The Moon Maid

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Book Overview

"The Moon Maid" is a seminal work of early science fiction and adventure by the legendary Edgar Rice Burroughs. Set in a future where humanity has achieved interplanetary travel, the narrative follows Julian 5th as he captains the first mission to Mars, only to be forced into an emergency landing on the Moon. Inside the hollow interior of the lunar world, known as Va-nah, he discovers a vibrant but dangerous landscape populated by diverse races and prehistoric creatures.

The story blends elements of planetary romance and space opera, chronicling the encounter between Julian and the titular Nah-ee-lah, a princess of the noble Laythe people. However, the tale expands beyond a simple rescue mission into a sweeping epic of conflict. When the brutal Kalkars eventually use Julian's technology to invade and conquer Earth, the narrative transforms into a saga of resistance spanning generations.

Burroughs masterfully explores themes of heroism, cultural clash, and the cyclical nature of civilization. As a cornerstone of the hollow-world subgenre, "The Moon Maid" remains a captivating example of early 20th-century speculative fiction, offering readers a thrilling journey through a meticulously imagined extraterrestrial society and a dire vision of humanity's future struggle for freedom.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1025851617
• ISBN13: 9781025851617
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Tradd Street Press
• Length: 434 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.9" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Hidden life inside the moon

The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs is the first book in a series about a world that is inside the moon. The hollow moon in the story has atmosphere and light, plant and animal life. A mighty civilization has crumbled over time, when men from earth discover it by accident. Highlights of the story include a beautiful princess, a hidden city, secret tunnels, and war with centaur like beasts who speak, yet eat men and each other. A nice Burroughs adventure, this is the way they used to make them. This edition has great Roy Krenkel cover art, in the first Ace paperback edition 1962, F-157.

The Moon Maid

I received this book in a timely manner in excellant condition and packaged acceptably. I would buy from this seller again and I would recommend them to my friends.

More Fantasy from ERB

I've had ERB's Moon series sitting on my shelf for quite some time, and only now got around to reading them; shame on me. The story is about a Captain in the International Peace Fleet named Julian 5th (seems every male child in this family is named Julian). Captain Julian and four other officers are tasked to fly a new spacecraft to Mars (Barsoom; if you've read ERB's John Carter series, this should ring familiar). Unfortunately, Lieutenant Commander Orthis, one of the travellers, has been harboring a hateful, ongoing jealousy of the successful Julian. Julian, by right of his rank, has been appointed as the mission commander, and this sends Orthis off the deep end. Orthis sabotages the mission, forcing the travellers to make an emergency landing upon the moon. Imagine their surprise, when the craft is pulled through a crater into a whole new world beneath the surface! Much like the "deathless John Carter," Julian is an above-average speciman of the human race, and the environmental differences of the moon only contribute to his superiority. However, ERB caught me off guard in this one; I got too used to John Carter succeeeding and saving the day in every single episode of the Mars series; such does not happen here. Julian 5th is constructed into a tragic hero- his story finalized in book 2 of the Moon series, "The Moon Men." Entertaining light reading, and definately ahead of its time.

The opening romantic adventure in ERB's Moon trilogy

With Mars now closer to the Earth than it has been for hundreds of thousands of years, some of us are given pause to think about how all the stories of spaceships going to Mars have never really been concerned with the actual logistics involved. Such practical considerations are a minor part of "The Moon Maid," a 1923 pulp fiction yarn from the master of adventure, Edgar Rice Burroughs, in which a spaceship headed for Mars is sabotaged and ends up on the Moon instead. Unlike John Carter, who made his way to Mars simply by raising his open arms to the red planet, the adventures in this story, the first in ERB's Moon trilogy, actually take a spaceship. It is interesting that Burroughs played a bit more attention to the science in his pulp novel this time around, even in terms of the fanciful Eighth Ray, given that the Moon books are his most political. Burroughs began working on a story, "Under the Red Flag," at end the First World War, which voiced his concerns over the Communist takeover of Russia, albeit in slightly dramatic form. However, with the war over pulp magazine editors were not interested in ERB continuing to fight the war, even in his Tarzan novels. Over the course of the next several years, while he worked on other projects, the prolific Burroughs turned his grim prediction of a world under the yoke of a communistic goverment into a space adventures that would allow him to make the points he felt needed making. After all, the man who created Tarzan was obviously a big believer in personal freedom. However, the first volume in the trilogy turns out to be a rather standard ERB romantic adventure. "The Moon Maid," originally published in "Argosy All-Story Weekly," is the first book in the Moon trilogy and takes place after the end of the Great War (1914-1967). Captain Julian commands "The Barsoom," the Earth vessel that ends up on the Moon. Once there he and his companions discover flora and fauna, including small horse-like creatures with human features. The title creature is Nah-ee-lah, human type known as U-ga, who comes from the city of Laythe where she is the daughter of it's Jemadar (come on, this is an ERB yarn: you knew she would be royalty). The godless Kalkars prove to be the biggest threat to both Julian's survival and his chance of a romantic relationship with the Moon Maid. The first time around saving the girl becomes the prime objective. Saving the rest of the Moon people from a fate worse than death will happen in the next set of stories, "The Moon Men" and "The Red Hawk" (usually you will find all three combined as "The Moon Men").

An engaging science fiction odyssey

The Moon Maid: Complete And Restored is a classic pulp-magazine saga of the late Edgar Rice Burroughs' science fiction adventure hero Julian the 5th whose destiny is to be reincarnated again and again, until he can lead mankind's fight for freedom against vicious alien oppressors from the moon. An engaging science fiction odyssey by the celebrated creator of Tarzan, The Moon Maid includes countless passages, sentences, and words originally removed from the magazine edition and/or added later by the author. Enhanced with an brief but informative introduction by Terry Bison, this superbly presented Bison Press edition of The Moon Maid is a "must-read" and "must-have" for the legions of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans everywhere!