Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom (Simon & Schuster, February 2012). Cover by Mark Zug

Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom has “Inspired by the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs” on the cover. I hesitated about picking this one up. A note on the back said: “Not licensed or authorized, or in any way affiliated with, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.” This suggested some kind of controversy surrounding the publication and it seems awfully easy these days to step on toes and get hated for it. I don’t enjoy that kind of thing. But, it had stories by Joe Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, and S. M. Stirling in it, and I knew all three of those could write. So I pulled the trigger.

Overall, I found the anthology enjoyable, and even though it seemed generally marketed for “teen” readers, the stories were far from simple and unsophisticated. I thought there were three particularly strong stories, as well as several others I liked a lot.

The first real strong piece was “The Ghost that Haunts the Superstitious Mountains” by Chris Claremont. It features Carter, Dejah, and Tars Tarkas on “Earth.” This could easily have been expanded into a novel and I’d love to read it. The main problem was that the tale didn’t really have an ending. Clearly more needed to be told, but I still greatly enjoyed it. I know Claremont’s name from the comics, though I’ve not read any by him. I’ll have to remedy that.

The second very strong story was “The Jasoom Project” by S. M. Stirling, a complicated tale that also finished open-endedly. This one, too, could have been expanded to an exciting novel.

Finally, they picked exactly the right story to end with — “The Death Song of Dwar Guntha” by Jonathan Maberry. The best story in the book and a complete tale with a solid ending.

Some other strong stories were “Vengeance of Mars” by Robin Wasserman, “The Metal Men of Mars” by Joe Lansdale, and “Woola’s Song” by Theodora Goss, a sentimental favorite of mine since I’m very fond of Woola.

I’ll tell you about one story in the book that was so awful it set my teeth on edge and left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so angry at a story before.

I’d never read anything by Peter S. Beagle before “The Ape Man of Mars.” I know he’s fairly famous and has won plenty of awards. However, after reading this particular story I’m pretty unlikely to pick up anything else by him. While the writing itself is certainly adequate, the tale did a hatchet job on John Carter and completely altered ERB’s characterizations of both Dejah Thoris and Tarzan. In the tale, Tarzan gets transported to Mars and is met by an arrogant, bullying, jealous, and vain John Carter. Dejah Thoris is presented as a long-suffering wife who is attracted to Tarzan and Tarzan returns that attraction.

This was so out of character for all three figures, especially Carter, that I had to wonder if Beagle had ever read the original stories. Two other stories in the book presented unkind viewpoints on Carter but did so from within the viewpoints of the stories’ narrators, and while both characters seemed clearly inaccurate on their judgments, (one came across very much as a villain), these were legitimate alternate viewpoints that one might expect from real characters. This was not true of the Beagle tale. These are ERB’s characters transformed into awful people.

Unfortunately, it arrives pretty early in the book. I had to put the collection away for a good while before coming back to it. If it hadn’t been for other authors in the collection who I’d read and respected previously I would likely never have returned to this book.

I’m sure some will suggest that the story was meant as satire. As I understand satire, it’s the use of humor, ridicule, and exaggeration to speak truth to power. But I don’t know what power is being targeted in this story, or what truth is being spoken. So I don’t think it falls under the umbrella of satire. The tale is closer to a parody but parodies generally wouldn’t use the actual names of characters created by another author to make fun of that author’s work. Tarzan would become Zantar or something similar. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it seems to me that if you choose to use actual characters created by another author, then you should strive to respect the author’s creations. Otherwise, make up your own. At any rate, and on a personal note, the story made me really mad. Your experience may differ.

The package of the book is nice. It’s got a sweet cover. It listed “Jacket illustration copyright © 2012 by Mark Zug.” Each story also had an illustration, many by well-known artists, and the book concluded with a glossary by Richard Lupoff. (See my photo of the back cover above, which lists illustrators.)

As a couple of bonus pics, I’ve already picked up two books from feedback I’ve received on my posts here. The big tome is a massive biography ERB by Irwin Porges, 1975 from Brigham Young University Press. The second is Kaldar World of Antares by Edmond Hamilton, containing his three Kaldar S&P stories, from Fiction House Press, 2017.

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Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.