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Gulliver of Mars
Lieutenant Gulliver Jones, U.S.N., arrived on Mars in a most unexpected fashion and promptly found himself head-over-heels in adventure. For Mars was a planet of ruined cities, ancient peoples, copper-skinned swordsmen, and weird and awesome monsters. There was a princess to be rescued, a River of Death to be navigated, and a strange prophecy to be fulfilled.
Here is a long-lost classic of inter-planetary adventure which some science-fiction experts think may have helped to inspire the immortal Edgar Rice Burroughs. Though by no means a Burroughs novel, everyone who has ever enjoyed a novel of Barsoom will find Edwin L. Arnold's GULLIVER OF MARS a special reading delight.
Originally published as Lieut. Gulliver Jones: His Vacation.
Here is a long-lost classic of inter-planetary adventure which some science-fiction experts think may have helped to inspire the immortal Edgar Rice Burroughs. Though by no means a Burroughs novel, everyone who has ever enjoyed a novel of Barsoom will find Edwin L. Arnold's GULLIVER OF MARS a special reading delight.
Originally published as Lieut. Gulliver Jones: His Vacation.
158 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1905
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423 people want to read
About the author
Edwin Lester Arnold
89 books7 followersEdwin Lester Linden Arnold, (1857 – 1 March 1935) was an English author. Most of his works were issued under his working name of Edwin Lester Arnold.
Son of Sir Edwin Arnold. Most of his childhood was spent in India, but he returned to England to study agriculture and ornithology. He became a journalist in 1883, and published his first books 1877 and 1887 before writing his first novel The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician. Phra was first published in 24 parts in the prestigious Illustrated London News, and later published in book form in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Son of Sir Edwin Arnold. Most of his childhood was spent in India, but he returned to England to study agriculture and ornithology. He became a journalist in 1883, and published his first books 1877 and 1887 before writing his first novel The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician. Phra was first published in 24 parts in the prestigious Illustrated London News, and later published in book form in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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January 29, 2024
On those rare occasions when it is discussed at all today, British author Edwin L. Arnold's final book, "Lt. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation," is primarily spoken of as a possible influence on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter novels. But this, it seems to me, is doing Arnold's last writing endeavor a disservice, as the book is an exciting, highly imaginative, colorful piece of fantasy/sci-fi more than capable of standing on its own merits, discounting any possible relation to its more famous successor. Arnold's book first saw the light of day as a 1905 hardcover published by S.C. Brown, Longham & Co., a British firm. The novel was a popular failure, strangely enough, resulting in Arnold's decision to cease writing, after five previous books, at the age of 48. The novel did not see an American edition for almost 60 years, when Ace released it as a 40-cent paperback in 1964, with an altered title, "Gulliver of Mars" (note the difference in spelling of the lead character's name) and another beautiful piece of cover art by the great Frank Frazetta. (More recently, Bison Books has come out with its own version of the novel, retitled again, as "Gullivar of Mars.") It was the Ace edition of this now-113-year-old historical footnote that this reader was fortunate enough to lay his hands on, and let me tell you, whether you call the book sci-fi or fantasy, an ERB influence or not, it most assuredly remains a terrific entertainment all these decades later.
In Arnold's book, Gulliver Jones, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, relates to us his most unusual story. He had been at a low point in his life, beset with money and girlfriend problems, as well as despondent over a recent failure to receive a promotion, when a mysterious flying carpet (!) had dumped a man at his feet on the streets of New York City. The man was unfortunately quite dead as a result of this dumping, and Jones had taken possession of the carpet and brought it back to his flat. In a moment of depression and anger, he'd uttered a wish to be "anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world of ours! I wish I were in the planet Mars," and before poor Jones knew what was occurring, the carpet had wrapped him snugly in its folds and, after an indeterminate time, kerplopped him on the surface of the Red Planet. Once there, Jones had been befriended by the slothful, childlike Hither people, who dwelt in the flower-bedecked yet crumbling city of Seth. Our hero arrived on the day before one of their great annual holidays: the day when all the males drew lots to see who would be their new bride for the next year. Jones immediately fell head over heels in love with the Princess Heru, and she with him, so much so that she had rigged the drawing to ensure that Jones would select her name. But the pair's happiness was short lived, as during that same ceremony, the festivities had been interrupted by the arrival of the Thither people: hairy, barbarous ruffians from across the sea who claimed a yearly tribute from the weakling Hither folk. Heru was taken as part of this tribute, to be given to the barbarian king Ar-hap, and Jones had been knocked unconscious in his effort to rescue her. And so, at around the 1/3 mark in "Gulliver of Mars," our hero begins his quest, to go across the sea and attempt to rescue his princess, facing innumerable perils and encountering myriad alien wonders as he proceeds, in what our narrator calls an "incredible fairy tale of adventure."
So, you may well wonder, WAS Arnold's book an inspiration for ERB's John Carter series? It is a question that has been tantalizing and puzzling readers for over a century now. Let's just say that the first Carter book, "A Princess of Mars," came out seven years after Arnold's, and also features an American military man who arrives at the Red Planet via fantastical means (astral projection, in the Burroughs book), after which he too battles near insuperable odds to rescue his princess (Dejah Thoris, in the ERB novel). And in Arnold's book, the Martians are shown sailing their deceased down a so-called River of Death...very similar to the river Iss in the second Carter novel, "The Gods of Mars." After that, the similarities end. Arnold, it strikes me, may have been the superior wordsmith--his book is penned in an ornate, flowery, almost overwritten style--but Burroughs was surely better at making his stories come alive and really move. (In his introduction to the Ace book, Burroughs scholar Richard Lupoff seems to lean toward the case for an undeniable connection, while at the same time contending that Carter himself may have been based on Arnold's 1890 novel "The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician.") And finally, as has been pointed out elsewhere, whereas Carter was a truly heroic figure, poor Jonesy is more of a good-hearted but bumbling sort, and indeed, the reader is usually a few steps ahead of him, as far as figuring out what will happen next. (All of which is not to say that Jones is a dunce; no one who quotes such writers as John Milton, Christopher Marlowe and James Graham could ever be termed "dumb"!)
For the rest of it, "Gulliver of Mars" is full of imaginative touches (such as those tiny flying lizards, and the canoes that the Martians grow from gourds, and those killer plants that emit an irresistibly alluring aroma) as well as bits of decided weirdness (that magic carpet, the provenance of which is never explained; the dead frozen king who is unthawed from an ice cliff containing thousands of corpses at the end of the River of Death, and who awakens to attack Jones; a report of a gaseous alien living somewhere on the planet; the haunted ghost town that our hero explores; a Martian who can deflect spears thrown at him using the power of his mind alone). The novel offers up any number of well-done and exciting sequences, including that marriage lottery; the scene in which Jones listens to a pair of tremendous jungle monsters battling to the death (as shown on Frazetta's cover) in the pitch dark of night; the near approach of an asteroid to the Martian world, forcing all the peoples of Ar-hap's capital city to broil under extreme heat and wither with desperate thirst, along with all the animal life that touchingly joins them; and lastly, Ar-hap's attack on the gentle city of Seth. And if some parts of Arnold's novel come off as overwritten for a 21st century reader ("…You yourself do not look so far gone but what some deed of abnegation, some strong love if you could but conceive it would set you right again…") other parts are written in quite lovely verbiage, almost striking the reader like prose poetry ("…to me they seemed hardly more than painted puppets, the vistas of their lovely glades and the ivory town beyond only the fancy of a dream, and their talk as incontinent as the babble of a stream…") Jones himself makes for a likable narrator, and a seemingly honest one, as well, especially when he chastises himself for forgetting details of his remarkable adventure, adding that he prefers to omit certain things due to that forgetfulness, rather than make things up. And then there is this wonderful passage, in which a Martian explains to Gulliver just why all the eateries in Seth give away food for free: "...What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if it cannot provide you with so rudimentary a thing as a meal?" I love it!
Still, there are problems that prevent me from giving Arnold's work here a higher grade. Instances of faulty grammar occasionally crop up ("…was ambition and hope to desert me…"), a female slave is referred to as a "servitor" (according to my dictionary, a "servitor" is "a male servant"), Heru somehow knows Jones' name before he tells it to her (and indeed, to us!), and Jones thinks back to a nighttime meal he had enjoyed with a little Martian slave girl named An (the only problem is, they never had a dinner together at night; only during the day). And Arnold's geographic descriptions are often sketchy, at best, requiring the reader to really tax his/her imagination ("not that there's anything wrong with that"). But these are mere quibbles. The bottom line is that Arnold's 1905 adventure is a splendid piece of entertainment that should manage to please fans of both the fantasy and science fiction genres. With becoming self-denigration, Gulliver tells us repeatedly, "...I am no fine writer...I sat down to tell a plain, unvarnished tale...[I am an] ill-paid lieutenant whose literary wit is often taxed hardly to fill even a logbook entry...." He closes his book by calling it an "artless narrative," and hopes that "if I fail to convince yet I may at least claim the consolation of having amused you." This reader, however, thinks that our lieutenant is being much too hard on himself. He is a much better writer than he realizes, and his narrative is far from artless, and much more than merely amusing....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Edwin L. Arnold....)
In Arnold's book, Gulliver Jones, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, relates to us his most unusual story. He had been at a low point in his life, beset with money and girlfriend problems, as well as despondent over a recent failure to receive a promotion, when a mysterious flying carpet (!) had dumped a man at his feet on the streets of New York City. The man was unfortunately quite dead as a result of this dumping, and Jones had taken possession of the carpet and brought it back to his flat. In a moment of depression and anger, he'd uttered a wish to be "anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world of ours! I wish I were in the planet Mars," and before poor Jones knew what was occurring, the carpet had wrapped him snugly in its folds and, after an indeterminate time, kerplopped him on the surface of the Red Planet. Once there, Jones had been befriended by the slothful, childlike Hither people, who dwelt in the flower-bedecked yet crumbling city of Seth. Our hero arrived on the day before one of their great annual holidays: the day when all the males drew lots to see who would be their new bride for the next year. Jones immediately fell head over heels in love with the Princess Heru, and she with him, so much so that she had rigged the drawing to ensure that Jones would select her name. But the pair's happiness was short lived, as during that same ceremony, the festivities had been interrupted by the arrival of the Thither people: hairy, barbarous ruffians from across the sea who claimed a yearly tribute from the weakling Hither folk. Heru was taken as part of this tribute, to be given to the barbarian king Ar-hap, and Jones had been knocked unconscious in his effort to rescue her. And so, at around the 1/3 mark in "Gulliver of Mars," our hero begins his quest, to go across the sea and attempt to rescue his princess, facing innumerable perils and encountering myriad alien wonders as he proceeds, in what our narrator calls an "incredible fairy tale of adventure."
