Category Archives: Review

The Chessmen of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Again, John Carter himself is mercifully in the background. Again, the book concentrates on a couple. Tara is daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. I’m intrigued as to where her name comes from. Given that her brother is called Carthoris, shouldn’t she be called Dejohn? Gahan, the jed (chief) of Gathol, loves her though she is engaged to another. (Sound familiar?) When she is lost while flying in a storm, Gahan sets out to rescue her.

This time, we go to two places nobody ever leaves: the land of the walking heads, the Kaldanes, and Manator, a city inhabited by primitive Red Martians. A Martian chess game called Jetan plays a pivotal role in the story, but frankly you don’t need to worry about the longish explanation of the rules in the early part of the book.

Tara does stuff though her role shrinks toward the end to someone to be rescued. The Kaldane Ghek is my favorite character and there are plenty of twists and turns. I really enjoyed this book and for me it’s the best of the Barsoom novels I’ve read.

Thuvia, Maid of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs

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After the pummeling my nerves received from John Carter’s ego in Warlord of Mars, I approached this book with trepidation. Fortunately, I enjoyed it a lot more than the previous installment. Firstly, the focus isn’t on John Carter, but on the eponymous Thuvia of Ptarth and John Carter’s son, Carthoris. They come across as more rounded, likeable individuals. The villainous Drusar, learning from the mistakes of others, try something more subtle than kidnapping Dejah Thoris and inviting John Carter to slaughter them. Thuvia, destined to be married to one of her father’s allies, is kidnapped and, in trying to help find her, Carthoris becomes the number one suspect for her disappearance.

Of course, yet again, there’s another region that nobody ever leaves: the ghostly city of Lothar. The inhabitants are an archetype I’ve come across in later novels, and their intriguing nature is never fully resolved.

While there’s a big war brewing, the focus is firmly focused on Thuvia and Carthoris. As soon as their story comes to a close, the novel comes to an abrupt stop. Even if you found A Princess of Mars a bit off-putting, you might still enjoy this novel.

Warlord of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Okay. This one is a bit spoilery. So be warned.

The villains, Matai Shang and Thurid, in this book have to be the stupidest so far. Have they learned nothing from the destruction their peoples suffered in the last book? Just give Dejah Thoris back to John Carter and he’d stop his hunt for you from pole to pole and go back to Helium and leave you alone. But no, that would be too easy.

Dejah Thoris again suffers from literary laryngitis for pretty much the entire story.

At this stage, the pattern is pretty set. John Carter arrives in some land nobody sensible ever goes to, makes friends with a local and sweeps away any evil tyrant who might be troubling his new acquaintance. At this stage John Carter has an ego the size of Green Martian’s egg and revels in every fight. I found it a bit wearing to listen to him.

The climax of the story is pretty good. However, to me, it seems a bit of an odd choice to install someone who delights in fighting as Warlord of Mars ‘to keep the peace.’

The Gods of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs

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I found the start of this book is actually more disorienting than its predecessor but it passes once a familiar face turns up. The book gives you the impression that the author wasn’t into organized religion, though that’s maybe reading too much into it. We discover that Mars is in fact layered like an onion with hidden races of cannibals and false religions. We encounter the white Therns and the black First Born and their relationship to each other and the rest of Barsoom.

John Carter spends the novel either trying to escape one or other faction, or trying to rescue his princess from them. Dejah Thoris appears but hardly even speaks a word. Though John Carter only has eyes for her, nearly every woman he comes across falls for our hero. The exception is the villain Issus who is actually the strongest female character.

John Carter has a viking’s love of fighting and fortunately there is plenty of that. There are aerial battles aplenty. Whole armies are slaughtered.

If A Princess of Mars has a somewhat ambiguous ending, The Gods of Mars ends on quite a cliffhanger.

A Princess of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs

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John Carter, a veteran of the American Civil War is prospecting for gold when he and his partner encounter Apaches. He escapes them by entering a sacred cave but immediately succumbs to a strange drowsiness. When he wakes up, he’s on Mars, a dying world known to the locals as Barsoom. There, he is a kind of a Superman in reverse, with super strength and super agility, able to leap a thoat (10 feet high green horse) in a single bound, etc. He encounters a tribe of fearsome six armed green humanoids led by Tars Tarkas. They capture a Red Martian princess, Dejah Thoris, whom John Carter spends much of the novel trying to protect.

Mars is a dying world where, surprisingly, the megafauna are the last to go. The Green Martians feel alien, the Red Martians less so. It’s a world where everyone is constantly at war but the survival of all life on the planet hinges on two guys running a single atmosphere plant. It’s morally uncomplicated world or rather John Carter sees it as such. All in all, it’s best enjoyed by following his example and adopting the attitude of when on Mars. The most important lesson from it is don’t mess with his princess!

A General History Of The Pyrates By Captain Charles Johnson

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This book, originally published in 1724, recounts the misadventures of several famous pirates including Blackbeard, Ann Bonnet, and Black Bart. Actually, Blackbeard, despite his fearsome reputation, came across as less bloodthirsty than for example Captain Spriggs or Captain Roche.

