Free book recommendations

[Fidcal]

I thought I'd already recommended these but can't find my old post to enthuse some more. (links from wikipedia)

 

You gotta love these free Edgar Rice Burroughs books. Totally absorbing, easy to read, action adventure all the way. Woohoo! Just couldn't stop reading sometimes. Just finished the 9th in the series, Synthetic Men of Mars; 3 to go. One day they MUST make these into blockbuster movies. There is so much packed into each one they might need to split them over about 20 movies. Non-stop rollickin' fun, horror, heroism, sacrifice, romance, excitement, technofun, with unbelievable creatures that is just been waiting a century for computer graphics to bring to life....

 

A Princess of Mars (1912)

The Gods of Mars (1914)

The Warlord of Mars (1918)

Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)

The Chessmen of Mars (1922)

The Master Mind of Mars (1928)

A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)

Swords of Mars (1936)

Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)

"John Carter and the Giant of Mars" (1940)

"Skeleton Men of Jupiter" (1942)

Llana of Gathol (1948)

 

BTW did I mention they are mostly set on Mars?

 

No stupid logos or clutter of adverts; nobody trying to get something from me every 5 minutes; no silly background noise loops; no amateurish anti-content camera views; no program changes; no time wasting DVD piracy warnings, promos, slow menus; poorly designed players. Just pure continuous interest from the first sentence to 'the end'.

[SneaksieDave]

Interesting. I don't know them at all, but a quick search of the first three revealed all three on google books in full view. So you don't even have to go to a library.

[Nosslak]

You can also find a lot of (maybe all) the stories from one of my favorite authors online: H.P Lovecraft. They're all short stories but they're still awesome.

[grayman]

I read these when I was growing up. One of my favorite series. Sadly, Frank Frazetta, the artist who painted many of the covers for later editions of Burroughs' works, died a little while back. One of his paintings just sold for $1.2 million.

 

Another of Burroughs' exciting series is "Pellucidar", a world hidden inside the Earth. "At the Earth's Core" was the first book. Tarzan even gets involved at some point.

 

 

"John Carter of Mars" is now in post-production, with a target release in 2012. Taylor Kitsch plays Carter, Willem Dafoe plays Tars Tarkas, and James Purefoy plays Kantos Kan. Purefoy was Mark Antony in HBO's "Rome" miniseries (which I just finished today), and is a terrific actor.

[PranQster]

Several of those books listed are free downloads on Amazon Kindle (for Android, in my case)... also Tarzan of the Apes.

[Fidcal]

They are ALL available for free download from gutenberg, either the main one or the Australian one (see wikipedia under the author's name.)

 

I read these when I was growing up. One of my favorite series. Sadly, Frank Frazetta, the artist who painted many of the covers for later editions of Burroughs' works, died a little while back. One of his paintings just sold for $1.2 million.

 

Another of Burroughs' exciting series is "Pellucidar", a world hidden inside the Earth. "At the Earth's Core" was the first book. Tarzan even gets involved at some point.

 

 

"John Carter of Mars" is now in post-production, with a target release in 2012. Taylor Kitsch plays Carter, Willem Dafoe plays Tars Tarkas, and James Purefoy plays Kantos Kan. Purefoy was Mark Antony in HBO's "Rome" miniseries (which I just finished today), and is a terrific actor.

Wow! This is a must see for me. I sure hope it's the start of a new major franchise. I'll look around the net for this but first thought is the title. If they are keeping it on Mars that is great. I had wondered if they would dumb it down to some unknown planet seeing as how what we now know of Mars some might complain that it makes no sense. There is some crazy science but going back to the early 20th century it would not have seemed crazy. It was quite reasonable to speculate there might be civilizations on Mars and breathable air.

 

After I finish reading this series I'll definitely look at Burroughs' other works. Thanks. Might even look at the Tarzan series. I was never a big fan of the many movies so that has probably prejudiced me against the books. But I like his easy readable style.

[Fidcal]

hehe I'm actually excited about this. What an idiot.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/

[Fidcal]

Browsing the net I see it is based on the first book but at least one character is from a much later book. It will be a pity if they take parts from different books because it will limit which sequels might be made. There is so much material in each book I see no reason for this.

