h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello again

I am subbing The Venus Novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, here: A87929400 <--- please go subscribe.


GB

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To help connect the novelettes, a foreword states that both Duare had been condemned to death by her father Mintep for talking to and falling in love with Carson.

"both"? Is there something missing there?

- Thanks for taking this one on too, it's the last entry on Burroughs' books but two not entirely unrelated entries will find their way into Peer Review one day, they're 4th and 5th in the queue.

Anyway, you're right that there was something missing – it should be:
'To help connect the novelettes, a foreword states that both Carson and Duare had been condemned to death by her father Mintep, who was prepared to sacrifice his only child for talking to and falling in love with Carson.'

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"Like Nah-ee-lah in The Moon Main," - something wrong there, shouldn't it be The Moon Maid?

Burroughs was always a highly inventive writer whose work moved in unpredictable directions, but in this series it sometimes seems that he has lost interest in the tales he is telling. The first book has a satire on Communism with the lurking background threat of the sickle-phantic Thorists. It sets up the idea of waging a piratical campaign against the Thorists, but his privateering ship and the Thorists disappear by the start of the second book, never to appear again. By always moving the story in unpredictable new directions, more than ever before are previously important plot lines left unresolved or forgotten.

Let's just break that down:
You say:
Burroughs was always a highly inventive writer whose work moved in unpredictable directions, but in this series it sometimes seems that he has lost interest in the tales he is telling.
this seems to mean that this (Venus) series doesn't move in unpredictable directions.
Then you say:
By always moving the story in unpredictable new directions, more than ever before are previously important plot lines left unresolved or forgotten.
which appears to be saying the series *does* move in unpredictable new directions, ie a criticism?

Sorry if I've misunderstood.

>>This view, of course, has no scientific validity; the eugenics programme was instead used to prosecute people with different backgrounds from those making the decisions.<<

Do you mean "to persecute people"?

Ah yes, Nah-ee-lah is in the Moon Maid (looks like I was undecided between Moon Man or Moon Maid).

You could tweak the first sentence of that paragraph to read:

Burroughs was always a highly inventive writer whose work moved in unpredictable directions, but in this series this is taken to an extreme. It sometimes seems that he is losing interest in the tales he is telling and consequently constantly changing them, making the narrative at each novel's end have little in common with the story at the start. The first book has a satire on Communism with the lurking background threat of the sickle-phantic Thorists who dominate the entire planet.

Hopefully that now makes sense?

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Oh, and yes persecute rather than prosecute.

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All tweaked and ready for your read-through

Looks good to me
Thanks once again

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You're welcome!

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