So, you may well wonder, WAS Arnold's book an inspiration for ERB's John Carter series? It is a question that has been tantalizing and puzzling readers for over a century now. Let's just say that the first Carter book, "A Princess of Mars," came out seven years after Arnold's, and also features an American military man who arrives at the Red Planet via fantastical means (astral projection, in the Burroughs book), after which he too battles near insuperable odds to rescue his princess (Dejah Thoris, in the ERB novel). And in Arnold's book, the Martians are shown sailing their deceased down a so-called River of Death...very similar to the river Iss in the second Carter novel, "The Gods of Mars." After that, the similarities end. Arnold, it strikes me, may have been the superior wordsmith--his book is penned in an ornate, flowery, almost overwritten style--but Burroughs was surely better at making his stories come alive and really move. (In his introduction to the Ace book, Burroughs scholar Richard Lupoff seems to lean toward the case for an undeniable connection, while at the same time contending that Carter himself may have been based on Arnold's 1890 novel "The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician.") And finally, as has been pointed out elsewhere, whereas Carter was a truly heroic figure, poor Jonesy is more of a good-hearted but bumbling sort, and indeed, the reader is usually a few steps ahead of him, as far as figuring out what will happen next. (All of which is not to say that Jones is a dunce; no one who quotes such writers as John Milton, Christopher Marlowe and James Graham could ever be termed "dumb"!)
For the rest of it, "Gulliver of Mars" is full of imaginative touches (such as those tiny flying lizards, and the canoes that the Martians grow from gourds, and those killer plants that emit an irresistibly alluring aroma) as well as bits of decided weirdness (that magic carpet, the provenance of which is never explained; the dead frozen king who is unthawed from an ice cliff containing thousands of corpses at the end of the River of Death, and who awakens to attack Jones; a report of a gaseous alien living somewhere on the planet; the haunted ghost town that our hero explores; a Martian who can deflect spears thrown at him using the power of his mind alone). The novel offers up any number of well-done and exciting sequences, including that marriage lottery; the scene in which Jones listens to a pair of tremendous jungle monsters battling to the death (as shown on Frazetta's cover) in the pitch dark of night; the near approach of an asteroid to the Martian world, forcing all the peoples of Ar-hap's capital city to broil under extreme heat and wither with desperate thirst, along with all the animal life that touchingly joins them; and lastly, Ar-hap's attack on the gentle city of Seth. And if some parts of Arnold's novel come off as overwritten for a 21st century reader ("…You yourself do not look so far gone but what some deed of abnegation, some strong love if you could but conceive it would set you right again…") other parts are written in quite lovely verbiage, almost striking the reader like prose poetry ("…to me they seemed hardly more than painted puppets, the vistas of their lovely glades and the ivory town beyond only the fancy of a dream, and their talk as incontinent as the babble of a stream…") Jones himself makes for a likable narrator, and a seemingly honest one, as well, especially when he chastises himself for forgetting details of his remarkable adventure, adding that he prefers to omit certain things due to that forgetfulness, rather than make things up. And then there is this wonderful passage, in which a Martian explains to Gulliver just why all the eateries in Seth give away food for free: "...What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if it cannot provide you with so rudimentary a thing as a meal?" I love it!
Still, there are problems that prevent me from giving Arnold's work here a higher grade. Instances of faulty grammar occasionally crop up ("…was ambition and hope to desert me…"), a female slave is referred to as a "servitor" (according to my dictionary, a "servitor" is "a male servant"), Heru somehow knows Jones' name before he tells it to her (and indeed, to us!), and Jones thinks back to a nighttime meal he had enjoyed with a little Martian slave girl named An (the only problem is, they never had a dinner together at night; only during the day). And Arnold's geographic descriptions are often sketchy, at best, requiring the reader to really tax his/her imagination ("not that there's anything wrong with that"). But these are mere quibbles. The bottom line is that Arnold's 1905 adventure is a splendid piece of entertainment that should manage to please fans of both the fantasy and science fiction genres. With becoming self-denigration, Gulliver tells us repeatedly, "...I am no fine writer...I sat down to tell a plain, unvarnished tale...[I am an] ill-paid lieutenant whose literary wit is often taxed hardly to fill even a logbook entry...." He closes his book by calling it an "artless narrative," and hopes that "if I fail to convince yet I may at least claim the consolation of having amused you." This reader, however, thinks that our lieutenant is being much too hard on himself. He is a much better writer than he realizes, and his narrative is far from artless, and much more than merely amusing....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Edwin L. Arnold....)
June 20, 2024
This is the story of Lieutenant Gulliver Jones of the United States Navy magically appearing on Mars. He has a number of adventures there, such as saving a Martian princess and going down a River of Death. Sounds like the hero John Carter created by Edgar Rice Burroughs...but this was written in 1905, while Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars" was written in 1911. It would seem that British author Arnold influenced the American Burroughs....but Burroughs' book is by far the better one...
January 18, 2011
Edwin L. Arnold had some reputation in his own day as a writer of highly melodramatic science fiction, mostly based on this book and on his Phra the Phoenician --which I haven't read; and based on this one, won't!-- both are mentioned in older editions of The Anatomy of Wonder, and some critics, including Richard A. Lupoff (who wrote the introduction here) think both books, especially this one, influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom novels. (Arnold's works hadn't appeared in an American edition prior to the publication of A Princess of Mars, however.) That prompted me to start reading the book several years ago, when I was considering developing a college course in science fiction; but when that fell through, I set the novel aside. Recently, I decided that to be fair (not having read much of it), I should give it a second chance. I did, and it flunked markedly.
On the (scanty) plus side, Arnold did have a big vocabulary --he sent me to the dictionary a time or two, which doesn't often happen. And at his best, he can conjure very powerfully drawn, evocative scenes described in a fashion reminiscent of better writers, like Howard. But in this book, you can count those on your fingers (with one hand), and he usually doesn't really go anywhere with them in narrative terms; they're mostly just pure filler. And while he tries to write "purple prose," he usually just doesn't do it well. That job takes more than a big vocabulary; writers like Howard, Lovecraft, and Moore use big words precisely, as tools of descriptive communication, and they use involved syntax advisedly, when it serves a purpose. Arnold uses it as a constant stylistic monotone, from the first page to the last, even when he's writing dialogue (which comes across as highly stilted), and bedecks every sentence in a plethora of big words and excessive description, until they collapse under the weight. His prose reads like a parody, except that wasn't his intent. (He does have occasional flashes of intended humor, but not at his own expense.)
A reader could forgive (or at least patiently suffer through) the stylistic train wreck here if the writer gave one anything much to make up for it. Alas, he doesn't. The characters are weakly drawn, and not likable; as Lupoff says, "Gully Jones is no John Carter." (And he might have added, Princess Heru is no Dejah Thoris; though she has no marked bad qualities, she also has nothing to commend her but her looks.) Jones is irritatingly flip to everybody, as slow on the uptake as a block of wood, and fickle and tepid in the romance field --this is anything but a tale of great love, though Arnold tries at times to present it as one. (I would surmise that he was single. :-) ) The novel is plot-driven, but the plot is ultra-thin, and moves at a glacial pace. Of course, this is soft SF (squishy soft --the protagonist arrives on Mars by means of a magic flying carpet!) and most writers prior to the 1960s viewed Mars as more life-friendly than it actually is; but unlike Burroughs, Arnold seems not to have any conception that Mars would be much different than Earth in terms of its environment, and the sociology of his effete Hither People (as opposed to the Thither People they're tributary to) is implausible even in terms of internal logic. Martian telepathy is a deus ex machina used only once to impart the language to Gully (a device that, as it's handled here, has its own major credibility problems.) I might also mention that Arnold makes an embarrassing chronological boo-boo, confuses tides and currents, creates geographical absurdities with his River of Death (it can't start on one continent, cross an ocean, and end on another!), and refers to "the short Martian year," though Mars has a longer year than Earth.
In short, this is a novel designed to make the reader dance with joy --when he/she realizes it's finished! Two stars is being generous. :-)
On the (scanty) plus side, Arnold did have a big vocabulary --he sent me to the dictionary a time or two, which doesn't often happen. And at his best, he can conjure very powerfully drawn, evocative scenes described in a fashion reminiscent of better writers, like Howard. But in this book, you can count those on your fingers (with one hand), and he usually doesn't really go anywhere with them in narrative terms; they're mostly just pure filler. And while he tries to write "purple prose," he usually just doesn't do it well. That job takes more than a big vocabulary; writers like Howard, Lovecraft, and Moore use big words precisely, as tools of descriptive communication, and they use involved syntax advisedly, when it serves a purpose. Arnold uses it as a constant stylistic monotone, from the first page to the last, even when he's writing dialogue (which comes across as highly stilted), and bedecks every sentence in a plethora of big words and excessive description, until they collapse under the weight. His prose reads like a parody, except that wasn't his intent. (He does have occasional flashes of intended humor, but not at his own expense.)
A reader could forgive (or at least patiently suffer through) the stylistic train wreck here if the writer gave one anything much to make up for it. Alas, he doesn't. The characters are weakly drawn, and not likable; as Lupoff says, "Gully Jones is no John Carter." (And he might have added, Princess Heru is no Dejah Thoris; though she has no marked bad qualities, she also has nothing to commend her but her looks.) Jones is irritatingly flip to everybody, as slow on the uptake as a block of wood, and fickle and tepid in the romance field --this is anything but a tale of great love, though Arnold tries at times to present it as one. (I would surmise that he was single. :-) ) The novel is plot-driven, but the plot is ultra-thin, and moves at a glacial pace. Of course, this is soft SF (squishy soft --the protagonist arrives on Mars by means of a magic flying carpet!) and most writers prior to the 1960s viewed Mars as more life-friendly than it actually is; but unlike Burroughs, Arnold seems not to have any conception that Mars would be much different than Earth in terms of its environment, and the sociology of his effete Hither People (as opposed to the Thither People they're tributary to) is implausible even in terms of internal logic. Martian telepathy is a deus ex machina used only once to impart the language to Gully (a device that, as it's handled here, has its own major credibility problems.) I might also mention that Arnold makes an embarrassing chronological boo-boo, confuses tides and currents, creates geographical absurdities with his River of Death (it can't start on one continent, cross an ocean, and end on another!), and refers to "the short Martian year," though Mars has a longer year than Earth.
In short, this is a novel designed to make the reader dance with joy --when he/she realizes it's finished! Two stars is being generous. :-)
April 28, 2012
I find myself liking it piecemeal; interesting ingredients are present, but something about their assembly and presentation doesn't work. I can't tell if Arnold is doing this deliberately--reflecting Gulliver Jones's essential obtuseness and failings as a hero--or if Arnold hadn't the craft to make use of it properly.
