#Barsoom sailbarges full#
#Barsoom sailbarges series#

The film of course had to come up with a better excuse than that. He is trapped in a cave by hostile forces, when he wishes himself, pretty much, to Mars, the god of his profession. John Carter, a soldier (Civil War veteran), mercenary, and apparently occasional miner, begins on Earth. And to prepare it seemed that, fifty years after having first encountered Barsoom through books, it was worth giving at least some of the books a second look. Good, bad or mediocre, this was must-see territory. So one might imagine the anticipation bubbling up when I learned that a film was in the offing. Reading ERB as a kid was one of the best things about being a kid.

I followed the adventures of John Carter the way readers of a certain detective followed his exploits in issues of The Strand. Prime among the treasures to be found in those bags were the Barsoom novels of ERB. This was the way I got one of my first scents of the lifetime of reading that awaited. Lift the treasure to your nose and inhale deeply. I remember the glee I felt when a parcel would arrive, the soft packaging that sprinkled to the floor if you opened the pull-tag a little too energetically. Wells, Robert Heinlein, Jules Verne, and plenty more from that gang of idiots. Of course there were others, all vying for my immature attention, Arthur C. And the brazen hussy that led me down that path was none other than Edgar Rice Burroughs. Not with a girl, (well, there were one or two cracks opened in that young heart, but we do not speak of that now) but with reading. Clarke, Isaac Asimov Some years back David Bowie asked the musical question, 'Is there life on Mars?' Had he read A Princess of Mars he might have known the answer.Д«ack in the early 60вЂ™s I fell in love. Some years back David Bowie asked the musical question, 'Is there life on Mars?' Had he read A Princess of Mars he might have known the answer.

#Barsoom sailbarges series#

The series was also inspirational for many scientists in the fields of space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life, including Carl Sagan, who read A Princess of Mars when he was a child.more The Barsoom series inspired a number of well-known 20th-century science fiction writers, including Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. This vision of Mars was based on the work of the astronomer Percival Lowell, whose ideas were widely popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The story is set on Mars, imagined as a dying planet with a harsh desert environment. Its early chapters also contain elements of the Western. It is also a seminal instance of the planetary romance, a sub-genre of science fantasy that became highly popular in the decades following its publication.

#Barsoom sailbarges full#

Full of swordplay and daring feats, the novel is considered a classic example of 20th-century pulp fiction. A Princess of Mars (1917) is a science fantasy novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of his Barsoom series.