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A review by clockless
Llana of Gathol by Edgar Rice Burroughs
3.0
It's possible that letting a somewhat random process choose which book I read has done me a disservice in this instance. Normally, I'd put aside books from a series until I have read the previous ones, but sometimes I get a sense that the story is less serialized, and that letting myself skip ahead a little won't be a big deal. Starting the Barsoom series at #10 couldn't be so bad, right?
Well. Reading through other reviewers who described this as a satire has fixed a lot of problems I had with the stories here. For one, they are all exactly the same. If ERB was consciously parodying himself, that would explain it. Coming in without knowing his style whatsoever makes it difficult to enjoy a parody the way it was intended. With this in mind, I'll refrain from overanalyzing the text. I still can't give it a higher rating, as I really can't say that I enjoyed it, but I dug this pit, the least I can do is stand in it.
It may be that by reading this I have made it impossible to ever enjoy another book from this series. That would be a shame. One thing I did appreciate was Burroughs commitment to world-building, and it would be nice to someday go back and get a good sense of the rest of this world.
Well. Reading through other reviewers who described this as a satire has fixed a lot of problems I had with the stories here. For one, they are all exactly the same. If ERB was consciously parodying himself, that would explain it. Coming in without knowing his style whatsoever makes it difficult to enjoy a parody the way it was intended. With this in mind, I'll refrain from overanalyzing the text. I still can't give it a higher rating, as I really can't say that I enjoyed it, but I dug this pit, the least I can do is stand in it.
It may be that by reading this I have made it impossible to ever enjoy another book from this series. That would be a shame. One thing I did appreciate was Burroughs commitment to world-building, and it would be nice to someday go back and get a good sense of the rest of this world.