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[loligo]

The comment discussion for rachelmanija's bad books poll has given me a wonderful, awful idea: Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars series is going on my Yuletide list next year. I would pay cash money to read Mars stories written by many of the fine fandom writers of my acquaintance. (Not that I *could* pay you, because that would be wrong. Unless ERB is already

Comments

[cofax7]

OMG you are brilliant. I only ever read the first, but I have a vivid memory of all the bright colors.

[coffeeandink]

I have them ALL. With pretty Michael Whelan covers. And a proto-Tarzan story with terrible racial politics called The Lad and the Lion. At one point, I had The Moon Maid and the sequel, but I got rid of them because either I was outgrowing ERB or they were too depressing, I can't remember which.

My favorite was Thuvia, Maid of Mars, possibly because it had the highest romance:adventure ration, and possibly just because I liked Thuvia's golden silky curvacious back leaning against the golden silky curves of the six-legged lion.

[loligo]

I have them all, too. Most with the pretty covers, but two in shabby hardcover from the 1930s -- they belonged to my grandfather.

Thuvia is awesome, but for sheer florid strangeness, my favorite would have to be Chessmen of Mars. Mostly I find that the less John Carter is in them, the more I like them. A Fighting Man of Mars is really good, too.

[loligo]

Oh, gosh, no wonder my copy of Gods of Mars is just hanging together by threads! It was published in 1918! I really ought to do something to preserve those books (I forgot there were three -- one of them I also had the Del Rey edition of, so I never read the old one). They're the only memento I have of my grandparents on my dad's side of the family, and in fact the only sort of contact I ever had with that grandfather, because he died before I was born.

[coffeeandink]

Also, at least a few of them are out of copyright.

[riarambles]

Not the same author at all, and I've never read the books of which you speak, but daegaer has written a fanfic of some Victorian-era adventure books, set on Mars, starring Very Affectionate but Manly Victorian Men. You might like it. :)

[loligo]

Oh! I saw those books listed in the Yuletide fandom list and thought, "Huh, it's not too often they come up with an author I've never even heard of!" But if these books involve Affectionate but Manly Victorian Men, maybe I should seek them out! *g*

[riarambles]

I've never read a word of the source or of the fanfic but I'd recommend anything written by daegaer. mars-manliness and mars_assassins are the places to look.

[thepouncer]

I would totally write Mars stories - I read the novels right around age 12 (and independently read through Heinlein's novels referencing ERB's Mars about the same time), and loved them. I mean, I knew even then that they were horridly bad, but they were bad in just the right way, with all sorts of melodrama. Green men! Six arms! Random riding beasts! John Whoever (Carter?), Earthman and Saviour!

[loligo]

I think the phrase you're looking for isn't "horribly bad", it's "GLORIOUSLY bad". ;-D