Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Khan of Mars

Khan of MarsKhan of Mars by Stephen Blackmoore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When an invention of Edison Thomas' malfunctions, Century Club members Professor Khan and Bulls-Eye Guitierrez are whisked away to Mars and dropped into world gripped by the tyranny of the Weather Witch! Can Khan and Guitierrez find their way back to earth? And what about the prophecy of the blue apes fortelling a black-furred champion that will lead them to victory?

This book had several things going for it before I even opened it. It was an homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, it was another book in Evil Hat's Spirit of the Century series, and it was written by Stephen Blackmoore, author of City of the Lost, the best zombie noir out there.

Khan of Mars takes my favorite character from the Dinocalypse series and thrusts him into the forefront in this homage to the planetary romance/sword and planet genre. On their quest, Khan and Bulls-Eye encounter centaurs, frogmen, Martians, and the Inkido, blue furred intelligent apes.

Fun is the word of the day. Blackmoore delivers a tale worthy of a pulp magazines of old. Better than worthy, actually, since Blackmoore is a very capable author. He injects a good amount of humor into with the pulpy prose. Khan and Bulls-Eye went from the frying pan and into the fire pretty much continuously.

Benjamin Hu and Amelia Stone of the Century Club make appearances trying to reopen the portal but make no mistake about it, it's the Professor Khan show.

Three point five out of five. I'm hooked on the Spirit of the Century. When's the next one coming out?

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

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