John Carter of Mars Vol. 6: John Carter & the Giants of Mars and Skeleton Men of Jupiter [Hardcover]

[NO SPOILERS]

With this 11th book, Edgar Rice Burroughs concludes the adventures of John Carter, Prince of Helium (Mars).

But unlike the other 10 books, we see that this volume is different in many ways . . . and some changes were not for the best.

The first shock comes in learning that this volume actually contains two shorter adventures of John Carter.
The second shock comes in learning that one of these finds John Carter on the planet Jupiter.
The final shock comes in the realization that one of these stories was not penned by ERB, but by someone else!

JOHN CARTER AND THE GIANT OF MARS

From the very first chapter it is obvious that something is amiss. The writing style comes across as being decidedly off, possessing a quality of wrongness to it. For one, the action moves far too fast, even for a John Carter story. The very first chapter is a mere 4 pages, but a great deal happens on each page. You can probably guess what happens to Dejah Thoris at the very beginning. As a result, John Carter seeks the aid of Helium, but not before resolving the matter of an attempt on his life.
The other major change is that all of a sudden it appears that Barsoom has acquired the technology of a visiscreen, an atom gun, microphones, loudspeakers and television screens.
Finally, there is some really cheesy dialogue, such as the giant's repetitive, "I, Joog. I, Joog. I can kill! I can kill!"
As it turns out, this short adventure was not penned by ERB, but by his son, Jack Burroughs.

Ironically, in spite of the Dejah vu (pun very much intended), I found that the brevity of the story, along with the new writing style and Barsoomian technology, actually injected a bit of freshness to the John Carter canon. And most pleasant of all was the ending paragraph--perhaps one of the finer endings in this series.

For those reasons I give this first book a 3/5 stars.

SKELETON MEN OF JUPITER

This is it! The last John Carter story actually penned by ERB! But as with the last story, this one is also very short, weighing in at about 50-60 pages.
For once--thank goodness!--Dejah Thoris is NOT kidnapped at the outset. Instead, John Carter himself is taken hostage and sent to the planet Jupiter.
Despite ERB's dislike of weather, scenery and adjectives, I thought he described the setting of Jupiter rather well. I especially liked how he explained the role of volcanoes on this planet.
The vast majority of this novel takes place in and around various cells and prisons on Jupiter, but there are still quite a few action scenes, even one against a giant plant-monster.
But best of all is the accidental humor in this book when one learns how the skeleton men of Jupiter are clothed. Although I would love to divulge this information, it is simply too funny--I think--to spoil in a review. One first comes across mention of it towards the end of Chapter 1.
Considering that this was the final John Carter story I was sincerely hoping for a good ending--which does not mean that I necessarily wanted a happy ending. Needless to say, I don't want to spoil it. All I can say is, it ended slightly off from my expectations, but I myself would have ended it differently.

For those reasons I also give this book 3/5 stars.

CONCLUSION

Some may think that 3/5 stars for either story is a bit harsh, but I disagree. These are indeed very popular stories and quick and easy reads. Eating popcorn while reading these stories would be completely appropriate because they are really not much more mind-engaging than your average movie. As fun and creative as the worlds and plots are there are far better to be had elsewhere in SF.
Nonetheless, Burroughs demands our respect . . . both for his contributions to the Sword and Planet sub-genre and for his contributions to Science Fiction in general.

Leonaur Ltd. is publishing the definitive Edgar Rice Burroughs 21st century editions. These usually contain 2 books of the different ERB major series in order - thus far John Carter, Pellucidar, and Carson of Venus. In the future, possibly Tarzan!

These books are handsome and my rating is mainly based on this - the ERB fan knows best about the rest of it.

This volume contains the 11th and last John Carter of Mars book. It actually is 2 short novels, one of which was actually written by one of Burroughs' sons at ERB's request. To the last book the John Carter series mantained a high standard of quality.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars