Customer Reviews

Synthetic Men of Mars

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Just a quick look at Michael Whelan's great cover art drives home the "Beauty and the Beast" theme. The Beast as depicted is Tor-dur-bar, who is actually just a shell for the mind of Vor Daj, who is the main character. Actually, I guess you could say that the BRAIN of Vor Daj is the main character.

This is where the FRANKENSTEIN part comes in. Vor Daj was trying to win the love of the busty Beauty Janai, but to get near her he had to--with the help of mad scientist Ras Thavas--take the form of an ugly hormad, which is basically what you would get if you tossed a bunch of human body parts off a cliff and hoped they came together correctly.
Vor Daj did this by volunteering to have his brain implanted in the hormad body of Tor-dur-bar.

So now that we have the Beauty and the Beast the story really starts to get rolling, as the Beast would love to reveal his identity to his Beauty, but is afraid of how she might respond to such a hideous truth.

Although the plot takes place primarily in two or three locations, there is still enough to keep one interested. In addition to the Beauty/Beast theme, there is also the menace in Vat 4 . . . but I'm not going to tell you what that is.

John Carter is a character in this book, but it is more of a cameo role for him.

For those that don't know, there are occasionally parallels between The Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs and STAR WARS. In this particular book I was only able to find one parallel:

In the chapter "The Secret of the Marshes" we first meet Tor-dur-bar, who is nothing more than a talking head. This reminded me of C3POs talking head in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. A bit of dialogue further seals this parallel:

"Tor-dur-bar scoffed disgustedly. "'Upstart' indeed! I am the finished product of a million cultures, or more than four million cultures, to be exact."

If that doesn't sound like C3PO rambling about how many languages and dialects he is familiar with, I don't know what does.

But whatever your motive for reading ERB: STAR WARS parallels or the nostalgia of pulp fiction, SYNTHETIC MEN OF MARS is an enjoyable, quick read that will take your mind off this planet earth.