The Sword and Laser discussion

I have to just give a quick shout out to the John Carter Books from Edgar Rice Burroughs. I randomly picked up the first book a few months ago after learning that the failed John Carter movie was actually based off of a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I learned that not only were they written by the same author who wrote Tarzan, but there is nearly a dozen of them.

The first one took me totally by surprise. Written in 1917 the book holds up as if it was written recently. They are pulp fiction so they are pretty straight on adventure books. Science Fantasy probably at its strongest. I just finished he second book on a flight yesterday and was equally blown away by it. Very few books in my life have literally had me on the edge of my seat, and here I was reading a near 100 year old book and couldn't get enough.

Check these books out as they are perfect for the readers here, both sword and lasers. Ohh yeah, they are public domain too.

I actually have those books on my wishlist! I too learned about the books from the movie and well... I'm surprised the movie didn't do very well. It was a great and very well told story with an old school sci-fi film feeling. I'd compare the film with Conan the Barbarian often as the last time I saw the movie a year ago, I wonder why there aren't more movies like this and Beastmaster. Lo and behold, John Carter came along and I'm so sorry that I missed it on the big screen (after spending MONTHS waiting for netflix to ship me the DVD rental).

I enjoyed the movie so much that I read through the credits and noticed that this movie was based on a book series! Well that was that. I wanted to know what happens next so I have all of the author's books in my wishlist now and I'll probably make the purchase the next time I have some time to read. I've been busy lately, but this book series is at the top of my list!

I'm currently on Warlords of Mars and I'm thoroughly enjoying the series. The John Carter series is just plain fun!Who doesn't like wild adventures, epic romance, and dastardly villians?! Not to mention that cliffhanger at the end of Gods of Mars!

Even better, since the books are all part of public domain (the copyrights expired some time ago), the ebooks can be downloaded for free from most online retailers.

Mm ok i'll check them out thanks, I just downloaded some edgar allan poe for free for Halloween for the hallowed read thread and bought call of cthulu for about 70p so thats my Halloween sorted, will have to check out more free books.

I actually kind of enjoyed the movie. I think it was mostly just marketed poorly rather than made poorly. There were some liberties taken in regard to the original stories but it was fun and well done.

Alex wrote: "I actually kind of enjoyed the movie.

You're not alone there, I liked it too.

I love the John Carter books. Love them. They are the kind of pulpy action that you seldom see done as well or as unabashedly. They are just downright fun, and probably the quickest read I have ever encountered, despite the slight language differences.

Unfortunately, I felt that the movie was absolute crap. They were working with the deck stacked against them from the start as doing a PG-13 John Carter is like doing a PG-13 Conan… It just doesn't quite work. Aside from that, it seemed that every decision they made to deviate from the source material was wrong, ruining what was great and replacing it with boredom and clichés. Sure, the books were predictable as hell, but they WORKED. In the movie, the villains were laughable, the action seemed almost nonexistent despite their efforts to the contrary, and the plot left me scratching my head. They nixed all the science and instead decided to go with magical blue lightning. The protagonist takes a trip down the river that was a major plot point that wasn't even explored until book two, and ends up in that magical map room pulled out of screenwriter hell and the nonsensicality reaches a crescendo.

The books were short and lean and would've made great films had they just adapted them simply and with minimal changes. There's a reason people still love them after almost 100 years. There's a reason why the movie tanked. As you can tell, going to see that film ruined my day and made me want to punch babies. I can't understand how anyone can say they liked it. Then again, Revolution seems to be a hit, so maybe I just don't understand people in general.

Actually, the stories were first serialized in a pulp magazine (All Story?) in 1912, making the movie release its 100th anniversary. I liked the movie though as an adaptation it had some issues (don't they all?).

The stories have been reprinted many times but my favorite covers were by the amazing artist Frank Frazetta, who did some iconic paintings and drawings for the SFBC re-release in the 1970s:

http://www.notzombies.com/art/frank-f...

You can also get free audiobook versions at

https://catalog.librivox.org/search.p...

The books are read by volunteers, so the quality varies. I thought the reader for the first book was excellent. But I couldn't get into the reading of the second book, though the general consensus is that the reader gets better.

My husband actually got me into these books a few years ago. His Dad loved the Edgar Rice Burroughs books and we found the first 6 books at a little used book store. Ripped right though them in a couple of weeks. Loved the stories. If you read Tarzan you see how Burroughs impoved. They are really wonderful stories.