Art Back Once Again For 2015

Was waiting to see if I finished A Princess of Mars before I posted my lists. I finished it over a week ago, so here they are.

MAIN LIST

Books 1-10 are all by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1) The Gods of Mars (finished 1/23/15)
2) The Warlord of Mars (finished 2/5/15)
3) Thuvia, Maid of Mars (finished 2/25/15)
4) The Chessmen of Mars (finished 4/4/15)
5) The Master Mind of Mars (finished 5/27/15)
6) A Fighting Man of Mars (finished 6/16/15)
7) Swords of Mars (finished 7/29/15)
8) Synthetic Men of Mars (finished 8/10/15)
9) Llana of Gathol (finished 10/16/15)
10) John Carter of Mars (finished 11/4/15)
11) Glory Road - Robert A. Heinlein
12) Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

ALTERNATES LIST

1) The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions - H.P. Lovecraft et al.
2) The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers
3) V for Vendetta (novelization) - Steve Moore (finished 4/30/15)
4) Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond
5) The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
6) Untold Tales of Spider-Man - Kurt Busiek et al.

So, let's begin with the obvious. Where's the other six? :)

>2 Cecrow:

Ha! I want to concentrate on finishing the Barsoom series (i.e., books 1-10 on the main list) next year. I felt like if I had a full-length alternates list (12 books) that that might distract me somewhat from that. Therefore, I decided to limit it to 6 books. (The non-Barsoom books are primarily there to offer me a break (or breaks) from the Barsoom books. Since I don't plan on taking more than one or two breaks from them, I didn't feel like I needed a lot of other books on my lists.)

Looking forward to your Barsoom reviews, a couple of people on LT have taken the time but it looks pretty sparse and hard to judge from for most volumes, especially the later ones.

I read Niven's Ringworld away back in highschool, haven't tried his other stuff. I think Jared Diamond is a return title for you, and one I wouldn't mind reading someday although I've managed to keep him off my TBR so far. Anne Frank I finally got to in my 2011 challenge - so, I wasn't the last one after all? lol. But the most astonishing thing about your list is that you haven't already read V for Vendetta. I would have just assumed. :)

>4 Cecrow:

Looking forward to your Barsoom reviews, a couple of people on LT have taken the time but it looks pretty sparse and hard to judge from for most volumes, especially the later ones.

Yeah - I really don't know what happens in the series after the third one (The Warlord of Mars), so I figured the best thing to do was just to dive in and read the whole damn thing. :)

I read Niven's Ringworld away back in highschool, haven't tried his other stuff.

Yeah, Niven was more of a high school/college-era thing for me, too. For some reason, I seem to really have been stockpiling his titles (along with Stephen King and a couple of other authors) and then not reading them. Lucifer's Hammer seems to be one of his more popular books, so that seemed to be as good a place as any to start whittling down the pile (it didn't hurt that it's post-apocalyptic SF, a favorite subgenre of mine).

I think Jared Diamond is a return title for you, and one I wouldn't mind reading someday although I've managed to keep him off my TBR so far.

Yup, that's the only returnee from this year's lists. Felt really bad about not getting to that one this year.

Anne Frank I finally got to in my 2011 challenge - so, I wasn't the last one after all? lol.

Nope. I'm pushing 50 and still haven't read it - figured it was time to get it in. :)

But the most astonishing thing about your list is that you haven't already read V for Vendetta. I would have just assumed. :)

Well, you'll note that it's the novelization, not the graphic novel. I've read the graphic novel a couple of times. Some friends whose judgement I trust assure me that the novelization is quite good, so I thought I'd give it a go.

>5 artturnerjr:, ah, that distinction (re. V for Vendetta) escaped me. I assume the graphic novel came first. Makes me wonder why they'd do a novelization, but I guess with your friend's review that might explain it; somebody thought there was more worth exploring.

I have been interested in the Mars books, as well. I did not realize there were so many of them. Congrats on having your list out.

I've been working on mine. This year I didn't join until January, so this list was pretty much thrown together. I'm thinking that may have been the better way to do it, than try to do it logically, lol.

Good luck with next year's challenge. So happy to see someone posting for next year - I should have my list up soon too. It's just a matter of paring down all the options.

I'm using this month to weed out some contenders by getting them read before New Year's; not sure about a couple of slots just yet.

Looks like we don't need a "who's coming back" topic, we're all just going to hijack yours for this discussion, lol

>6 Cecrow:

The way I understand it, one of the conditions Alan Moore had before he agreed to sell the movie rights for the graphic novel was that he would get to select who wrote the film's novelization. He picked his old friend and collaborator Steve Moore (no relation), as he knew he needed the work. Sounds like cronyism, but apparently he did a pretty good job on it.

