Zedenca barsoom1/8/2023 ![]() Then the reader is treated to an entire chapter where Chester gives a long, dull speech explaining everything to the assembled races of Barsoom. But instead of a climactic moment where Chester learns of the enormity, he actually learns the truth off stage. The virus mutated, decimating not just the green, yellow, and black races, but also every animal, plant, and yes, even the red race. It was red men, notably Tardos Mors and Mors Kajak with help from Ras Thavas, who engineered a virus to destroy all the other races of Barsoom, in order to secure more resources for the red people. There, in the archives in the ruins of Helium, they find evidence of genocide. Under Chester's leadership, the combined races of Barsoom head to the ruins of Helium to search for answers. Chester lets himself be stabbed through the chest so he can get close enough to deal the winning blow. One tug and I fell over, nearly unconscious. Weakly, I raised a shaking hand to my chest and tried feebly to pull the blade out. As Keilis fell backwards I pulled away and fell to my knees, his sword still impaling me. It had gone in under his chin and out the top of his head. Keilis stood there, his jaw opening and closing reflexively. I parried the last and thrust my blade straight forward and up, stopping for nothing. An instant later I had the most unusual sensation of my life as I felt a blade pass through my right lung and go out my back, but the sword was immobilised. I pressed in and deflected one blade away. I watched how he set up his striking patterns. I had no way to avoid it, and I had to disable one of those blasted arms if I was to survive, let alone triumph. I could parry one blow, dodge another, and still strike, but it was the third arm that was doing the damage. In a desperate gambit, he charges and allows himself to be stabbed through the chest. He disables one of the green warrior's four arms, but he's still losing. In the final duel, he's tired and losing. He defeats each in turn, but spares their lives if he can. Chester, not a great warrior but possessed of some quickness and the strength of a Jasoomian on Barsoom, fights duel after duel. The combat sequence is one of the highlights of the story. So he fights them all, single combat, one after another. And to do that, he must demonstrate his prowess in battle. ![]() ![]() The Barsoomians think working together is for weaklings and fools, so in order to get the Barsoomians to work together, Chester must unite them under his own leadership. If you stop fighting and start working together, maybe Barsoom can be saved. Unite, work together, Chester tells them. The people have no hope.Ĭhester decides that what Barsoom needs is a kick in the pants, and he's just the man to do it. Small bands of green men, yellow men, black men, and even kaldanes and rykors roam the desert and fight for the few resources still left. There are no cities, no villages, no animals, no vegetation. A spaceship drifts into his life, so Chester takes his cat and flies to Mars. The protagonist is Chester Ventura, a woke 21st century man. A shorter version is available to read online at ERBzine. The final completed version of Return to Barsoom is available as a free ebook from Scott Dutton's website: Return to Barsoom. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Barsoom fan fiction. So Return to Barsoom is not what I'm looking for. What does an adventure story look like when you apply that to it?Īuthor Interview: Scott Dutton, at No Wasted Ink That was what inspired me: how could I respect what Burroughs had created, while bringing a modern or post-modern reality to how we think of people. Having come of age in the latter part of the 20th century, I think we now know the myth of western superiority, or at least we should. In John Carter, it is the decaying and warring factions of red and green men. In Tarzan, it was over the apes and black African culture. I describe Burroughs’ approach as colonial fiction the virtuous western man will invariably rise to the top over other cultures. By contrast, Scott Dutton wrote Return to Barsoom with a far different idea in mind: ![]() I want more Barsoom just the way Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote it. But mostly the romantic larger-than-life heroes. I like Barsoom stories just the way Edgar Rice Burroughs intended: with larger-than-life heroes and beautiful princesses, with sword fights and duels and combat in the arena, with secret passages and loyal comrades and mad scientists.
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