BlackBear's Full Review: Edgar R. Burroughs - Pirates of Venus
Carson Napier is a wealthy adventurer who has traveled to the far reaches of our planet in search of excitement. Along the way, he learned the secrets of telepathy for the purpose of being able to tell his stories to one who will record them for him. His goal was to travel to Mars in a giant rocket ship to meet John Carter himself. Because of this destination, Carson turned to the man who had been recording John Carter's adventures and publishing them as fiction, one Edgar Rice Burroughs, last known descendant of John Carter of Mars on Earth. The preparations made, the launch went as planned and Carson was off on his most fantastic adventure ever. But there was a small problem. His team of scientists all missed one small variable in making the flight to Mars. The gravitational pull of the MOON! Carson had to make some in flight adjustments to avoid impacting the surface of the moon and then his ship was sent spinning into the depths of space, off course, with only death as his new port of call. With a bit of good luck, Carson gets pulled into the gravity of Venus and bails out in the clouds as his ship blasts through the upper atmosphere. He would soon find himself battling the Pirates of Venus on this strange, new world.
This is the opening novel of Burroughs last series of five volumes, most of which was left unpublished until long after his death. In 2001, Bison Books, owned by University of Nebraska, republished this great story in a trade paperback format with a new introduction by horror novelist F. Paul Wilson. The cover has the original art from the first book publication by J. Allen St. John and includes some nice little extras such as then map of Amtor (the name of the locals for Venus) that hasn't seen print the the first edition and a glossary of Amtor terms compiled by Scott Tracy Griffin.
In related news, regarding this fantastic series, Angelic Entertainment, Inc. bought the rights to make feature films of the entire series in 2004. They completed the screenplay in 2007 and intend to stay true to Burroughs tale with only minor adjustments to bring the concepts up to date with current times. No release date has been set, but they are thinking that maybe by summer of 2010 the first film will be ready.
Carson has many dangers to overcome in his first novel. He is stranded on a hostile world and is given aid by a city that is built in the high trees of the northern reaches of Amtor. There he falls in love with the princess and when she is kidnapped by pirates, he becomes one himself in order to rescue her. But when he tries to return her to her home, he becomes lost because the maps of Venus are no good. They think that their world is a round, flat disk with fire at the center (the equator) and ice at the edges (the poles). This causes him to become hopelessly lost and leads to further adventures in the following novels.
I think it is a wonderful series and am very glad that it has been republished. Even though I already own multiple copies of this novel, the extra details made it worth buying again. The second novel of the series, Lost on Venus, was also republished by Bison Books as well as a copy that has both novels in a single volume. I haven't heard if they plan to do the final three or not, but it would be a great shame if they don't. I suspect they will wait for the movie releases in order to gain the additional promotion power that having a film in the theaters will grant them for boosting sales.
The shimmering, cloud-covered planet of Venus conceals a wondrous secret: the strikingly beautiful yet deadly world of Amtor. In Amtor, cities of immo...More at Buy.com
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