Bob Abbett’s covers were my favorites.
I love the “Barsoom” novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Not just because they’re fantastic escape reading, and no end of fun–but sometimes he also came out with something wise and prescient.
Synthetic Men of Mars is one of those books that gets smarter as you grow older. If you haven’t read it since you were a teenager, read it again now. It’ll blow you away.
The image of the uncontrollably expanding shapeless mass in Vat Room #4 will stay with you for a long time to come.
It’s been a while since John Carter has graced a page of this blog – always good stuff (any movies ever made from Burroughs’ Mars books?). Nicolas Tesla predicted the wireless Internet, and Jules Verne predicted when man first went to the moon he would do it with three astronauts.
There was a long-awaited Mars/Barsoom movie a few years ago–“John Carter” or something, it was called–but from what I read about it, few things could compare with it as a disappointment. I have a review somewhere in the Archive.