Customer Reviews

The Moon Maid: Complete and Restored (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)

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The Moon Maid: Complete And Restored is a classic pulp-magazine saga of the late Edgar Rice Burroughs' science fiction adventure hero Julian the 5th whose destiny is to be reincarnated again and again, until he can lead mankind's fight for freedom against vicious alien oppressors from the moon. An engaging science fiction odyssey by the celebrated creator of Tarzan, The Moon Maid includes countless passages, sentences, and words originally removed from the magazine edition and/or added later by the author. Enhanced with an brief but informative introduction by Terry Bison, this superbly presented Bison Press edition of The Moon Maid is a "must-read" and "must-have" for the legions of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans everywhere!

I've had ERB's Moon series sitting on my shelf for quite some time, and only now got around to reading them; shame on me. The story is about a Captain in the International Peace Fleet named Julian 5th (seems every male child in this family is named Julian). Captain Julian and four other officers are tasked to fly a new spacecraft to Mars (Barsoom; if you've read ERB's John Carter series, this should ring familiar). Unfortunately, Lieutenant Commander Orthis, one of the travellers, has been harboring a hateful, ongoing jealousy of the successful Julian. Julian, by right of his rank, has been appointed as the mission commander, and this sends Orthis off the deep end. Orthis sabotages the mission, forcing the travellers to make an emergency landing upon the moon. Imagine their surprise, when the craft is pulled through a crater into a whole new world beneath the surface! Much like the "deathless John Carter," Julian is an above-average speciman of the human race, and the environmental differences of the moon only contribute to his superiority. However, ERB caught me off guard in this one; I got too used to John Carter succeeeding and saving the day in every single episode of the Mars series; such does not happen here. Julian 5th is constructed into a tragic hero- his story finalized in book 2 of the Moon series, "The Moon Men." Entertaining light reading, and definately ahead of its time.

This book prints all three books in Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Moon Trilogy". Each of the books tells the story of a different generation of the Julian family.

Part one is the story of Julian 5th, who sets out for Mars, but is forced to land in the Moon when one of his crew sabotages the ship. He has adventures and falls in love with the Moon Maid.

Part two is the story of Julian 9th, who lives on the Earth after it has been conquered by Moon Men. He starts a revolution to try to overthrow the Moon Men.

Part three is the story of Julian 20th, who leads the final battle against the Moon Men.

This is an entertaining book, if you are a fan of old fashioned adventure fiction.

The Moon Maid, whether split into the three constituent parts or presented, as here, complete and unabridged, is definitely ERB's most overtly political work. Fearful of pacifism after World War I and nascent communist aggression, ERB (also mindful of communist refusal to pay him due royalties) wrote a story called Under the Red Flag that failed to sell. Not wanting the story to go to waste, he then rewrote it as The Moon Men, the second part of this book, and bookended it with two other tales of the struggle between the men of Earth and the invaders from the Moon. To give continuity to his story, ERB provides for the reincarnation of the primary hero, Julian, who appears in the framing portion as Julian 3rd and then in the stories themselves as Julian 5th, Julian 9th, and Julian 20th--the Red Hawk of the last story. (No last name is given the Julians, though in Under the Red Flag, the surname is James.) Just as brilliant as ERB's presentation of the desolation of two worlds by the (obviously) communist Kalkar menace is the havoc wreaked on the twin families of Julian and his greatest rival, Orthis (later named Or-tis). In this instance though, while our sympathies lie with Julian, in a way, he brings this on the world himself by his insouciant oneupping of his adversary. In simply brilliant fashion, ERB shows both families and two worlds ground to near oblivion by the twin menaces of unbridled jealousy and unchecked Marxist domination. Finally, after many travails, the end of the feud comes about, but it is unclear exactly what good that will do the Earth or the Moon. Appended to the main work are essays by various Burroughs scholars and fans who give their thoughts on this seminal dystopian SF work. I personally regard this dark narrative of a world under socialist utopia as one of ERB's finest works and a worthy addition to my library. Those who read it will almost certainly agree. Just remember, though, SF is a genre simply for fun and escape and has no underlying meaning at all.

I have always regarded Moon Maid and it's sequel as one of Burrough's very good works. Unlike most of his other works evil triumphs temporarily
and adds a sense of pathos to the work. Although the science is outdated it is still a fine read. It's a shame that so few of his works made it to the screen (he is the author of Tarzan) This book was an inspiration for my own novel AMRA

I received this book in a timely manner in excellant condition and packaged acceptably. I would buy from this seller again and I would recommend them to my friends.