StanleyWheeler

Before the cavalcade of other items which may or may not be included in today's post, let me address  ERB's The Moon Men. 

On second thought, this will be first (except for what I said above which actually came first but referred to something which will not in fact be first, except for the mentioning thereof, which was in fact first). I must say that the novel writing went exceedingly well this week. I passed the 50K word mark. More importantly, two epiphanistic* breakthroughs combined to remind me why I love writing (and the 150 copies of the books that sold this week didn't hurt either). As you may remember from last week (or not), the antagonist was locked in combat with one of the good guys. I had left the combat unresolved on a cliff hanger and moved on to the next chapter. Some things had to happen in that combat to make it serve a higher purpose. I hadn't put those things together in my mind until on my way to the shower I fell, striking my head on the toilet and had a vision of the flux capacitor had a striking idea--but not of the Psycho shower striking sort. The resolution perfectly achieved the purposes that I had for the combat and also helped me with some issues that I had puzzled about for an important moment near the conclusion of the book. Also, another string that I had not foreseen suddenly unraveled before me--and by "suddenly" I mean over the course of a few days after I had written the conclusion to the combat and had written a few other scenes; it's a very subjective suddenly. It was awesome! Truly, I was feckful in my writing this week.

*Epiphanistic may not be a word but I like the sound of it and my poetic license is still valid in all 50 states, most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, parts of Asia, and many Pacific island nations.

Back to the promised review:

As for the matter of the cover: It bears the title of The Moon Men but the cover actually contains the second two books of the trilogy made up of The Moon Maid, The Moon Men and The Red Hawk. The scene depicted is from the third book. My review is only of the second book but I can say that the antagonist pictured is much larger than described in the book, and I don't believe the girl in the story wore such an outfit.

How did I come to review this book? You may wonder--probably not but I'll explain it anyway. It was New Year's Eve. I was exhausted and went to bed late, as is the custom. After falling asleep twice and being roused from that sleep as many times, I could not recapture the muse of restful dreams. I contemplated my volumes of forgotten lore and stumbled upon this one behind my bookshelf door. So this was the first book that I began for the new year (although I had a few others already in progress from 2018). For some reason this slender tome beckoned to my sleep deprived mind. I had read it a couple times before and thought to read it again perhaps never more. So it began; it became my breakfast reader. I finished a couple days ago.

The book has many classic ERB elements but it is set in a dystopian future--it's Burroughs' version of 1984 meets Braveheart. It appeared as a serial in 1925. The earth has been conquered by the Kalkars of the moon led by Orthis. The Americans live as a conquered people taxed more than they can bear, virtual slaves to the uncouth tyrants. The Kalkars represent the communists--the nation is divided into districts each of which is called (and presided over by) a Teivos (Soviet spelled backwards). The hero, Julian 9th, with the American flag held aloft finally leads a rebellion against the Kalkars. The hero could be John Carter or Tarzan but without the charm. The story isn't so much about the hero as it is about the state of the conquered and the conditions under which they live. As per the usual ERB formula, Julian rescues the woman that all other men, especially the Kalkars and the degenerate humans who seek their favor, covet. Naturally, they fall in love and then the ending does not climax with the destruction of their enemies and living happily ever after. Fortunately, ERB has another book in the series to correct this disappointing ending.

The setting and the warning are the real story in this book. A quote from Burroughs' voice of warning:

That is their politics; that is their religion. Hate. but the world is all hate--hate and misery.

...[T]he people didn't know when they were well off. They came from all other parts of the world to share our happiness and when they had won it they sought to overthrow it, and when the Kalkars came they helped them.

On the movie front--because the war must be waged on all fronts--I watched Wyvern. I know what you're thinking: Wyvern and surely you weren't in Milwaukee, were you? (Read those first three words of that sentence out loud, varying your pronunciation until you get the joke).

All I have to say about this movie is that I didn't hate it. I did have low expectations but I entertained high hopes. My expectations were exceeded though my hopes were left unfulfilled. I guess that isn't all that I have to say. I'll say more. The movie had some interesting characters. I would have liked to have got to know more about some of them before they checked into the flying gastro-intestinal hotel. The ending kind of killed the show for me. The hero planned the last encounter that would destroy the wyvern but the plan, it seemed to me, utterly failed to account for the fact that the beast was of the variety volant. The plan would never have worked but for an unforeseeable problem that the creature developed so that it couldn't fly away when the the metaphorical hammer came down.

Other observations:

Uhtred is D'Artagnan. I finished my vidangel view of the 3rd season of Last Kingdom.

And I forgot the other pithy comment--but it was good, really good.