Edwin Lester Arnold (1857–1935)

Read this and Princess of Mars back to back. Both are awful in their own way but were Princess is boring, pointless and has a main character with no personality. Gulliver of Mars is interesting and exciting with a lead that at least has a pulse. Of course Gullivers main character trait is that he's a complete tool but at least thats something. Its amazing how angry and frustrated this book made me due to its flaws. There really seemed to be a decent story trying to get out but the author never seemed to go where i wanted him to, plus this really feels like a 1st draft, there are so many things mentioned which then make no sense later. The best character disappears without explanation halfway through and it features one of the worst Deus Ex Machina's i've ever seen and thats after a set of them which i forgave and put it down to luck or destiny.
Still despite ALL its flaws it at least provoked a reaction from me, even if that reaction was that i wanted to track down the author and make him rewrite it properly this time.… (mehr)

Our ancient hero Phra has a severe case of Rip van Winkle Syndrome and sleep-hops his way through history, while occasionally being stalked by one of his dead wives.
This was very surprisingly good but only if you like purple prose. If your a fan of the 'full stop' for example you might be sorry to see him so infrequently, as most sentences seem to be about half a page long :) .
As with Arnold's protagonist from 'Gulliver of Mars', our hero this time is kind of an idiot, not to mention a bit of an ass (think 'Bruce Campbell' in the 'Evil Dead' films :P). However while that added to the frustration of reading Gulliver it adds to the comedy of this.
If you can get past the florid style this is a great romance/adventure romp through the ages.
A final warning however, as with all of this authors works it will leave you with many an unanswered question.… (mehr)