>7 billiejean:

Thanks! Yeah, I think one of the reasons I held off on reading them for so long is that it's such a long series. Having said that, the individual books in the series are not that long - I think the longest book in the series is like 220 pp. It's also much sorter than Burroughs' Tarzan series, which is 24 books!

>8 majkia:

I have definitely been spend less and less time on my lists with each passing year. It does seem to work out better if you don't overthink it.

>9 LittleTaiko:

Thanks! Good luck to you as well. :)

>10 Cecrow:

Looks like we don't need a "who's coming back" topic, we're all just going to hijack yours for this discussion, lol

That's what I get for posting my lists first! :D

Just a couple of notes/factoids about this year's challenge and the books on my lists that I either didn't mention or thought required some clarification:

- As I stated earlier, my primary goal this year is to finish reading all the Barsoom books. If I accomplish this, I will be happy. If I finish all 18 books on my lists, I will be ecstatic. :D

- The oldest book on my lists is The King in Yellow, which was originally published in 1895. The newest is the V for Vendetta novelization, which came out in 2005.

Well, I'm happy to finally be able to report that I just hit the halfway mark on my first book for the Challenge (The Gods of Mars). I got off to a late start on this one, as I started out the year finishing up some "hangover" reading from 2014, but now that I've started it has been pretty much plain sailing - I've been able to knock off a couple of chapters each day, which is pretty good for me. Interesting book - there is a thematic richness here that is somewhat unusual for pulp fiction of the period - a lot of satire on the conventions of organized religion and inversion of racial stereotypes that might come as a surprise to those who are unfamiliar with Burroughs' work.

Also worthy of note - this is (iirc) the first TBR Challenge book that I've read in eBook format; I finally broke down and purchased a Kindle a couple of weeks ago and felt the need to give it a trial run. So far it's going really well - I am particularly loving the dictionary and Wikipedia look-up functions on it. 8)

I'm reading it in an eBook collection called The Mars Trilogy. Here's what the cover looks like:

Wow, the alien on that cover looks like he came straight out of the Disney movie. I'm kinda surprised. The rest is all way different.

I've been using a Kobo for about three years now, but haven't paid a cent for anything I've read on it so far; I strictly use it for the free classics. That's how I'm reading Boswell's journal for this challenge, on the side.

>14 Cecrow:

Wow, the alien on that cover looks like he came straight out of the Disney movie. I'm kinda surprised. The rest is all way different.

Yeah, they did a good job on the green Martians in the film - very true to the way they are described in the books. I don't think the zitidars (big elephant-looking creatures) made it into the film. The Martians are actually more clothed on that book cover than in the books; in the books, excluding jewelry items and other such accouterments, they are all completely naked.

I've been using a Kobo for about three years now, but haven't paid a cent for anything I've read on it so far; I strictly use it for the free classics. That's how I'm reading Boswell's journal for this challenge, on the side.

They're handy things, aren't they? The vast majority of the stuff on my e-reader* is public domain stuff - there are 3 that I paid 99 cents a pop for and a few library books (like The Mars Trilogy) - the rest are public domain.

* https://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=artturnerjr&tag=kindle&col...

I got a nook a while back, but I just didn't love it. Now I am trying to decide if I should get a kindle or just admit defeat.

>16 billiejean:

E-readers aren't for everyone. There are certainly things I miss about print books; in fact, I missed putting a physical bookmark in my book (primarily so I can see how far I've progressed) so much that I actually got my print copy of The Gods of Mars and put a bookmark in it solely for that purpose! Otherwise, I really enjoy using my Kindle. It's all a matter of finding what works best for you, I suppose.

Several times I've had both a paper and electronic copy of the same book, and I'm able to pick up whichever one. I always tend to pick up the paper book first, if I can. The biggest e-reader advantage is being able to get books more easily than hunting around for a published edition.

>18 Cecrow:

The biggest e-reader advantage is being able to get books more easily than hunting around for a published edition.

Yeah, it doesn't get much easier than clicking on your mouse and having the book downloaded to your e-reader a minute later. 8)

One down! The Gods of Mars is finished; in spite of ERB's over-reliance on coincidence as a plot device (Look! John Carter just happens to look exactly like one of the Therns they waylaid, enabling them to trick the other Therns into thinking John Carter is him! Look! John Carter's son just happens to be imprisoned in the same building as he is! etc.), this was a pretty fun read. It also has one mother of a cliffhanger ending; I feel bad for the folks that read this in serial form way back in 1913 - they had to wait months to find out how it was resolved!

Up next: the next book in the series, The Warlord of Mars (natch).

I am glad the book was a fun read.

