Jandar of Callisto

This is not a book for people who like science in their science fiction. But I found it to be really quite fun and entertaining, despite being openly derivative and profoundly (but not obnoxiously) sexist. At times it calls for not just a willing suspension of disbelief, but a willing suspension of considering whether what the author just said makes any sense given what he had said three paragraphs earlier. If you can give it that, you might just find it a pleasant diversion.

I can't help but compare Lin Carter's Callisto series with Alan Burt Akers' Dray Prescot series. Both are Burroughs pastiche. Carter's series is more tautly plotted with better characterisation but also more staid and not as much fun.

I can't help but notice the generally low ratings this series of books receives. I read them all as a teenager, and as a follow-on after you've exhausted the science fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs, they are a lot of fun. Perhaps the author goes too far in Lankar of Callisto when he has himself transported to the planet....but in general this series is a lot of fun for a younger, undemanding reader.

Book 1 in what is perhaps Carter's best extended series. Clearly derivative of ERB's Barsoom books though but Carter throws in a few of his own touches.

Hero Jon 'Jandar' Dark meets a princess in trouble in typical Carter fashion and sets about helping her get her throne back.

Another typical (and overused) Carter device is flying machines and the papier mache galleon/blimps of Callisto are perhaps his most evocative example except I think they would actually flip upsidedown under the normal laws of physics. Still Carter is less about science than he is about fiction.

Jon Dark, a Vietnam helicopter pilot, crashes in Cambodia and is transported to the Jovian moon Callisto. Renamed Jandar, he battles insect-men and Sky Pirates, serving Princess Darloona on a savage world of crimson jungles.

While exploring ancient Cambodian ruins, Dark finds a portal in a well that transfers him to the lush, tropical surface of Callisto. Jandar is captured by insect-like Yathoon creatures and later by Sky Pirates, attempting to save the princess and survive a hostile environment.