I'll admit that I'm reading A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, primarily to see whether all the places where I went...where the fuck did that come from... were in the book or added by the screenplay. If I'm feeling particularly geeky I may even write a blog about it.I was never really attracted to the Tarzan novels, or the Tarzan myth structure really(1), but I like a good planetary romance and the covers of the Panther editions had semi-naked women on them(2).
I remember The classic[sic] Family d'Alembert series as being a fun space opera in the classic mould so I thought I'd grab the kindle version of Imperial Stars (another fine product of the SF Gateway - curse you Gollancz and your time wasting temptations) and see whether it was any good.
(1) I'd love to claim it was my virtuous reaction to the whole racist mighty whitey raised by apes thing(3) but I think it was probably because it wasn't set on Mars!
(2) I was twelve, it was the seventies - cut me some slack here.
(3) I'm not interested in discussing this so don't start.
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3 comments:
I *love* Doc Smith's books. The "Skylark" series is just awesome in its hugeness :-)
The "D'Alemberts" never grabbed me as much and The Lensmen are the ultimate space opera, of course.
(Some people call him misogynist - well, he was a product of his era and that's not his fault, but he actually has strong female characters - they're seldom wimps, except when they are supposed to be, which is rarely.)
You're not going to get a full answer to the question if you stop at A Princess of Mars. The film also borrowed enough from the first two sequels that I'm not sure what Stanton was planning to do for an encore assuming he got the greenlight for one.
I haven't read any of the D'Alembert books; at least, no further than the small print on the front cover admitting they weren't really by Doc Smith. (That probably wouldn't have stopped me when I was 12, but I didn't come across them until later.)
Meanwhile, I just picked up Ursula K LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness", courtesy of the British Heart Foundation shop's bargain bin. (50p! =:o} )
Never read it before.
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