Take a photo of a barcode or cover
neumannzee 's review for:
A Princess of Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
So, A Princess of Mars really is all that. I recall reading most of this book while in high school, then stopping for a reason I cannot recall. Having just read it again properly, I can see why A Princess of Mars is considered the grand daddy of all pulp stories.
It rocks.
Burroughs was a pencil sharpener salesman before he got to work on writing this book, his first. It was serialized in pulp magazines in 1912, and collected into a single edition in 1917. He even changed his pen name to 'Normal Bean' because he thought the story would be too 'out there' for most readers, and he wanted to assure them that he was, in fact, just a normal dude.
But normal he certainly wasn't. He was exceptional, and 80 novels later he can be directly attributed with starting a lot of story trends that people take for granted. Visitor from another world gets abnormally strong? It's not Superman, it's John Carter. Hunting for treasure in a lost city? It's not Indiana Jones, it's Tarzan. The list goes on and on.
Getting back to A Princess From Mars, this is a great introduction to pulp stories, as the action and intrigue both flow very smoothly throughout the book, and it makes for a very enjoyable read. Besides John Carter, we meet some famous pulp characters such as Sola and the Green Martians, Dejah Thoris and the Red Martians, and Woola, a sort of alien pit bull companion.
If you want to know where 20th century adventure storytelling started, and essentially where the Hollywood formula began, check out A Princess of Mars. It's finally time for you to visit the red planet.
It rocks.
Burroughs was a pencil sharpener salesman before he got to work on writing this book, his first. It was serialized in pulp magazines in 1912, and collected into a single edition in 1917. He even changed his pen name to 'Normal Bean' because he thought the story would be too 'out there' for most readers, and he wanted to assure them that he was, in fact, just a normal dude.
But normal he certainly wasn't. He was exceptional, and 80 novels later he can be directly attributed with starting a lot of story trends that people take for granted. Visitor from another world gets abnormally strong? It's not Superman, it's John Carter. Hunting for treasure in a lost city? It's not Indiana Jones, it's Tarzan. The list goes on and on.
Getting back to A Princess From Mars, this is a great introduction to pulp stories, as the action and intrigue both flow very smoothly throughout the book, and it makes for a very enjoyable read. Besides John Carter, we meet some famous pulp characters such as Sola and the Green Martians, Dejah Thoris and the Red Martians, and Woola, a sort of alien pit bull companion.
If you want to know where 20th century adventure storytelling started, and essentially where the Hollywood formula began, check out A Princess of Mars. It's finally time for you to visit the red planet.