[grayman]

IIRC, the first Mars book was a birthday present. A Dover imprint with the first three stories in it. I finished the book and immediately hunted down the rest. Then it was on to At the Earth's Core (Pellucidar series) and Pirates of Venus (Venus series).

 

Wonderful books.

 

For the artists (and, well, I guess everyone) on this forum, I highly recommend looking up Frank Frazetta. There are several books with illustrations of his work, and thumbing through them takes you from one world to another. Princesses, monsters, warriors, etc.

[Fidcal]

Yes, some of these downloads are in html and contain the original artwork and they do look good. I prefer html to text and pdf for reading because I can zoom more easily and I have a 3rd party auto-scroll now for Opera so I can eat while I read hands off. Opera's own auto-scroll won't work for me because of a mouse driver glitch I think it stops itself within seconds.

[demagogue]

hehe I'm actually excited about this. What an idiot.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/

 

Speaking of bad-ass scifi books being made into movies, I saw this recently: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037220/

 

That got me excited, even though I'm still not sure if it's a completely done deal or not.

 

But if they *really* wanted to excite me about a scifi classic made into a movie, they'd make this. I'm even less certain about this one though.

[Fidcal]

Both look good from the summaries. The first is vaguely familiar. I didn't know imdb had a pro section. Can out of work actors afford the $20 a month?

 

I'm now reading through the final barsoom book. It must be said that although I greatly enjoy his writing style, the author has some weak, contrived situations and the endings are particularly abrupt. I guess we are used to a kind of end-scene where all the loose ends are talked through and the whole thing rounded off. In Skeleton Men of Jupiter

the enemy are ruthless warlike and technically superior including cloaking invisibility for their spaceships and flyers. John Carter, imprisoned on Jupiter, helps his wife escape but he himself has to escape later and try to reach her in a far off city. After long adventures he reaches the city. The reader is expecting an emotional re-union followed by more adventures where they have to go back to the city he was a prisoner, steal a spaceship, get back to Mars, warn everyone, and even then how the hell do they withstand the superior Skeleton men? Instead, he gets to the far city and within a sentence or two it just says he brought the ship slowly toward the ground soon she will be again in my arms. The end! Nothing about how they escape back to Mars let alone save it from the enemy. Many of his books leave it a bit flat at the end like that. In Synthetic Men there is an unstoppable morass of flesh threatening to engulf the planet! This is never resolved. I can't help wondering if he had deadlines to meet.

 

 

[PranQster]

Ender's Game is also in the works of being made into a movie.

 

 

"FilmOrson Scott Card released the latest of his author-written screenplay adaptations to Warner Bros. in May 2003. David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were later signed to write a new script, working closely with director Wolfgang Petersen. Card later announced that he would be writing a new script not based on any previous one, including his own.^[17] Following the departure of Petersen from the project and Card's self-described refusal to "condescend to green-screen Hollywood," Card announced in February 2009 that he had completed a script for Odd Lot Entertainment, and that they had begun assembling a production team.^[18] In September 2010 it was announced that Gavin Hood was attached to the project, serving as both screenwriter and director.^[19]"

 

 

[Fidcal]

Having completed all of Burroughs' books including those set on Mars, Venus, the Moon, the Mucker, etc etc with great enjoyment I was at first reluctant to start on all that remained: the Tarzan series. I only know the character from the movies years ago and frankly they it has felt a bit naff for a long time. But the character appeared in one of his other writings I had just read and such was respect for the way this author writes, totally capturing me in his pages like few movies do these days, and also because maybe I was feeling withdrawal symptoms, I started on the series about the ape man.

 

Wow! I have been absolutely absorbed through the first three novels. The character feels much more savage, brutal, and powerful than in the movies; Disney this is not. I think it will take dark computer graphics to convey his changes from noble to beast visually and his animal call is too spine freezing to come from a real human throat. I shall continue the series with relish.

[jaxa]

Can't say that I'm too impressed with the idea of making a (presumably PG-13) movie out of Ender's Game, although the entirety of the book itself could probably fit into ~2:00. What is the movie going to bring other than disappointment over the degree to which it "condescends to green-screen Hollywood," because it will have to in key parts.

 

And here's Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

Edgar Burroughs collection:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a48