I’m taking a poll as to whether Oprah’s Book Club should read A Princess of Mars (1912/1917), the classic novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.The poll is near the top of the right-hand column of this blog, just below the cover art of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.
If you have time, please consider voting, or feel free to leave a comment.
Also, thanks to a post by the blog SF Signal, I just viewed a beautiful gallery of John Carter of Mars artwork put together by The Crotchety Old Fan.
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4 comments:
I'd love it if Oprah's Book Club read some science fiction. But A PRINCESS OF MARS? That would be a terrible choice to introduce SF to people who haven't read it and who mostly like the sort of books OBC chooses. If I was going to pick a book for them to read I'd choose something that shows that SF can be strongly character and relationship driven as much as any other kind of fiction. Given them something that will turn them off (and this choice definitely would) and they'll never give SF a chance again.
Maybe SPIN by Robert Charles Wilson.
Or Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD (that one I can actually see Oprah agreeing to).
Thanks for your comments. I'm not familiar with the two books you mention, but I agree any science fiction book would be nice.
Hmm... sounds like an interesting challenge: no, I don't think A Princess of Mars is the right thing for the Oprah Book Club -- BUT, the challenge would be: Write a Mars novel that is appropriate for Oprah's readership.
Ken, any thoughts about a plot or characters?
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