Escape on Venus [Paperback]

In the final novel of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Venus series, stalwart Earthman Carson Napier and his mate, the beautiful Duare, are trying to find their way back to Korva, the country that became their home in the previous book. We follow them from mishap to mishap as they encounter a nation of fishmen, the cult of a strange goddess, a macabre museum whose living exhibits are paralyzed then mounted, and a war between navies of huge land-bound ships on a great plain. The story is episodic, reflecting its genesis as a quartet of pulp magazine stories, but lots of fun if you like this sort of thing. Duare gets her own solo adventure this time around, a rare opportunity for an ERB heroine!

The correct image for the Del Rey 1991 edition features the Richard Hescox painting of a running Carson holding a sword and a pistol. Ballantine 37011.

And, yes, the Venus series is not the Barsoom series, but if you take your time with them, you will find a lot to like. Burroughs is usually in more of a light-hearted mood, and they are all vintage late work ERB.

Edgar Rice Burroughs began his Venus series in the 1930s and the five novels become increasingly colored by the coming World War. The first two novels included an indictment of communism and the third novel, "Carson of Venus," had a thinly veiled attack of Hitler and his Nazis. However, "Escape on Venus" offers something rather different, especially when you look at it in the context of all of ERB's pulp fiction adventures. Starting with John Carter and his adventures on Barsoom (Mars), Burroughs had placed a premium on men of honor who wielded military strength in a righteous cause. Yet as the world plunged into a war that would claim millions of lives, ERB had a rather significant change of heart. In "Escape on Venus," as well as in his "Beyond the Farthest Star" series and "Tarzan and the Foreign Legion," Burroughs rather explicitly rejects the value of military might.

"Escape on Venus" was originally published during 1941-42 as a four part series of stories that could stand on their own: "Slaves of the Fishmen," "Goddess of Fire," "The Living Dead," and "War on Venus." Once again Carson Napier is telepathically relaying his adventures to Burroughs, who was living in Hawaii (where he would witness the attack on Pearl Harbor). Having been the prisoner of Mintep, jong of the tree city of Kooaad on Amtor (what the people of Venus call their planet), Carson had fallen in love with the princess Duare. After a series of adventures, during which Carson build the first airplane, when last we left our hero and his lady Carson had rescued Duare from her own father, who was upset she had lowered herself to love an Earthman. First off they head for Karbol, the frozen wasteland that the Amtors believe is the edge of their world. There of course, Duare is captured, Carson has to rescue her, and the next set of romantic adventures is on.

The stories collected in "Escape on Venus" provide some standard Burrough adventure. Compared to the other ERB series you find with the Venus book that Duare tends to be more in the vicinity than you usually find with an ERB heroine, like Jane Clayton or Dejah Thoris. Also, Carson has more of a sense of humor than pretty much all of the other ERB heroes put together. However, Burroughs does not pay as much attention to the details of the strange new world in which Carson is making his way, but that is understandable given how late this is in ERB's career as a pulp fiction writer. However, one nice advantage about this particular collection is that it features the artwork of Frank Frazetta, who actually turns Carson into a he-man.