Help Me Get A Pulp Education

[weirmonken]

Hey Everyone,

I'm looking for your expertise on two particular pulp subgenres that I am unfamiliar with:

1. Sword and Planet / Planetary Romance. I know that Planet Stories has a strong emphasis on this material, but I'd really like a recommendation on where to start, especially in the Mars/savage planet subgenre. What is the absolute book to dig my teeth into?

2. Lost World. This is a subgenre that's been seeing a lot of love recently in the RPG market, but I'd like to get back to the source. What are the essentials?

I'd prefer to find books in print, or that I can pick up for relatively cheaply. Good short story compilations are appreciated.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

[weirmonken]

weirmonken wrote:

2. Lost World. This is a subgenre that's been seeing a lot of love recently in the RPG market, but I'd like to get back to the source. What are the essentials?

Hmm. When I said "Lost World" I actually meant "Hollow Earth".

[Bragol]

Sword and Planet Genre - John Carter Warlord of Mars (and associated books) is the standard.

[Christopher Paul Carey]

weirmonken wrote:

2. Lost World. This is a subgenre that's been seeing a lot of love recently in the RPG market, but I'd like to get back to the source. What are the essentials?

Hmm. When I said "Lost World" I actually meant "Hollow Earth".

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne and At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs are classics in the Hollow Earth genre and a good place to start.

[bobby_5150]

Haffner Press has four books out that collect most of Leigh Brackett's Planetary Romance. A lot of good stuff in those books.

[Mairkurion {tm}]

Let me put in another shout out for Planet Stories. In addition to the Leigh Brackett volumes available through Planet Stories, I've been seeing this collection around at Half Price Books a lot.

[Lord Fyre]

weirmonken wrote:

Hey Everyone,

I'm looking for your expertise on two particular pulp subgenres that I am unfamiliar with:

1. Sword and Planet / Planetary Romance. I know that Planet Stories has a strong emphasis on this material, but I'd really like a recommendation on where to start, especially in the Mars/savage planet subgenre. What is the absolute book to dig my teeth into?

2. Lost World. This is a subgenre that's been seeing a lot of love recently in the RPG market, but I'd like to get back to the source. What are the essentials?

I'd prefer to find books in print, or that I can pick up for relatively cheaply. Good short story compilations are appreciated.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

First and formost, have you subscribed to Planet Stories?

Then check out:

The Swordsman of Mars (Otis Adelbert Kline) which is amazingly good.

City of the Beast (Michael Moorcock)
...and then

Almuric by a little known Pulp Author.

[tadkil]

Both of these genres were single handedly launched by Edgar Rice Burroughs. All of his work is now public domain. If you download kindle reader, or have ran iPad for apple iBooks, you can download and read these for free. Burroughs has his Pellucidar series that pretty much owns the hollow world genre. You may want to dive into Howard, Lovercraft and H. Rider Haggard for a full look into the genesis of modern fantasy and horror. Planet stories does an excellent job of filing in the cracks and gaps in the readily available canon. You should subscribe if you haven't already.

[Shadewest]

Project Gutenberg has a lot of Burroughs. You don't even need a kindle, just a text reader.

[Mark Moreland]

tadkil wrote:

Both of these genres were single handedly launched by Edgar Rice Burroughs. All of his work is now public domain.

Not all of his work is in the public domain but a lot of them are. The later Martian Chronicles books are, for example, still subject to copyright.