paizo.com - The Swordsman of Mars (Trade Paperback)

About the Author

Known today primarily as the literary agent of Conan creator Robert E. Howard and supposed rival of Edgar Rice Burroughs, in his day Otis Adelbert Kline (1891–1946) was nearly as popular as Howard and Burroughs themselves. Though Kline's famous feud with Burroughs, in which the two published competing Mars and Venus books in constant attempts to one-up each other, may have been the creation of imaginative fans, there can be no doubt that the two authors shared both style and subject matter. Indeed, Kline has frequently been called Burroughs's only true competitor. While he produced only a handful of novels before his death at the age of 55, Kline's presence on the original editorial staff of Weird Tales and his sword-swinging romances on the red and green planets did much to influence the genre, and his legacy lives on in the tradition of sword and planet novels to this day.

Barsoomian White Ape, Sun, Dec 9, 2007, 11:28 AM

What are the odds you'll release the Palos of the Dog Star Pack trilogy by J U Giesy or Mike Resnick's Ganymede duology or maybe even the proto-Burroughs Journey to Mars and Journey to Venus by Gustavus Pope?

Erik Mona (Publisher), Sun, Dec 9, 2007, 09:07 PM

Probably pretty low on the first two (I haven't heard of them) and a maybe on the last one. There's PLENTY of other stuff we'll likely do first, though.

Honestly, I am finding that most readers know almost nothing of the genre pre-Asimov and pre-Dragonlance, so even authors like Kuttner and Moore face an uphill struggle.

I am committed to that struggle, but Kline is probably as obscure as we're going to get for a while.

Now anthologies, on the other hand...

Barsoomian White Ape, Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 12:22 PM

Erik Mona wrote:

Probably pretty low on the first two (I haven't heard of them) and a maybe on the last one. There's PLENTY of other stuff we'll likely do first, though.

Honestly, I am finding that most readers know almost nothing of the genre pre-Asimov and pre-Dragonlance, so even authors like Kuttner and Moore face an uphill struggle.

I am committed to that struggle, but Kline is probably as obscure as we're going to get for a while.

Now anthologies, on the other hand...

Fair enough. On a more related topic, do you use the original (book or magazine) versions of the stories you publish or the more recent reprints as the basis for your releases? The reason I ask is that I know in Kline's case at least the original book versions tracked almost exactly with the magazine versions generally doing nothing more than adding a few scenes to make the serials book length while the 1960s reprints cut large portions out of his books (in one instance ten whole chapters) and rewrote some portions of the book. I prefer the originals to the reprints simply because I find it best to judge an author on his own writing rather than the editorial emendations made by later authors.

Shem (Paizo Charter Superscriber), Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 12:52 PM

Any idea when the subscription will be available? I had to add more preorders when I know that I want the subscription..

Thanks for the great books.

Erik Mona (Publisher), Tue, Dec 11, 2007, 01:11 PM

I think subs are going up today or tomorrow. We had them ready Friday but there was a bug Gary is working hard to quash.

We're typing "Swordsman of Mars" straight from the original Argosy serial. I will likely write an article about the differences between the texts on the blog or something, because they are extensive.

Here's a sample, from the very first paragraph of "Planet of Peril":

ORIGINAL ARGOSY VERSION (from the A.C. McClurg & Co 1929 harcover edition):

"Robert Ellsmore Grandon stifled a yawn with difficulty, as the curtain went down on the first act of "La Tosca." Opera bored him utterly. He silently wished that his well-meaning aunt would not drag him with such clocklike regularity to these monotonous matineés. She had taken a box in the Chicago Auditorium for the season, and so far he had not escaped a single performance."

1961 ACE PAPERBACK EDITON (published 15 years after Kline's death):

"Robert Ellsmore Grandon stifled a yawn with difficulty as the curtain went down on the first act of Don Giovanni and wondered what was the matter. It wasn't that opera bored him, or that tonight's performance was inferior; in fact, what he had been able to give his attention to struck him as among the best performances he had ever seen."

That's just the first paragraph. The book was basically rewritten (I suspect by Kline's relatives) for the paperback editions, and not for the better. While the first chapter is expanded with clarifications that Grandon doesn't really hate opera after all, we actually lose whole subplots and interesting monster battles later in the book.

Not a fair trade, in my estimation.