Books Monthly Volume 13 No. 11 | August 2011 | Welcome to booksmonthly.co.uk - I hope you enjoy your visit.

Edgar Rice Burroughs's Classic Martian series

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A GRAPHICS-INTENSIVE PAGE - PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILST THE IMAGES LOAD!

This Purple Rose book is a collection of the first five stories in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series: A Princess of Mars (1917), The Gods of Mars (1918), The Warlord of Mars (1919), Thuvia, Maid of Mars(1920) and The Chessmen of Mars (1922). It contains all of the original frontispieces by Frank E. Schoonover and J. Allen St. John, enhanced and enlarged and is a high quality book with clear formatting and detailed contents. John Carter is the hero of Burroughs’ Barsoom series. He first appeared in Under the Moons of Mars(later retitled A Princess of Mars) the story which catapaulted Burroughs into the limelight. It was the first of many novels and several sequels followed over the next three decades, further extending Burroughs’ vision of Barsoom. This new book is reviewed on the Adult Fiction page.

2012 sees the centenary of the publication of EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS' very first book, in serial form, ALL-STORY magazine. Although TARZAN OF THE APES was his first published book, A PRINCESS OF MARS, which was originally published under the title UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS, first saw the light of day in 1912. It's fitting, therefore, that the first film, which will be out on 9th March next year, and called simply JOHN CARTER, celebrates that centenary. Most people dismiss Burroughs as a serious writer because of Tarzan, and that is because there has never been a decent Tarzan film. Because of Tarzan, which itself is a thoroughly decent and well-written adventure-romance, readers pass him by, thinking of him as just a pulp-fiction writer from the early years of the last century. In fact, those of who were brought up with and are familiar with his many published works, have known for some time that ERB, as he is affectionately known, was the father of science fiction and fantasy in the modern era.

Open a STEPHEN KING or a RAY BRADBURY novel and the chances are you may find an introduction that cites Burroughs as one of their strongest literary influences. Watch an INDIANA JONES movie and you'll experience what's known in the business as a cliffhanger. Burroughs invented this device in literary terms, and it's not the only thing he was responsible for. Sure, there were science fiction writers before Burroughs, e.g. JULES VERNE and H G WELLS. But they were not the precursors of what we think of today as SF or Fantasy - they were extremely technical in nature, stilted in their prose styles, and more akin to the blossoming novels of the 19th century. People still read Verne and Wells, and quite rightly, but they are not what inspired the writers of the SF, fantasy and sword and sorcery genres we are familiar with today.

Burroughs wrote about Mars at a time when the world didn't know nearly as much about the solar system as we do today. Percival Lowell, the astronomer, was convinced that the straight lines he saw on Mars were evidence of canals, and therefore civilisation. It doesn't matter that he was wrong, and that as far as we know, Mars was never ever inhabited. (We don't know that for sure even now, but we'll let that pass). Burroughs wrote what is now called a planetary romance. I can't think of a single book by Burroughs that doesn't have a romantic element. But for me, A PRINCESS OF MARS has many more elements in it than just romance. In it, he creates a world filled with wondrous creatures, fabulous spacecraft, elaborate weaponry, and as complete a catalogue of unique flora and fauna as you could wish for. The humans are born from eggs, while the other creatures give birth to live young. It's original, and it's sensationally good.

Unlike any of Burroughs' other series, the Martian series takes three whole books to resolve the romance and corresponding union between John Carter and the Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris. It's done so that you want to read more, and subsequently have to buy the next two volumes, just to find out what happens. Nowadays the there books, which are all quite short, would be combined into one volume. Six- and seven-hundred page fantasy books are the norm nowadays. In Burroughs' day, they would have been split into two or three volumes, and you'd be hooked quite early on. Over the years, many famous illustrators have turned their hands to the fabulous worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and there are plenty of fantastic paintings and illustrations for the Martian series, by such brilliant artists as BORIS VALLEJO, FRANK FRAZETTA, JOE KUBERT (DC Comics), J ALLEN ST JOHN, FRANK SCHOONOVER, ROY KRENKEL, REED CRANDALL, and many, many more, all inspired by the unique and ground-breaking literary visions of the grandfather of pulp fiction.

Don't let the epithet "pulp fiction" fool you. It sold millions of copies of magazines and books in the inter-war years, and I can't remember the Martian series ever being out of print. There is a dazzling array of editions available, some of which I've put in the left column. Expect a whole new series of books and JC merchandise to accompany this film, but in the meantime you could do worse than read the excellent new edition from English Rose Publishing which is shown at the top of this page. The thing about Burroughs' books is that "what you see is what you get". Those fabulous creatures, those beautiful half-naked women - they really are in the books, and the books really do provide the inspiration for modern sword and sorcery romances. Burroughs was a pioneer of popular fiction, and the Martian series is his finest work. Now's your chance to read this sensational series before the film comes out - and find out what we ERB fans have been trying to tell you all this time!

