On the evening of (Super) Tuesday, 6 March 2012, the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series presented a special “Journey to Barsoom,” celebrating the Centennial of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars (published in The All-Story Magazine in February-July 1912 as Under the Moons of Mars by “Norman Bean,” an editor-thwarted wordplay on “Normal Bean”—Tarzan of the Apes, by the way, was published in that same magazine in October—and in book form in 1917), and spotlighting the tribute anthology of 14 new adventures set on Barsoom (as “ERB” dubbed Mars), likewise entitled Under the Moons of Mars (Simon & Schuster), edited by John Joseph Adams. The event, held at the Series’ current venue, the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art on Sullivan Street in Manhattan, was hosted by Adams and featured readings by two of the volume’s contributing authors, Jonathan Maberry and Catherynne M. Valente.
The Series’ executive curator, Jim Freund, host of WBAI’s (99.5 FM) Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy (when not pre-empted by pledge drives), greeted the audience and announced upcoming readings: next week (13 March) there will be a special additional NYRSF reading with Rudy Rucker and Brendan C. Byrne, and on 3 April, Alaya Dawn Johnson and E.C. Myers will be reading. Freund then transported the gathering to Barsoom, not by raising our arms Mars-ward and teleporting, but by presenting a video by Larry Ketchersid, “A John Carter Primer.” (Carter, a Confederate Army Captain and Indian fighter, is the protagonist of Burroughs’ Barsoom tales, and, of course, of the current, eponymous movie. [Appropriately to some, incidentally, the star of the film is named Kitsch.]) In a brief overview, the video offered a movie trailer, and a biography and bibliography of ERB (1875-1950). (The seven-minute video may be viewed at this link.) He then turned the podium over to Adams.
In addition to the Barsoom anthology, John Joseph Adams is the bestselling editor of many others, such as Wastelands and The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), spotlighted at previous NYRSF Readings. He has been called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by BarnesandNoble.com, and been nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. After prefatory remarks, Adams introduced the evening’s first reader, award-winning (her honors include the Andre Norton Award, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Million Writers Award) author and poet Catherynne M. Valente. (Freund had whimsically dubbed her “a princess of Mars,” however, it must be noted that, if so, she was overdressed: in his first story, Burroughs describes titular heroine Dejah Thoris as “destitute of clothes…; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked.”)
Valente related that Burroughs had prefaced his stories by recounting how the manuscripts had come into his possession—the conceit was that they were true narratives set down by his “Uncle Jack,” that is, John Carter; accordingly, her entrancing story is similarly presented as having been found in a Chicago library among ERB’s papers. Translated from Tharkian (Tharks are giant, four-armed Green Martians), “Coming of Age on Barsoom” is a reminiscence by “a child of Thark” offering a different perspective of Carter: a barbarian who contemptuously slew Tharks much as he had Apaches on Earth.
Following a short break, Adams introduced the second and final reader of the evening, bestselling author and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winner, Jonathan Maberry. (Freund had billed him as “the great Jeddak,” or warlord [or emperor], and Adams merrily noted that he had earned the title of Jeddak—he’s been inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.) His offering, “The Death Song of Dwar Guntha,” told by Guntha’s “padwar,” lieutenant or aide—a “dwar” is a captain, and Guntha is a Red Martian (humanlike; it’s Dejah Thoris’s race) of the city of Helium—is set in a barren outpost facing slaughter by pirates (their 16 are opposed by an army of 100,000), and moves smoothly from the aged warrior’s introspection—he had fought alongside John Carter, “Jeddak of Jeddaks,” and had hoped instead for final glory—to gripping battle.
Copies of Under the Moons of Mars (Adams’, not Burroughs’) were for sale by Mobile Libris at the back of the room.
The audience of 50 or more included Richard Bowes, K. Tempest Bradford, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Harold Garber, Laura Anne Gilman, Liz Gorinsky, Kim Kindya, Barbara Krasnoff, Lissanne Lake, Danny Lieberman, Gordon Linzner, Joe Monti, Steve Saffel, Wren Simms, Ian Randal Strock, and Genevieve Valentine (who, by the way, is represented in the anthology). After the traditional folding-up of chairs, the readers and members of the audience adjourned, as customary, to Milady’s, a nearby pub.