Consider the ideas that are intimated, but never carried through: the ancient Martian civilization that had traveled to, or possibly from, the Egypt of the pharaohs; Jones's language education by psychic impression; the deflection of weaponry by telekinetic force (useful for repelling an invasion of iron-age barbarians); a prince aware of how far his people have fallen, from world-dominating greatness into decadent, dissipated lassitude, but unable to do anything about it; the grimness of the embers of a civilization being crushed forever by barbarian conquest, and the essential hopelessness of that battle; an Earth soldier becoming the premier warrior by virtue of not being a wimpy milquetoast; and this weirdly ineffectual hero figure unaware of his incompetence.
Gulliver Jones himself is especially problematic. As a protagonist he fails to be the John Carter-style superhero that Burroughs devised for his version of the setting, and Arnold fails to convey the level of irony necessary between word and deed to establish Jones as a lovable-or-otherwise rogue and ne'er-do-well. What's left is someone not particularly likeable--his half-heartedly humorous running commentary is a detriment, as is his inconstancy to his Earthly love--and whose competence leaves much to be desired: he twice fails to rescue Princess Heru from her abductors, is a mere bystander to a grand battle of monsters, fails at every navigational task set to him (him a NAVAL OFFICER, no less), and . In all, everyone would have been just as well off, if not better, without him, making him extraneous to his own story.
And then, in terms of construction, it's never clear until about page 75 where the story is going. It doesn't even establish itself as "an adventure" until about page 100. Out of 220 pages. It's helped along near the end but sputters along until then.
I was ready to render judgement on the above until I slept on it and realized the ideas that Arnold did capture: the civilization gone weak and dissipated, unable to maintain their own cities and living in decayed splendor; their indian summer existence at the end of their history and gentle post-economic existence; its retreat and collapse in the face of the foreign Thither-folk; the Thither-folk perception of these people as fey creatures; the ghostly abandoned cities now feared and avoided, and the dangerous stuff within; the River of the Dead, leading to a vast Martian ice-tomb of frozen corpses and tomb-riches; the intimations of glorious alien flora. As it stews in my head, I find myself liking the pieces more and more, as well as the book as an implementation of what could have been.
Consider the ideas that are intimated, but never carried through: the ancient Martian civilization that had traveled to, or possibly from, the Egypt of the pharaohs; Jones's language education by psychic impression; the deflection of weaponry by telekinetic force (useful for repelling an invasion of iron-age barbarians); a prince aware of how far his people have fallen, from world-dominating greatness into decadent, dissipated lassitude, but unable to do anything about it; the grimness of the embers of a civilization being crushed forever by barbarian conquest, and the essential hopelessness of that battle; an Earth soldier becoming the premier warrior by virtue of not being a wimpy milquetoast; and this weirdly ineffectual hero figure unaware of his incompetence.
Gulliver Jones himself is especially problematic. As a protagonist he fails to be the John Carter-style superhero that Burroughs devised for his version of the setting, and Arnold fails to convey the level of irony necessary between word and deed to establish Jones as a lovable-or-otherwise rogue and ne'er-do-well. What's left is someone not particularly likeable--his half-heartedly humorous running commentary is a detriment, as is his inconstancy to his Earthly love--and whose competence leaves much to be desired: he twice fails to rescue Princess Heru from her abductors, is a mere bystander to a grand battle of monsters, fails at every navigational task set to him (him a NAVAL OFFICER, no less), and . In all, everyone would have been just as well off, if not better, without him, making him extraneous to his own story.
And then, in terms of construction, it's never clear until about page 75 where the story is going. It doesn't even establish itself as "an adventure" until about page 100. Out of 220 pages. It's helped along near the end but sputters along until then.
I was ready to render judgement on the above until I slept on it and realized the ideas that Arnold did capture: the civilization gone weak and dissipated, unable to maintain their own cities and living in decayed splendor; their indian summer existence at the end of their history and gentle post-economic existence; its retreat and collapse in the face of the foreign Thither-folk; the Thither-folk perception of these people as fey creatures; the ghostly abandoned cities now feared and avoided, and the dangerous stuff within; the River of the Dead, leading to a vast Martian ice-tomb of frozen corpses and tomb-riches; the intimations of glorious alien flora. As it stews in my head, I find myself liking the pieces more and more, as well as the book as an implementation of what could have been.
February 3, 2024
How do you like your oblivion: pink or blue?
Perhaps it is true that we would not have John Carter of Mars without Lt. Gulliver Jones of Mars, the titular paladin traveler of this Radium-Age almost-classic sci-fi adventure from 1905. Or perhaps it's the opposite. Would readers have forgotten about Gulliver's travels to the red planet if it hadn't been for Burroughs' Barsoom series? Let's take a look and see.
In my opinion, our intrepid hero of this story may be a little more interesting than Carter's ubermensch. After making the mistake of thinking out loud that he would rather be on the planet Mars than on Earth while unknowingly having his supper of steak and tomatoes on a magic carpet, he is whisked away by said home decor and dumped onto his derriere on our distant neighbor to the Sun. You heard me right. He flies to Mars on a magic carpet.
Once there, he encounters a beautiful world inhabited by lazy but fun-loving people, a land reminiscent of the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas crossed with a Renaissance faire. Gulliver's trademark manner of speaking is hilarious, even for Edwardian standards. In his usual jocular and verbose manner, he immediately asks for directions to the nearest drinking establishment where he might quench his mighty thirst. What a guy! Unlike Barsoom, everyone wears clothes on this version of Mars, so he has trouble figuring out who are the men and who are the women, since everyone apparently looks like 1970s-era David Bowie. This leads to some interesting exploration of non-binary gender societies, surprising considering this was written 120 years ago. He makes friends easily, despite the fact that he can't hold his liquor. And he has a good heart, leading him to save a princess who then naturally falls in love with him. So far, quite a nice vacation! But soon he is to learn there is trouble in paradise.
This story is almost pure adventure fantasy, not science fiction, and is great fun. I loved all the different personalities Gulliver meets on his travels, and I particularly enjoyed the contrasts of societies between the effete Hither people and the hardy woodsmen of the Thither lands. I know I'd enjoy sipping a blue oblivion cocktail on a boat sailing the azure Martian canals while pretty Hither folks piped on flutes and fed me peeled grapes. Equally, I'd love to laugh and tell tall tales with the hairy Thither people before a cozy cabin fire while eating fishcakes and drinking rich ale out of a calabash as the icy wind rages outside. Like on Kong's Skull Island or Tarzan's Africa, the kid in me was also enthralled with all the weird flora and fauna of the red planet. Edwin Arnold is a master storyteller, his prose being surprisingly modern and a delight to read, with a penchant for such vivid imagery that you swear you are watching a high budget movie. And Gulliver himself remains a highly likeable and good-humored companion to have on this Martian escapade.
And what's really cool is that this is not just a story to razzledazzle the downtrodden masses of industrialized London. There is a positive message and some surprisingly deep themes here without the entertainment ever being compromised.
Of course, you can't take this TOO seriously. If someone advises Gulliver to not take ye path to the forbidden ruins, or to not steer onto the black river of death, you can be sure he'll take ye path and stray onto said river. But the flying carpet gag is what makes it hard to suspend disbelief. Put aside the impossibility of interstellar travel with such a mode of transport--its very existence makes all of Gulliver's trials and tribulations unnecessary. Halfway through the book, he takes a perilous journey across the Martian landscape. Why? Why doesn't he just wish the magic carpet to take him wherever he wants to go? And he starts to get homesick for Earth. So why doesn't he just wish himself to go back the way he came? There'd be no story, that's why. Gulliver's magic carpet is Doctor Who's screwdriver.
Regardless, this is the perfect novel with which to relax and let your imagination soar. It's a good ol' fashioned hero's journey of discovery and excitement sure to please even those readers who are not the biggest fans of science fiction and fantasy. It should and does stand the test of time on its own merit, whether Burroughs ever read the thing or not.
SCORE: 4 carpets out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: Connubial
Perhaps it is true that we would not have John Carter of Mars without Lt. Gulliver Jones of Mars, the titular paladin traveler of this Radium-Age almost-classic sci-fi adventure from 1905. Or perhaps it's the opposite. Would readers have forgotten about Gulliver's travels to the red planet if it hadn't been for Burroughs' Barsoom series? Let's take a look and see.
In my opinion, our intrepid hero of this story may be a little more interesting than Carter's ubermensch. After making the mistake of thinking out loud that he would rather be on the planet Mars than on Earth while unknowingly having his supper of steak and tomatoes on a magic carpet, he is whisked away by said home decor and dumped onto his derriere on our distant neighbor to the Sun. You heard me right. He flies to Mars on a magic carpet.
Once there, he encounters a beautiful world inhabited by lazy but fun-loving people, a land reminiscent of the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas crossed with a Renaissance faire. Gulliver's trademark manner of speaking is hilarious, even for Edwardian standards. In his usual jocular and verbose manner, he immediately asks for directions to the nearest drinking establishment where he might quench his mighty thirst. What a guy! Unlike Barsoom, everyone wears clothes on this version of Mars, so he has trouble figuring out who are the men and who are the women, since everyone apparently looks like 1970s-era David Bowie. This leads to some interesting exploration of non-binary gender societies, surprising considering this was written 120 years ago. He makes friends easily, despite the fact that he can't hold his liquor. And he has a good heart, leading him to save a princess who then naturally falls in love with him. So far, quite a nice vacation! But soon he is to learn there is trouble in paradise.
This story is almost pure adventure fantasy, not science fiction, and is great fun. I loved all the different personalities Gulliver meets on his travels, and I particularly enjoyed the contrasts of societies between the effete Hither people and the hardy woodsmen of the Thither lands. I know I'd enjoy sipping a blue oblivion cocktail on a boat sailing the azure Martian canals while pretty Hither folks piped on flutes and fed me peeled grapes. Equally, I'd love to laugh and tell tall tales with the hairy Thither people before a cozy cabin fire while eating fishcakes and drinking rich ale out of a calabash as the icy wind rages outside. Like on Kong's Skull Island or Tarzan's Africa, the kid in me was also enthralled with all the weird flora and fauna of the red planet. Edwin Arnold is a master storyteller, his prose being surprisingly modern and a delight to read, with a penchant for such vivid imagery that you swear you are watching a high budget movie. And Gulliver himself remains a highly likeable and good-humored companion to have on this Martian escapade.
And what's really cool is that this is not just a story to razzledazzle the downtrodden masses of industrialized London. There is a positive message and some surprisingly deep themes here without the entertainment ever being compromised.
Of course, you can't take this TOO seriously. If someone advises Gulliver to not take ye path to the forbidden ruins, or to not steer onto the black river of death, you can be sure he'll take ye path and stray onto said river. But the flying carpet gag is what makes it hard to suspend disbelief. Put aside the impossibility of interstellar travel with such a mode of transport--its very existence makes all of Gulliver's trials and tribulations unnecessary. Halfway through the book, he takes a perilous journey across the Martian landscape. Why? Why doesn't he just wish the magic carpet to take him wherever he wants to go? And he starts to get homesick for Earth. So why doesn't he just wish himself to go back the way he came? There'd be no story, that's why. Gulliver's magic carpet is Doctor Who's screwdriver.
