Rating: 
Summary: Mindless fun.
Review: Michael Moorcock, Kane of Old Mars (Warriors of Mars/Blades of Mars/Barbarians of Mars) (Lancer, 1965)For the first book and a half of this trilogy, I had no idea what Moorcock was on about. Then I did a little research and found out Moorcock was parodying Edgar Rice Burroughs; that helped put things more into perspective and helped me get over some of my usual annoyances with many fantasy writers (the plethora of exclamation points and one-sentence paragraphs, etc.); traps Moorcock usually doesn't fall into. Once that was behind me, I enjoyed these three books quite a bit more. The astoundingly cheesy premise herein is that a writer, Edward Bradbury (under which pen name the books were originally published), encounters and befriends one Michael Kane while vacationing in the south of France. Kane is a physicist who previously worked for the military but went off to the private sector to develop what he calls a matter transference machine (in this post-Star Trek world, we know them better as transporters or teleporters). Its only problem is that, when Kane tests it on himself, it sends him not to the receiving transference machine, but to Mars millions of years ago, a Mars that is full of thriving communities. They are, of course, at war with one another or in tenuous peace treaties that could erupt into war at any moment, leading to many examples of Kane's ability to show off the swordfighting techniques he learned as a child (how coincidental!), while forging alliances between peoples who have been at war for generations and earning the respect of all he encounters. It's high silliness of the order to be found in old Douglas Fairbanks pictures from the silent era (or the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, presumably). Moorcock keeps the pages turning, and each of the books is slim; it's possible to get through one of them in a lazy afternoon and still have time to tackle thirty of forty pages of the newest Danielle Steel potboiler, if one is so inclined. Just don't be expecting great literature. For that matter, don't be expecting material up to Moorcock's usual high standards. Just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride. ***
Rating: 
Summary: Good clean fun
Review: Wow it's been like two years since I've reviewed one of these things . . . good to be back. This is a good place to jump into Moorcock though not the best place to start, since by his own admission he's blantly aping (though some might say, "paying homage to") the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rich Burroughs and thus it's more of a stylistic exercise than a full fledged Moorcock effort, heck when he wrote it, it was originally under a pen name. However, with all that said, it'll still be one of the more entertaining reads that you can come across, the stories still have enough twists and turns to be exciting and through the character of Michael Kane you get enough philosophy to have you give it a little thought, that's not the point here though, the point here is to sort of check your brains at the door and have as much fun as Moorcock was having when he wrote it. Which is lots. Actually for a similar non John Carter reference along these lines, readers might want to track down old Adam Strange comics which run along the same lines only in a more science-fiction setting rather than this science-fiction/heroic fantasy sort of mix. Definitely a breath of fresh air among all the heavy philosophical musings of the other Eternal Champions.
Rating:
Summary: Good clean fun
Review: Wow it's been like two years since I've reviewed one of these things . . . good to be back. This is a good place to jump into Moorcock though not the best place to start, since by his own admission he's blantly aping (though some might say, "paying homage to") the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rich Burroughs and thus it's more of a stylistic exercise than a full fledged Moorcock effort, heck when he wrote it, it was originally under a pen name. However, with all that said, it'll still be one of the more entertaining reads that you can come across, the stories still have enough twists and turns to be exciting and through the character of Michael Kane you get enough philosophy to have you give it a little thought, that's not the point here though, the point here is to sort of check your brains at the door and have as much fun as Moorcock was having when he wrote it. Which is lots. Actually for a similar non John Carter reference along these lines, readers might want to track down old Adam Strange comics which run along the same lines only in a more science-fiction setting rather than this science-fiction/heroic fantasy sort of mix. Definitely a breath of fresh air among all the heavy philosophical musings of the other Eternal Champions.
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