Mars Attacks #2: War Dogs of the Golden Horde

Mars Attacks prose #2

by Ray W. Murill

When Martian death squads arrive to destroy Earth, the invaders encounter the descendants of Genghis Khan, Mongol warriors armed only with Kalshnikov rifles, cunning, and ferocity.

Genres: Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

281 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 1996

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mars Attacks franchise began as a set of bubblegum trading cards produced by the Topps company in 1962. They were lurid and garish things painted by famed comics and sf illustrators Wally Wood and Norman Saunders that told the story of the evil Martians attacking Earth from flying saucers. (I had several of them that my father got me in my pre-kindergarten days, but I must have mislaid them sometime during the Kennedy administration. I'm sure I enjoyed chewing the gum, though.) In 1996, the Tim Burton movie was released, with stars like Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Danny DeVito, Lisa Marie, and on and on and on. In addition to the novelization of the script, which was written by the screen writer Jonathan Gems, there were two hardbound original Mars Attacks novels, both of which were written pseudonymously, Martian Deathtrap by Nathan Archer (who was Lawrence Watt-Evans) and this one by Ray W. Murill (which is an anagram of Will Murray). This one is a very pulpy account of how the descendants of Genghis Khan formed a resistance to the Martian invaders. As one can guess from the title and source material, it's not meant to be taken too seriously, but it's a lot of pulpy fun. I thought it was maybe a little too much fun and that it would've been better if the 323 pages had been trimmed by a third or so, but since neither the Martians nor the Mongols asked my opinion, here we are. I guarantee that it's one of the two best science fiction novels ever written that were inspired by bubblegum cards. It's something of a shame that Del Rey overlooked the obvious marketing opportunity of binding a pink slab of gum inside the cover.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comienza interesante, viendo como los marcianos han conquistado todo el mundo menos Mongolia, pues les da miedo ya que estos mongoles son unos temidos guerreros. Por otro lado seguimos la vida de un mongol, que es muy fiero y poco a poco va haciendo un ejército para combatir a los cabezudos.

El autor le da toques de humor bastante pesados y la mitad final se vuelve una ida y vuelta como en cámara lenta del desarrollo de la trama.

[Peter Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cheesy and fun!

[Mark Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

The war between the Martians and the humans has devolved into an armistice, with both sides separated by a vast World Wall. A barbarian Mongolian (with some serious megalomania issues) schemes to rebuild Genghis Khan's legendary Golden Horde, pierce the Wall, and conquer the Martians. The novel plays like a Conan or Kull adventure by Robert E. Howard, this time pitting barbarian wiles against ultra-modern technology. There's some good humor, some exciting action, and the oddball juxtaposition of genres works surprisingly well. This is the obvious thematic progenitor of the popular Mars Attacks Red Sonja and Red Sonja Attacks Mars comic book series.

Note: My hardback edition includes two excellent Mars Attacks trading cards!

Note: "Ray W. Murill" is an obvious anagram for the true author of this novel: Will Murray, the reigning authority on all things pulp, including writing some great pastiches of Doc Savage. One of Murray's colleagues is Jeff Deischer, who also has a series of Doc Savage pastiches. In the Acknowledgment section of Doc Brazen #10; Black Balled, Deischer thanks, "Will Murray, for his War Dogs of the Golden Horde, which inspired in part my own Mongolia tale..."

[Edwin Dyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had no idea this series even existed until this book floated through my eBay feed and I picked it up. It was a decent read, nothing exceptional. Kind of dry humor but what is cool about it is it expands on the movie and adds some world building. I will see about getting others in the series.

[Conan Tigard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mars Attacks: War Dogs of the Golden Horde was not at all what I hoped for or wanted to read, even when I was reading it.

I found the dialog that Qasar spoke to be…annoying. It didn’t strike me as being what a man in his position would be saying. I found most of the conversation of the Mongolians to be too cutesy. As for the Martians, where are they? When the Martians are involved, it centers around Komo Dath and Telian Piar.

Another bad thing about the main character is that I never grew to like him. In fact, I sort of liked him in the beginning, but by the end of the book I found him to be such a pompous, arrogant bastard that I could not stand him.

I ended up hating the guy! I was actually rooting for the Martians to kill him. I felt that that would have been a satisfying end to the story. With all of the problems that I had with the story and the characters, I found that I did not enjoy reading this book in the least and was quite relieved when the task was finally done.

Overall, I found Mars Attacks: War Dogs of the Golden Horde to be quite awful.

I rated this book a 2½ out of 10.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book when I was in middle school.