Tag Archives: sci fi

I just watched the movie John Carter in that annoying 3D with my wife this weekend.  I must say it was very entertaining and the special effects were oustanding.  On the downside, the overall plot is muddled because it is a combination of three books, not one.  This is a typical Hollywood problem as in Master and Commander which took liberally from 21 books by O’Brien, making a real sequel difficult, and confusing the storyline.  There was also a problem with the casting of one of the good guys who looks just like the twin of the main bad guy.  Luckily, most everthing else works, and the good guys and bad guys are clear and the love story is overwhelmingly clear, so the rest is not too bad.  I love the new four armed creatures, and especially woola, who plays the Martian dog.  Since I love dogs, he was my favorite character.

But the purpose of this post is not to review John Carter, but because of a comment my wife made after we saw it.  She told me, “I didn’t realize Edgar Rice Burroughs did this.”  Not only that, I pointed out, but he did it a LONG time ago.  In fact, Princess of Mars was written in 1912!  Burroughs was born in 1875 and died in 1950.  He is one of the most prolific American sci-fi writers in history, and he did it back when things were running on steam.  Electricity and gasoline were just being discovered.  Flight was just being discovered.  The man was amazing, truly up there with Jules Verne and HG Wells.  So this is an homage to Burroughs, a man I hope to emulate in some small fashion with my own sci-fi adventure books.  I think a list of his works will speak for themselves.   Just remember when you watch John Carter – it was written by someone in 1912…

Barsoom series

• The Gods of Mars (1914)
• The Warlord of Mars (1918)
• Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)
• The Chessmen of Mars (1922)
• The Master Mind of Mars (1928)
• A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)
• Swords of Mars (1936)
• Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)
• Llana of Gathol (1948)
• John Carter of Mars(1964)
  • “John Carter and the Giant of Mars” (1940) Actually written by Burroughs’s son, John Coleman Burroughs.
  • “Skeleton Men of Jupiter” (1942)

Tarzan series

• Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
• The Return of Tarzan (1913)
• The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)
• The Son of Tarzan (1914)
• Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
• Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1916, 1917)
• Tarzan the Untamed (1919, 1921)
• Tarzan the Terrible (1921)
• Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922, 1923)
• Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)
• Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927, 1928)
• Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928)
• Tarzan at the Earth’s Core (1929)
• Tarzan the Invincible (1930-1931)
• Tarzan Triumphant (1931)
• Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)
• Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933, 1934)
• Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935)
• Tarzan’s Quest (1935, 1936)
• Tarzan the Magnificent (1936, 1937)
• Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
• Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)
• Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963, for younger readers)
• Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
• Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)
• Tarzan: the Lost Adventure

Pellucidar series

• At the Earth’s Core (1914)
• Pellucidar (1923)
• Tanar of Pellucidar (1928)
• Tarzan at the Earth’s Core (1929)
• Back to the Stone Age (1937)
• Land of Terror (1944)
• Savage Pellucidar (1963)

Venus series

• Lost on Venus (1935)
• Carson of Venus (1939)
• Escape on Venus (1946)
• The Wizard of Venus (1970)

Caspak series

• The Land That Time Forgot (1918)
• The People That Time Forgot (1918)
• Out of Time’s Abyss (1918)

Moon series

• The Moon Maid (1926) (aka The Moon Men)
  • Part I: The Moon Maid
  • Part II: The Moon Men
  • Part III: The Red Hawk

These three texts have been published by various houses in one or two volumes. Adding to the confusion, some editions have the original (significantly longer) introduction to Part I from the first publication as a magazine serial, and others have the shorter version from the first book publication, which included all three parts under the title The Moon Maid.^[13]

Mucker series

• The Mucker (1914) (Project Gutenberg
• The Return of the Mucker (1916) (Project Gutenberg
• The Oakdale Affair (1917) (Project Gutenberg

Other science fiction

• Beyond the Farthest Star (1941)
• The Lost Continent (1916) (aka Beyond Thirty)
• The Monster Men (1929)
• The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw (1937)

Jungle adventure novels

• The Man-Eater (1915)
• The Cave Girl (1925)
• The Eternal Lover (1925) (aka The Eternal Savage)
• Jungle Girl (1932) (aka Land of the Hidden Men)
• The Lad and the Lion (1938)

Western novels

• Apache Devil (1933)
• The Bandit of Hell’s Bend (1926)
• The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County (1940)
• The War Chief (1927)

G-Force series

• G-Force (1944)
• Requiem for the Nation (1948)
• Leonard Saber Strikes Back (1956, posthumous)

Historical novels

• I am a Barbarian (1967)
• The Outlaw of Torn (1927)

Other works

• The Efficiency Expert (1921)
• Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (2001)
• The Girl from Farris’s (1916)
• The Girl from Hollywood (1923)
• The Mad King (1926)
• Marcia of the Doorstep (1999)
• Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M (1998)
• Pirate Blood (1970)
• The Rider (1937)
• You Lucky Girl! (1999)

As I said, what a body of work!  Awesome job Edgar Rice Burroughs, you are still bringing joy and wonder to audiences a hundred years later.  Well done indeed.