Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
Ace Books (1970), Mass Market Paperback, 173 pages
Description
Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1875. After serving a short time in the 7th U.S. Cavalry, Burroughs was a shopkeeper, gold miner, cowboy, and policeman before becoming a full-time writer. His first novel, Tarzan of the Apes, was published in 1914, and along with its 22 sequels has sold over 30 million copies in 58 languages. Author of numerous other jungle and science fiction novels and novellas, including The Land That Time Forgot, Burroughs had a writing career that spanned almost 30 years, with his last novel, The Land of Terror, being published in 1941. He died in 1950 at his ranch near Tarzana, the California town named for his legendary hero.
User reviews
LibraryThing member uvula_fr_b4
The first of Edgar Rice Burroughs' five-book Carson of Venus series (well, 4⅓ books, given that the last installment, the posthumously-published Wizard of Venus, is only 50 pps. long), Pirates of Venus is a sad come-down from the zest and vigor of the first few books in ERB's John Carter and
Pirates of Venus is essentially a yarn told in a distracted, not fully-present way about a lesser permutation of ERB's supermen -- this one named Carson Napier, and quite the self-satisfied lunkhead is he -- who designs a rocket to take him to Mars (John Carter and his progeny are quite unknown in this continuity, so it's "Mars," and not "Barsoom"; OTOH, specific reference is made to the adventures of Tarzan in Pellucidar, the hollow-earth land where dinosaurs yet dwell, as depicted in the 1929 Tarzan At the Earth's Core, in the first few paragraphs of PoV), forgets to factor Earth's Moon into his calculations, and as a consequence winds up on Venus, or Amtor, as the natives -- who have but a single language throughout the entire planet -- call it. Carson soon falls in with a group of comely, robust and vigorous humans who wear precious little in the way of clothing, fixes upon an inamorata, and fights various fauna who seem more suited to H.G. Wells' The Food of the Gods -- or a Bert I. Gordon low budget SFX'er -- than the type of full-blooded sword & planet adventure that ERB himself helped pioneer. Carson also fights other, less comely -- and, therefore, villainous -- humans of the faction called Thorists. (Despite the fact that the name hearkens to Norse mythology, the Thorists are stand-ins for Earth's Soviets.) Pirates concludes with a cliff-hanger; but A Princess of Mars it ain't.
By the time Pirates of Venus was published -- 1934 -- Burroughs was apparently on auto-pilot: his fortune, largely built on Tarzan, was well and truly made; Tarzana, a district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, had already been named in Lord Greystoke's honor (indeed, ERB has a bit of drollery in the opening chapter, when he has his avatar aver, "I detest business and everything connected with it" [p. 13 of Ace Books ed., F-179]: pretty funny given that he was something of a real estate mogul); and his writing here is undistinguished enough to prompt anyone previously unacquainted with it to wonder just what all the fuss was about. The book is almost halfway over before anything of real interest or consequence occurs; I found myself at times recalling fondly Lin Carter's pastiche of ERB and A. Merritt, the five-book Green Star series.
In short, Pirates of Venus is probably of interest only to ERB fans; it makes a pretty tepid introduction to his work. Honestly, I'd only rate this book two stars, except I gave it a quarter-star because it picked up a bit in the last couple of chapters (although I still wanted to dope-slap Carson for being so utterly clueless), and another quarter-star because of the hints of ERB's politics and philosophy peeking through the flimsy scrim of the adventure. If things don't improve by the second book (Lost on Venus, 1935), I'll probably either re-read the first few John Carter books, pick up where I left off with Tarzan, or move on to one of his other series. Maybe The Mucker....
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Tarzan series. Pirates of Venus is essentially a yarn told in a distracted, not fully-present way about a lesser permutation of ERB's supermen -- this one named Carson Napier, and quite the self-satisfied lunkhead is he -- who designs a rocket to take him to Mars (John Carter and his progeny are quite unknown in this continuity, so it's "Mars," and not "Barsoom"; OTOH, specific reference is made to the adventures of Tarzan in Pellucidar, the hollow-earth land where dinosaurs yet dwell, as depicted in the 1929 Tarzan At the Earth's Core, in the first few paragraphs of PoV), forgets to factor Earth's Moon into his calculations, and as a consequence winds up on Venus, or Amtor, as the natives -- who have but a single language throughout the entire planet -- call it. Carson soon falls in with a group of comely, robust and vigorous humans who wear precious little in the way of clothing, fixes upon an inamorata, and fights various fauna who seem more suited to H.G. Wells' The Food of the Gods -- or a Bert I. Gordon low budget SFX'er -- than the type of full-blooded sword & planet adventure that ERB himself helped pioneer. Carson also fights other, less comely -- and, therefore, villainous -- humans of the faction called Thorists. (Despite the fact that the name hearkens to Norse mythology, the Thorists are stand-ins for Earth's Soviets.) Pirates concludes with a cliff-hanger; but A Princess of Mars it ain't.