I guess another advantage to ereaders is traveling light with tons of books. I took a long trip once and had so many books that I could hardly stand the weight of the luggage. And I don't read all that fast so what was I thinking?

>21 billiejean:

I guess another advantage to ereaders is traveling light with tons of books.

Oh yeah. I've already got 40+ books on mine and I've only had it for a couple of weeks - not bad for something about the size and weight of a mass market paperback. (Actually, this points up a disadvantage of e-readers that I'm currently trying to address - it's so fun and easy and cheap to load it up with books that I occasionally have to remind myself to stop downloading books and start reading them! :/ )

LOL. I was an early adopter of ereaders. Primarily because I have limited shelf space but mainly because I have arthritis in my hands and holding open a book can get very painful.

I've never looked back, and get a bit resentful when I have to read a dead tree edition. Not that I don't like them on my shelves, but I have to consider the pain that goes along with the read.

>20 artturnerjr:, but Dickens thrived on coincidences - it's a time-honoured plot device! .... which probably started getting old right about the time ERB was writing his Mars series, but surely he squeaked through in time? ;)

>23 majkia:

There was a great blog post by Jo Walton last month where she talked about (among other things) how indispensable her e-reader was when she threw her back out a couple years ago. She said she couldn't read print books in the position she had to lie in, but she could read her e-reader just fine:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/12/a-library-in-your-pocket-how-having-an-e-reader...

One of the things that's been beneficial to me about having this device is being able to adjust the font size. My near vision is starting to go, and while I can still read teeny-tiny print, it's starting to become a ginormous pain in the ass. With an e-reader I never have to worry about this - I can make the print as big as I want.

>24 Cecrow:

Well, you kind of need to go into Burroughs knowing he's going to do this sort of thing a lot. If you don't like it, he's probably not the guy for you. It's just kind of annoying; my suspension of disbelief is already running on high trying to imagine all these aliens running around on a planet that we now pretty much know to be lifeless - now you're trying to get me to believe all these crazy coincidences, too?!? :/

PS You'll probably get a kick out of this (scroll down and click the tab toward the bottom that says "Literature"):

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ContrivedCoincidence

I have been wanting to read those Mars books, so I hope they turn out to be fun.

>25 artturnerjr:, I definitely got lost on that web site for a while. Thanks? lol

>26 billiejean:

Well, I can tell you this: Burroughs knew how to spin a yarn. You may or may not care for his work, but I can just about guarantee you will not be bored by it.

>27 Cecrow:

Oops! Forgot to warn you: TV Tropes is a major time sink. I can't count the number of times that I've gone on there, saying "I just wanna check this one thing!", and two hours later I'm still on the site. :/

I'm about two-thirds of the way through The Warlord of Mars now. This is much more of a straightforward adventure tale than either of the first two books in the series; nevertheless, it's still quite enjoyable.

Finished The Warlord of Mars last night. It ended with a suitably rousing climax to the epic storyline that began in A Princess of Mars. As I indicated above, it's probably the most straightforward entertainment of the first three novels of the series, and it's interesting to see how Burroughs became a more and more polished writer as the series went on.

Up next: back to Barsoom with Thuvia, Maid of Mars!

So there's an arc there, a sort of initial trilogy? That's interesting. Tolkien usually gets all the blame for the trilogy phenomenon.

I know you've been following this thread; how do you think a review of Burroughs' Mars would stack up?
http://www.librarything.com/topic/183467

Thanks for the glorious cover art!

>31 Cecrow:

So there's an arc there, a sort of initial trilogy? That's interesting. Tolkien usually gets all the blame for the trilogy phenomenon.

Yeah. Burroughs apparently didn't plan it that way, but that's the way it ended up working out. The first three books are all narrated by John Carter, feature him as the protagonist, and basically tell one big story. At the end of the third book, Burroughs seems to have decided that he/his readers were getting tired of Carter, so the fourth book switches over to different characters and third-person narration, but stay on Barsoom (good call - frankly, JC's braggadocio starts to get a little tiresome in the third book). JC apparently returns to narrate later books in the series, however.

I know you've been following this thread; how do you think a review of Burroughs' Mars would stack up?

That's an interesting question, and one that I've actually been thinking about quite a bit as I've been reading these books. The sexism in these books is quite pervasive (e.g., why is it that the male characters are (almost) always rescuing the female characters, rather than the way around?), though certainly not extraordinarily so for its era. The way race is handled in this books is actually quite complex, subversive (as I've noted earlier), and, on balance, laudatory laudable - you could easily write a doctoral dissertation on the role of race here (and someone probably has!). Would I give these books to a child? I would probably give them to a teenager with an interest in (and some knowledge of) the way that perceptions of race and gender have changed over the years. To a pre-teen child? No, probably not; it would require more time to explain the books and the milieu in which they were written than it would for the kid to read the books themselves.

