, and I love Brackett, btu to me the best by far is Black God's Kiss, because I've always loved the lady Jirel of Joiry. Sigh. How many gorgeous, tough-minded fantasy swordswomen got their start with her?

[S.Baldrick]

I have enjoyed all of one that I have read but I would have to go with The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett as my favorite, followed by Howard's Almuric.

[Erik Mona]

Cool to hear from everyone on this.

I love to hear what people are enjoying, not enjoying, whatever.

But I especially enjoy hearing about what you've liked.

Thanks for responding, everyone.

[Blue Tyson]

Despite the awesomeness of Brackett, having to pick one, perhaps collecting all the Northwest Smith in one easy to get book is the coolest.

[kessukoofah]

I had to vote Anubis Murders, but that's mostly due to it being the only one I've read so far. I'm trying to get the rest, but shipping is making it difficult for me to rationalize the price, so I have to wait until I can convince my FLGS to order the ones I want.

I am hoping to pick up:
Elak of Atlantis
The Samarkand Solution
Infernal Sorceress

but at nearly 50$ for three books, it's just not happenening yet.

[Blue Tyson]

Are there any mummies in the Gygax books, out of interest? The spousal unit is a monster-with-bandages freak.

[flash_cxxi]

Infernal Sorceress has edged out Anubis Murders. Loved it. It's a real pity TSR didn't have the brains to print this, as I would have loved to have seen more Ferret & Raker stories. Gygax Rocks!

Oh and Eric/Vic: are you guys gonna update the poll clickie at the top, or just be taking posts?

[Erik Mona]

We'll probably do a new poll in a bit with more options.

There are no mummies that I can recall in the Inhetep books by Gygax. In fact, of the three, Samarkand Solution is really the only one that takes place in "Egypt" proper. Anubis occurs largely in an England-type region, and Death in Delhi occurs largely in a fantastic version of India.

[Blue Tyson]

Erik Mona wrote:

We'll probably do a new poll in a bit with more options.

There are no mummies that I can recall in the Inhetep books by Gygax. In fact, of the three, Samarkand Solution is really the only one that takes place in "Egypt" proper. Anubis occurs largely in an England-type region, and Death in Delhi occurs largely in a fantastic version of India.

Ok, thanks.

[johnny jessup]

Erik Mona wrote:

Which one is your favorite so far?

The Anubis Murders by Gary Gygax
City of the Beast by Michael Moorcock
Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore
Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner
The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett
Northwest of Earth by C. L. Moore
Almuric by Robert E. Howard
Lord of the Spiders by Michael Moorcock
The Samarkand Solution by Gary Gygax

impossible to pick just one but if i REALLY have to...'black god's kiss'