Out of the Silent Planet Robert McClenaghan writes, ""Out of the Silent Planet", the shortest and most straightforward of the [Space Trilogy] books, incorporates many of the elements of classic science fiction, including a space flight, meetings with fantastic aliens, and an extended depiction of another planet. Were it not for the theological backdrop (which comes into focus only toward the story's end), "Out of the Silent Planet" could pass as merely a well-written and exceptionally erudite pulp novel." John Gosling, on his website devoted to "The War of the Worlds", wrote that the novel "is a very well written and important piece of Martian
A Princess of Mars the planetary romance had become very popular in the emerging science fiction pulp magazines. The novel can also be classified as the closely related genre sword and planet, which consists of what are essentially sword and sorcery stories that take place on another planet. "A Princess of Mars" is widely considered to be the archetypal novel of the sword and planet genre. The novel also shares a number of elements of Westerns, such as desert settings, women taken captive, and a climactic life-or-death confrontation with the antagonist. Burroughs employs a literary device for "A Princess of Mars" to which he