>32 poingu:

My pleasure. Burroughs has been attracting the cream of the crop of science fiction and fantasy illustrators for over a century now; it would be a same not to share some of their work with you guys.

I'm particularly partial to Michael Whelan's Barsoom illustrations; his striking covers for the Del Rey Barsoom paperbacks are a big part of what attracted me to the series in the first place. His painting for the cover of The Gods of Mars is especially dynamic, I think:



ETA: I typed "laudatory" when I meant "laudable"

>25 artturnerjr: >27 Cecrow: me too! ETA I also really enjoyed the column by Jo Walton.

>34 ipsoivan:

Glad you liked them. :)

Hit the halfway mark on Thuvia, Maid of Mars today. Started out kind of boring (Really? Dude has to rescue the princess again?), but Burroughs is adding some interesting twist and turns as the narrative progresses.

Finished Thuvia, Maid of Mars early this morning. As I noted in my previous post, this one starts off kind of slow (for a Burroughs novel, anyway), but picks up steam as it moves along. Most significant of all, in my mind, it actually gives the female lead (the titular Thuvia) something to do besides be rescued (just about a Barsoomian first)! I will try to write up a proper review of this one sometime today.

Up next: the next book in the series (The Chessmen of Mars), and then I believe I'll be ready for a break from Barsoom - I've spent a lot of time there this year!

I was curious how far you'd get before you needed that. ;) You've mentioned elsewhere you're not big on reading consecutive books from the same series.

>38 Cecrow:

Yeah, it can be tough for me. I'm really glad you all were okay with me doing this series for the Challenge; I really don't think I would have gotten even this far if you hadn't!

>39 artturnerjr:, I think every year without exception I've stuck multiple books from the same series on my list, so I'm not about to start tossing rocks around this glass house of ours.

>40 Cecrow:

Sounds good to me. :)

I am excited that you are reading this series, because I thought that there were only two books! I did see the movie John Carter, and I liked it, although I thought it was a little too long.

>42 billiejean:

I actually re-watched John Carter last week. It was a very different experience watching it while in the middle of reading the series - much easier to follow! Yes, it is a bit on the long side. I felt like they tried to cram too much stuff from the second and third books into it when they should have stuck to stuff from the first book, which is eventful enough on its own.

Okay! About halfway through The Chessmen of Mars now. I'm liking this one better than the last one so far - Burroughs really ramps up the phantasmagoria/grotesquerie in this one, much to my delight. He seems to be having some minor problems using the third-person omniscient point of view in his narration (if a writer is using third-person omniscient, and is discussing a character that is using an alias, and we the readers know he's using an alias and know his real name, he or she should identify the character by his real name, correct?), but otherwise this has been an enjoyable read.

Finished The Chessmen of Mars last night. Considering this was not terribly long, it seemed like it took a while for me to read; I'm getting a little tired of the "rescue the princess" plot that Burroughs feels the need to trot out for every book (so far) in this series. Still, his inventiveness in other areas is strong here - I thought his depiction of the symbiotic relationship of the kaldane and rykor species (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaldane) was particularly fascinating.

Up next: I'm taking a short break from this series, as I mentioned in >37 artturnerjr:. I have an Algernon Blackwood story I need to read for one of my other groups, and then I'm going to read something a bit more modern - namely, the V for Vendetta novelization.

You are really doing great with the Mars series. I think a break is a great idea. :)

>46 billiejean:

Thanks! Yeah, I am suffering from MFS (Martian fatigue syndrome) a bit at the moment. I know that if I didn't take a break now, the next book would just be a total slog. :/

There does sound like a bit of sameness to them so far. It'll be interesting to see how/if ERB changes it up in the following books.

Good choice for a break - something you know you'll like for sure. I've seen the Vendetta movie, and earned respect for Moore when I read Watchmen.

>48 Cecrow:

It'll be interesting to see how/if ERB changes it up in the following books.

I certainly hope he does! :)

Good choice for a break - something you know you'll like for sure. I've seen the Vendetta movie, and earned respect for Moore when I read Watchmen.

Yeah. Already 100+ pp. into it, which is pretty good for me. I'm a sucker for dystopian fiction anyway, and it certainly doesn't hurt that it's based (albeit indirectly) on a work by one of my favorite writers.

Halfway through the V for Vendetta novelization now. I'm missing the well-rounded characterizations of the antagonists that made the original Alan Moore/David Lloyd graphic novel such compelling reading, but otherwise this is a quick, easy read, with lots of fascinating background on how the fascist takeover of England depicted in both comic and film occurred.