Regardless, this is the perfect novel with which to relax and let your imagination soar. It's a good ol' fashioned hero's journey of discovery and excitement sure to please even those readers who are not the biggest fans of science fiction and fantasy. It should and does stand the test of time on its own merit, whether Burroughs ever read the thing or not.
SCORE: 4 carpets out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: Connubial
March 18, 2018
Written in 1905 Gullivar of Mars predates Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars by some 7 years and in many respects it is remarkably similar - our human hero (here a navel man) gets mysteriously transported to Mars and falls in love with a Martian princess. She gets abducted and he has to rescue her having many adventures along the way.
But despite the similar premise they are very different and Gullivar does come out wanting - largely I think because it is such a mishmash of what has gone before - Gullivar shares as much with Burroughs as with H.G Wells - the Hither and Thither people resemble the Eloi and the Morlocks of the Time Machine and there are shades of OZ here with the adventures as well as fairytale and quest narratives and gothic fiction - his adventures with the frozen dead and the ghostly city of Queen Yang - surrounded by the corpses of children are dark and gothic indeed. There's some attempt at satire/social commentary but it's a tad subtle and doesn't work nearly as well as things like Swift's Gulliver's travels which is yet another obvious inspiration.
I guess the biggest let down for me are the characters - Gullivar isn't a great hero - and if you look at the Martian adventure as a dream - he's a drunk and quite weak in comparison to heroes of other planetary stories. I also hated Heru the princess - she is truly useless: At one point she's described as "a helpless, sodden little morsel of feminine loveliness" and she's often referred to as child like. Give me Dejah Thoris any day! She may also get abducted at every opportunity, but she has fire and fight and gives as good as she gets - Heru's just... vapid. It's interesting to note Gullivar does not get the girl of his dreams- he goes home, turns up looking like he's been on an almighty bender and his fiancee Polly of 'comfortable womanhood' receives him back with open arms. Meh.
Gullivar on Mars is flawed and not a particularly great story either but.... it's incredibly interesting and has some truly fantastic set pieces - Travelling to Mars on a mysterious flying carpet, wandering among caves of the frozen dead, wandering among corpses of children, conversing with the slave An over her gender...
I adore planetary adventures of this ilk and whilst I do find this one quite weak, you can't deny its importance both in terms of what it references and what it went on to inspire.
But despite the similar premise they are very different and Gullivar does come out wanting - largely I think because it is such a mishmash of what has gone before - Gullivar shares as much with Burroughs as with H.G Wells - the Hither and Thither people resemble the Eloi and the Morlocks of the Time Machine and there are shades of OZ here with the adventures as well as fairytale and quest narratives and gothic fiction - his adventures with the frozen dead and the ghostly city of Queen Yang - surrounded by the corpses of children are dark and gothic indeed. There's some attempt at satire/social commentary but it's a tad subtle and doesn't work nearly as well as things like Swift's Gulliver's travels which is yet another obvious inspiration.
I guess the biggest let down for me are the characters - Gullivar isn't a great hero - and if you look at the Martian adventure as a dream - he's a drunk and quite weak in comparison to heroes of other planetary stories. I also hated Heru the princess - she is truly useless: At one point she's described as "a helpless, sodden little morsel of feminine loveliness" and she's often referred to as child like. Give me Dejah Thoris any day! She may also get abducted at every opportunity, but she has fire and fight and gives as good as she gets - Heru's just... vapid. It's interesting to note Gullivar does not get the girl of his dreams- he goes home, turns up looking like he's been on an almighty bender and his fiancee Polly of 'comfortable womanhood' receives him back with open arms. Meh.
Gullivar on Mars is flawed and not a particularly great story either but.... it's incredibly interesting and has some truly fantastic set pieces - Travelling to Mars on a mysterious flying carpet, wandering among caves of the frozen dead, wandering among corpses of children, conversing with the slave An over her gender...
I adore planetary adventures of this ilk and whilst I do find this one quite weak, you can't deny its importance both in terms of what it references and what it went on to inspire.
August 8, 2008
I have a much older Ace edition. Some folks say that this is the book that inspired Burroughs' John Carter series. It came first, certainly, and there are some similarities, but they are relatively minor. I give it a three for being a very early and imaginative book, but the story itself probably deserves 2 stars.
December 18, 2019
An adventure on Mars to rescue a princess.
This is one of those Ur-adventures of the "wander through weird landscape facing weirder monsters, on the thinnest of pretexts" type. If this didn't inspire A Princess of Mars, it drew on the same inspirations.
Racist, sexist, and colonial. Good descriptions of weird settings and the monsters within them. A three-and-a-half stars sort of book, leaning toward three. I was left going, "What was that all about?"
Recommended for adventure/pulp completionists.
This is one of those Ur-adventures of the "wander through weird landscape facing weirder monsters, on the thinnest of pretexts" type. If this didn't inspire A Princess of Mars, it drew on the same inspirations.
Racist, sexist, and colonial. Good descriptions of weird settings and the monsters within them. A three-and-a-half stars sort of book, leaning toward three. I was left going, "What was that all about?"
Recommended for adventure/pulp completionists.
June 23, 2016
This is another entry in a long quest to read through the origins of my favorite waves of pulp science-fantasy. I imagine I came to this book for the reason most other folks did: to see what (if anything) inspired Burroughs' immortal Barsoom books. Richard A. Lupoff's introduction to the ACE edition addresses this and suggests further reading in Arnold's “Phra the Phoenician”, so my quest continues.
I tried to mostly read/enjoy Lieutenant Gulliver Jones' adventures on Mars in their own right rather than drawing constant comparison to John Carter's adventures. This is indeed a different beast, appealing more to an earlier, more naive school of fantasy. This tale is not driven by violence, by dire circumstances, or even really by romance, although each element makes a guest spot.
Jones is a lighthearted, even jovial American “type” of the turn of the century, a red-blooded navy man who doesn't see himself as especially expressive or deep. Very rarely does he really jump “into the fray” and fight, and his passiveness is largely appropriate to his discovery of an even-more passive Martian society, which he discovers lazily across pages that sometimes read like stream-of-consciousness.
Comparison is inevitable, especially since I often gleaned from this book the same sense of delighted wonder and discovery that I did the first time I read “A Princess of Mars”. This book is unlike that one in tone, in fact the first half feels more like the latter parts of Gene Wolfe's “Shadow of the Torturer” (those who have read that will know that, despite the title, this is not me calling Arnold's writing “grimdark”, but rather meandering). Throughout we find elements that Burroughs borrowed for Barsoom: different sentient races, ruined cities, a river of the dead, and magical planetary transit.
The difference between Arnold and Burroughs is the difference between the 19th and 20th centuries, despite the publication gap of only 8 years. Arnold's tone recalls Lewis Carol or Frank Baum, a dream world of only occasional peril. Burroughs signals what followed, sustained tension, romantically fueled escapes, violence, loss, etc.
I read both this and ERB's series because long ago I read about them as the chain of inspiration that helped to spawn Flash Gordon (my favorite comic of the 30s or ever, don't judge me). For my part I don't regret finally completing the chain. “Gulliver of Mars” is a light fantasy, escapist, mostly gentle. Lupoff said that “Phra the Phoenician” inspired the character of John Carter, so I think I'll read that next.
I tried to mostly read/enjoy Lieutenant Gulliver Jones' adventures on Mars in their own right rather than drawing constant comparison to John Carter's adventures. This is indeed a different beast, appealing more to an earlier, more naive school of fantasy. This tale is not driven by violence, by dire circumstances, or even really by romance, although each element makes a guest spot.
Jones is a lighthearted, even jovial American “type” of the turn of the century, a red-blooded navy man who doesn't see himself as especially expressive or deep. Very rarely does he really jump “into the fray” and fight, and his passiveness is largely appropriate to his discovery of an even-more passive Martian society, which he discovers lazily across pages that sometimes read like stream-of-consciousness.
Comparison is inevitable, especially since I often gleaned from this book the same sense of delighted wonder and discovery that I did the first time I read “A Princess of Mars”. This book is unlike that one in tone, in fact the first half feels more like the latter parts of Gene Wolfe's “Shadow of the Torturer” (those who have read that will know that, despite the title, this is not me calling Arnold's writing “grimdark”, but rather meandering). Throughout we find elements that Burroughs borrowed for Barsoom: different sentient races, ruined cities, a river of the dead, and magical planetary transit.
The difference between Arnold and Burroughs is the difference between the 19th and 20th centuries, despite the publication gap of only 8 years. Arnold's tone recalls Lewis Carol or Frank Baum, a dream world of only occasional peril. Burroughs signals what followed, sustained tension, romantically fueled escapes, violence, loss, etc.
I read both this and ERB's series because long ago I read about them as the chain of inspiration that helped to spawn Flash Gordon (my favorite comic of the 30s or ever, don't judge me). For my part I don't regret finally completing the chain. “Gulliver of Mars” is a light fantasy, escapist, mostly gentle. Lupoff said that “Phra the Phoenician” inspired the character of John Carter, so I think I'll read that next.
Read
September 1, 2019Did not finish. σελ. 44
Αγόρασα αυτό το βιβλ��ο διότι πρόκειται για το "πρότυπο" πάνω στο οποίο δούλεψε ο Edgar Rice Burroughs για να φτιάξει τον τιτανοτεράστιο Τζον Κάρτερ του, τον οποίο αγαπώ από 16 ετών. Δυστυχώς η γραφή είναι τόσο αρχαϊκή (μιλάμε για πρώτη έκδοση το 1905), με μισό εκατομμύριο "yonder" ανά σελίδα, που δεν κατάφερα να συνεχίσω. Αναρωτήθηκα αν κι ο Μπάροουζ θα μου φαινόταν τόσο βαρετός στα αγγλικά (πάει να πει, να θα μου βρώμαγε ναφθαλίνη), αλλά μετά θυμήθηκα ότι από τις 11 Mars novels τουλάχιστον τις μισές τις έχω όντως διαβάσει στα αγγλικά. Ένας ακόμα λόγος για να το παρατήσω ήταν ο χαρακτήρας του Γκιούλιβερ Τζόουνς, ο οποίος συμπεριφέρεται όπως περίπου οι κολλητοί του Τσώρτσιλ στους Ινδούς - κύριος και τζέντλεμαν, αλλά σαφώς γνωρίζοντας και επ��βάλλοντας την ανωτερότητά του επί των ιθαγενών. Η διαφορά με τον Κάρτερ του Μπάροουζ (γραμμένου μόλις εφτά χρόνια αργότερα) είναι ότι ο Κάρτερ πρώτα είναι άνθρωπος και μετά λευκός.
