In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.
Edgar Rice Burroughs is one of the pioneers of science fiction, and the exploits of Earth-born adventurer John Carter on the planet Mars are among his best works. A few years ago, I looked at the first book in the Barsoom series, A Princess of Mars. Since the summer is the perfect time to read books full of pulpy action and adventure, today I’m diving into the second and third adventures in that series, The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars.
I have these three books in two forms in my library. The first is a pair of books from the Science Fiction Book Club, which published the first volume alone, and the next two in an omnibus edition. But the volume I used for this review is Under the Moons of Mars (which takes its name from the very first tale of the planet the natives call Barsoom), a collection that contains the first three Barsoom books, published in hardback in 2003 by University of Nebraska Press, as part of their Bison Frontiers of Imagination series. The book is nicely bound, although the typeface is kind of an odd one, with extra-tall capital letters, and in which the letter “f” shows up in different sizes depending on where it appears in a word. The dust jacket features a wonderful painting by Michael Whelan that originally appeared on a Del Rey paperback, and has some nice interior illustrations created for this edition by Scott Beachler.
When I revisited Burroughs’ Venus and Pellucidar series in this column, despite thinking I had read them all in my youth, I discovered that I had actually only read about half the books. And that was the case with the books I’m looking at today. I had read the first Barsoom book, and remembered the second, but the third book was new to me. In this day and age, when computers make purchases and inter-library loans effortless and books can even be sent directly to your phone, it is hard to imagine missing books in a series. But in the ancient times of my youth, when books were paper artifacts, scattered among a variety of stores or libraries, you read whatever you came across, regardless of whether you’d read the book that came before it, and sometimes would not find the book that followed.
About the Author
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was one of the most popular authors of the early 20th century, making an indelible mark on both science fiction and adventure fiction. I’ve looked at his work in this column before, including A Princess of Mars, the book Pirates of Venus and the rest of the Venus series, and also Tarzan at the Earth’s Core and the other Pellucidar books. All those columns contain more biographical information on the author. And that review of the first Barsoom book also includes a discussion of John Carter’s adventures in other media, including movies and comic books. You can find much of Burroughs’ work available to read for free at Project Gutenberg, including most of the Barsoom series.
A Princess of Mars
For those who might not remember the details, I’ll provide a short summary of the book that started the series. In it, John Carter, a cavalryman who fought for Virginia in the Civil War, is trapped in a cave full of strange carvings. And when the planet Mars catches his eye, he finds himself suddenly whisked away to that world. His strength aided by the lesser gravity of Mars, he runs afoul of the Tharks, a fierce race of Green Martians with tusks and four arms apiece. His martial prowess wins him an honored place in their ranks, and the friendship of one of their great chiefs, Tars Tarkas. Then Carter meets a Red Martian prisoner, the incomparably lovely Dejah Thoris, the eponymous princess of the title. The two fall in love, although they must overcome the inevitable misunderstandings that make romance difficult in books such as this. Eventually they are married, and she lays an egg that will become their child (despite this difference between Earth and Martian people, they are cross-fertile). But during a struggle to save an atmosphere plant that keeps the Martian air breathable, Carter finds himself transported back to Earth, where he spends years pining away and wondering what happened to his lost love.
The Gods of Mars
The next book, originally serialized in 1913, opens with John Carter’s wishes being granted as he finds himself on Mars again. Unfortunately, he is immediately attacked by fierce plant men. He encounters a Green Martian who is also fighting to survive, and realizes it is his old friend Tars Tarkas. This might seem like an improbable coincidence, but those who read Burroughs quickly become used to such coincidences. If a magical force can transport you from one world to the next, why wouldn’t it bring you to the side of an old friend in their hour of need? It turns out they are near the South Pole of Mars, in the Valley Dor, where the River Iss supposedly carries Martians to paradise at the end of their lives. But this religious belief turns out to be a horrible lie, as those who are not devoured by the fierce inhabitants of the valley are either devoured or taken as prisoners by the Therns, a race of White Martians who consider themselves the gods of Mars. Carter and Tarkas are captured and meet the beautiful Thuvia, a Red Martian maiden who is smitten with Carter (who immediately tells her he is married and not available for romance).
