Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: PulpWork Press; 1St Edition edition
(September 15, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0979732948
ISBN-13: 978-0979732942
Not being an historian I’m not sure
if Edgar Rice Burroughs created the Planetary Romance genre. But I am certain that he refined it into
something so unique and special that all anybody has to do is say “John Carter”
or “Dejah Thoris” or “Barsoom” and most everybody even remotely acquainted with
Pulp will know what you’re talking about.
Planetary Romance or Sword and Planet as some like to call it is a
wildly popular genre in its own right.
Burroughs having struck great success with his Mars books pulled off the
same trick with his Carson of Venus books.
In the 1980’s I discovered other books/series in the genre written by
Lin Carter, Michael Moorcock, Alan Burke Akers and even…sigh, the “Gor” books
written by John Norman.
Suffice it to say without going into
detail that some of them I enjoyed and others I shook my head in downright
disbelief that they ever got published.
I can happily say that DIRE PLANET by Joel Jenkins is one that I’m glad
got published as it’s a wonderful example of what New Pulp is about. Joel embraces the conventions of Burroughsian
Planetary Romance but it does it with a modern day eye. As a result it’s a book that at once feels
familiar and fresh. Just when you think
you know which way the plot is going to go, Joel manages to find another fork
in the road that takes you someplace else.
The Earthman taken from his native
world to the planet Mars this time around is Garvey Dire and he doesn’t get
there by mystical means. He gets there
by spaceship, the NASA Mars Orbiter. Garvey
Dire’s mission is not just one of exploration and discovery. His mission is one of vital importance to the
continued security and safety of The United States. China wants to establish their own base on
Mars. And so the race is on.
It’s a race that ends in disaster
when Garvey’s ship crash lands on Mars.
With his leg broken, losing air and blood, it seems as if Garvey’s story
is over. But that all changes when he
sees the image of a gorgeous green skinned swordswoman in armor. And it’s because of that image his life is
saved as he’s transported 50,000 years back into the past and to a Mars unlike
any he’s ever dreamed of.
It’s all here; flashing swords
against ancient super science. Hideous
beasts and their even more hideous masters.
Noble warriors battling against grotesque humanoid creatures of
astounding cruelty. Captures. Chases.
Escapes. Fates worse than
death. And romance. Garvey Dire finds it all on ancient Mars.
But what really makes DIRE PLANET a
cut above other Burroughs inspired Sword and Planet stories is the political
element. Once Garvey gets hurtled back
to ancient Mars, Joel doesn’t forget the U.S./China conflict and indeed, the
way he cuts back and forth between the two time periods is in true Burroughs
tradition as he was expert at juggling two sets of characters, leaving one set
in a nail-biting cliffhanger at the end of a chapter then bouncing over to the
other set of characters for a chapter then leaving them in an inescapable trap then going back and-
Well, you get the idea. It’s a good technique that never failed to
work for Burroughs because it’s a surefire way of keeping the story going. Joel even manages to resolve the conflicts in
both time periods in a manner that while it’s clever it also involved just a
little too much bouncing back and forth through time for my taste. Not that I’m opposed to time travel, mind
you. But I think that Joel figured that
the only way out was to pinball various characters back and forth between the
two time periods. It’s a little bit
dizzying but hey, if you’ve hung on with Garvey Dire all that way, you’re going
to go on to the end and you won’t be disappointed.
I can’t finish this review without
mentioning two of my favorite bits in the book; Number one is the revelation of
who The President of The United States. And number two is that Joel apparently
is psychic because he predicted one of the most popular devices in use today
way back in 2005 when this book was first published.
So should you read DIRE PLANET? You certainly should. If you’ve never read anything by Joel Jenkins
this is the perfect place to start. Joel
has been writing what we’re now calling New Pulp as long as I’ve known him and
we’re talking roughly around 15 years.
And in all that time he’s built up quite the respectable amount of
work. DIRE PLANET is one of his best.
For more information about Joel
Jenkins please visit:
The Vaults of Caladrex http://www.joeljenkins.com/
Pulpwork Press http://www.pulpwork.com/
If you buy it direct from PulpWork
Press you get a 20% discount by entering the following code: 5YRZ6A8W
Also, this same code is good for a
20% discount on all of Joel Jenkins’ titles and most of the other Pulp Work
Press titles!
This sounds really good! I just put it on my to-read list. Having written one space opera and now working on a sword and planet short story, I have been transported back (only) 50 years to my childhood. This stuff is great. I believe there is some argument over whether Otis Adelburt Kline or Burroughs "founded" the S&P genre. I never really dug into it myself -- I'm just glad someone founded the genre.
ReplyDeleteI've heard Kline's name mentioned as being the true father of the planetary romance but it was ERB I found first and was my only "father" in that genre for many years before I heard of Mr. Kline.
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