Gulliver of Mars

Rating:
Summary: A Pioneer Work of Science Fantasy
Review: Edwin Lester Arnold (1875-1939) was for most of this century more famous for his "Phra thePhoenician" than for "Gulliver Jones," published in London in 1905. The stir over "Gulliver Jones"began over thirty years ago when striking similarities between his work and that of Edgar Rice Burroughs' own Mars series of books (begun in 1911) were finally noticed. It is entirely possible that Burroughs had never heard of Arnold or his book. At any rate, Arnold's work stands as a strange, unsung bridge between the Jules Verne/H.G. Wells style of science fiction of his day and the heroic science fantasy to be found in pulp fiction, comic-strips, and movies later in the twentieth century. The book's central figure is Gulliver Jones, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. Happening upon a flying carpet in New York City, he is whisked away to Mars, which is inhabited by characters very reminiscient of Well's "The Time Machine." He falls in love with the vapid but lovely Princess Heru just in time to see her handed over to the king of the Hither people (who are Haggard-style Africans thinly disguised as Martians). The rest of the novel involves his haphazard rescue of her via a voyage up an icy river of death and beyond. "Lieutenant Gulliver Jones: His Vacation" is a silly, dated book which is must reading for students of science fiction in this century, and for anyone in search of a good yarn.