Edited to add: Φταίω εγώ τώρα να αναρωτηθώ αν φταίει το ότι ο Άμποτ ήταν Άγγλος, γιος ενός Σερ ενώ ο Μπάρροουζ γιος ενός καραβανά, Αμερικάνος από την εποχή της αποικιοκρατίας;
Αγόρασα αυτό το βιβλ��ο διότι πρόκειται για το "πρότυπο" πάνω στο οποίο δούλεψε ο Edgar Rice Burroughs για να φτιάξει τον τιτανοτεράστιο Τζον Κάρτερ του, τον οποίο αγαπώ από 16 ετών. Δυστυχώς η γραφή είναι τόσο αρχαϊκή (μιλάμε για πρώτη έκδοση το 1905), με μισό εκατομμύριο "yonder" ανά σελίδα, που δεν κατάφερα να συνεχίσω. Αναρωτήθηκα αν κι ο Μπάροουζ θα μου φαινόταν τόσο βαρετός στα αγγλικά (πάει να πει, να θα μου βρώμαγε ναφθαλίνη), αλλά μετά θυμήθηκα ότι από τις 11 Mars novels τουλάχιστον τις μισές τις έχω όντως διαβάσει στα αγγλικά. Ένας ακόμα λόγος για να το παρατήσω ήταν ο χαρακτήρας του Γκιούλιβερ Τζόουνς, ο οποίος συμπεριφέρεται όπως περίπου οι κολλητοί του Τσώρτσιλ στους Ινδούς - κύριος και τζέντλεμαν, αλλά σαφώς γνωρίζοντας και επ��βάλλοντας την ανωτερότητά του επί των ιθαγενών. Η διαφορά με τον Κάρτερ του Μπάροουζ (γραμμένου μόλις εφτά χρόνια αργότερα) είναι ότι ο Κάρτερ πρώτα είναι άνθρωπος και μετά λευκός.
Edited to add: Φταίω εγώ τώρα να αναρωτηθώ αν φταίει το ότι ο Άμποτ ήταν Άγγλος, γιος ενός Σερ ενώ ο Μπάρροουζ γιος ενός καραβανά, Αμερικάνος από την εποχή της αποικιοκρατίας;
January 5, 2009
"Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation" is the last fictional book from Edwin Lester Lindon Arnold (1857 - March 1, 1935). The book is also known as "Gullivar of Mars", and in both cases there are editions of the books using the alternate spelling "Gulliver". Along with his book "The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phaenician" he appears to have greatly influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs with regards to his Barsoom series, though some people dispute this. Phra is seen as similar to John Carter, and of course the setting of Mars as well as some story points coming from this book.
This book is much different than the earlier Phra, which is to say that this one is readable. The problems with wordiness and pace have gone away. In the first chapter, he gets his hero to Mars, and in the second, he quickly disposes of such problems of language as well as why a quick return to Earth is not possible. This would easily have taken four times as much space using the style of writing which Arnold used in writing about Phra. That is not to say that he completely avoids the prior issue, just that it doesn't prevent the reader from enjoying the story.
This relatively fast pace continues, as our hero saves the Martian Princess (Heru) when meeting her, and learns a lot about the culture of the Martian society in which he finds himself, and then ends up saving Princess yet again again. However, what makes this book much more entertaining, is that the hero also blunders several times. Succumbing to drink and losing the Martian princess to an act of betrayal after she appears to have become his. Often others have to save him from his ignorance, and many times his attempts at heroism fail.
Several times he fails to take the advice of his companions, leading him to adventures down the River of the Dead, and to the ghost-haunted city of Queen Yang. He persists in his quest to free Princess Heru, though he has no idea how to accomplish that, given that her own people are so peaceful they will not fight for her. In the end, his bumbling and misadventures pay off. It is a bit too convenient of an ending, but one shouldn't expect too much from a light adventure story.
The recovery of Princess Heru is not the final challenge for our hero, as what he believes to be a comet is causing a great distress on Mars. Incredible heat and a lack of rain is killing the people, and Gullivar is prevented from returning with Princess Heru until it passes. There is nothing for Gullivar to do in this case though, other than try to help Princess Heru survive, while also being concerned that once the danger passes, their freedom which he had won will not be honored. The story ends with an escape, and a chase, and a final confrontation, which results in yet one more amazing coincidence to complete the tail.
This was not a great book, but it was a reasonably fun read, full of the characters from a classic fantasy tale. Much better than "Phra", this one is actually worth a read, especially for those who like Burrough's Barsoom series who might be interested in a possible influence. This is easily the best of the three books by Arnold that I have read.
This book is much different than the earlier Phra, which is to say that this one is readable. The problems with wordiness and pace have gone away. In the first chapter, he gets his hero to Mars, and in the second, he quickly disposes of such problems of language as well as why a quick return to Earth is not possible. This would easily have taken four times as much space using the style of writing which Arnold used in writing about Phra. That is not to say that he completely avoids the prior issue, just that it doesn't prevent the reader from enjoying the story.
This relatively fast pace continues, as our hero saves the Martian Princess (Heru) when meeting her, and learns a lot about the culture of the Martian society in which he finds himself, and then ends up saving Princess yet again again. However, what makes this book much more entertaining, is that the hero also blunders several times. Succumbing to drink and losing the Martian princess to an act of betrayal after she appears to have become his. Often others have to save him from his ignorance, and many times his attempts at heroism fail.
Several times he fails to take the advice of his companions, leading him to adventures down the River of the Dead, and to the ghost-haunted city of Queen Yang. He persists in his quest to free Princess Heru, though he has no idea how to accomplish that, given that her own people are so peaceful they will not fight for her. In the end, his bumbling and misadventures pay off. It is a bit too convenient of an ending, but one shouldn't expect too much from a light adventure story.
The recovery of Princess Heru is not the final challenge for our hero, as what he believes to be a comet is causing a great distress on Mars. Incredible heat and a lack of rain is killing the people, and Gullivar is prevented from returning with Princess Heru until it passes. There is nothing for Gullivar to do in this case though, other than try to help Princess Heru survive, while also being concerned that once the danger passes, their freedom which he had won will not be honored. The story ends with an escape, and a chase, and a final confrontation, which results in yet one more amazing coincidence to complete the tail.
This was not a great book, but it was a reasonably fun read, full of the characters from a classic fantasy tale. Much better than "Phra", this one is actually worth a read, especially for those who like Burrough's Barsoom series who might be interested in a possible influence. This is easily the best of the three books by Arnold that I have read.
May 26, 2017
If you took a second-rate version of Jonathan Swift and combined him with a second-rate version of Edgar Rice Burroughs, you'd wind up with the author of GULLIVAR OF MARS.
It's very hard to know what to make of this book. At certain times, it feels like parody or satire; at others, it comes across as a straight-laced adventure novel. In that respect, it's a whole lot like Mark Twain's A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, but nowhere near as pointed and topical.
The story (theorized by some to have been the inspiration behind Burrough's JOHN CARTER series) is that of an American stereotype who finds himself accidentally whisked to Mars by a mysterious magic carpet--the explanation for which is never given. Coincidence after coincidence piles on top of each other as Gullivar embarks on a quest to rescue a kidnapped Martian princess, hitting every possible detour along the way. What initially starts out as a fun, quirky little fable eventually winds up being a dull slog through seemingly endless descriptive passages of Martian terrain (reminding me of C.S. Lewis' OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET). There are some really fantastic ideas and imagery sprinkled throughout--especially when it comes to the valley of frozen corpses--but Arnold's overdone writing style kills off any real potential for drama and excitement. Perhaps Arnold figured that his flowery writing could elevate GULLIVAR OF MARS beyond its pulp sci-fi roots. Unfortunately, upon publication, critical reception of the book was poor, and a frustrated Arnold gave up writing fiction altogether.
Which is too bad, because GULLIVAR OF MARS shows that Arnold had real potential. Had he been able to simplify his prose and commit to a genre, he might have enjoyed a long, successful career.
It's very hard to know what to make of this book. At certain times, it feels like parody or satire; at others, it comes across as a straight-laced adventure novel. In that respect, it's a whole lot like Mark Twain's A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, but nowhere near as pointed and topical.
The story (theorized by some to have been the inspiration behind Burrough's JOHN CARTER series) is that of an American stereotype who finds himself accidentally whisked to Mars by a mysterious magic carpet--the explanation for which is never given. Coincidence after coincidence piles on top of each other as Gullivar embarks on a quest to rescue a kidnapped Martian princess, hitting every possible detour along the way. What initially starts out as a fun, quirky little fable eventually winds up being a dull slog through seemingly endless descriptive passages of Martian terrain (reminding me of C.S. Lewis' OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET). There are some really fantastic ideas and imagery sprinkled throughout--especially when it comes to the valley of frozen corpses--but Arnold's overdone writing style kills off any real potential for drama and excitement. Perhaps Arnold figured that his flowery writing could elevate GULLIVAR OF MARS beyond its pulp sci-fi roots. Unfortunately, upon publication, critical reception of the book was poor, and a frustrated Arnold gave up writing fiction altogether.
Which is too bad, because GULLIVAR OF MARS shows that Arnold had real potential. Had he been able to simplify his prose and commit to a genre, he might have enjoyed a long, successful career.
September 23, 2017
"Gulliver of Mars" is old and time has not fared well with it. The science content is zero but I guess at the time it was a good fairy tale about humans arriving on the planet Mars.
March 27, 2013
Published several years before the much more famous A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, it nevertheless shares many similarities: a US military man finds himself on a dying Mars with the remains of a once great culture, where he falls in love with a Princess who he must rescue. There is a also a river of death, on which all the bodies of the dead are shipped on for their final journey.
Nevertheless, the stories are very different. I know I'll get in trouble with the general Sci-Fi community for saying this, but I liked this one better. Burrough's John Carter is nigh invincible, defeating entire armies singlehandedly with all the personality of a doorstop. His personality can be summed up with "I will do as I please, damn you all!" And he does, leaving a nation of corpses in his wake.
Yes, I admit, ERB's Mars books are filled to the brim with men-of-action in action, but these men tend to be exceedingly stupid and whose victories are won by brute force and more often than not, sheer luck.
Gulliver of Mars is a better written tale, but with much less action. Yes, Lt. Gulliver gets by only with his own copious amounts of good luck, but the Martian societies are more deeply drawn and that makes it much more interesting, at least to me. There are definite weaknesses (our hero gets to Mars via a flying carpet, of all things) but it is a pleasantly thoughtful exploration on the disintegration of culture, in stark contrast to Burrough's banal brutality.
Nevertheless, the stories are very different. I know I'll get in trouble with the general Sci-Fi community for saying this, but I liked this one better. Burrough's John Carter is nigh invincible, defeating entire armies singlehandedly with all the personality of a doorstop. His personality can be summed up with "I will do as I please, damn you all!" And he does, leaving a nation of corpses in his wake.
Yes, I admit, ERB's Mars books are filled to the brim with men-of-action in action, but these men tend to be exceedingly stupid and whose victories are won by brute force and more often than not, sheer luck.
