Pirates of Venus

Edgar Rice Burroughs' _Pirates of Venus_ (_Argosy_, 1932; ERB, Inc., 1934) was the first of five books in a series of adventures about Venus (called "Amtor" by the natives) and Carson Napier, the hero who finds himself there more or less by accident. The novel was originally a six-part serial in _Argosy_. The magazine version was illustrated by Samuel Cohan. The first book version was illustrated by J. Allen St. John and contained a map of Amtor drawn by Burroughs. I am reviewing the Ace edition of _Pirates_ with a cover by Roy Krenkel, Jr. The Ace edition follows the 1934 hardback version fairly closely (but does not, alas, include the map). Carson Napier sets out for Mars from the island of Guadalupe in a "torpedo" shaped rocket, somewhat "like a coffin" (28). The well-stocked rocket takes off effectively, but it is soon deflected off course by the Moon (which Carson somehow failed to consider in his calculations), and he ends up taking a side trip to Venus instead. (You can hardly find gee-whiz science fiction like _this_ nowadays.) Instead of landing on a planet of red deserts and banths, Carson discovers a world full of forests, jungles, and watery oceans. Venus is chockablock full of violent, primitive races, many of which are living in trees. Carson Napier sets out for Mars from the island of Guadalupe in a "torpedo" shaped rocket, somewhat "like a coffin" (28). The well-stocked rocket takes off effectively, but is then deflected off course by the Moon (which Carson somehow failed to consider in his calculations), and he ends up on a side trip to Venus instead. So instead of a world of red deserts and banths, Carson discovers a world of forests, jungles, and watery oceans. But the planet is chockablock full of many vicious, primitive tribes of creatures, many of them living in trees. Burroughs engages in a certain amount of heavy-handed satire that targets both scientists and Russian Communists. The scientists are a batch of empty-headed buffoons hired by royalty who insist that no life can exist beyond Venus and that all unequal distances are the same because they "can all be multiplied by the square root of minus one" (52).The Communists are a hostile, militaristic Venusian tribe who conclude that Carson and his companion must be killed "because you are not Thorists" (93). Carson battles strange social orders and various monsters (one of which resembles a spider). He meets and becomes separated from a lovely princess repeatedly. He eventually learns that she is named Duare the Beautiful. The novel is passable fun; but I am afraid that (like many other Burroughs novels), it contains a cliffhanger ending that weakens it somewhat. Carson Napier sets out for Mars from the island of Guadalupe in a "torpedo" shaped rocket, somewhat "like a coffin" (28). The well-stocked rocket takes off fairly well, but it is soon deflected off course by the Moon (which Carson somehow failed to consider in his calculations), and he ends up taking a side trip to Venus instead. So instead of red deserts and banths, Carson finds a world of forests, jungles, and oceans. It is, however, chockab