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The Wizard of Venus / Pirate Blood
[Back Cover]
"The final adventure of Carson Napier among the exotic peoples and beasts of Amtor is Burroughs' THE WIZARD OF VENUS. Sequel to his fabulous four Venus novels, it is an adventure not to be missed as Napier encounters a new kind of science and a new master of alien deviltry.
PIRATE BLOOD, which is included in this very special Burroughs treat, is something no reader of the Tarzan-Carter-Napier novels will want to miss. Never before published, found among his papers long after Edgar Rice Burroughs' death, it is a complete adventure novel of excitement, high-pitched action, and derring-do. Its hero, a devil-may-care experimenter, designs his own aircraft and ventures among the little explored islands of the far seas to find that piracy still lives and that chivalry still requires the maximum of endurance and the utmost in courage."
"The final adventure of Carson Napier among the exotic peoples and beasts of Amtor is Burroughs' THE WIZARD OF VENUS. Sequel to his fabulous four Venus novels, it is an adventure not to be missed as Napier encounters a new kind of science and a new master of alien deviltry.
PIRATE BLOOD, which is included in this very special Burroughs treat, is something no reader of the Tarzan-Carter-Napier novels will want to miss. Never before published, found among his papers long after Edgar Rice Burroughs' death, it is a complete adventure novel of excitement, high-pitched action, and derring-do. Its hero, a devil-may-care experimenter, designs his own aircraft and ventures among the little explored islands of the far seas to find that piracy still lives and that chivalry still requires the maximum of endurance and the utmost in courage."
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
87 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
2,826 books2,746 followersEdgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 16, 2021
This volume published two novellas first published after ERB's death in 1950. The first, "The Wizard of Venus" is a final episode in the author's Venus series, starring Carson Napier; perhaps other episodes would have been added to it to make up another full length Venus novel had ERB lived longer.
The second, "Pirate Blood", was written in 1932, probably as a first draft, and laid aside for unknown reasons. It is the story of Johnny Lafitte, a descendant of the real life French pirate Jean Lafitte (of Battle of New Orleans fame) who has a respectable middle class upbringing but ends up a motorcycle cop in southern California. A sometime childhood friend turned bank embezzler attempts to flee on a dirigible across the Pacific Ocean and in trying to stop and arrest him Johnny ends up becoming stranded on a remote South Pacific isle where he becomes involved with a pirate outfit. One idea shaping the story is that traits such as being prone to piracy are at least somewhat inherited - thus being Jean Lafitte's descendant makes him prone to becoming a pirate, given the opportunity. One of his sometime love interests is named Daisy Juke - a descendant of the notorious Juke(s) family (google "Jukes family" for more info). ERB was a man of his time and eugenics was a popular concept prior to World War II.
The second, "Pirate Blood", was written in 1932, probably as a first draft, and laid aside for unknown reasons. It is the story of Johnny Lafitte, a descendant of the real life French pirate Jean Lafitte (of Battle of New Orleans fame) who has a respectable middle class upbringing but ends up a motorcycle cop in southern California. A sometime childhood friend turned bank embezzler attempts to flee on a dirigible across the Pacific Ocean and in trying to stop and arrest him Johnny ends up becoming stranded on a remote South Pacific isle where he becomes involved with a pirate outfit. One idea shaping the story is that traits such as being prone to piracy are at least somewhat inherited - thus being Jean Lafitte's descendant makes him prone to becoming a pirate, given the opportunity. One of his sometime love interests is named Daisy Juke - a descendant of the notorious Juke(s) family (google "Jukes family" for more info). ERB was a man of his time and eugenics was a popular concept prior to World War II.
July 12, 2017
Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of my favorite authors, so naturally I'm digging into every last entry in his major series, trying to get at more of the good stuff. “The Wizard of Venus” is to the Venus series what “John Cart of Mars” is to the Mars series: one last little unfinished piece for the completist.
Here continues the cycle that began in “Escape on Venus”, in which the Carson Napier series broke down into a pattern of our hero being blown by storms into far fling corners of Venus and encountering pocket kingdoms where little Napoleons rule in complete ignorance of the rest of the planet. Granted, the ignorance theme runs throughout the series, but it does not impede the superior adventure of the first 3 books.
In this entry, Carson runs afoul of Morgas, a “wizard” who convinces people he has the power to transform them into barnyard animals. Morgas' power is largely one of hypnotism, so he affords Carson a chance to show off the mental powers he learned from Chand Kabi in “the mysterious east”.
Seeing Carson finally using these powers in service of an adventure (instead of just the frame device in the first novel) makes one a little upset that it hadn't appeared in the other books, since it really could have helped in the countless situations where he lost his weapons. On the other hand, the power of illusion sort of turns this into an especially lightweight entry, resulting in far less action than what we're used to.
