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Summary: Adventures from the first to the last page
Review: "Princess of Mars" is an astounding piece of fantasy. First story of ERB to be published in 1912, it contains the seeds of lots of scfi 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, 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.
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Summary: best book ever and a must have
Review: i realy did love this book. this is one of the best books ever made. and as i have heard it was the harry potter of its day but is considerd adult. this is what fantasise me about mr. burroughs his books can appeal to young and old alike. i was only in 5th grade when i started to read his books. basically this is the book that explains the rest of the storys. and it is realy good it also introduces woola (my favorite dog like thing) and also tarz tarkas becomes leader of the tharks and unites with the helluimnites. john carter also gets the prinncess of heluimite and they have a egg(mostly everything is reptile) and ends where you dont know if the occupants of mars are dead or not aka a cliff hanger i highly suggest this book i realy loved this book
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Summary: WHOAH! TIME OUT!
Review: My Advanced Placement English teacher recommended that we try and find and read the Martian Tales of ERB. I took his advice and I currently own all of them in hardback, with no intention of selling them . . . ever. But I disagree that this book and the following books are the best in science fiction. For the time, I'm sure that they were great, but now they're a little bit in vogue. The main reason why I read them is because I wanted to see what my teacher meant when he said, "This is the original Star Wars." Or at least part of it. You'll find parallels throughout the series. Jed = Jedi, etc. But when I compare this one book to Dune or any book by Philip K. Dick, or any short story by Harlan Ellison, there is no way I could give this book more than three stars. Admittedly, the first book might be different and refreshing after reading tons of fight-the-alien-hordes colonize-the-planet type of books. But when you read more of the series, you'll see that these are pretty much formula stories, and that detracts from the books reread value. You read one, you've almost read them all. There's a character named Dejah Thoris. It seems that she's almost always getting kidnapped or her hero is getting into trouble. After a while you get a sense of Dejah vu, if you know what I mean. ERB will put his character in a cell or something and with a leap and a bound he jumps out of the pit, grabs the dangling rope with his right arm while catching the screaming, falling Dejah Thoris in his left, and dodging bullets at the same time. No, that doesn't happen in THIS book. But at least you know now, how he sometimes writes. These books are simply too predictable to give more than 3 stars. With so few characters, you KNOW the good guy isn't going to die. Basically, if you like pulp fiction, formula stories, star wars, etc. this is a good book and a good series. But I wouldn't say that it's the best.
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Summary: Inspired Star Wars, Inspired by Gulliver of Mars
Review: 1912's A Princess of Mars was a pivotal book in science fiction, marking the turning point between the somewhat emotionally removed imagingings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and the swashbuckling adventures of Flash Gordon. Princess was a huge influence on Star Wars: Banthas are clearly based on Banths, Leia's "Jabba bikini" is obviously based on Frazetta's version of Dejah Thoris, and Jabba's desert skiff is straight out of Burroughs. Burroughs fans may be interested to discover that Princess was inspired by Gulliver of Mars by Edwin P. Arnold, 1905. Gulliver had the same "hero wakes up on mars" plot, the same multi-armed aliens, the same multi-legged beasts of burden, swordfights and semi-naked babes. Princess is practically a complete rip-off of Gulliver, except that Gulliver is a yawn, and Princess is exciting! Fellow ubergeeks may be interested to know that Arnold's biggest inspiration was probably Jonathan Swift's 1726 Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World (Gulliver's Travels). Gulliver of Mars is out of print, but you can read a free etext version here: http://jollyroger.nbci.com/library/GulliverofMarsbyEdwinArnoldebook.html
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Summary: Great book bad price
Review: I love burroughs works. His mars series are all about an army captain that is mysteriously transported to alien mars. The book traces our hero through his adventures as a mars superman; his powers granted to him because of the gravitational differences between Mars and Earth. If you have read and love his "Tarzan" books as I have then you will love this book.
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Summary: Awesome adventure with a romantic undercurrent.
