The Moon Men

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Encountering old military officer Julian for the second time, we learn of his life in a later incarnation, when brutal moon men have taken over the Earth and humans live in desperate subjugation.

Review
While the Moon Maid was in many ways a remix of Burroughs' usual themes, this second volume of the Moon Men trilogy came across quite differently. For one thing, it's set on Earth and humans are subjugated. For another, the ending is unusual for a Burroughs story; he's clearly taking advantage of the unusual reincarnation time travel trope he introduced at the start of the series.

Some aspects are dated – humans are “the most thoroughly subjugated people the world ever had known”, which seems to ignore a lot of pretty thorough subjugation humans have done to each other, as well as what we've done to other species; and women are (as usual in Burroughs stories) to be protected and cherished rather than acting on their own. But Burroughs does delicately acknowledge the reality of what women in this environment will face, without being graphic about it. He's rather less consistent on other fronts – humans aren't allowed religion, but many practice anyway, and all faiths worship together, but they're all monotheistic, and – even though they don't remember differences between faiths – one character is steadfastly referred to as ‘Samuels the Jew'. That whole aspect dragged the story back a bit. That and the fact that Burroughs sees no irony in ‘breaking' a horse while railing against subjugation of humans.

All in all, I was surprised how much I liked it. Taken on its own, the ‘chosen hero fights evil' trope is very familiar, but there was a different feeling to parts of it, including the ending, than to the usual Burroughs book, and I thought them for the better