I'll call it a mixed bag, not as bad as some of the repetitive nonsense in “Escape on Venus”, but not really worthy of the stuff in the first 3 books. It's almost like a cross between the epic Rainbow song “Stargazer” crossed with an old James Garner “Beef, it's what's for Dinner” commercial.
Now: “Pirate Blood”...
This is another short Burroughs novel, published for the first time in this Ace edition. There's a note about it by Donald A. Wolheim which suggests that it is a draft that Burroughs simply never got around to polishing for publication. On reading it, I think there may be some other factors that kept it from seeing publication in 1932 when it was written.
“Pirate Blood” is like many of Burroughs works in that it introduces a man of action who has an adventure when he is cast out of civilization. This time he's a motorcycle cop who winds up being taken off in a small airship by his old college buddy who has just robbed a bank. He gets stranded on an island among pirates in Southeast Asia.
The title comes from the fact that the hero, John Lafitte, is descended from a pirate and believes that genetics determine our destiny. This is a distinctly 1930s notion and it may be a reason why Burroughs didn't come back to this text since he generally seems to have set aside things like this when popular science moved on from them.
“Pirate Blood” also goes a little darker than Burroughs normally does, drifting into an amoral territory that is surprising, though refreshing. Lafitte rises in the ranks among the pirates and deals freely in murder and kidnapping and even starts a pirate breeding farm on the island. This also has a dark twist on Burroughs trademark romantic coincidence device, a rare occasion where you can't outguess him.
It's a rough nugget of a book, but in general it delivers on the Burroughs promise, as short and strange as it is.
Here continues the cycle that began in “Escape on Venus”, in which the Carson Napier series broke down into a pattern of our hero being blown by storms into far fling corners of Venus and encountering pocket kingdoms where little Napoleons rule in complete ignorance of the rest of the planet. Granted, the ignorance theme runs throughout the series, but it does not impede the superior adventure of the first 3 books.
In this entry, Carson runs afoul of Morgas, a “wizard” who convinces people he has the power to transform them into barnyard animals. Morgas' power is largely one of hypnotism, so he affords Carson a chance to show off the mental powers he learned from Chand Kabi in “the mysterious east”.
Seeing Carson finally using these powers in service of an adventure (instead of just the frame device in the first novel) makes one a little upset that it hadn't appeared in the other books, since it really could have helped in the countless situations where he lost his weapons. On the other hand, the power of illusion sort of turns this into an especially lightweight entry, resulting in far less action than what we're used to.
I'll call it a mixed bag, not as bad as some of the repetitive nonsense in “Escape on Venus”, but not really worthy of the stuff in the first 3 books. It's almost like a cross between the epic Rainbow song “Stargazer” crossed with an old James Garner “Beef, it's what's for Dinner” commercial.
Now: “Pirate Blood”...
This is another short Burroughs novel, published for the first time in this Ace edition. There's a note about it by Donald A. Wolheim which suggests that it is a draft that Burroughs simply never got around to polishing for publication. On reading it, I think there may be some other factors that kept it from seeing publication in 1932 when it was written.
“Pirate Blood” is like many of Burroughs works in that it introduces a man of action who has an adventure when he is cast out of civilization. This time he's a motorcycle cop who winds up being taken off in a small airship by his old college buddy who has just robbed a bank. He gets stranded on an island among pirates in Southeast Asia.
The title comes from the fact that the hero, John Lafitte, is descended from a pirate and believes that genetics determine our destiny. This is a distinctly 1930s notion and it may be a reason why Burroughs didn't come back to this text since he generally seems to have set aside things like this when popular science moved on from them.
“Pirate Blood” also goes a little darker than Burroughs normally does, drifting into an amoral territory that is surprising, though refreshing. Lafitte rises in the ranks among the pirates and deals freely in murder and kidnapping and even starts a pirate breeding farm on the island. This also has a dark twist on Burroughs trademark romantic coincidence device, a rare occasion where you can't outguess him.
It's a rough nugget of a book, but in general it delivers on the Burroughs promise, as short and strange as it is.
July 21, 2008
I like ERB's Barsoom series better than his Venus series, but these are fine and enjoyable adventures.
May 14, 2008
Two posthumously published novellas by Burroughs -- one a Venusian adventure that centers around a nobleman who has convinced all the people around him that he is a wizard who can turn them into pigs, and the other a pirate adventure that explores the nature vs. nurture debate. Both fun (especially the dirigible bit in the pirate story), but you can tell they weren't quite finished yet -- good for Burroughs fans, probably not that great for a casual reader.
October 25, 2009
"Wizard," a 50-page novelette, brings a comic conclusion to the Venus series. "Pirate Blood" is a 100-page short novel in which a California motorcycle cop, the great-great-grandson of Jean LaFitte, learns that blood will out as he turns inexorably to South Seas piracy. While obviously not a model of neo-realism, it has its charms.
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September 1, 2013Venus Book 5
November 15, 2018
read between summer 1970 & summer 1974
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews