Gullivar of Mars_Edwin Lester-Linden Arnold-epub-mobi[clem]

Gullivar of Mars by Edwin Lester Linden Arnold
File Size: 276 KB
Print Length: 186 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: B004IASZ46
Publication Date: May 12, 2012
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.(free)
Language: English
ASIN: B0082Z4WAE
Review by wiredweird






This little story, over a hundred years old now, tells a swashbuckling tale of adventure in a distant and improbable world. Swept away by a magic carpet (!), Lt. Gulliver Jones arrives on Mars. He first lands among pretty lotus-eaters, an indolent society that seems to live for its simple pleasures and complex wines, with a different drug for each kind of bliss the drinker might pursue. Soon, however, he's off on a quest, down the river of death, into sacred temples, and finally into the land of the savages that prey on the gentler folk of this land. Arnold's languge tends toward the archaic - it was written in 1905, after all - and his plots tend to hang on wild coincidence as much as on the unexplained. Still, if you want some silly, glamorous, and chaste adventure, this could be just what you want.

If parts of Arnold's story sound familiar, well, they should. Edgar Rice Burroughs lifted parts of the story wholesale, according to Richard Lupoff's preface, for use in his Mars series. In turn, Arnold seems to have imitated the Eloi of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine. This story provides a remarkable link in the chain of ideas that leads from and to better-known works.

You don't have to be a literary historian to enjoy this book, though. It stands on its own as a pleasant bit of fantasy fluff.