Finished the V for Vendetta novelization. Definitely a cut above your average media tie-in fiction; as I mentioned above (in >11 artturnerjr:), Alan Moore, who wrote the original comic, hand-picked Steve Moore to write the novelization. It's a good thing he did - SM fills in the inner lives of the main characters (with the exception of the enigmatic V, whose inscrutability is central to his charm) as admirably as I had hoped he would.

Up next: back to Barsoom with The Master Mind of Mars!

I don't know if I've ever done a three-media interpretation of anything, besides Star Wars - but in that case both the comic and novelization descend from the movie, still not the same. But I've done two degrees enough times to have a sense of the added layers this can bring. It's great to have that attached to a property you love.

Here's hoping ERB puts a different spin on his usual plot. :)

>52 Cecrow:

I think it's neat that the story, characters, and themes are strong enough that it works in three different media - comics, film, and prose fiction. That's a rare thing indeed.

I've posted a brief review (mostly cobbled together from my remarks above) of the V for Vendetta novelization here:

https://www.librarything.com/work/6350025/reviews/112786751

4.02 is an impressive average rating for media tie-in, and it seems most reviewers agree with you. The lack of characterization for antagonists ... maybe this was a way to make this complementary to what you already know, rather than covering the same ground.

>55 Cecrow:

Or perhaps he figured that Alan Moore did such a good job of it in the original comic that there was no way he was going to top him! :D

Progress report: Well, the big news is that I'm halfway through The Master Mind of Mars, which means (since it's the middle book in the series) that I'm exactly halfway through the series! (I had actually hoped to be a little farther along in it by now, but with the kind of year I've been having so far, I'll take it!) It helps that the story here (a pseudoscientific meditation on the pros and cons of brain transference) is a bit different than what has come before. Here's hoping that the second half of the series goes at least as smoothly as the first.

Congrats on being halfway through the series! That is quite an accomplishment.

>58 billiejean:

Thanks! It feels pretty good. :)

Glad I'm not the only one who makes a note of milestones like this, lol

>60 Cecrow:

Well, if I only checked in when I finished a book, you guys might think that I died or something. :)

Finished The Master Mind of Mars early this morning. This was actually one of my favorites in the series thus far, I think - the bizarre plot and colorful cast of characters had enough novelty to them to sustain my interest all the way through. There's also some amusing satire on religion (a la The Gods of Mars) and a (literal) deus ex machina ending that actually works!

Up next: the next book in the series (A Fighting Man of Mars), natch.

Wow, that's great; sounds like he broke away from the template he'd established. I think the hero wasn't John Carter this time, right?

>63 Cecrow:

I think the hero wasn't John Carter this time, right?

Yeah, that's correct (actually, JC hasn't been the protagonist of any of the novels since The Warlord of Mars (the third one); guess Burroughs decided that his readers were getting tired of him). The main character of this was another Earth-man, a WWI vet with the kick-ass handle Ulysses Paxton.

Or maybe Burroughs himself tired of him, needed a new character to inject new life into the series.

>65 Cecrow:

Yeah, that's very possible.

Okay! Halfway through A Fighting Man of Mars now. This one started out slow (lots of exposition/info dumps, neither of which were ERB's forte), but picked up steam rather quickly and is still holding my interest. Here's hoping the second half goes as quickly as the first. :)

Some others' reviews I've read say it's one of the better ones in the series; hope it turns out that way for you.

>68 Cecrow:

Yeah, like I said, it's pretty good so far - it starts out with ERB's standard "rescue the princess" storyline, but then he starts to play around with it in interesting ways. There's also a main character that's kind of androgynous, which is kind of a new thing in these books; his characters are usually either ultra-masculine or ultra-feminine, with very few shades of grey in between.

Finished A Fighting Man of Mars tonight. This was another good one. Burroughs serialized this in Blue Book Magazine, which was a new venue for his Barsoom yarns - this seems to have energized his writing significantly. The less-formulaic-than-usual storyline, together with a refreshing absence of the causal sexism of earlier books and the detailed exposition at the beginning of the book would make this a good choice for a jumping-on point for modern readers who'd like to sample a book in the middle of the series without having to have knowledge of the previous books.

Up next: taking a break from Challenge books with Robert Christgau's Going into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man, and then back to Barsoom with Swords of Mars.

Halfway through your primary list before end of June = thumbs up! Glad it's not a series that's wearing you out, hopefully Burroughs can keep it up.

>71 Cecrow:

Halfway through your primary list before end of June = thumbs up!

Thanks! I'm glad I've been able to stay on top of it.

Glad it's not a series that's wearing you out, hopefully Burroughs can keep it up.

Well, it's pretty easy reading. If I was reading À la recherche du temps perdu or something, I'm sure it'd be a very different story. :)

Apparently Burroughs brings back John Carter as protagonist for the next book (Swords of Mars) - should be interesting to see how he handles that at this point.

