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Carter Jumps to Mars and Starts the Ball.
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was a prodigy of imagination. He started his writer career quite late; his first work was published in 1912. From that point on a ceaseless flow of imaginary worlds & heroes poured from his pen: John Carter of Mars, Carson Napier of Venus, David Innes and Abner Perry on Pellucidar at Earth's center and the most famous of them all Tarzan of the Apes.
As many reviewers of this and other ERB stories point out, do not expect "politically correct" tales, they are the product of a society still torn by racial prejudices.
"Princess of Mars" is an astounding piece of fantasy. First story of ERB to be published it contains the seeds of lots of sci-fi and Fantasy novels to come in the following years. Also we may detect some traits of Tarzan in John Carter character.
It's a pleasure to read so "fresh" adventures depicting a whole planet culture, interaction between different races, monsters, ecology, and inventions far ahead of ERB real world, as "rifles with explosive bullets guided by wireless sensors".
It amazes me how ERB can master in a not so extensive text (for our standards); a high paced action story. Even if this book is 90 years old, you will enjoy it from the first to the last page and possibly continue reading all Carter's series.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Captain John Carter Takes a Licken and Keeps on Tickin'
This is a nice Dover reprint of the first of Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars novel, which first appeared serialized in wide-circulation pulp magazines in the early years of the twentieth century.
Never quite as popular as Burrough's Tarzan books, the Mars series ranks right up there with the Pellucider (center of the earth) as fantasies dear to the hearts of boys of all ages. (Personally, I've always liked the Mars series better than Tarzan or Pellucider, but--as my wife notes--Burroughs does have a thing about apes, which appear on Mars as well as in the African jungle.)
The story is completely implausible, even for its time. Burrough's gee-whiz fascination with pseudo-science such as radon as a universal energy source, and mystical "rays" unknown on earth, ring particulalarly hollow.
Plopped down among the green hordes of war-like Mars, Virginia gentleman John Carter ex of the Confederate army unites the green Thark hordes to aid the Heliumite civilization of red Martians and win the hand of the incomparable Dejah Thoris in the first of the eleven Mars books.
The book is written in language that probably was intentionally pompous and archaic even for its own time, making it a great vocubulary expander for today's kids who some day will face the SATs. It's amazing that in the hundred years since it was first published, and the millions of copies sold, no one has gone through this book to fix the words spelled incorrectly and other typos.
The book conforms to todays PG rated movie standards: tons and tons of violence, and no sex. Well, Martians are hatched from eggs, anyhow.
I first read this book, and the other books in the Mars series, as a kid, far longer ago than I care to admit. Now, I'm reading them to my eight-year-old son, who loves them.
Flaws, weirdnesses, and bizarre language to the despite, I highly recommend the Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books to anyone who has a taste for tales of fantastic adventures!
A Princess of Barsoom
"I have never told this story nor shall mortal man see this manuscript until I have passed over for eternity. I know that the average human mind will not believe what it can not grasp......"
Written in 1912 this book is well written for its time. Captain Carter is telling the story form memory as an old man of his adventures here on earth and on the planet of Barsoom (Mars). There are encounters with many strain creatures, situations, and yes even a "Princess of Mars." The forward to the book alone will capture your imagination.
The Great Book of Tarzan
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