At the bottom of this page you can see a series of stills I grabbed from the trailer - you'll find a link to the trailer on the home page. You should also be aware that Sky TV already has a PRINCESS OF MARS series going - it looks dire and won't make anyone want to read the books. You can find out all you need to know about the series, which is surely just a joke, on the ELDER GEEK site, here: Mockbuster PRINCESS OF MARS...

The Andrew Stanton movie has a look and feel about it very much in keeping with Burroughs' time, and a style that is reminiscent of THE TIME MACHINE (the original version). I've been an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan for as long as I can remember, and at age fourteen I had every TARZAN book there was to have, along with an enormous collection of Tarzan comics. I came to the Martian series somewhat later. I was working in the public library service when a colleague recommended A PRINCESS OF MARS to me. At first  dismissed it, thinking that it couldn't possibly be serious science fiction. It isn't pure science fiction, of course, it's a planetary romance. But I stuck with it, and discovered that it was really quite good. I remember the first edition I read - it was one of those FOUR SQUARE editions, predominantly green. I no longer have it, unfortunately, but I do have other versions, and I wouldn't be without them - they are an integral part of my Burroughs collection, a collection I'm proud to own. One final word on Burroughs - the last five years has seen Penguin Classics publish their own editions of TARZAN OF THE APES, THE RETURN OF TARZAN, and A PRINCESS OF MARS. It's taken them nearly a hundred years to realise that Burroughs is a serious writer, a writer of classic stories that deserve to up there with Wells, and with Dickens, and with Bronte and Austen. It was worth the wait. I sincerely believe the wait for the first John Carter film will also be worth it.

As you might expect, the comic book world has already released a series of John Carter related material, with DYNAMITE leading the way with their WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS series.  This series is written by Arvid Nelson and is illustrated by Stephen (Avengers/Invaders) Sadowski and Lui Antonio, and features covers by Alex Ross, Joe Jusko, Lucio Parillo, and J. Scott Campbell! "We're trying to stay as true to the spirit of the originals as possible," says writer Arvid Nelson.  "The novels are told as the "memoirs" of John Carter, the main character, and the comics will be told the same way.  I think Mars is going to be something really special. We're doing this adaptation the right way, and I'm so excited for people to read it!" "This is a project that we've been working on for quite a bit," says Dynamite Entertainment President Nick Barrucci.  "We plan to capture all the grit and action of the original, while expanding the story with brand-new elements, exploring the back story and earlier events of this classic tale!

Here are some of the staggeringly beautiful illustrations from this new series, the trade hardback versions of which should be available in the late autumn of this year:

Spinning off from the incredibly successful Dynamite Entertainment Warlord of Mars series, Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris #1 arrived in the comic book stores in March 2011! Martians live forever -- everyone knows that. So what was Dejah Thoris doing all those hundreds of years before John Carter arrived? Four hundred years before the events of Warlord of Mars took place, Dejah's nation of Helium was divided into two warring city-states. An unscrupulous overlord from afar encouraged that rivalry to his own advantage, until he discovered a terrible secret from Mars' ancient past beneath Dejah Thoris' capital. A secret to kill for!" Burroughs left so many tantalizing breadcrumb trails in the first few Mars novels, but he never followed most of them," says writer Arvid Nelson.  "This series is going to follow some of those trails. We're going to see how Dejah Thoris' kingdom of Helium rose to preeminence. We're going to see her first suitor. And we're going to see Dejah herself kick some ass. She's a great character, totally deserving of her own series. It's great having her in a more active role."

For further information on John Carter and all things ERB-related, head over to ERBZINE - it's the Wikipedia of Edgar Rice Burroughs! In the meantime please scroll down for more great John Carter images, including some stills from the trailer...

In the next issue of Books Monthly, a gallery of all the John Carter and Dejah Thoris comic book covers I can find - and there seem to be quite a few!

Books Monthly is published by Paul Edmund Norman on the first day of each month. Web design is by Gateway. Submitting to Books Monthly: Basically, all you need do is e-mail it along and I'll consider it - it can be any length, if it's very long I'll serialise it, if it's medium-length I'll put it in as a novella, if it's a short story or a feature article it will go in as it comes. Payment is zero, I'm afraid, as I don't make any money from Books Monthly, I do it all for fun! For Advertising rates in Books Monthly please contact me at paulenorman@yahoo.co.uk. Should you be kind enough to want to send me books to review, please contact me by e-mail and I will gladly forward you my home address. Meanwhile, here's how to contact me: paulenorman@yahoo.co.uk