N3: “The Jewel of Bas” by Leigh Brackett

Story Review!

N3: “The Jewel of Bas” by Leigh Brackett

For the “Appendix N” entry in which Gary Gygax recommended Leigh Brackett, he provided no specific titles. In The Best of Leigh Brackett edited by Edmond Hamilton, I found several really interesting stories. For this review I decided to focus on the 50-page short story  “The Jewel of Bas” since the tale contains some unique and bizarre elements.

The Good

*The story began with two sympathetic characters (desperate, starving, and on the run).

*Foreshadowing foretold the answers to the mysteries before they happened.

*I really enjoy the mix of science-fiction and fantasy, which many younger readers of modern fantasy fail to realize even exists; many of the best fantasy stories that helped inspire not only D&D, but future mainstream fantasy fiction, really started as post-apocalyptic science-fiction or stories about the decline of the/a world.

*The antagonist’s philosophy/goals made sense and came across well in the story.

The Bad

*At times, I felt confused about the events unfolding in a scene; while Brackett likely wanted the atmosphere to feel mysterious, I sometimes wanted to understand more about the creatures and actions.
*In my mind, the story deserved fleshing out as a full novel and that extra length might fix the rushed feeling while also providing more background about the world or depth to additional characters.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*When the characters kept getting overpowers and captured, I very much thought about the D&D 2E game I played in back in high school and college.

*Even with the aliens and technology, I easily envisioned classes and stat blocks for all of the characters.

Overall

Reflecting back on the story, I give the work a 6/10 rating and highly recommend checking out additional stories by this author.