Forbidden Moon

2.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Julian 20, scion of a long line of Julians who revolted against the Kalkar invasion of Earth, is set to lead one final push to be rid of west coast Kalkars for ever.

Review
While I enjoyed the first two books of the Moon Men trilogy, this final volume leaves an undeniable impression of being an incomplete, hasty work. It was published in 1925, well before Burroughs' death, and in the same year as the much more interesting middle book of the trilogy. Yet it is far shorter than the first two books, lacks the framing they use, and fails to follow through on the promise set up in the first, that there is a generational time travel mechanism and that the protagonist has come back in time to avoid the mess the trilogy describes. I'd be interested to know whether Burroughs intended more books or just gave up on the whole series and tossed off this third book to close it out.

As a standalone story, this is in line with Burroughs' standard ‘strong man, beautiful woman' trope. There's some action, but not really much effort to develop anything or anyone. Burroughs deliberately sets up the hero and his culture as violent and ignorant (but good hearted), and then ... leaves it at that. He identifies a few kinder, gentler, more progressive folk and then leaves them be. Meanwhile, he's mixing and matching cultures with abandon, which is interesting, with pointed critiques of the unseeing hero. It's unusually subtle for Burroughs, and I'd like to think that he's deliberately left the resolution up to the discerning reader. However, his writing generally spelled things out pretty clearly, and I don't think that was the intent. It seems clear to me that he initially intended a much more complete development and wrap-up, but for some reason just threw up his hands and said, ‘Good enough'. Since this was first published in Argosy, perhaps he simply ran out of time and sent them what he had. It's incomplete enough that I'd have expected him to fix it in subsequent editions. Or perhaps my (free, public domain) version didn't have that update.

In any case, the whole trilogy is an odd mix – the first fairly standard; the second an unusual and thoughtful dystopia on Earth; and this third filled with subtle hints and commentary that are simply left where they fall. Overall, it's dissatisfying, and I'd advise most readers to skip this and simply stop with book two.