Stuart J. Byrne (1913–2011)

This is definitely an Edgar Rice Burroughs homage following the general plot outline of A Princess of Mars. Unfortunately, it does retain some of the contentious points from ERB's writing namely the presented view's on race and women. Fortunately, it also shares most of the positives although they do not seem to be as fresh as they do in the original although by now even the original is cliche. So if you want something very akin to Burroughs this is it.
I did enjoy the read although at some points it did get a little tedious but there are tidbits that are so hokey as to be enjoyable such as the lead character and his father believing that the Inca were inter-dimensional supermen. My favorite quote: So that was it! - I thought. A knife duel with an apeman. This did not come under the heading of fencing.
The story concerns one Michael Storm, adopted son with shadowy origins, and his pursuit of his father's theory that the Inca had traveled to our world through an inter-dimensional gateway (this is where the questionable attitudes towards race comes in). Of course, our hero falls in and is teleported to a savage world of "Dawn People", alien monsters, steaming jungles, and random high-tech-magic shenanigans. There's also two warring factions of humans as well. Basically the story can be separated into three distinct phases which I rather enjoyed however the ending felt really rushed leaving me a little disappointed.
I would mention a few other eccentricities that the story introduces about the nature of the Dawn People and Humans but I don't want to spoil anything because these bits of strangeness mixed with the homage quality is really what is attractive here. Note that the original paperback is not very well edited with several misspellings and missing or partial footnotes. If any of the previous sounded interesting to you I would recommend this book for some light reading.… (mais)