There is an attack by the Black Pirates of Barsoom, and Carter steals an airship, accidentally rescuing a captured Thern princess, Phaidor, who is also immediately smitten with Carter (who, true to form, rebuffs her romantic interest, infuriating the spoiled princess). Tarkas and Thuvia, on another airship, are able to escape. The Black Martians refer to themselves as the “First Born,” and consider themselves gods even higher than the Therns. The Black Pirates recapture Carter and take him to Issus, their queen, an ugly and evil woman who not only rules the Black Pirates, but as the unseen goddess of the Therns, rules them as well. The religious traditions of Mars turn out to be a confidence racket, with each level of “gods” being manipulated by the next—a nice little parable about the dangers of blind faith in fundamentalist teachings.
Carter is forced to fight in gladiatorial games, and befriends the Black Pirate Xodar, who he defeats in combat, as well as befriending a noble young Red Martain. The three of them escape, and find Thuvia, who tells them Tarkas is in the hands of a rival tribe of Green Martians. Carter discovers the young Red Martian he befriended is his own son, Carthoris (yet another of those improbable Burroughs coincidences). They rescue Tarkas and return to civilization, where Carter is condemned as a heretic, but given a year before his execution. He finds that his wife, Dejah Thoris, thinking him dead, had taken the trip down the River Iss, and Carter pledges to save her.
Having gained many friends among the Red Martians during his previous time on Mars, Carter is able to build a fleet of a thousand airships (in secret, a notion that boggles the imagination), with a million crew members, and supported by a quarter of a million Green Martian cavalrymen. They set out to defeat the self-styled gods of Mars, and are aided by the fact that the Therns and Black Pirates, in addition to fighting the Red Martians, fight viciously among themselves. There are fierce battles in the air and through the holy cities, but just as Carter is about to rescue Dejah Thoris, she is imprisoned in a rotating stone tower in a cell whose door is only accessible once a year. Moreover, she is trapped inside with Thuvia and the insanely jealous Phaidor, who tries to murder Dejah Thoris just as they pass out of sight.
The Warlord of Mars
The next book, first serialized in 1914, picks up right where the last tale ended. While allies of John Carter assume leadership of the Therns and the Black Pirates, he himself is impatient to rescue his beloved from her stone prison at the end of the year. There is a rather feeble running gag about Carter thinking the year will consist of 365 days until he is reminded the Martian year is longer. Carter follows Thurid, deposed leader of the Black Pirates, to a secret meeting with Matai Shang, deposed head of the Therns and father of Phaidor. The two discuss a secret way into the cell where Dejah Thoris, Thuvia, and Phaidor are trapped, a way that does not require waiting for the full year to elapse. Carter tries to follow them, desperate enough to make a harrowing free climb up the outside wall of a fortress, with only cracks between the stones for purchase. But the villains free the women and flee on an airship to the north. With only his faithful Martian hound Woola to aid him, Carter steals an aircraft and heads out in pursuit.
They reach the equatorial land of Kaol, where people still respect the old religions and their leaders, but Thuvia’s father shows up and demands she be freed. Instead, Thurid and Matai Shang take their prisoners and flee even further north, to the land of the reclusive Yellow Martians, who dwell in a valley protected by a magnetic tower that destroys any incoming airships. With the aid of warrior Thuvan Dihn, Carter disguises himself as a Yellow Martian, and the two fight their way through fierce beasts in the Caves of Carrion. Carter’s disguise fails and he is captured, finding that the head of the Yellow Martians has decided to marry Dejah Thoris.
Carter is imprisoned in the torture chamber ironically named the Pit of Plenty, but escapes and leads an uprising of enslaved Red Martians. He sees a Red Martain airship fleet flying to his aid, but realizes he must neutralize the magnetic tower—otherwise his friends will be destroyed. After a fierce fight with a mad scientist, this is accomplished, and the battle for the Yellow Martian city is underway. I’ll end the recap here so as not to spoil the ending. Some of you might be wondering about the identity of the Warlord of Mars mentioned in the title, and why Carter has not met him yet, but those questions are answered before the tale ends.
