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Both "A Princess of Mars (1912)" and "At the Earth's Core (1914)" are written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Different setting, same style, same story, with a couple of tweaks. Man goes on a journey to another land, falls in love with a pretty girl, offends her by not knowing the customs, some adventure, go to rescue the girl, He being faster, smarter and braver, no major problems.

The critical reception on Wikipedia makes no mention of the similarities. Was there published criticism mentioning essentially identical plot, in the early 1900s?

James Jenkins
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    Sword and Planet (or Sword and Romance) stories all seem to have a similar theme. Boy wields sword, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy adventures to rescue girl, boy gets epiphany, girl forgives boy, they marry. Happily ever after, squeezes somewhere in there between sword fights. It did not stop them from being published by the dozens during the time period. – Thaddeus Howze Aug 02 '13 at 23:54
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    @Thaddeus, or this time period. – James Jenkins Aug 03 '13 at 00:12
  • @Thaddeus - I now dub thee the honorary Campbell of the year :) – DVK-on-Ahch-To Aug 03 '13 at 01:23
  • If the formula sells, why mess with it? (see every single romance novel sold) – DVK-on-Ahch-To Aug 03 '13 at 01:25
  • Is that a good thing @DVK? – Thaddeus Howze Aug 03 '13 at 02:35
  • @Thaddeus - indubitably so. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Aug 03 '13 at 15:14
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    Almost all of ERB's stories are essentially the same. Some variations in Tarzan, where Tarzan may be alone in the jungle, but ERB used the love story with the woman being threatened over and over. One friend told me that in ERB stories, young virgins were threatened over 400 times and not once was one harmed by the bad guys. – Tango Aug 03 '13 at 17:42
  • When you need to churn out stories to put food on the table it is good to develop some formulas. – Oldcat Feb 18 '15 at 20:15

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Yes, they are essentially the same story. This was a popular story trend that started as far back as 1880. This genre has spawned hundreds of stories all the way through to the 1980s when they reached their peak. There are still Sword and Planet (or Planetary Romance) stories still being sold today with a renewed interest in the Pulp genre.

  • Sword and Planet is a subgenre of science fantasy that features rousing adventure stories set on other planets, and usually featuring Earthmen as protagonists. The name derives from the heroes of the genre engaging their adversaries in hand to hand combat primarily with simple melee weapons such as swords, even in a setting that often has advanced technology.

  • Though there are works that herald the genre such as Percy Greg's Across The Zodiac (1880) and Edwin Lester Arnold's Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905; published in the US in 1964 as Gulliver of Mars), the prototype for the genre is A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs originally serialized by All-Story in 1912 as "Under the Moons of Mars".

  • The genre predates the mainstream popularity of science fiction proper, and does not feature any scientific rigor, being instead romantic tales of high adventure. For example little thought is given to explaining why the environment of the alien planet is compatible with life from Earth, just that it does in order to allow the hero to move about and interact with the natives. Native technology will often break the known laws of physics.

  • Sword and Planet (or Planetary Romance) stories all have very similar themes. Boy wields sword, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy adventures to rescue girl, boy gets epiphany, girl forgives boy, they marry. Happily ever after, squeezes somewhere in there between sword fights. It did not stop them from being published by the dozens during the time period.
  • The genre tag "Sword and Planet" is constructed to mimic the terms sword and sorcery and sword and sandal. The phrase appears to have first been coined in the 1960s by Donald A. Wollheim, editor of Ace Books, and later of DAW Books at a time when the genre was undergoing a revival. Both Ace Books and DAW Books were instrumental in bringing much of the earlier pulp Sword and Planet stories back into print, as well as publishing a great deal of new, imitative work by a new generation of authors.

There are an extensive list of famous Sword and Planet tales on the Sword and Planet Wikipedia page where most of this information was found. I admit to knowing about this genre from years of roleplaying games where these stories translate nicely into role-playing scenarios.

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Get to work 20th Century Earthmen, those damsels won't rescue themselves...

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