Gulliver of Mars is a better written tale, but with much less action. Yes, Lt. Gulliver gets by only with his own copious amounts of good luck, but the Martian societies are more deeply drawn and that makes it much more interesting, at least to me. There are definite weaknesses (our hero gets to Mars via a flying carpet, of all things) but it is a pleasantly thoughtful exploration on the disintegration of culture, in stark contrast to Burrough's banal brutality.
June 27, 2019
Gulliver of Mars, or as it was originally titled Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation, has been considered the possible precursor and inspiration for the John Carter novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The case can be a valid one as there is plenty of comparable points between the two. Of course there are differences, Gulliver goes to Mars via a magical carpet while John Carter goes via some sort of astral projection. While there they both get mixed up in the local political machinations in a decadent society. Gulliver is a decent read, of course it has its problems due to its being published in 1905. Gulliver of Mars is pure unadulterated escapism. And that is what I like.
May 17, 2022
I got 1/3 of the way through this one and it was doing nothing for me. The John Carter books are the infinitely superior version of this type of story.
September 15, 2024
4/10. Too much eating and sleeping
June 19, 2023
On those rare occasions when it is discussed at all today, British author Edwin L. Arnold’s final book, Lt. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation, is primarily spoken of as a possible influence on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter novels. But this, it seems to me, is doing Arnold’s last writing endeavor a disservice, as the book is an exciting, highly imaginative, colorful piece of fantasy/sci-fi more than capable of standing on its own merits, discounting any possible relation to its more famous successor. Arnold’s book first saw the light of day as a 1905 hardcover published by S.C. Brown, Longham & Co., a British firm. The novel was a popular failure, strangely enough, resulting in Arnold’s decision to cease writing, after five previous books, at the age of 48. The novel did not see an American edition for almost 60 years, when Ace released it as a 40-cent paperback in 1964, with an altered title, Gulliver of Mars (note the difference in spelling of the lead character’s name) and another beautiful piece of cover art by the great Frank Frazetta. (More recently, Bison Books has come out with its own version of the novel, retitled again, as Gullivar of Mars.) It was the Ace edition of this now-113-year-old historical footnote that this reader was fortunate enough to lay his hands on, and let me tell you, whether you call the book sci-fi or fantasy, an ERB influence or not, it most assuredly remains a terrific entertainment all these decades later.
In Arnold’s book, Gulliver Jones, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, relates to us his most unusual story. He had been at a low point in his life, beset with money and girlfriend problems, as well as despondent over a recent failure to receive a promotion, when a mysterious flying carpet (!) had dumped a man at his feet on the streets of New York City. The man was unfortunately quite dead as a result of this dumping, and Jones had taken possession of the carpet and brought it back to his flat. In a moment of depression and anger, he’d uttered a wish to be “anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world of ours! I wish I were in the planet Mars,” and before poor Jones knew what was occurring, the carpet had wrapped him snugly in its folds and, after an indeterminate time, kerplopped him on the surface of the Red Planet!
Once there, Jones had been befriended by the slothful, childlike Hither people, who dwelt in the flower-bedecked yet crumbling city of Seth. Our hero arrived on the day before one of their great annual holidays: the day when all the males drew lots to see who would be their new bride for the next year. Jones immediately fell head over heels in love with the Princess Heru, and she with him, so much so that she had rigged the drawing to ensure that Jones would select her name. But the pair’s happiness was short lived, as during that same ceremony, the festivities had been interrupted by the arrival of the Thither people: hairy, barbarous ruffians from across the sea who claimed a yearly tribute from the weakling Hither folk. Heru was taken as part of this tribute, to be given to the barbarian king Ar-hap, and Jones had been knocked unconscious in his effort to rescue her. And so, at around the 1/3 mark in Gulliver of Mars, our hero begins his quest, to go across the sea and attempt to rescue his princess, facing innumerable perils and encountering myriad alien wonders as he proceeds, in what our narrator calls an “incredible fairy tale of adventure.”
So, you may well wonder, was Arnold’s book an inspiration for ERB’s John Carter series? It is a question that has been tantalizing and puzzling readers for over a century now. Let’s just say that the first Carter book, A Princess of Mars, came out seven years after Arnold’s, and also features an American military man who arrives at the Red Planet via fantastical means (astral projection, in the Burroughs book), after which he too battles near insuperable odds to rescue his princess (Dejah Thoris, in the ERB novel). And in Arnold’s book, the Martians are shown sailing their deceased down a so-called River of Death … very similar to the river Iss in the second Carter novel, The Gods of Mars. After that, the similarities end. Arnold, it strikes me, may have been the superior wordsmith — his book is penned in an ornate, flowery, almost overwritten style — but Burroughs was surely better at making his stories come alive and really move.
In his introduction to the Ace book, Burroughs scholar Richard Lupoff seems to lean toward the case for an undeniable connection, while at the same time contending that Carter himself may have been based on Arnold’s 1890 novel The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician.) And finally, as has been pointed out elsewhere, whereas Carter was a truly heroic figure, poor Jonesy is more of a good-hearted but bumbling sort, and indeed, the reader is usually a few steps ahead of him, as far as figuring out what will happen next. (All of which is not to say that Jones is a dunce; no one who quotes such writers as John Milton, Christopher Marlowe and James Graham could ever be termed “dumb”!)
For the rest of it, Gulliver of Mars is full of imaginative touches (such as those tiny flying lizards, and the canoes that the Martians grow from gourds, and those killer plants that emit an irresistibly alluring aroma) as well as bits of decided weirdness (that magic carpet, the provenance of which is never explained; the dead frozen king who is unthawed from an ice cliff containing thousands of corpses at the end of the River of Death, and who awakens to attack Jones; a report of a gaseous alien living somewhere on the planet; the haunted ghost town that our hero explores; a Martian who can deflect spears thrown at him using the power of his mind alone). The novel offers up any number of well-done and exciting sequences, including that marriage lottery; the scene in which Jones listens to a pair of tremendous jungle monsters battling to the death (as shown on Frazetta’s cover) in the pitch dark of night; the near approach of an asteroid to the Martian world, forcing all the peoples of Ar-hap’s capital city to broil under extreme heat and wither with desperate thirst, along with all the animal life that touchingly joins them; and lastly, Ar-hap’s attack on the gentle city of Seth.
Jones himself makes for a likable narrator, and a seemingly honest one, as well, especially when he chastises himself for forgetting details of his remarkable adventure, adding that he prefers to omit certain things due to that forgetfulness, rather than make things up.
Still, there are problems that prevent me from giving Arnold’s work here a higher grade. Instances of faulty grammar occasionally crop up (“…was ambition and hope to desert me…”), a female slave is referred to as a “servitor” (according to my dictionary, a “servitor” is “a male servant”), Heru somehow knows Jones’ name before he tells it to her (and indeed, to us!), and Jones thinks back to a nighttime meal he had enjoyed with a little Martian slave girl named An (the only problem is, they never had a dinner together at night; only during the day). And Arnold’s geographic descriptions are often sketchy, at best, requiring the reader to really tax his/her imagination (“not that there’s anything wrong with that”).
But these are mere quibbles. The bottom line is that Arnold’s 1905 adventure is a splendid piece of entertainment that should manage to please fans of both the fantasy and science fiction genres.
In Arnold’s book, Gulliver Jones, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, relates to us his most unusual story. He had been at a low point in his life, beset with money and girlfriend problems, as well as despondent over a recent failure to receive a promotion, when a mysterious flying carpet (!) had dumped a man at his feet on the streets of New York City. The man was unfortunately quite dead as a result of this dumping, and Jones had taken possession of the carpet and brought it back to his flat. In a moment of depression and anger, he’d uttered a wish to be “anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world of ours! I wish I were in the planet Mars,” and before poor Jones knew what was occurring, the carpet had wrapped him snugly in its folds and, after an indeterminate time, kerplopped him on the surface of the Red Planet!
Once there, Jones had been befriended by the slothful, childlike Hither people, who dwelt in the flower-bedecked yet crumbling city of Seth. Our hero arrived on the day before one of their great annual holidays: the day when all the males drew lots to see who would be their new bride for the next year. Jones immediately fell head over heels in love with the Princess Heru, and she with him, so much so that she had rigged the drawing to ensure that Jones would select her name. But the pair’s happiness was short lived, as during that same ceremony, the festivities had been interrupted by the arrival of the Thither people: hairy, barbarous ruffians from across the sea who claimed a yearly tribute from the weakling Hither folk. Heru was taken as part of this tribute, to be given to the barbarian king Ar-hap, and Jones had been knocked unconscious in his effort to rescue her. And so, at around the 1/3 mark in Gulliver of Mars, our hero begins his quest, to go across the sea and attempt to rescue his princess, facing innumerable perils and encountering myriad alien wonders as he proceeds, in what our narrator calls an “incredible fairy tale of adventure.”
So, you may well wonder, was Arnold’s book an inspiration for ERB’s John Carter series? It is a question that has been tantalizing and puzzling readers for over a century now. Let’s just say that the first Carter book, A Princess of Mars, came out seven years after Arnold’s, and also features an American military man who arrives at the Red Planet via fantastical means (astral projection, in the Burroughs book), after which he too battles near insuperable odds to rescue his princess (Dejah Thoris, in the ERB novel). And in Arnold’s book, the Martians are shown sailing their deceased down a so-called River of Death … very similar to the river Iss in the second Carter novel, The Gods of Mars. After that, the similarities end. Arnold, it strikes me, may have been the superior wordsmith — his book is penned in an ornate, flowery, almost overwritten style — but Burroughs was surely better at making his stories come alive and really move.
In his introduction to the Ace book, Burroughs scholar Richard Lupoff seems to lean toward the case for an undeniable connection, while at the same time contending that Carter himself may have been based on Arnold’s 1890 novel The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician.) And finally, as has been pointed out elsewhere, whereas Carter was a truly heroic figure, poor Jonesy is more of a good-hearted but bumbling sort, and indeed, the reader is usually a few steps ahead of him, as far as figuring out what will happen next. (All of which is not to say that Jones is a dunce; no one who quotes such writers as John Milton, Christopher Marlowe and James Graham could ever be termed “dumb”!)
For the rest of it, Gulliver of Mars is full of imaginative touches (such as those tiny flying lizards, and the canoes that the Martians grow from gourds, and those killer plants that emit an irresistibly alluring aroma) as well as bits of decided weirdness (that magic carpet, the provenance of which is never explained; the dead frozen king who is unthawed from an ice cliff containing thousands of corpses at the end of the River of Death, and who awakens to attack Jones; a report of a gaseous alien living somewhere on the planet; the haunted ghost town that our hero explores; a Martian who can deflect spears thrown at him using the power of his mind alone). The novel offers up any number of well-done and exciting sequences, including that marriage lottery; the scene in which Jones listens to a pair of tremendous jungle monsters battling to the death (as shown on Frazetta’s cover) in the pitch dark of night; the near approach of an asteroid to the Martian world, forcing all the peoples of Ar-hap’s capital city to broil under extreme heat and wither with desperate thirst, along with all the animal life that touchingly joins them; and lastly, Ar-hap’s attack on the gentle city of Seth.