The work of Burroughs has sometimes been criticized for reflecting the prevalent racism of the times when it was written, and one could certainly argue that John Carter fits the tired “White Savior” trope. At the same time, one of the overarching themes of the first three Barsoom books is how people from different races can overcome their differences and become allies. Wherever John Carter goes he makes friends, first with Green Martian Tars Tarkas, and then with people from every other race of Mars. And he shows them how to work together toward common goals. Burroughs can sometimes be heavy-handed with his social commentary, but this message is presented effectively by being shown through Carter’s actions, not relayed through exposition or a lecture.
Final Thoughts
Together with A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars offer the reader a rousing tale of planetary romance. While the Mars series continued on from this point, these three books make a single, cohesive story that concludes with a solid and satisfying ending. These books present Burroughs at his best, with a larger-than-life protagonist who is strong, principled, brave, and true. Not someone we would expect to meet in real life, but someone we might aspire to be. The writing from this early part of Burroughs’ career feels fresh and energetic. I’m glad I gave these books a try, because they were perfect reading for a summer day. In fact, I’m going to do some digging around to track down the rest of the series, because I obviously missed more than a few books, and these were a lot of fun.
And now I’d like to hear from you, either about these books in particular or the Barsoom series in general.
Despite ERB’s explicit support of eugenics and “scientific racism,” which were common in the late 19th/early 20th century and based on misreadings of Darwinian theory, he may have undermined this worldview with his stories, especially when actual Nazis or nazi-analogues were portrayed as the enemy. He wasn’t even trying hard to disguise this when he had his hero fighting Zanis in Carson of Venus.
The first trilogy of Barsoom books still hold up pretty well today. They have clunky bits, like a single plant making the entire Martian atmosphere, which is never mentioned again. The murder of the plant’s keeper is never solved either, as far as I know. Another howler is Dejah singing some anthem behind Carter while he fights to save her from the Yellow Martians. I heard “My eyes have seen the glory…” while reading that scene.
I also found the bit where Carthoris is hitting on Thuvia after the fighting is over amusing. His parents pause to point out that he’s only 15 years old, but is that Earth or Martian years. John has only been gone 10 Earth years… and Martian eggs take years to hatch…
The next two volumes featuring the children of John and Dejah, Carthoris and Tara, are also worth reading. Both have themes warning against excessive intellectualism. I haven’t finished the sixth one yet. It seems lesser so far. It has embalming (like the previous volume), brain transplants, and more kidnappings.
Carthoris does seem to have matured more rapidly than an Earthling child, although that fact feels more like authorial inattention to detail than a deliberate decision.
There’s also the mixed message of Carter having been a Confederate soldier, yet fighting to free slaves on Barsoom.
Oddly, Burroughs’ father was a Union officer in the Civil War. AFAICT the reason Carter was a Confederate soldier is to explain why a gentleman from a well-off family is prospecting for gold in Arizona: his fortune had all been in Confederate money and was now worthless. He’s a Virginia gentleman because that’s the sort of person who’s likely to be skilled with a sword in late-19th century Arizona. These are both inferences from context rather than anything I can document. Keep in mind that the first John Carter story wasn’t written with any elaborate plan in mind, and Carter only had enough backstory to explain why he was wandering into strange caves and knew how to ride and fence and shoot.
It makes an odd sort of sense. Books 1-4 were all published by 1916 at the very beginning of the great migration of blacks from the south to the north so before that only a southerner would have had enough contact with them to overcome the casual racism of the day. Also John Carter’s character was of the type of Confederate soldier whose main motivation for fighting was defense of his family not slavery per say.
“Also John Carter’s character was of the type of Confederate soldier whose main motivation for fighting was defense of his family not slavery per say.”
But he wasn’t fighting against slavery, which meant he was still part of the problem. And it’s just a symptom of the widespread “Lost Cause” propaganda movement that spent generations painting Confederates in fiction as noble figures “fighting for their families” and glossing over what the South’s secession was really about.
I read these books for the first time about 40 years ago in middle school, and at the time they blew my mind. So many creative ideas, great plots, technical (if fantastical) invention, and lots of action. I believe the first batch with the first 5 or 6 books came from my grandfather, they’re thorughly dog-eared pulpy paperbacks probably from the 50s, and I sought out the rest at libraries and bookstores on my own. I made Lego Barsoom airships while everybody around me was into Star Wars!
I’ve re-read them (all of them as far as I know although maybe it’s worth checking to see if I missed any!) several times since and pick up on some of the more cringe-worthy parts in a way that I didn’t then—there is quite a lot of swooning and flowery love-professing.
