I once read a rather unfair review stating that MARS was a rip-off of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Sure, Red Martians, Green Martians, White Apes, airships, it's all there - but to say that it's a rip off is like saying D&D is a rip off of Lord of the Rings. In that case, so is EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and any fantasy game that uses elves and orcs.

Despite the glaring number of typos (pages referenced as being on "page XX" for example) and a few bouts of contradiction or lack of clarity, MARS is nothing less than awesome. The author already proved his ability and devotion to the Sword and Planet genre with "Iron Lords of Jupiter" (appeared in Polyhedron Magazine), and if you ever wanted to immerse your RPG group into Sword and Planet, MARS is without a doubt the way to go. MARS is to S&P what D&D is to fantasy and what Mutants & Masterminds is for Superhero gaming.

Now, unfortunately, we get to the negatives. Upon initial inspection of the hardcover, I was impressed by the glossy look and pristine condition. However, what followed gave me an impression that can only be summed up in one word: cheap.

For starters, you can easily tell that the book was printed in two portions, separately glued into the binding, as that's the point where the pages cease to line up. The paper is so cheap that I'd bet it's the same stuff I have in my office at work, where you can't even flip through the pages individually with your thumb or even separate them easily with two fingers when looking through.

As for content, once again, the book is amazing.

Sadly, my initial purchase with Lulu will also be my last. I find such shoddy quality for an already overpriced $45 book completely unacceptable. Maybe someone at Lulu was being lazy when they put it together and this isn't typical. However, it also isn't a fast food restaurant where I can laugh it off and take the pickles I didn't order off my burger without complaining too badly because it was only a $5 meal.