Crimson Planet (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781393981800)

This is not a serious story. Not in the sense of hard science facts and what we know. This is more fantastic. Instead of reaching into the future to what could be, I have reached into the past, into the times before people knew Mars was a dry, dead world with no air. Instead, it held giant, four-armed monsters and savages, where Venus was a lush jungle world under a constant barrage of rain, and where the outer planets were so massive their satellites held life foreign to humans in more than one sense. And beyond that, deep in space, the bug-eyed aliens and strange creatures existed that shocked, terrified, and entertained us.

This is not a story about science fact. This is fantastic science fiction. The old guard kind, the raypunk kind. It's one I think that should be dusted off and played with from time to time; the pulp era of science fiction, when Mars had canals, Venus held dinosaurs, and man could travel to other places in rockets or spheres coated in anti-gravity paint or even mysterious beam of energy. Where savages could hold axe and sword, fighting alongside a ray gun-toting gunfighter or Space Ranger.

Tosh, formally of the House du'Vaul, is on the road to make or break his fortune. Bors of the Northern Mountains is a barbarian needing escape from the authorities. The two are brought together by a mysterious figure and given a quest, to find the Eye of Saturnalia. On the Crimson Planet.