Review: I found this novel in hardback at a garage sale for 50 cents and it sat on my shelf for years. I opened it up and discover it was a first edition. The book is way cool and you will just have to go out and get it.
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Summary: I wish they would write them like this one!
Review: Who could have imagined what lay in store for the literary world when Edgar Rice Burrougs first sold A Princess of Mars. It's been almost 90 years since then and he helped turn the entertainment world upside down. Maybe people think of Tarzan first when ERB's name is mentioned, but it was John Carter of Mars who sent generations of avid fans roaming the wilds of Barsoom in the shadow of Carter, the greatest swordsman of all time. Princess of Mars has the unenviable task of introducing the reader not only to the hero but also to the world of Barsoom. Everything must be explained and ERB does an extraordinary job of providing just enough details to keep the story flowing and whetting the readers' appetites for more. The only complaint a modern reader might have about the book is that the girl, Dejah Thoris, is a bit ornamental. And yet 90 years ago she was a breath-taking step into the future for literary audiences. ERB's light sensuality lent an air of sophistication to his writing which escapes most authors today, many of whom confuse sex scenes with entertainment and plotting. But the real beauty of the classic ERBian woman is that she has feelings and no matter how hard she tries to mask them she inevitably gives in to love provided the right suitor comes along. Many a modern Romance novelist must have secretly studied under this master's steady hand.
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Summary: Sets Fire to Imaginations
Review: Almost 30 years ago, my Dad bought me the entire series. I read through "A Princess of Mars" (my first novel) in three days at the age of 10. I read of the wonderful, fantastic adventures of John Carter, and was hooked--not just on Edgar Rice Burroughs, but also on science fiction, science, and, most importantly, reading. These books are not grandiose intellectual tomes. They are just pure fun! And that pure fun will inspire kids brought up with video games and Pokemon to go back to the basics and learn the joys of reading. Other reviews mention the need to get the second and third books in the series. I recommend you get them all. You'll never be satisfied until you're through them all, and then you'll be disappointed there are no more.
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Summary: Its all been said
Review: The previous reviews all tell about how good the Martian Tales of ERB are. The heroes of ERB, John Carter, John Clayton (Tarzan), et al are what make the books readable. Without their bravery, cunning, fatalism, philosophy, strength, ability to inspire, and sense of humor I doubt I would have reread all the books in the series with their redundant plots. But I did. Lets not forget that John Carter, of the Martian Series, is the precursor to an even more famous hero...Clark Kent (Superman). Perhaps if ERB had never been in the depths of dispair in his pencil selling business, he would never have written A Princess of Mars and the whole of American Sci Fi and comics would have been different.
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Summary: A good start, but not the best of the series
Review: This is Edgar Rice Burroughs's first novel, and he obviously had some growing pains to go through first. But he got up to speed extremely quickly. "A Princess of Mars" is imaginative, far exceeding anything else written in science-fiction before it. H. G. Welles wrote allegorical and social-commentary science-fiction, and Verne concentrated on scientific prediction. But Burroughs essentially took an old-fashioned Knight-errant story and tossed it onto Mars. The result: a fastasia of plutonium guns, sowrd fighting, flying platforms, 15 ft green aliens, and fercious four-armed white apes. Outrageous, ridiculous, and oh so much fun! But the series would get better in the later books. To fully enjoy "Princess", you must also read "Gods of Mars", and "Warlord of Mars", which complete an informal trilogy within the series. Burroughs has some difficulty structuring this first novel, and the events do not fit together as well as his later works. Escpeially in the first fifty pages, Burroughs appears to be just winging it. Also, some of the stodgy poeticisms of earlier fantasy and sci-fi haven't quite left his pen. In a few more novels, he would trim his style down even further and revolutionize popular literature. With only his next book, "Tarzan of the Apes" (you've probably heard of it), he would make vast improvements in plotting and characterization. But if you want to read Edgar Rice Burroughs (and few authors are more enjoyable), there's no better place to start than the beginning, and you'll quickly forgive "Princess"'s faults and be able to enjoy it...and the best is yet to come!
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