By the time Pirates of Venus was published -- 1934 -- Burroughs was apparently on auto-pilot: his fortune, largely built on Tarzan, was well and truly made; Tarzana, a district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, had already been named in Lord Greystoke's honor (indeed, ERB has a bit of drollery in the opening chapter, when he has his avatar aver, "I detest business and everything connected with it" [p. 13 of Ace Books ed., F-179]: pretty funny given that he was something of a real estate mogul); and his writing here is undistinguished enough to prompt anyone previously unacquainted with it to wonder just what all the fuss was about. The book is almost halfway over before anything of real interest or consequence occurs; I found myself at times recalling fondly Lin Carter's pastiche of ERB and A. Merritt, the five-book Green Star series.
In short, Pirates of Venus is probably of interest only to ERB fans; it makes a pretty tepid introduction to his work. Honestly, I'd only rate this book two stars, except I gave it a quarter-star because it picked up a bit in the last couple of chapters (although I still wanted to dope-slap Carson for being so utterly clueless), and another quarter-star because of the hints of ERB's politics and philosophy peeking through the flimsy scrim of the adventure. If things don't improve by the second book (Lost on Venus, 1935), I'll probably either re-read the first few John Carter books, pick up where I left off with Tarzan, or move on to one of his other series. Maybe The Mucker....
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LibraryThing member Rosenectur
I decided to bite the bullet and read through Edgar Rice Burroughs “Venus” series in 2012. Pirate is the first book and recounts how a man named Carson travel from earth to Venus, and gets stranded there. He is able to communicate his adventure back to earth via telephathy. Chief among those
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adventures is, batteling giant spider-like ape creatures, falling in love with Duare the forbidden daughter of the King, being kidnapped and taken as a slave, then finally leading a mutainy and becoming a pirate. Show Less
LibraryThing member DarthDeverell
It is hard not to compare Carson Napier with Edgar Rice Burroughs's other interplanetary adventurer, John Carter of Mars, though the two have very little in common. While Carter and Barsoom represent an American audience looking back on the conquering of the frontier, Napier and Amtor very much
Here again, Burroughs creates a unique world. His Venus is Amtor, not the Cosoom of the John Carter series. The inhabitants are geographically separated with little linking them physically or culturally. And they are completely unaware of their planet's spherical shape! The series requires the same suspension of disbelief as Burroughs earlier John Carter books since the modern reader will know that Venus could never have supported life except possibly very shortly after its formation and that its day, rather than the 26 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds of earth time that Burroughs ascribes to it, is actually 116 days and 18 hours in earth time. The ray-based weaponry and ever-present swords will remind readers of the weapons of Barsoom, though the description of its function uses a more up-to-date understanding of radiation. Finally, Burroughs spends an inordinate amount of time interrupting what plot there is to explain the language of Amtor, whereas in the John Carter books he briefly described any necessary terms so the reader could picture the subject or left it up to context to define the terms.
Carson Napier, rather than a poor knock-off of John Carter, is Burroughs's attempt at an autobiographical character. Readers and Burroughs himself would like to be John Carter or Tarzan, but most are actually more like Napier. For the fan of Burroughs, Pirates of Venus is interesting, but it is unlikely to appeal to the casual reader, especially as it ends like a serial film without a proper resolution.
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represent the social concerns of the 1930s. The John Carter books feature a self-assured hero and a pervading sense of nostalgia for a world near its end. Pirates of Venus lacks a cohesive plot and, though Carson Napier is a more realistic protagonist than John Carter, he feels less interesting and exciting for this. The world of Amtor is jumbled and so is the story of Pirates of Venus.Here again, Burroughs creates a unique world. His Venus is Amtor, not the Cosoom of the John Carter series. The inhabitants are geographically separated with little linking them physically or culturally. And they are completely unaware of their planet's spherical shape! The series requires the same suspension of disbelief as Burroughs earlier John Carter books since the modern reader will know that Venus could never have supported life except possibly very shortly after its formation and that its day, rather than the 26 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds of earth time that Burroughs ascribes to it, is actually 116 days and 18 hours in earth time. The ray-based weaponry and ever-present swords will remind readers of the weapons of Barsoom, though the description of its function uses a more up-to-date understanding of radiation. Finally, Burroughs spends an inordinate amount of time interrupting what plot there is to explain the language of Amtor, whereas in the John Carter books he briefly described any necessary terms so the reader could picture the subject or left it up to context to define the terms.
Carson Napier, rather than a poor knock-off of John Carter, is Burroughs's attempt at an autobiographical character. Readers and Burroughs himself would like to be John Carter or Tarzan, but most are actually more like Napier. For the fan of Burroughs, Pirates of Venus is interesting, but it is unlikely to appeal to the casual reader, especially as it ends like a serial film without a proper resolution.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thesmellofbooks
Despite the various trodden and untrue tropes, not so old at time of writing, I was surprised by the level of the prose in this book. The bits of wry humour sparingly sprinkled improve the quality of the read still more. Even the female lead, though familiar to readers of fainting-women-burly-men
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fiction, has more chutzpah (and fighting skill) than you might expect for the 1930s. Show Less
LibraryThing member kslade
OK fantasy, much like his Mars books.
Language
Original publication date
1934
ISBN
0441665012 / 9780441665013
Local notes
Carson of Venus
DDC/MDS
| Fic Adventure Burroughs |