The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 9 May 2000
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Barsoom is one terribly violent place. It is rife with warring races of men and beasts, who fall upon each other in bloody battle without any provocation. Why anyone would chose to return to such a planet is beyond me. And yet, John Carter, the adventurous protagonist of Burroughs's eleven-volume Mars series, trapped back on Earth for ten years after the events in the first novel, longs desperately to return to those perilous dead sea bottoms and his long lost love, Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium. After ten years of dreaming, he gets his wish, and after another ten, he returns to Earth to deliver this manuscript of his adventures. John Carter's Mars is a world of superlative upon superlative. From the moment he arrives, he is engaged in one battle after another which exceeds all others in his experience. He fights with the voracious plant men, white apes, bloodthirsty therns and predatory black men. There is little respite and Carter's endurance is superhuman. The core of this story is the mythological Eden to which Barsoomians of all races descend after living a thousand years (unless first killed in battle). Carter discovers the true nature of this lost land, and faces certain death to bring the truth back to Helium and his beloved princess. The book is an endless litany of bodies piled deep in a bloody mess. It is a warrior's fantasy. Yet Burroughs has moments of gentleness, revealing that all this fighting is a result of the dwindling resources of the dying planet. And there are moments of prescience. The animals and people are vividly described, and have no real biological sense, as might be expected in more detailed modern science fiction. But the dead sea bottoms, and the arid landscape are curiously realistic given the time of its writing. In the end, though, Burroughs lays the plan for future novels. This is a cliff-hanger, inviting the reader on to the next in the series: The Warlords of Mars.
Also by Burroughs: [A Princess of Mars]