There is some debate as to who wrote the book. Some cite Daniel Defoe as the possible author. I’ll stick the guy named on the title page. 🙂

Many of the stories are fascinating. The book contains incredible detail, including lists of ships and their captains, and transcripts of trial testimony and judgments. At times the book became so dense with detail, I struggled to follow it in places and had to resort to Wikipedia to fill in the gaps in my understanding. Also, the narrative on occasion pauses to give a local geography lesson for a couple of pages. However, overall, it is well worth the effort to read it and is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in pirate lore.

You can download it HERE for free.

The Knowledge By Lewis Dartnell

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This is a very informative book with a lot of fascinating detail. It is basically a thought experiment. If most of humanity was wiped out in the morning and a handful of people remained, could they survive and rebuild modern technology? To determine this, Dartnell looks how these technologies were originally developed and any possible short cuts which the survivors could take.

The ‘apocalypse’ itself described in book was very clinical but this book is not meant to be a blow-by-blow instruction manual. I couldn’t see survivors sitting around it deciding what to do on Day 24. However, it does contain a lot of high level technological insight that a post-apocalyptic Edison or Pasteur might find useful and could spend years of their lives trying to leverage.

The book is apolitical. Its focus is the technology. If you need advice on how to hang on to your post-apocalyptic fiefdom, consult Machiavelli, Sun Tzu and other experts in such matters. Oh, the book doesn’t cover killing zombies either.

Some readers might find the advanced chemistry section a bit of a drudge, but I can’t see how Dartnell could avoid that, given leaving it out would undermine the book’s purpose. On the flip side, it provides useful context for any fledgling chemistry students.

The footnotes throughout the book are consistently very interesting. I think any writer interested in world building would find the book very useful.

One thing to note is that the book is shorter than it appears. About the last 20% is filled with references, including a useful list of relevant fiction.

One final word of advice. If you want to tuck this away for the apocalypse, so you can amaze the other survivors with your scientific knowhow, remember to buy the paperback, not the ebook. Unless you’re really sure you can get those generators up and running.

Emergence By Nick M. Lloyd

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The Gadium Emergence Committee ‘manages’ the transformation of other planets to a higher evolutionary state. When a group inspired by a survivor of a car crash threatens to discover this process too early, the team assigned to manage the Earth’s ‘emergence’ has to try to stop them. To further complicate things, another faction on Gadium is bent on perverting the process.

It took a few chapters to grip me, but once it did, I couldn’t put it down.

The book is reminiscent of the Culture Novels in that it involves a clash between the Earth and a far more advanced Alien society. At the start, some of the early conversations on Gadium were a bit opaque, but as the story unfurls, its society and its political shenanigans flesh out in a satisfying way. In the meantime the antics of Louise, Jeff and Mike kept my interest. They were engaging, believable characters.

The names of the some of the aliens were peculiarly human. Some terms like beta, alpha and triple alpha were never explained fully though their general meaning are relatively easy to infer. However, these minor quibbles didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the book.

Review of Jupiter Ascending

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I have a confession to make. I really enjoyed Jupiter Ascending. So much, I actually went to see it twice. About half an hour into the second viewing I thought “Oh Oh. This is too soon to watch it again.” But, then I got into it again, and a lot of subtleties I missed the first time kept me entertained.

The visuals are epic, and, at least, the film tries to explore serious themes. It isn’t simply another case of “chase the mysterious mcguffin that could blow up the universe” (not that I don’t enjoy that sort of stuff). The concepts in it are no more outlandish than human-powered civilization of machines or a mysterious force manipulated by a chosen few or a spice being key to interstellar travel.

Some reviews dismissed the idea of genetically spliced individuals. I find that strange when, for example, spider goats are already a real thing.

I loved the way so many alien conspiracy theories are worked into the story such as the grays, crop circles, etc. It added an extra layer to the film. I also enjoyed the references to other films such as Flash Gordon. However, beneath this is another more philosophical layer which is well worth exploring.

Jupiter is an interesting character in that, except for her genetic make-up, she is simply a normal human being. She has no special superpowers. In fact, she is quite naive. I thought the implications for the god-like Abrasax family were interesting.

All in all, I think if you watch this film with an open mind, you will find some interesting stuff here.

Oh, and the soundtrack is excellent.

Twitter For Writers By Rayne Hall

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This book must have written for me because it chimes so much with my experience on Twitter. The writer, Rayne Hall, has about sixty thousand followers on Twitter. Really, to sum up her message in two words-be authentic. She describes the techniques that work best for her on Twitter, the pitfalls to avoid, and the mistakes she has made. She has tried out a lot of strategies/applications, which will save you a lot of bother and frustration if you listen to her. Her focus is on gaining real followers. She encourages conversation instead of automated spamming. I learned a few useful tidbits like about bookshow.me and booklinker. If you are new to twitter, this book is essential reading.

By the way, if you are interested in following her, her twitter account is @RayneHall.