Jones himself makes for a likable narrator, and a seemingly honest one, as well, especially when he chastises himself for forgetting details of his remarkable adventure, adding that he prefers to omit certain things due to that forgetfulness, rather than make things up.
Still, there are problems that prevent me from giving Arnold’s work here a higher grade. Instances of faulty grammar occasionally crop up (“…was ambition and hope to desert me…”), a female slave is referred to as a “servitor” (according to my dictionary, a “servitor” is “a male servant”), Heru somehow knows Jones’ name before he tells it to her (and indeed, to us!), and Jones thinks back to a nighttime meal he had enjoyed with a little Martian slave girl named An (the only problem is, they never had a dinner together at night; only during the day). And Arnold’s geographic descriptions are often sketchy, at best, requiring the reader to really tax his/her imagination (“not that there’s anything wrong with that”).
But these are mere quibbles. The bottom line is that Arnold’s 1905 adventure is a splendid piece of entertainment that should manage to please fans of both the fantasy and science fiction genres.
May 21, 2019
A cheerful disposition is sometimes better than a banking account, and not having the one, I cultivated the other.
This was an entertaining story. Although the setting is the planet Mars, I think this is better called fantasy-adventure than science fiction. Indeed, it ignores science in favor of imagination, but that's okay, because the imaginative inventions are the best part of the narrative. As far as the story itself, Gulliver is a poor hero; he makes a mess of everything...but he does give us an entertaining account of his adventures! And I really enjoy novels where the story is told by a character after the events are past.
The setting was very interesting. Aside from the weird alien flora and fauna, it was interesting to get a glimpse of a world on the cusp of change, seeing the dawn of one civilization and simultaneously the dusk of another. I can't decide if I feel sorry for the Hither folk or not; it's sad that their once-great civilization is vanishing, but it's their own fault for having become too lazy and apathetic to keep the knowledge of their forebears alive. So maybe it's just as well that they fade away and make room for new growth. Hm.
Well, never mind my brooding, this is a fun lighthearted adventure story! To give you a small taste of Gulliver's narration:
All this [the scenery] was very charming, but what I kept saying to myself was "Streaky rashers and hot coffee: rashers and coffee and rolls," and, indeed, had the gates of Paradise themselves opened at that moment I fear my first look down the celestial streets within would have been for a restaurant.They did not, and I was just turning away disconsolate when my eye caught, ascending from behind the next bluff down the beach, a thin strand of smoke rising into the morning air. It was nothing so much in itself, but it meant everything to me. Where there was fire there must be humanity, and where there was humanity--ay, to the very outlayers of the universe--there must be breakfast. *g*
This was an entertaining story. Although the setting is the planet Mars, I think this is better called fantasy-adventure than science fiction. Indeed, it ignores science in favor of imagination, but that's okay, because the imaginative inventions are the best part of the narrative. As far as the story itself, Gulliver is a poor hero; he makes a mess of everything...but he does give us an entertaining account of his adventures! And I really enjoy novels where the story is told by a character after the events are past.
The setting was very interesting. Aside from the weird alien flora and fauna, it was interesting to get a glimpse of a world on the cusp of change, seeing the dawn of one civilization and simultaneously the dusk of another. I can't decide if I feel sorry for the Hither folk or not; it's sad that their once-great civilization is vanishing, but it's their own fault for having become too lazy and apathetic to keep the knowledge of their forebears alive. So maybe it's just as well that they fade away and make room for new growth. Hm.
Well, never mind my brooding, this is a fun lighthearted adventure story! To give you a small taste of Gulliver's narration:
All this [the scenery] was very charming, but what I kept saying to myself was "Streaky rashers and hot coffee: rashers and coffee and rolls," and, indeed, had the gates of Paradise themselves opened at that moment I fear my first look down the celestial streets within would have been for a restaurant.They did not, and I was just turning away disconsolate when my eye caught, ascending from behind the next bluff down the beach, a thin strand of smoke rising into the morning air. It was nothing so much in itself, but it meant everything to me. Where there was fire there must be humanity, and where there was humanity--ay, to the very outlayers of the universe--there must be breakfast. *g*
July 5, 2019
Read this and Princess of Mars back to back. Both are awful in their own way but were Princess is boring, pointless and has a main character with no personality. Gulliver of Mars is interesting and exciting with a lead that at least has a pulse. Of course Gullivers main character trait is that he's a complete tool but at least thats something. Its amazing how angry and frustrated this book made me due to its flaws. There really seemed to be a decent story trying to get out but the author never seemed to go where i wanted him to, plus this really feels like a 1st draft, there are so many things mentioned which then make no sense later. The best character disappears without explanation halfway through and it features one of the worst Deus Ex Machina's i've ever seen and thats after a set of them which i forgave and put it down to luck or destiny.
Still despite ALL its flaws it at least provoked a reaction from me, even if that reaction was that i wanted to track down the author and make him rewrite it properly this time.
Still despite ALL its flaws it at least provoked a reaction from me, even if that reaction was that i wanted to track down the author and make him rewrite it properly this time.
October 5, 2012
I read this book mainly due to my interest in it as an influence on Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Mars stories. It is definitely a product of it's time, very different in prose style and construction from a science fiction pulp of the Golden Age, very far removed from modern science fiction. I enjoyed it anyway, mostly for it's oddness and archaic sensibilities. I can see why it is considered to have been an influence for the Barsoomian Mars tales.
It is a very quick read and if you have the time it is interesting to contrast the old with the new and newest.
It is a very quick read and if you have the time it is interesting to contrast the old with the new and newest.
August 19, 2021
A fun thrift store find.
Pretty typical stuff of the era, if I'm honest. Big burly Earthman conquers all on Mars, or at least bests his opponents, including Martian Mother Nature, at all turns. It's as if Tom Tuttle of Tacoma, Washington, went and gave himself a Martian survival training course and came out the better for it.
I love the image of him being transported to and from Mars wrapped tightly in a magic carpet.
The book is written in the typical journal/past tense style of these early science fiction novels, and at times it was a bit trying on the patience.
Pretty typical stuff of the era, if I'm honest. Big burly Earthman conquers all on Mars, or at least bests his opponents, including Martian Mother Nature, at all turns. It's as if Tom Tuttle of Tacoma, Washington, went and gave himself a Martian survival training course and came out the better for it.
I love the image of him being transported to and from Mars wrapped tightly in a magic carpet.
The book is written in the typical journal/past tense style of these early science fiction novels, and at times it was a bit trying on the patience.
February 10, 2016
Written about 9 years before Edgar Rice Burroughs "A Princess of Mars" this book was supposed to be an earlier version that influenced Burroughs in his story. Well Burroughs did it way better than Arnold. The story seemed to wander without much plot and little action. I really looked forward to reading this but was very disappointed in it. Not recommended
April 22, 2010
It's interesting from a History of SciFi standpoint as one of the earliest novels of travel to Mars, and an obvious source of inspiration for Burroughs's Barsoom. But it's just not actually very good.
March 23, 2013
So this was the one that led Burroughs to write A Princess Of Mars...a pretty feeble climax (such as it is); only maybe really about half a book's worth of stuff happened. And most of that in Adolescentland.
February 9, 2007
Turn off brain, sit back and have fun.
July 22, 2019
This was on my Reread shelf for some reason. If I read it before it must have been very long ago and I have blotted it from my memory. This book is completely "dispensable". It appeared in 1905 and is apparently the inspiration for E.R.Burroughs' A Princess of Mars (1912) etc. And there are similarities, but on the whole this is really not up to snuff. Another book I thought about was H.G. Wells The Time Machine, first published in 1895. The Hither folk and Thither folk of Mars are not dissimilar to the Eloi and the Morlocks of our far future.
Our protagonist is a blunt sailor who talks much more with his mouth than his fists, or his sword. As I recall, he draws his sword only once, while battling on a boat, and he drops it when he is banged on the head and falls overboard. Magically it reappears in his scabbard later on - to remain there for the rest of the book.
Still there are some fun things:
"I may strengthen my claim on your credulity by pointing out the extraordinary marvels which science is teaching you even on our own little world. To quote a single instance: If any one had declared ten years ago that it would shortly be practicable and easy for two persons to converse from shore to shore across the Atlantic without any intervening medium, he would have been laughed at as a possibly amusing but certainly extravagant romancer." p.19.
Probably just for amusement Mr Arnold has cast his protagonist, Gulliver Jones, as an American. Here he greets the King of the Hither Folk: "I lightly jumped on to Hath's vessel, and, with the assurance of a free and independent American voter, approached that individual, holding out my palm, and saying as I did so, 'Shake hands, Mr. President!'" (p.38-39)
Society is - different: "'Why, of course,' said the youth, with mild depreciation, 'everything here is free. Everything is his who will take it, without exception. What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if it cannot provide you with so rudimentary a thing as a meal?'" (p.60). This turns out to be somewhat less appealing when we learn that the meal is provided and served by slaves.
After a series of silly adventures - Gulliver meets a man chipping out a flint blade and at his prompting we are given a lecture on the development of weapons: "'Yet again, good fellow,' I queried, 'even this happy chance only gives us a weapon, sharp, no doubt, and calculated to do a hundred services for any ten the original pebble could have done, but still unhandled, small in force, imperfect - now tell me, which of your amiable ancestors first put a handle to the fashioned flint, and how he thought of it?...'" (p.156) Gulliver goes on questioning the flint-maker until this severely tried individual flies up in a rage and attacks him - some solace, as the reader is unable to do so.
Arnold was well aware of current scientific thought abot the red planet: ""Good heavens, what would my comrades on my ship say if they could see me now steering a load of hairy savages up one of those waterways which our biggest telescopes magnify but to the thickness of an indication?" (p.173) That was well formulated, as the canali proved to exist only in the straining eyes of the astronomers.
The king, revisited: "Strange´, gloomy man, the great dead intelligence of his race shining in his face as weird and out of place as a lonely sea beacon fading to nothing before the glow of the sunrise..." (p.215)
I do like a good space adventure, and I enjoyed A Princess of Mars many years ago. I never read any of the sequels. Maybe I should give one a whirl?
Our protagonist is a blunt sailor who talks much more with his mouth than his fists, or his sword. As I recall, he draws his sword only once, while battling on a boat, and he drops it when he is banged on the head and falls overboard. Magically it reappears in his scabbard later on - to remain there for the rest of the book.
Still there are some fun things:
"I may strengthen my claim on your credulity by pointing out the extraordinary marvels which science is teaching you even on our own little world. To quote a single instance: If any one had declared ten years ago that it would shortly be practicable and easy for two persons to converse from shore to shore across the Atlantic without any intervening medium, he would have been laughed at as a possibly amusing but certainly extravagant romancer." p.19.