And yes the fantastic coincidences and bizarrely convenient solutions to problems are there, but they’re no worse than many other stories that weren’t written about 100 years ago. Also the technical inconsistencies, like when the rotating tower closes why didn’t they just break open the wall? It’s stone. You have airships and oxygen plants, but you don’t have a big hammer? I think there was a technical answer to that, but I remember just not buying it. And everything technical is powered by mysterious “rays”—hard science fiction this is not. But it’s fun!
The racial and societal commentary was something I do remember actually noticing at age 12 or whatever I was. I doubt I fully understood what it was saying but I definitely remember getting the gist of it—despite huge differences, most everybody eventually gets along in one way or another, even across racial differences so vast that put ours to shame.
But despite that and some of the more anachronistic parts, the stories hold up well, and the characters are surprisingly complex (even while frequently swooning over their love for their men, many of the female characters are warriors in their own rights for example).
Like any series, it has its ups and downs. It’s been a decade or so since my last re-read but out of I think 11 books only 2 or 3 really had me thinking about skipping them partway through. That’s a better ratio than most modern series I’ve read.
I do believe it may be time for another re-read.
A Princess of Mars was one if my first books without pictures, except for the Whealan cover, which was formative. Burroughs has been a family favorite since my Gran.
I read all 11, the first 6 most often, as well as a bunch of the Tarzan, Venus, a couple pelucidar and The Lost Continent. I’m always surprised at how much happens in such short works.
One of the things that made this series work was Burroughs habit of shifting the PoV so that he didn’t have to keep creating bigger and bigger enemies too challenge John Carter. A lesson that some modern authors could stand to learn.
I loved Burroughs when I was 10, and still enjoy his writing at 77. What an imagination! He isn’t a great prose stylist (no kidding), but he’s a very entertaining storyteller.
It’s been a long time since I read any of them, but I recall being bemused by the Carrion Caves in “Warlord”. That the material therein was described as “bubbling” was as spooky as the creatures living in the midst of it. Adulthood, and a surprise encounter with an Earthly landfill, brought questions. Did the polar dwellers ever worry about running out of space in what was essentially a complicated tunnel? Did settling make a space for the invaders to walk or crawl thru? Did the polar dwellers start dumping at the southern end and just let it accumulate northward–and why not build a wall or several as backup? Did they figure out beforehand not to take an open flame into a place like that? I guess I’m up for a reread too…
In describing the land of the Yellow Martians, Burroughs seems intent on being as lurid as possible.
Nailed it. Back then, writers couldn’t get vivid about sex or excretion, but they could still find ways to gross people out. I wonder if ERB had ever been to Chicago, and made the acquaintance of Bubbly Creek?
As a matter of fact, Burroughs was born and raised in Chicago (and grew up hating it- he considered it crowded and dirty).
I’m always torn between amusement and bemusement whenever I hear things like “the tired ‘White Savior’ trope” when referring to classic literature, especially by white male artists. (Yes, I consider these wonderful stories classic literature.) The same happens in other genre books, stories and film, in particular old westerns and private eye tales and movies. Is John Wayne in the 1939 Stagecoach or Bogie in The Big Sleep cliche or tropes. Not hardly. But people sure act like it.
But I digress, as I am want to do in my old age. <sigh> So yes, in my eyes, the orginals are not tired tropes and cliches; they are by definition of their existence, the originals from which tropes and cliches are hatched.
It might be more accurate to say Burroughs tales help originate or reinforced the tired “White Savior” trope. If one feels compelled to cater to this knd of commentary. (I, for one, am tired of the word “trope” … everyone seems to think by using it they’re all of a sudden speaking a scholarly dialect or code.) Anywho … I’ve even read complaints of racism about the amazing pulp writer Achmed Abdullah. Really? REALLY? As with any writer at any time and in any part of the world, both Abdullah and Burroughs wrote what they knew and what their imagination and intelligence allowed them.
Back to Burroughs. He was flawed, perhaps, and most definitely a product of his time–who isn’t? Hmm? Hmmm?–but he most certainly was an orginal.
Huge ERB fan and I remember Princess of Mars and Gods of Mars very clearly after all these years but Warlord of Mars, I don’t remember a thing. I think it’s time for a re-read.