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The Moon Maid

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With Mars now closer to the Earth than it has been for hundreds of thousands of years, some of us are given pause to think about how all the stories of spaceships going to Mars have never really been concerned with the actual logistics involved. Such practical considerations are a minor part of "The Moon Maid," a 1923 pulp fiction yarn from the master of adventure, Edgar Rice Burroughs, in which a spaceship headed for Mars is sabotaged and ends up on the Moon instead. Unlike John Carter, who made his way to Mars simply by raising his open arms to the red planet, the adventures in this story, the first in ERB's Moon trilogy, actually take a spaceship.

It is interesting that Burroughs played a bit more attention to the science in his pulp novel this time around, even in terms of the fanciful Eighth Ray, given that the Moon books are his most political. Burroughs began working on a story, "Under the Red Flag," at end the First World War, which voiced his concerns over the Communist takeover of Russia, albeit in slightly dramatic form. However, with the war over pulp magazine editors were not interested in ERB continuing to fight the war, even in his Tarzan novels. Over the course of the next several years, while he worked on other projects, the prolific Burroughs turned his grim prediction of a world under the yoke of a communistic goverment into a space adventures that would allow him to make the points he felt needed making. After all, the man who created Tarzan was obviously a big believer in personal freedom.

However, the first volume in the trilogy turns out to be a rather standard ERB romantic adventure. "The Moon Maid," originally published in "Argosy All-Story Weekly," is the first book in the Moon trilogy and takes place after the end of the Great War (1914-1967). Captain Julian commands "The Barsoom," the Earth vessel that ends up on the Moon. Once there he and his companions discover flora and fauna, including small horse-like creatures with human features. The title creature is Nah-ee-lah, human type known as U-ga, who comes from the city of Laythe where she is the daughter of it's Jemadar (come on, this is an ERB yarn: you knew she would be royalty). The godless Kalkars prove to be the biggest threat to both Julian's survival and his chance of a romantic relationship with the Moon Maid. The first time around saving the girl becomes the prime objective. Saving the rest of the Moon people from a fate worse than death will happen in the next set of stories, "The Moon Men" and "The Red Hawk" (usually you will find all three combined as "The Moon Men").

The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs is the first book in a series about a world that is inside the moon. The hollow moon in the story has atmosphere and light, plant and animal life. A mighty civilization has crumbled over time, when men from earth discover it by accident. Highlights of the story include a beautiful princess, a hidden city, secret tunnels, and war with centaur like beasts who speak, yet eat men and each other. A nice Burroughs adventure, this is the way they used to make them. This edition has great Roy Krenkel cover art, in the first Ace paperback edition 1962, F-157.

It's all you expect from Burroughs: over-the-top manliness, bold adventure, hot babes with European features, inane romatic misdirections, shambling opponents of the lower races, and all the rest. This time, misadventure lands Julian (Our Hero) on - or rather, in the moon. `S hollow, y'know, but well-lit anyway. This time, Julian brings his nemesis with him in the experimental moon ship. I think this was to make sure there was a proper Earthian bad guy, since you can't trust those silly natives to be evil enough. Despite his treacherous sabotage, Orthis (the bad guy) is spared by Julian's chivalry and sense of fair play. And by the author's need to keep the evil-doer ready at hand, for when Julian runs out of warlike but inept natives to fight.

Of course, the romantic misunderstanding is resolved in the end, leaving one to wonder at the Burroughsian world where princesses seem to drop from the trees like nuts in the fall. Not all is well in the end, though, since we need plenty of setup for the sequel so obviously required.

If this were a movie, I'd say wait for a rainy Saturday and a bucket of popcorn. It's a book, but you get the idea. It's wonderful, bold, and (to a modern reader) more than a little campy.

But I mean that in a nice way.

-- wiredweird

After reading the synopsis I was under the impression that this volume included the Moon Men as well. I was disapointed when I downloaded it and found I was mistaken. I was even more disapointed when I realized I couldn't purchase the second book in the series.