I’m happy to announce the release of my first novel, Return to Barsoom, a modern look at Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. Burroughs began his series of 11 books with A Princess of Mars in 1912, and ended with The Skeleton Men of Jupiter in 1942.
Burroughs is one of the best of the early science fiction writers who started out in pulp magazines. He is better known for creating Tarzan.
When I began reading the Tarzan books I was 12 or 13, and I thought they were fantastic. The first few were the best. I continued on to read ERB’s other works, which included the Carter books. Whatever Burroughs may have lacked in subtlety in his writing, his stories were always imaginative and rich with detail.
Rereading the stories as an adult in the late 1980s, some of the underlying assumptions in Tarzan and John Carter were out of place in today’s world. Both series of books are in the genre of colonial fiction. The educated western man will invariably triumph and rule over ‘savages’. It is his rightful place in the order of things.
It was also a bit of a young man rejecting his childhood heroes that led me to look at the material with a critical eye. My other work was in comics, and that period of comics was all about deconstruction and reexamination of the form, so it followed if I was going to write a John Carter novel it would in part address what I felt would respect the source material while bringing it into the present.
The spirit of adventure, of not giving up in the face of insurmountable odds, that could stay. Strange aliens and weird customs, all good. But I didn’t buy the idea that the heroic man needed to be superior to all he met. Sure, he’s a hero, but does he need to be flawless? It’s a lot more fun to play off his failings and weaknesses.
Carter’s princess, Dejah Thoris, was always kidnapped as a plot device to give Carter something to quest after, but she never did a whole lot of talking. Carter worshipped her like no other, to be sure, but did they sit down and talk for a couple of pages? No. I wanted female characters to be just as important as the male ones.
The final idea was to reconcile ERB’s Barsoom (his name for Mars), with what we know about Mars in the real world. The juxtaposition of the two worlds I thought would help make Barsoom’s world more accessible to new readers, and for people who knew Barsoom the challenge to their assumptions would bring a freshness to their experience.
Not being the most focussed young man, work continued off and on for a number of years. By 2000, I was near the end of chapter 14 and there it stayed. A few years later we were up to the end of 18. The rest of the book was written in September 2009.
Writing a book from your mid 20s to your mid 40s is not for the faint of heart. 40-something guy invariably cringes at the… exuberance… of 20-something guy. Part of the completion process involved editing and rewriting certain parts of the first 14 chapters.
I hope you enjoy the book, and I look forward to your comments.
There’s also a separate blog post with links to current stuff on Mars and Barsoom.
Jeff Doten
I’m still messing around with The Fire Gods of Venus, granted it’s illustrated too. But I started it when Julia was a toddler and she’s in junior high now.
October 29, 2009 at 8:20 am
Paul
Congratulations!
October 31, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Scott Dutton
Thanks, Paul. Stopped by your blog. It’s nice to see the wealth of material you’re able to cover there.
November 1, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Bill Caldwell
Evening, Scott,
I found your book Return to Barsoom through Jeff Doten’s Barsoomia website on Thursday but didn’t have a quiet time to sit down and read until last night. I was going to read a few pages to get the gist of it and three hours later…
You write a very good story, sir! I found myself pulling for the various characters and losing track of time as the story drew me on. I especially enjoyed the use of The Gods of Mars data that Barsoomians are more directly related to plants than are Jasoomians. I never thought of it that way before. And made the viral attack so much more plausible. And that it would only attack the women! Wow, what a way to hit the red men who make such idols of the beauties. The intermixture of modern and Barsoomian data to explain the condition of the planet to 21st century eyes was very smoothly handled. The loss of the ochre moss and the resulting dust storms is a colossal touch! Oh, and you described the yellow tower of Lesser Helium, something that has long been in my imagination along with its scarlet twin in Greater Helium. Thank you for including it, even in its ruined state.
I thought the gradual erosion of the Heliumetic empire’s ethical behavior was classic. And somewhat inevitable considering they were caught up in their own mindset. Tardos Mors and Mors Kajak should have heard Dejah Thoris’ impassioned speech to Lorquas Ptomel and Tars Tarkas way back when. They might have learned something as well as the fact that she wasn’t just a pretty face. It seems Jasoomians just have enough difference to break the mold of their thinking. And helping us to realize John Carter was brave but unimaginative in matters other than warfare and rescue adventures was sadly necessary. Thanks for making Dejah Thoris three dimensional now!
I liked Sakoma Nu and the gradual transformation of his character. Tikhel Sen is another engaging man. He, of them all, seems the most in tune with Jasoomian modes of thought. I’d like to learn more about him and his own story.
And last, but not least, Chester Ventura. Wow! He’s a neat guy! Someone with imagination, insight and ideals tempered with a sense of history and the foibles of humanity. I’m hoping we don’t have to wait 20 years to learn about how he, Rajan Parl and Sakoma Nu are going to find the cruiser hidden near the moon. And what they’ll do once they find it. Or who they’ll find has run across it about the same time as they do.
I could ramble on about the story. I suppose you know by now that I’ll be reading it again to pick up on things I missed the first time. It’s a very good read, Scott. Thank you for being willing to share it with us. Do you have plans for a sequel? I think you’d have a ready-made audience.
All the best!