I think that reading Remembrance of Times Past is good to do with a reading buddy and not too quick a pace. That is how I read it. I am not sure that I would have made it through without her.

>73 billiejean:

Yeah, some kind of hand-holding would seem to be almost de rigueur to get through 4,000+ pages of Proust's magnum opus. I've had a copy of C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin's translation of Swann's Way for a while now but have been too chicken to even crack it open. Perhaps I can persuade one of my more literary-minded friends to do a co-read of it with me at some point.

Proust isn't on my TBR pile yet. I'd like to tackle him someday, but it may be a few years. If I remember this maybe I'll give you a heads up when I'm considering, lol

>75 Cecrow:

Sounds good!

One thing I noticed about Proust was that one of the most quoted parts is right from the beginning of the first book. So maybe lots of people don't read it all the way through. I did get a few commentaries, but I never did read them.

I wrote up a review of John Carter: Barsoom Series (the eBook in which I read most of the first seven novels in the series) just for fun:

https://www.librarything.com/work/13971482/reviews/116210472

>77 billiejean:, same with the first line of Anna Karenina. But good on you that you made it all the way through! Hope I can say the same one day.

>78 artturnerjr:, I think you spoke to what people primarily want to find out in these cases, the quality of the edition rather than a focus on the stories. Good review.

>79 Cecrow:

Thanks!

I also like that you discussed the format as I have had some significant ebook issues. I know that I should go that way, but the problems I have had make me resist. Nice to know that there are some good ones out there.

>81 billiejean:

Nice to know that there are some good ones out there.

Yeah, there are. You really need to do your research, though. As I mentioned in my review, the Ballantine/Del Rey eBook editions that I looked at of these books actually had a shocking number of typos (like three or four per chapter); a lot more than you would expect from such a big-name publisher. On the other hand, this edition, from a small Canadian print-on-demand publisher that I'd never heard of called Engage Books, obviously put quite a bit of care into this edition.

I have bought a few books that appeared to be print-on-demand. I was happy with the books and the price.

>83 billiejean:

I think print-on-demand is a wonderful thing. Along with eBooks, it's kept/gotten a lot of stuff out there that would have otherwise just faded away.

I agree. I think maybe the book I am reading Scurvy Dogs, Green Water and Gunsmoke Volume One was printed on demand.

Hit the halfway mark on Swords of Mars last night. The bad news: as I mentioned earlier (in >72 artturnerjr:), John Carter is the protagonist again in this book. It might sound strange to say, as JC is the main character/paterfamilias of the series, but I don't actually like him all that much. Early on in the series, he established himself as too arrogant by half, and his position at this point in the story (he's actually Jeddak (emperor) of all Mars now) hasn't humbled him at all. The good news: this is the first book in the series that actually involves space travel. Strange that series that mostly involves an Earthman coming to Mars is only just now dealing with that, isn't it?

I've wondered whether this will turn out to be a series where you can feel the author searching for someplace to go with it, some means of making it more entertaining to write, let alone read. Hopefully the space travel adds some new layers to the world-building; that was the main thing that sustained me through the fantasy trilogy I just survived.

>87 Cecrow:

I've wondered whether this will turn out to be a series where you can feel the author searching for someplace to go with it, some means of making it more entertaining to write, let alone read.

After I'm done with this series, I'd really like to get my hands on a good critical biography of Burroughs. I really don't know that much about his methodology as a writer, and there are tons of questions I have about it (Did he plan his series/novels out ahead of time, or did he make them up as he went along? Was he reading a lot of contemporary genre fiction as wrote his books to see what the competition was up to?) that I would love to have some answers to.

Hopefully the space travel adds some new layers to the world-building; that was the main thing that sustained me through the fantasy trilogy I just survived.

One of things that made me want to read this whole series in the first place is that it seems, as far as I can determine, Burroughs kind of invented world-building the way we think of it today with these Barsoom books; I can't think of an imaginary world depicted in fiction previous to this one that is developed in anything like the kind of detail this is. He's also always finding previously unseen little nooks and crannies of it to show the reader with each new book, too - it's one of the main things that keeps the series interesting.

More on ERB and world-building:

http://tinyurl.com/pzuowww

>89 artturnerjr:, when you said above that he might have been the first to write a series set in the same invented world, I did think of Oz as another example. But I haven't thought of anyone who aimed above childhood for their audience and did it prior.

