Porges tells us that Burroughs thought his story had “damphool possibilities,” and it certainly did because it is a very good read, coming at the beginning of his writing career when his inspiration was red hot.  The Monster Men was written between The Cave Girl  and The Warlord of Mars  when it seemed he could do no wrong.

The hero of the story, Bulan, is number 13 of the experiments performed by Professor Maxon, and he turns out to be a perfect specimen of a man in body and mind.  The only problem is there are 12 “monsters” created before him running around on a jungle island with Maxon’s pretty daughter, Virginia, needing saving time and again.  Despite the corny sounding plot, it is actually vintage Burroughs that deserves attention.

Lupoff says that “The Monster Men  is a curious tale, crudely told even for Burroughs whose style was more frequently admirable for vigor than for its polish.”  However, he goes on with some enthusiasm for the work.  “Bulan knows that only God can breathe an immortal soul into a living person.  Bulan therefore doubts that he can share with Virginia the sacrament of marriage.  This is a serious question, and receives serious treatment” (Lupoff, 82).

This is one book where Mahlon Blaine’s illustrations work for me.  The Canaveral Press edition of 1962 has a dust jacket and 7 interior black-and-white illustration by Blaine that capture the sketchy, experimental nature of the story.  His monsters are odd, twisted story-book caricatures that look like old woodcuts, reminding us that this is really a very old story that goes back to legends and fairy tales.  (See the illustration on page 91 - “I am going and you are going with me.”)

Clute points out the interesting fact that this science fiction genre of creating life out of dead bodies and chemical vats expanded into mixing life with machines in the Cyberpunk novels of the 1980’s.  “William Gibson captured the new age in the trilogy that began in 1983 with Neuromancer, and became part of the vocabulary of SF by about 1985 . . . “(Clute, 88).

Clute refers to Mary Shelley in relation to Cyberpunk, giving credit where credit is due.

“There is something about this dark, atmospheric, lightning-lashed tale that makes one feel that Baron Frankenstein has become entangled in a massive and filthy world machine, that he has caught himself and his monster in the gears of a terrifying scientific technology, and that the systems of this new world are making him dance to their tune.  Baron Frankenstein is a bit like Gibson’s hero, Case.  Frankenstein is a victim of his overweening pride, which has deluded him into the belief that he is the master of the new world of science, which then turns on him; Case is a victim of his own streetwise audacity, and becomes a pawn in the hands of the new gods of cyberspace” (Clute, 88).

It is no surprise that ERB wanted to try his hand at this “new myth,” as Aldiss puts it.  “ . . . the use of this modernized Faust theme is particularly suited to the first real novel of science fiction:  Frankenstein’s is ‘the ’ modern theme, touching not only science but man’s dual nature, whose inherited ape curiosity has brought him both success and misery” (Aldiss, 29).

If The Monster Men’s Bulan seems like a clone of Tarzan, perhaps it is because ultimately the two characters seek to answer the same question, “What is a man?”