Otis Adelbert Kline’s Planet of Peril bears a copyright notice of 1930. It is the first of a three book Peril series, which, I discovered while reading the first, is connected to his Mars books, The Swordsman of Mars and the Outlaw of Mars. I don’t feel that I missed anything essential by not reading those. Kline provides sufficient material in the first couple of chapters to catch readers up on the background: a scientist developed machinery to telepathically swap the minds of compatible individuals between Earth and Mars or Venus, though they are the Mars and Venus of millions of years ago. Like Edgar Rice Burrough’s Barsoom books, the reader is not meant to ask questions regarding parallel evolution or anything of that nature.
In fact, the overriding metric is that phrase: “like Edgar Rice Burroughs.” These planetary romances are unabashedly homages or imitations of ERB’s John Carter books. I find myself in an uncomfortable position in reviewing Planet of Peril in that most of what crossed my mind while preparing this post might easily come across as mean-spirited, dismissive, or harsh. And that’s not what I want to do. While yes, much of Planet of Peril reads more like a sequential narrative of vaguely connected events rather than a novel, and yes, it lacked ERB’s thematic depth, and the hero (in fact most of the characters) displayed limited dimensions, it still moved fast, kept the action coming, and some of the flora and fauna (when not limited to a variation of slightly differing, larger versions of an Earth animal or plant) showed invention. I also wanted to note the name Kline chose for his protagonist: Robert Ellsmore Grandon. One initial removed from REH. I wonder if that was coincidental or a deliberate allusion to Robert E. Howard.
The book was only 160 pages long, and I have bought the other two, so I figure I’ll read through the entire series. I don’t mean to damn with faint praise. Perhaps I will grow more fond of the series as I continue to read. I certainly have no objection to imitation or homage. I’m not lobbing stones from inside my glass abode. Kline, writing during the Great Depression, was not alone in pumping out pulp at high rates of speed, and not every story requires a deeper meaning. Perhaps there was and I simply am too dim to have grasped it.
Additionally, there appears to have been some editorial meddling done with my edition, some redaction, some addition. (Note that the Mars books I alluded to were published after Planet of Peril. I haven’t done the research and admit some confusion.) So perhaps a read of the originally published versions would obviate some of my criticism. I don’t know.)
Now, I have to be careful with my expected segue to self-promotion. Some, perhaps overly sensitive readers, consider that marketing something of my own after providing a less-than-stellar review of another writer’s output, is comparative, that I am holding up my own work as superior. The truth, however, is less invidious or even interesting. I simply hold off linking to something of mine until the end of the post. There is not connection, real or intended, other than simple consecutive placement of paragraphs, though sometimes I will try to write a linking sentence purely as an esthetic matter. So, that said, Twilight Galaxy: Dekason remains available for purchase, and, coincidentally (really) the publisher did describe it as Sword and Planet. I’ll leave such distinctions in this case to others. Maybe you. Read it and tell me what genre label you think should be applied.
