The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Lois and I were staying with friends Jeff and Willie down Dromana way in March 2017 and I was perusing their library (as you do) when I came across a complete paperback collection of all the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. I was so impressed! It had been in Jeff's father's library and he had made sure he inherited them. Now I have only 1 E.R. Burroughs book, namely Tarzan of the Apes (1912).
In browsing the books, I came across the Barsoom Series and decided I just had to read them. Esier said than done to source old books like this so I downloaded the first 3 books in audiobook format. The series has 11 books in total:
A Princess of Mars (1912)
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)
The Barsoom series, where John Carter in the late 19th century is mysteriously transported from Earth to a Mars suffering from dwindling resources, has been cited by many well known science fiction writers as having inspired and motivated them in their youth, as well as by key scientists involved in both space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life. They are indeed seminal science fiction.
The first 3 books were great listens. Burroughs develops a whole multi layered set of warring societies, with advanced technologies and differing customs. His imagination is wonderful - and listening to the books is like being in the cinema as a kid in the 1950s, watching the cliff hanging end of the weekly installment of the action packed serial that preceded the main movie.
And did you know that Netflix has its own 2012 movie 'John Carter' which is based on the books. Wow!
Only 1 thing - it must be the English of the time. The sentances are extremely long and can be a whole paragraph in a single sentance. Nowadays we would split them up into multiple shorter sentances.
