Has anyone read "The Star Kings" by Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett ?

[J-Sun]

August 1967.

Oh - I just realized they're both Paperback Libraries - so, yeah, they did change the cover art between the 1st and 2nd printings and you have the 1st and I have the 2nd. All clear now.

By the way, since I've been talking about a book I don't intend to read I thought I'd post it since I already have it stored at Photobucket.

Pretty cool considering it has a Steranko cover.

Is he not a favorite? That is the Return to the Stars that I have, too.

Back on the original and its covers, I'd really like to have this one and this one. Oh, and I found a pic of the back of my copy which illustrates the dual nature of Our Hero. (One of these days I'll make some scans of my own and post them.)

Sorry folks, if this is a little off-topic, or too narrowly on topic. But it's a cool book.

 

[dask]

I'll tell ya, if I was walking past a parked car with the window rolled down and saw that Amazing just lying there and nobody was looking...

That hardback is new to me. Looks okay but anyone of our two paperbacks is better.

 

[dask]

Finally got my new printer/scanner up and running and thought I'd take it out for a spin. Unfortunately, the smallest file I can make is 100 dpi while my old Canon could shrink 'em down to 75. Don't really like these monstrous images but if you want a better look you can always zoom down to 75% or so. Anyway, these are the installments making up RETURN TO THE STARS that I have. If anyone knows of any others I'd appreciate hearing about it.

 

[dask]

Here's another cover from November 1981.

 

[J-Sun]

Another convert! (Kanvert? ) Pretty cool writeup from someone enjoying The Star Kings.

 

[BAYLOR]

Here's another cover from November 1981.

Ive seen that edition , long long ago.

I have one novel by Edmond Hamilton Doom Star .

 

[Extollager]

Has anyone read Hamilton's The Star of Life and, if so, liked it? Comments?

I ask because I think it's one of the first sf books I ever owned, something that was passed to me by family friends, and I must have read at least some of it... I don't know what happened to this coverless book... It would have been an SF Book Club edition, I suppose. If it's good, maybe I ought to track down a copy as part of my current project of reading again the earliest books (like Keith Laumer's The Invaders) in my sf and fantasy reading career.

https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/537466/page-5#post-1937097

 

[dask]

I read it very early in my sf existence. Here's my copy, and you're correct, it is a Book Club Edition:



Some guy frozen in space or something comes back to life. Can't remember too much about it except I enjoyed it but as with City At World's End (and a few others), tended to slip into formula towards the end.

 

[Extollager]

Thanks, Dask.

 

[Zendexor]

It's a fantastic classic sci-fi book and seems almost forgotten. A while ago one could only get the novel from used bookstores. Now it's back in print and also available at Amazon. There's also a sequel but it doesn't come close in my opinion...

Any fans of this author around?

I am definitely a Hamilton fan. In the days before the Internet I used to get a bookseller in the US to keep an eye open for any magazines with Hamilton stories in them for me. I bought quite a few over the years, as well as just about all of the novels.
Hamilton had a 50-year-long writing career and during that period I think he broadly speaking went through three styles.
The first period is when he produced over-written verbose stuff like "The Hidden World" which have great imagery and ideas but are a bit exhausting to read because of the style.
Then comes a period from the mid to late thirties to the late forties, maybe, when he produced colourful well-written swashbuckling romps through space - "The Free-Lance of Space" etc. Including his Captain Future stuff. Great fun to read.
Then from the fifties onwards we get his mature masterpieces which blend the vividness of his earlier work with more sophistication and economy of writing. Many of these are novellas - "Thunder World", "World of Never-Men", etc. Many are novels - City at World's End, The Haunted Stars etc, culminating in the Starwolf trilogy which I regard as his greatest work.

 

[dask]

Right on!

 

[BAYLOR]

I finished Hamilton's book Doomstar I liked it .

 

[Zendexor]

I finished Hamilton's book Doomstar I liked it .

I liked Doomstar more the second time I read it. Fugitive of the Stars and The Star of Life are also worth many reads.

 

[BAYLOR]

I liked Doomstar more the second time I read it. Fugitive of the Stars and The Star of Life are also worth many reads.

Doomstar is the first book I've ever read by Hamilton. I found my copy in a used bookstore. I picked it up on a whim and Im glad I did.

 

[dask]

Fugitive Of The Stars was great. Haven't read Doomstar yet.

 

[Zarth Arn]

Read Star Kings in late '50s and it Is one of my favorite books. I even wanted to name my son Zarth Arn, but my wife wouldn't let me, and neither would my 2nd wife let me name my next son that. I have been trying, with no success, to find the artist of the hardcover of the book I read (and which I still have)!

 

[dask]

Should have suggested John Gordon.

 

[Mark_Harbinger]

This one's outside my experience. But, when I first saw this thread, I thought it was about the heroes of this half of a 1960s Ace Double I really like:

...anybody?

 

[dask]

Got it but unfortunately haven’t read it. Hope to remedy that in the near future. Been thinking about devoting a whole year to Ace Doubles.

 

[psikeyhackr]

This one's outside my experience. But, when I first saw this thread, I thought it was about the heroes of this half of a 1960s Ace Double I really like:

...anybody?

An African American SF writer.

I read that and his Age of Ruin.

It is curious that Mack Reynolds published Black Man's Burden and I bet he couldn't have gotten it published back then.