Customer Reviews

Under the Moons of Mars (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Under the Moons of Mars" collects the trilogy that opens up the Martian series of Edgar Rice Burroughs. While better known for the creation of Tarzan, many fans of ERB feel that the John Carter books are even better. Besides, from Lin Carter's Green Star series to John Norman's Gor novels, it was John Carter's first appearance in "A Princess of Mars" that has inspired other adventures of men from Earth traveling to strange new worlds for wondrous adventures. This volume includes both that first novel and "The Gods of Mars" and "The Warlord of Mars," telling the story of how John Carter, a cavalier of Virginia, came to the planet called Barsoom by its natives.

Originally published as "Under the Moons of Mars" in "The All-Story Magazine" in 1912, "A Princess of Mars" has John Carter dying in an Arizona cave, only to find his spirit looking down at his body. Opening his arms to the planet Mars, Carter is suddenly whisked to the Red Planet, where rival tribes battle while the planet's atmosphere continues to dissipate. Captured by a band of green six-limbed giants, Carter soon earns their respect for his prowess as a warrior and forges a lasting friendship with Tars Taras of the Tharks. But then the Tharks attack a fleet of airborne vessels and capture Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium, the greatest city on Barsoom. Of course, they get off on the wrong foot, since Carter knows nothing about the culture of the red humanoid race. But the lovely Princess of Mars has captured the Virginian's heart. Abandoning dreams of returning to Earth, he wants nothing better than to win her love. In the meanwhile, he has to protect her from the amorous attention of the depraved ruler of the Tharks, bring some semblance of civilization to the barbarian tribes, and stop all out war between the green men and red men from ending Barsoom's last chance for survival.

After the first novel, Carter finds himself back on earth, separated from his beloved princess. "The Gods of Mars," originally published in 1913 as a serial in "All-Story Magazine," finds John Carter returning to Mars and setting off to find his woman. Knowing there stories were originally published serials is useful because Burroughs loads on the cliffhangers throughout the novel. When Carter returns to Barsoom a decade has passed and he finds himself in that part of the planet that the natives consider to be "heaven," which proves to be a more ironic idea. Carter has to reunite with his friend the fierce green warrior Tars Tarkas, fight with the great white apes of Barsoom and plant men, violate some significant religious taboos, survive the affections of an evil goddess, help with a slave revolt, fight in an arena, and still save Dejah Thoris in the middle of a giant air battle between the red, green, black and white people of Barsoom.

Burroughs did not originally intended to write a trilogy, but his 1914 pulp novel "The Warlord of Mars" completes the epic saga of John Carter and Dejah Thoris (I really, really like that name). The story picks up six months after the conclusion of the previous novel, with our hero not knowing whether she is dead or alive in the Temple of the Sun of the Holy Therns where he last saw here with the blade of Phaidor was descending towards her heart as the evil Issus, queen of the First Born, had locked his mate in a cell that would not open for another year. However, it turns out that the exiled leader of the Therns has reached the trapped women to rescue his daughter and to seek revenge on Carter for exposing his evil cult. The focus of "The Warlord of Mars" is on Carter's relentless pursuit of the villainous Thurid who have taken his beloved princess from the south pole of Barsoom across rivers, desert, jungles, and ice to the forbidden lands of the north in the city of Kadabra where the combined armies of the green, red and black races attack the yellow tribes of the north, thereby justifying the book's title.

The first novel is the best of the bunch, introducing us to the diverse cultures of Barsoom, but there is some historical significance to the John Carter trilogy in terms of the development of science fiction (which was not even called that when Burroughs wrote these stories). The pattern established in each of these novels, where the hero pursues his beloved across an alien landscape rescuing her from one threat after another, would become the standard plot of ERB's pulp fiction adventures. Almost all of the eleven books in the Martian series follow this pattern, including the next pair, which tell the stories of the son and daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. However, the best in yet to come in this series (i.e., "The Chessmen of Mars"). Burroughs always provided a solid mix of romance and adventure, but the Martian series also showed him at his imaginative best.

If you've never read ERB, this is the place to start. Collected here are the first 3 books of the John Carter series, his best work in my opinion.

Fun, fast-paced, always entertaining adventure on Barsoom! ERB had as much influence on later sci-fi writers (from Heinlein to Farmer and beyond) as Verne, Wells or any other writer. Forget the critics, just pick up the John Carter series, and enjoy a new favorite.

This book contains the first three books in Edgar Rice Burroughs "Mars" series of novels. The hero, John Carter, is Burroughs' second most famous creation. Carter is a perpetually 30 year old Civil War veteran (Confederate) who inexplicably transports to Mars. He has thrilling adventures with various races of Martians and meets his true love, red Martian Dejah Thoris. These are very exciting stories, although the "science" in the science fiction is incredibly dated now. But if you are interested in early science fiction, you should give it a read.

If you like Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian, Dune or Avatar you'll probably have a blast reading this one. A little simplistic at times, the action and adventure more than make up for it. Only real complaint is the poor illustrations ( the book deserves far better ) but there are only 3 or 4 crappy interior drawings anyway ... the cover is good, if you like green alien creatures, muscular swordsmen and nearly-naked Martian babes. Still a fun read, and definitely a "guy thing". Once the Disney movie comes out, you may wish you read the book first.

For some reason I always find myself associating Burroughs with John Carter more than Tarzan. Maybe it's because I like SF as a genre more or because Tarzan seems like one of those iconic characters that has been in existence for so long and been so engrained that you forget that someone had to actually come up with him. It's easy to see where John Carter comes from. Virginia, of course. Oh, this is going to be one of those droll reviews.