Finished Swords of Mars. I gotta say, this was probably the most disappointing effort in the series since Thuvia, Maid of Mars (book #4). Even the space travel segment (which was part of the book I was most excited about) was kind of blah. There are a lot of incidents in the Barsoom books where the main characters find a hidden land on Mars and (re)discover a previously forgotten race or races; this was just like one of those incidents, except it's set on the Martian moon Phobos (Thuria, in Mars-speak). Oh yeah, and the ending's way too abrupt - It's like Burroughs said, "Oh! It's time to end the book now!" and just slapped together a quick ending without putting a lot of thought into it.

Up next: beginning Synthetic Men of Mars (somewhat reluctantly). On a more positive note: I only have three books left in the series! :)

Hopefully you've passed the lowest point, or so it seems from others' reviews.

>92 Cecrow:

Actually, the last three books in this series are rated even lower than this one by other LTers.* Oh well - to me it makes little sense to do anything other than to soldier on through the remaining volumes of the series at this point - I've come too far to quit now!

* https://www.librarything.com/author/burroughsedgarrice/stats#

Hit the halfway mark on Synthetic Men of Mars. Wow! Can't believe how quickly this one is going (it doesn't hurt that I'm on vacation this week, I'm sure). The main character is a man trapped in the body of a monstrous synthetic man (called a hormad in the book) who's in love with a beautiful woman, so there is a nice Frankenstein-like pathos here that is largely absent in the previous books. As in Chessmen of Mars (see >44 artturnerjr: ff.), there is a great deal of delightful phantasmagoria in the book (the... thing in Vat No. 4 is one of ERB's most imaginative creations), which is helping to make it a compelling read for me as well.

Just finished: Synthetic Men of Mars. This was actually the fastest read for me (twelve days) of all the books in the series so far. It's still the basic rescue-the-heroine plot that Burroughs in most (all?) of his books, but he at least plays around with that story in ways that he hasn't in the other books in the series. An enjoyable read, in sum.

Up next: Llana of Gathol (aka the one that doesn't have "Mars" in the title). After I finish that and John Carter of Mars, I'm done with the whole series.

There's light at the end of the Mars tunnel! And finding a good entry this late in the series justifies your undertaking.

>96 Cecrow:

And finding a good entry this late in the series justifies your undertaking.

Yeah, it helps. I'm trying to figure out how much of my enjoyment is based on the book's intrinsic merits and how much is based on my reduced expectations at this point in the series. Ryan Harvey (LT member Z-Ryan) didn't speak too highly of it in his review for the Black Gate website*, so I kind of suspect it is the latter.

* https://www.blackgate.com/2012/09/05/edgar-rice-burroughs%E2%80%99s-mars-part-9-...

You are really doing great with the series.

Halfway through Llana of Gathol. Jeez Louise, this one's taking forever. Not a particularly bad book as these go - I'm just getting really sick of the series, and getting really, really sick of John Carter, Clueless Narcissist of Mars. Of course, he's the narrator and protagonist here (again). :P

>98 billiejean:

Thanks! I just wish the one I'm on was going a little faster. :(

LOL! Curiosity just about satisfied huh? I have so been in your shoes, multiple times. Can't believe how long I looked forward to that nonsense trilogy I read this summer.

Just about. Curiosity just about killed this cat, I'll tell you that. :)

I've concluded that I've spent far too much time dicking around on Llana of Gathol, so I pledged last week to read at least two chapters a day every day before I get on LT. So far, that's working out pretty well; I've read eight chapters in the last four days, and am on track to finish it next week.

Yeah, that's how I beat The Iliad. It has some slow parts to it, so I pledged myself to read a chapter per day and got through it just fine after that.

Good job sticking to the plan. :) I don't always do that.

>103 Cecrow:

Yeah, like I said, I'm feeling pretty good about finishing this one soon. I'm also enjoying my time on LT a lot more, knowing that I've already got some reading under my belt for the day.

>104 billiejean:

Thanks! I don't always do it either. My downfall lately has been short stories, mostly of the SF and fantasy variety (you think I would have had enough of this sort of thing, as much as I've read of it in the last year, but I seem to have an insatiable desire for this stuff). I look at something like the Locus All-Centuries Poll* and see all these wonderful stories that I haven't read, and inevitably find one that I have to read right now ((un)fortunately, between my personal collection, the library, and the Internet, I have access to almost all of 'em). As a result, what I'm supposed to read that day often goes by the wayside. Is there a twelve-step program for this sort of thing? :/

* www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCenturyPollsResults.html

If there was one, are any of us willing to do it?

Thanks for the link. I am going to give it to my daughter who reads a lot of scifi on the computer. Thereby enabling her.

>106 billiejean:

If there was one, are any of us willing to do it?

Not me. I prefer to sing in my chains like the sea. :)

Finished Llana of Gathol today. It's been a long time since I felt this relieved to cross one of my Challenge books off a list. I just plain didn't like this one. Whether this was due primarily to the quality (or rather lack thereof) of the book itself or my own now-jaundiced view of the Barsoom series is for you to decide. I have more to say about this one, but I'm kinda tired right now, so I think I'll save it for another time.