Probably just for amusement Mr Arnold has cast his protagonist, Gulliver Jones, as an American. Here he greets the King of the Hither Folk: "I lightly jumped on to Hath's vessel, and, with the assurance of a free and independent American voter, approached that individual, holding out my palm, and saying as I did so, 'Shake hands, Mr. President!'" (p.38-39)
Society is - different: "'Why, of course,' said the youth, with mild depreciation, 'everything here is free. Everything is his who will take it, without exception. What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if it cannot provide you with so rudimentary a thing as a meal?'" (p.60). This turns out to be somewhat less appealing when we learn that the meal is provided and served by slaves.
After a series of silly adventures - Gulliver meets a man chipping out a flint blade and at his prompting we are given a lecture on the development of weapons: "'Yet again, good fellow,' I queried, 'even this happy chance only gives us a weapon, sharp, no doubt, and calculated to do a hundred services for any ten the original pebble could have done, but still unhandled, small in force, imperfect - now tell me, which of your amiable ancestors first put a handle to the fashioned flint, and how he thought of it?...'" (p.156) Gulliver goes on questioning the flint-maker until this severely tried individual flies up in a rage and attacks him - some solace, as the reader is unable to do so.
Arnold was well aware of current scientific thought abot the red planet: ""Good heavens, what would my comrades on my ship say if they could see me now steering a load of hairy savages up one of those waterways which our biggest telescopes magnify but to the thickness of an indication?" (p.173) That was well formulated, as the canali proved to exist only in the straining eyes of the astronomers.
The king, revisited: "Strange´, gloomy man, the great dead intelligence of his race shining in his face as weird and out of place as a lonely sea beacon fading to nothing before the glow of the sunrise..." (p.215)
I do like a good space adventure, and I enjoyed A Princess of Mars many years ago. I never read any of the sequels. Maybe I should give one a whirl?
July 1, 2023
Apparently an influence on Burroughs's Barsoom books, this one is less than stellar. I had classed it as science fantasy even before reading it; after having read it, that classification seems generous. Apart from the Mars setting, Arnold shows no interest in anything actually science-fictional, whether providing at the least some sort of hand-waving justification for what happens or using the fantastical setting to make some sort of commentary. The title (and to be fair, Ace retitled it from its original Lieutenant Gullavar [sic--also changed by Ace to "Gulliver" ] Jones, His Holiday, no doubt to create this very impression) made me expect some sort of variation on Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Initially, this seems at least possible, as Gulliver finds himself in a sort of decadent/effete culture somewhat reminiscent of the Eloi, and there are what seem to be setups for some sort of social commentary, such as the fact of slavery in this society, the way that slaves are denied gender specificity, the reversal of Western norms of love preceding marriage, etc. However, none of these things are developed, and instead we just get a dumb adventure story with a thicker than usual protagonist for such things. Arnold shows no real interest in making his narrative plausible--Gulliver getting to Mars via magic carpet is merely the first of many plot conveniences never really explored. Gulliver succeeds--insofar as he does so--more by luck and blundering into things than through any inherent skills or virtues; indeed, when two whopping coincidences happen in close succession, he blandly reports that he was beginning to think that Fate really was playing a hand in his actions. if so, Fate is a mean bitch, since Gulliver's hare-brained rescue of the carried-off unmatchable beauty, Princess Heru, leads at the very least to the sacking of an entire city and quite possibly to genocide, to no good end, since Gully carpets back to Earth, leaving the girl behind and falling quite happily back into the arms of pretty Polly, left behind on Earth way back at the beginning. Arnold seems to have had some idea of putting in some thematic material, given his insistent depiction of feminine plants as dangerous consumers of those they lure and, and concomitant insistent comparison of Heru to a flower, but nothing comes of it. What we get, basically, is a sequence of poorly-motivated and implausible actions and events with tenuous structure and no real payoff. And, Arnold is far from a beguiling prose stylist, so one can't even enjoy it for the writing. Far from the "long-lost classic" the Ace cover says it is.
March 14, 2021
Written in 1905, this book got a lukewarm reception and led to ELA giving up writing. Note that this is only 12 years before ERB wrote _A Princess of Mars_ which as I understand it got a pretty warm reception and _certainly(!)_lifts a number of ideas from this story. So let's start with that.
A human veteran is sent to Mars by strange means. There he meets, falls for, and spends the novel chasing, a beautiful princess (who is abducted, of course). One of the strongest points of comparison is a river where people of the planet send their dead on a final voyage.
To my surprise, there is an even earlier sword-and-planet story about a military man finding himself on mars and in love with a princess. It's called _Across the Zodiac_ by Percy Greg, written in 1880. And now I wonder if I should read that one too.
What is there to recommend this story? It is less exciting that ERB, but I feel it is better written in some ways. At times it has an almost Twain-like wit about it. And the hero is a bit more believable. I wouldn't recommend it necessarily to anyone not interested in early sword-and-planet fiction, but there are some nice passages and details. Here are three that stuck out for me.
1. When he first arrives on Mars, Gulliver (nice touch that name, placing the literary tradition firmly in line) is befuddled by the lazy, peaceful folk there. He quickly discovers they are of three types: male, female, and a kind of sexless neutral. I thought that was interesting. And I was even more interested to find him falling for one of these gender-neutral people. Sadly, that part of the story is abandoned.
2. The river of the dead in this tale was a bit more like traditional trips to the spirit world. (If you've read ERB you remember it just serves as a gateway to another, quite bizarre adventure.) In this tale he really does walk among the dead. And when he returns people find it hard to believe he isn't a spirit. A
3. Some of the natural wonders of the place really feel well described. I remember fondly a passage bout a carnivorous plant that lured in victim after victim and an opportunistic bird that stole it's lunch multiple times.
What's not good about the story? Well, the ending is a bit abrupt and maybe a bit unsatisfactory. (But not as bad as an ERB ending which is usually a rather abrupt cliff hanger.) And the story sometimes hinges on unsatisfying plot coincidences. (But again, not as egregiously as ERB does).
A human veteran is sent to Mars by strange means. There he meets, falls for, and spends the novel chasing, a beautiful princess (who is abducted, of course). One of the strongest points of comparison is a river where people of the planet send their dead on a final voyage.
To my surprise, there is an even earlier sword-and-planet story about a military man finding himself on mars and in love with a princess. It's called _Across the Zodiac_ by Percy Greg, written in 1880. And now I wonder if I should read that one too.
What is there to recommend this story? It is less exciting that ERB, but I feel it is better written in some ways. At times it has an almost Twain-like wit about it. And the hero is a bit more believable. I wouldn't recommend it necessarily to anyone not interested in early sword-and-planet fiction, but there are some nice passages and details. Here are three that stuck out for me.
1. When he first arrives on Mars, Gulliver (nice touch that name, placing the literary tradition firmly in line) is befuddled by the lazy, peaceful folk there. He quickly discovers they are of three types: male, female, and a kind of sexless neutral. I thought that was interesting. And I was even more interested to find him falling for one of these gender-neutral people. Sadly, that part of the story is abandoned.
2. The river of the dead in this tale was a bit more like traditional trips to the spirit world. (If you've read ERB you remember it just serves as a gateway to another, quite bizarre adventure.) In this tale he really does walk among the dead. And when he returns people find it hard to believe he isn't a spirit. A
3. Some of the natural wonders of the place really feel well described. I remember fondly a passage bout a carnivorous plant that lured in victim after victim and an opportunistic bird that stole it's lunch multiple times.
What's not good about the story? Well, the ending is a bit abrupt and maybe a bit unsatisfactory. (But not as bad as an ERB ending which is usually a rather abrupt cliff hanger.) And the story sometimes hinges on unsatisfying plot coincidences. (But again, not as egregiously as ERB does).
July 16, 2024
I really, really enjoyed this book.
I was in Buffalo for work, stopped in a comic book store that was next door to where I was grabbing lunch, and saw a pile of old "pulp" fantasy and sci-fi novels on a table. I'd never head of Edwin Lester Arnold or this particular book, but I loved the cover, I generally have enjoyed really old sci-fi (this one was written in 1905) and I figured it was calling to me so I should probably answer that call.
Man, this was so much fun.
The writing is... formal? I don't know if that's the best word, but it's definitely dated prose, very stiff and formal compared to today's writing. But I liked the flow of it.
And as I said, I just love sci fi from the days before real, true space travel, when there were so many questions and possibilities. A magic carpet that takes a person into space. Rivers and seas and forests and all kinds of thriving life on Mars. Sci fi concepts that are high on the fi, low on the sci.
Just fun.
I have some criticisms.
The protagonist (Gulliver) is a dink. Incredibly arrogant, incredibly incurious, pretty misogynistic. There's no sense of wonder, he can figure out all the flaws of an entire society in just a few minutes, he never hesitates to interfere in traditions that he clearly doesn't understand. He's just awful. And of course he's not MEANT to be awful. It's pretty clear that he's meant to be manly, heroic, brave, confident, superior. He is a product of the times, and the times look pretty ignorant 120 years later.
But whatever. The book is fun, and it's easy to forgive the character flaws, because really this is a simple adventure story for a different generation.
Definitely glad I read this. It's not even close to being the "best" book I've read this year, but it's definitely one of the more enjoyable books I've read lately.
I was in Buffalo for work, stopped in a comic book store that was next door to where I was grabbing lunch, and saw a pile of old "pulp" fantasy and sci-fi novels on a table. I'd never head of Edwin Lester Arnold or this particular book, but I loved the cover, I generally have enjoyed really old sci-fi (this one was written in 1905) and I figured it was calling to me so I should probably answer that call.
Man, this was so much fun.
The writing is... formal? I don't know if that's the best word, but it's definitely dated prose, very stiff and formal compared to today's writing. But I liked the flow of it.
And as I said, I just love sci fi from the days before real, true space travel, when there were so many questions and possibilities. A magic carpet that takes a person into space. Rivers and seas and forests and all kinds of thriving life on Mars. Sci fi concepts that are high on the fi, low on the sci.
Just fun.
I have some criticisms.
The protagonist (Gulliver) is a dink. Incredibly arrogant, incredibly incurious, pretty misogynistic. There's no sense of wonder, he can figure out all the flaws of an entire society in just a few minutes, he never hesitates to interfere in traditions that he clearly doesn't understand. He's just awful. And of course he's not MEANT to be awful. It's pretty clear that he's meant to be manly, heroic, brave, confident, superior. He is a product of the times, and the times look pretty ignorant 120 years later.
But whatever. The book is fun, and it's easy to forgive the character flaws, because really this is a simple adventure story for a different generation.
Definitely glad I read this. It's not even close to being the "best" book I've read this year, but it's definitely one of the more enjoyable books I've read lately.
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