The basic concept of the series is so simple that only someone with a genius touch of inspiration could have actually made it work properly so that people today still care about it. John Carter is a former soldier who by some strange "science" (*cough*magic*cough*) winds up on Mars. But instead of doing what most people would do on Mars, which is suffocate immediately, he discovers a strange savage land populated by strange, savage people who happen to be right up his alley. In the process of discovering the facets of this strange new world, he has adventures and makes new friends and uncovers mysteries that were never meant to be uncovered, as well as a racking up a body count that Rambo would tip a bandolier to. There, now I've just described the plots of at least the first three books. So why the heck is this even worth reading?

Why? Mostly because it's grand fun. In terms of voice and personality, Carter is set from the start . . . he's brave and clever and straightforward and honorable, human enough to make mistakes but superman enough to slaughter hordes of people in ways that would make jaded adults and children cheer with glee at his triumphs. He narrates his own adventures and in a lot of ways he's discovering this world at the same time we are, which gives it a certain thrill because neither he nor us never really knows what is around the next corner.

It helps that Burroughs created Mars (or made it up as he went along) to be an impressively fascinating place. There's a doomed grandeur to it, the civilizations faded to the point where you can catch some of their gilded magnificence, the world populated by races all carrying varying degrees of honor and danger. You have red men and green men (and eventually white men, yellow men, and black men) as well as scary giant apes and beasts of burden and airships and great cities and factories that manufacture air and death traps until it seems like no matter where John Carter goes, something awesome is waiting for him. Basically, it's Earth turned up to eleven, where the dangers are more extreme, friendships are unbreakable loyalties that last a lifetime, romances light up the sky and every battle seems to turn into a grand melee the likes of which history has never seen. John Carter, of course, fits right in.

The first novel, "Princess of Mars" sets the ground rules and anyone expecting to see Captain Science at some point enter the building best leave that hope behind because the only reason we know we're on Mars is because the soil is red and we're told that's where he is (the two moons in the sky are a hint, too). The lesser gravity of Mars turns John Carter into a super-fighter, which is useful because Mars turns out to be an episode of the "Itchy and Scratchy Show" that never ends, where a thirst for battle is one that can never be truly quenched. So he runs through a variety of locales and winds up swinging a sword into nearly everyone while trying to figure out how this planet works on the fly. This endears him to Dejah Thoris, who becomes the love of his life, though he refuses to get all mushy about it. Because he's a fighting man, you see and romances like a man does. Anyone who thought DC Comics' "Adam Strange" was at all original may want to check out here.

My favorite is actually the second novel, "Gods of Mars" where he finds out what happens when Martians die. If they aren't run through with cold steel first, they travel down a river to their presumed heaven, to live out an eternity that probably involves more fighting. Except this isn't the case and Burroughs seems to take great glee in throwing situation after situation at his hero while upending almost everything we were told during the first book. He even surprised me by turning the difference between the lengths of Mars' and Earth's years into a plot point, when I initially thought he wasn't even fact-checking. The gradual unpeeling of the mysteries starts to become reminiscent of "Wait, one more thing . . ." but there's actual charm to be it because everyone in the novel is as surprised as we are. Dramatic irony hadn't been invented yet, perhaps.

"Warlords of Mars" is more of the same and more of a direct sequel to the last novel. It remains a highly enjoyable ride, but the seams show a bit more as Carter has to race across the planet to catch up to the people who kidnapped his love. This makes the scenes a little repetitive because it's more or less the same setup until it's done but he does manage to keep the thrills and dangers steady.

Any complaints about the series have more to do with the nature of pulp fiction at the time than anything else. For one, you need a high tolerance for bombast, as everyone tends to be speak in a highly dramatic fashion to the point where asking for a glass of water seems epic. Also, and this is just me, but it seems like nobody can ever answer a question in a "yes" or "no" fashion . . . at one point Carter asks one of the black pirates if he can swim and his answer is like half a paragraph long. And they all do it! The need to have a cliffhanger in almost every chapter requires people to fall unconscious or take a nap often enough to justify taking the break. The nature of the prose wouldn't tend to lend itself to nuance but his descriptions are actually quite rich, with an occasional nice eye for surprising details (I liked Carter noting how a vicious expressions looks so much more out of place on a pretty face).

But that's about it. Unless you're completely allergic to this kind of material (in which case nothing I say here will make any kind of difference) you really can't go wrong with this. It has action and adventure and chills and thrills and romance and monsters and women. Even its attitudes aren't as quaint as I suspected they might be (all the races, no matter the color are given more or less equal footing, and women are more than just swooning types meant to be captured over and over) and Carter winds up being a true hero. Yeah, it's not deep but it's not meant to be. But whether Burroughs intended for it to or not, it resonates, long after the other bare chested sword swinging champions have all faded into the pulp that they sprang from.

First, let's make this clear: I gave the book one star not for the content, which is actually good, but rather for the fact that it is actually not a stand-alone novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is a compilation of The Princess of Mars, The God of Mars and Warlord of Mars. Unfortunately, to the untrained eye, this title may seem to be a novel on its own, so I bought it and found upon receiving it that I already owned these stories...

Amazon has a return policy but since the official reason for this order is my mistake (there is no "duh one couldn't know just by the title that is was a duplicate in the scroll-down menu) I have to absorb the shipping fees, and since I live in Canada I have to ship it to the US which ends up costing me more than the refund I would get... Oh well...

Long story short this book is a compilation so if you don't already own the first three short novels of John Carter of Mars go ahead and buy it but otherwise don't be fooled by the title!