Books like John Carter of Mars: Warlord of Mars Omnibus

On the plus side? Dejah Thoris gets to kick some a%&, she’s not just a bauble that people keep stealing from John Carter. [Of course, she still gets kidnapped. A lot. Nevertheless, she’s often instrumental in her escapes, and give her a sword or a radium pistol and she gives as good as she gets.]On the down side, the stories tend to drag like a B-movie where the director has no sense for pacing, and they still suffer from ERB’s penchant for lazy writing – aka “John Carter’s dumb luck.”I shouldn’t pine for the days when I was stupid, but I wish that I could continue to enjoy some of my childhood favorites without being gob smacked with their racism and sexism today. You lost me on this one when John Carter reminisces about the “good old days” before the war and imagines taking Dejah Thoris to a plantation ball. Then, later in the story arc, he credits his guerilla warfare skills to those honorable Southern gentlemen Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the first KKK, and J.E.B. Stuart.Two stars – not recommended unless, like me, Barsoom played a big role in getting you interested in SF and you can still extract some pleasure in going back to the Red Planet. This series introduced me to ERB and eventually led me to read my first John Carter novel, The Gods of Mars.If we don’t want Barsoom to become a forgotten bit of American pulp literature remembered only by academics, we need to reimagine John Carter for a modern audience since a former Confederate officer obsessed with race, who confronts most obstacles with violence, and is – let’s face it – dumb as a rock, is no hero. (view spoiler)[[Fortunately, my perfervid imagination has tackled the problem much to my satisfaction, though I have no plans to publish any of this fanfic.] (hide spoiler)]