On the bright side: only one book left in the series! :)

I take it you're with me in the completionist camp. Gotta cross that finish line no matter what! I don't think I ever could have lined up ten books from the same series for this challenge and lived - so if you can find any bright side at all at this point, kudos to you. ;)

Hey there everybody! My apologies for going so long without checking in. I actually finished John Carter of Mars (and therefore the entire Barsoom series) at the beginning of this month (hurray!) and just hadn't gotten around to reporting in on it.

This (JCoM) was another one in the series that was just okay. It's actually a collection of two pieces - John Carter and the Giant of Mars (which was apparently written by ERB's son, John Coleman Burroughs, rather than ERB himself), and Skeleton Men of Jupiter, an unfinished novel by ERB himself. JCatGoM was apparently originally written as a children's book, and is correspondingly rather lame; SMoJ fares a little better, offering a sometimes tantalizing glimpse into a road not taken.

PS I'm currently reading a book that I won through Early Reviewers (The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft). I'm feeling obliged to read and review that one before I tackle anything else, and it's going rather slowly, so I probably won't get to any of my other Challenge books this year. I'm planning on finalizing my 2016 lists this week, and should have them up by the middle of December (at the latest).

>109 Cecrow:

Yeah, in spite of all my difficulties with this series, I'm really glad I read the whole thing. It's really a cornerstone work in the speculative fiction genres, and I feel as though I have a much better understanding of how they developed now that I've read it.

ETA: Used "fairs" when I meant "fares" in the second paragraph.

I'm glad that turned out well for you, with no regrets. It would be a hard thing to arrive at the end and feel it hadn't been worthwhile. Can't say that I'll make the John Carter journey myself, but it was fun to follow along with yours.

I won an Early Reviewers book in June and still haven't received it so, no interference for me yet. Mixed feelings about that. Based on others' reviews it turns out I'm not missing much.

edit: I keep forgetting to share this link, it's a re-read of Lovecraft's entire story collection (I think), where the reviewers post their thoughts and then readers comment on the commentary. http://www.tor.com/series/the-lovecraft-reread/

>111 Cecrow:

I'm glad that turned out well for you, with no regrets. It would be a hard thing to arrive at the end and feel it hadn't been worthwhile. Can't say that I'll make the John Carter journey myself, but it was fun to follow along with yours.

Thanks. I tried to keep my comments entertaining and informative as I went along - sounds like I was at least partially successful in achieving that goal. You're one of main people who have kept me focused and motivated throughout this, Cecrow, so kudos to you as well.

I'm pretty much convinced that 99% of the world's population can get by just fine either (a) not reading any of these books or (b) just reading the first three books in the series. I think even the adolescent males who seem to be ERB's target audience would find them a little tedious after that (nowadays, anyway).

I won an Early Reviewers book in June and still haven't received it so, no interference for me yet. Mixed feelings about that. Based on others' reviews it turns out I'm not missing much.

Can I ask what it was?

edit: I keep forgetting to share this link, it's a re-read of Lovecraft's entire story collection (I think), where the reviewers post their thoughts and then readers comment on the commentary. http://www.tor.com/series/the-lovecraft-reread/

Thanks for that. Ruthanna Emrys, the co-author of that series, is actually a very fine fiction writer herself. We discussed her story "The Litany of Earth" in my Weird Tradition reading group several months back:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/189203

PS I'm actually just about finished with my 2016 Challenge lists already. Would it be untoward of me to post them today or tomorrow?

I won a copy of Tower in the Crooked Wood, a YA fantasy novel. Funny thing is it's an ebook, all they have to do is send me an email. It's possible I deleted it by accident, but I've tried to be cautious about that ever since I won it in the June batch. I wonder whether they're purposely delivering it in a trickle to the winners list, as a strategy to keep the reviews rolling over several months.

If you're willing to stick your neck out and post a 2016 list, I say go for it (I think you were the first to post last year too, at about this time) - so long as you don't mind it becoming the "all 2016 list discussions" topic, lol

>113 Cecrow:

I wonder whether they're purposely delivering it in a trickle to the winners list, as a strategy to keep the reviews rolling over several months.

Yeah, that's entirely possible. I had to wait longer than I thought I would for mine (which is also an eBook), but it was a matter of weeks, not months.

If you're willing to stick your neck out and post a 2016 list, I say go for it (I think you were the first to post last year too, at about this time) - so long as you don't mind it becoming the "all 2016 list discussions" topic, lol

Why would I mind? I'll be the center of cyber-attention! :D