Bill Caldwell
P.S. I first found Barsoom via the gift of a 1918 first edition of The Gods of Mars from a neighbor way back in 1963. She thought a junior high boy might enjoy the story. The terrible part was getting to the end and not knowing what happened!! In ’63 the paperback editions of Ace and Ballantine had just begun to be released and I had no bookstores in the wilds of rural Missouri to search through. And who knew if there even was a sequel, after all, 1918 was a long time ago, even then. Maybe there was no sequel. It was a long wait of about a year before I found that Thuvia had been reissued and then Warlord was discovered. Whew! what a relief! They’ve occupied a treasured place in my library and are always fun to reread every now and again.
Let’s hope the upcoming movie by Pixar does the stories justice.
November 3, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Scott Dutton
Thanks for the kind words, Bill. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and the story behind your interest in ERB’s writings. It seems like we all started early. I started with the Tarzan Ballantines with the Neal Adams covers, and continued on with the Michael Whelan-covered Carters.
My very first ERB book experience was in the elementary school library in the mid 1970s where they had a set of the Gino D’Achille-covered Carters. I took one look at The Chessmen of Mars cover and didn’t want anything to do with it. At 10 it creeped me out pretty badly. Of course, I now have a complete set of those.
To answer your question, yes, there will be a second book, continuing the survivors’ attempts to save Barsoom. Look for The Spaces Between sometime in the future, hopefully in a timespan less than decades.
Andrew Stanton – the director of the upcoming John Carter of Mars film for those that haven’t been following the news – is part of the Pixar crew. I hope that means he’ll respect the source material, but you never know given the disseminated decision-making process large projects like this have. I’ve been let down so many times in recent years by films that were adapted from books or comics I had invested myself in. I have a hard time understanding why studios don’t build on the source material to engage a vocal, established fan base that could do them only good by word of mouth, and then expand on the material to include people new to the story.
– Scott
November 3, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Marc Weston
I just finished reading your story. Being a long time fan of Burroughs Barsoom series (first read A Princess of Mars in 1969), I was a little skeptical. After reading many fairly ordinary fan written stories, I didn’t expect much.
Having said that, I would now like to say… Thank you for bringing my childhood hero into the 21st century. I like having John Carter as more human than super human. The comparison between the old world values and the modern is a great touch. I did find it a little preachy in parts, in regards to the environment, but we could all be a little more concerned with our own plight here on Earth. I think rebuilding Barsoom is going to prove a lot easier.
Ras Thavas was always one of my favourite characters, nice to see him in the thick of things.
A great read, I think Burroughs would have approved. Great characterizations, fleshing out the old and developing the new. I look forward to reading the second installment.
Thank you again,
Marc Weston
Townsville, Queensland
Australia
December 9, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Scott Dutton
Via email, I received the following questions and comment :
Will the cat ever meet a sorak and get in an epic battle?
What the heck happened to the space cruiser and its crew?
What if they are unable to grow females?
What the heck happened to the therns?
And a part needs to be changed. You can’t have a bunch of green men be absent, then immediately the character eats green food. Unless that was the intention.
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
Cat vs. sorak. Interesting idea, assuming soraks come back.
The space cruiser is a question that could be answered in a sequel. And it remains to be seen if Ras Thavas can restart the cycle of life. Barsoom needs women, but will it get them?
As it stands right now, most of the life on Barsoom is extinct. There’s the stuff under the ground and the remnants of the population they all know about. Who knows if anything else lies out in the wastes, let alone holy therns?
When Chester awakens after recovering from his rite of passage, the camp is quiet presumably because the other men are out hunting/gathering. Not too many people are around, and he’s taken on new status. Wandering from pot to pot unquestioned until Koldas scolds him is plausible.
As to sequels, yes, there are two additional stories planned. The second book is The Spaces Between. I’ve made an outline and hope to write it.
Here’s what I face :
I don’t hold the rights to work with ERB’s characters commercially. It doesn’t stop me from doing the project for fun, but it must be fit into free time.
Without holding a licence, I can’t use things like iTunes or Amazon to distribute the book. That means it goes out by search engine hits, word of mouth and recommendations from nice people like yourself. So far there hasn’t been a stampede of downloads. So if you like the book, tell people who like John Carter about it. The only way stuff like this gets made is if people support it. If I can’t get paid cash, I’ll take warm and fuzzies, but there must be warm and fuzzies. Or at least people commenting. I’m not proud.
I did try to use online forums to get the word out, but most of those have rules against joining just to promote. I also joined a couple of mailing lists with ERB fans. I don’t think the material appealed to that audience, which skewed to the older crowd, and as you know this is not a typical fan fiction pastiche that unfolds in a standard way. That makes some long-time fans feel uncomfortable. My goal was to bring the characters into the modern world, to allow the franchise to grow. Even if I can’t charge for this book, working through the process this way helps me understand what’s needed for projects I can capitalise on, whether it’s packaging my own books, or providing that service to others.
July 5, 2011 at 9:56 pm
H. A. Ranier
I just finished Return to Barsoom and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.
After years of rereading and proselytizing to all who would listen about John Carter and Barsoom, I was wary that this might be another fan fiction appropriation of the characters, but by the end, I find myself far less interested in John and far more so in the relationships between your new characters.
With Sakoma Nu, you may well have written one of my new favorite characters and I encourage you to finish your next two stories. I eagerly await the voyage of Chester, Rajan, Sakoma, and the cat.
January 29, 2012 at 11:13 am