Rating: 
Summary: MORE BARSOOMIAN FUN!
Review: "The Master Mind of Mars" is book #6 of 11 John Carter adventures that Edgar Rice Burroughs gave to the world. It first appeared in the magazine "Amazing Stories Annual" in July 1927, and John Carter himself only puts in a cameo appearance near the book's end. Instead, our hero is another Earthman, Ulysses Paxton, who mysteriously gets transported to Barsoom (Mars) after being critically wounded on the battlefields of WW1. Paxton becomes an apprentice of the eponymous mastermind Ras Thavas, and from him learns all manner of surgical miracles, including brain transplantation. Paxton falls in love with a young woman, Valla Dia, whose body has been sold to an old empress, so that that empress can now live on in her new hotty body. Paxton vows to travel across Mars, kidnap the empress, and restore his beloved's body to her. He enlists the aid of some of Ras Thavas' medical subjects: a Barsoomian white ape with a half-human mind; a professional assassin; and another Martian who has had his body bought/stolen by another. This is a short but extremely entertaining and fast-moving fantasy novel. In it, Burroughs gives us some interesting philosophy on the correlation of mind and body (as he did with the kaldanes in "Chessmen of Mars"), as well as some interesting speculations on the necessity of war in any culture. He also pokes fun at the mumbo-jumbo aspects of organized religion. So there is some actual food for thought, in addition to the fun. And that equilibrimotor chase and scene in the Temple of Tur ARE very much fun! The heart, lung and other assorted transplants that Ras Thavas is engaged in must have seemed like real sci-fi improbabilities back in 1927, although these things are fairly commonplace today. The brain transplants are another matter, of course. (Perhaps one day...)
"Master Mind" seems to be slightly better written than some of the earlier Barsoomian novels; Burroughs DID improve with age, at least as far as technique is concerned. Still, there are the usual inconsistencies that crop up. For example, in one scene Thavas complains of the new young blood in his new young body, when it has been established that recipients of new bodies receive their old blood back. I was confused by this. In another scene, the 15-foot-tall ape/man puts on the leather harness of a regular-sized man. Does this seem possible? Clouds are said to obscure the moon in another scene, yet in earlier books, Burroughs has told us that clouds exist on Barsoom only at the poles. A body of a dozen Toonolian soldiers at one point mysteriously turns into 20, and the great scarlet tower of Lesser Helium, which was destroyed in "Chessmen," is inexplicably back again in this book. (I grant that it may have been rebuilt, but Burroughs might have said something to this effect.) The surprise regarding Valla Dia at the book's conclusion was one that was so obvious to me that I don't even think it was really meant to be a surprise after all. And here's another quibble: Paxton falls in love with Valla Dia only after he has seen what her actual body looks like. It might have been more effective had he fallen in love with her only AFTER she was trapped in the haggish body of the empress. A young, strapping American male falling in love with an old ugly woman, based solely on her gracious personality. Now THAT would have been a REAL fantasy!
Rating: 
Summary: Brain Transplants and Religious Doctrine
Review: "The Master Mind of Mars" by ERB is a great book! ERB's Mars series takes second fiddle to his Tarzan books, but I respectfully argue they are superior. In "MMM", Ulysses Paxton, a critically wounded WWI soldier, is astral-projected (plot device to get things moving) to fabled Barsoom (Mars), dying planet of canals, hordes of 4-armed green warriors, scantily clad women, strong warriors wearing only their "sword and harness", and home of Ras Thavas, the Master Mind of Mars. It seems that Ras Thavas has an enormous talent - only he, among all the inhabitants of Barsoom, is able to perform the life-extending brain transplant. (Or maybe we should call it, ominously, the brain exchange. Too bad for the young body donor whose brain is unceremoniously evicted for the old, rich plutocrats...) However, now Ras Thavas is growing old and he needs his own brain transplanted. Who to train in the procedure? Why, none other than Ulysses Paxton (now called Vad Varo). But our hero turns out to have ethics and morals, and not only that, has fallen in love with a beautiful girl. Unfortunately, she is a body donor for a rich old hag. What happens next? Ulysses, the girl, and some sidekicks go off on a tour of Mars to reunite young girl brain with young girl body! On their Grand Tour of Barsoom, they come to various cities, each with different religious doctrine (I think ERB is indulging in a little gentle satire here). Take it as a given in pulp fiction that our heroes are successful and all ends well. Great enjoyable escapist reading. I found out later on as a veterinarian that it's a little tougher to do brain transplants than described in the book. (Maybe I just needed the super-healing elixir...)
Rating:
Summary: Brain Transplants and Religious Doctrine
Review: "The Master Mind of Mars" by ERB is a great book! ERB's Mars series takes second fiddle to his Tarzan books, but I respectfully argue they are superior. In "MMM", Ulysses Paxton, a critically wounded WWI soldier, is astral-projected (plot device to get things moving) to fabled Barsoom (Mars), dying planet of canals, hordes of 4-armed green warriors, scantily clad women, strong warriors wearing only their "sword and harness", and home of Ras Thavas, the Master Mind of Mars. It seems that Ras Thavas has an enormous talent - only he, among all the inhabitants of Barsoom, is able to perform the life-extending brain transplant. (Or maybe we should call it, ominously, the brain exchange. Too bad for the young body donor whose brain is unceremoniously evicted for the old, rich plutocrats...) However, now Ras Thavas is growing old and he needs his own brain transplanted. Who to train in the procedure? Why, none other than Ulysses Paxton (now called Vad Varo). But our hero turns out to have ethics and morals, and not only that, has fallen in love with a beautiful girl. Unfortunately, she is a body donor for a rich old hag. What happens next? Ulysses, the girl, and some sidekicks go off on a tour of Mars to reunite young girl brain with young girl body! On their Grand Tour of Barsoom, they come to various cities, each with different religious doctrine (I think ERB is indulging in a little gentle satire here). Take it as a given in pulp fiction that our heroes are successful and all ends well. Great enjoyable escapist reading. I found out later on as a veterinarian that it's a little tougher to do brain transplants than described in the book. (Maybe I just needed the super-healing elixir...)
Rating:
Summary: GOOD ADDITON TO A GOOD SERIES
Review: Again, we have pulp fiction at it's best. I gave this one five stars simply because it is Burroughs, even though it probably was not up to the standards of "Chessman" or some of the earlier works in this series. I had problems following the many, many characters when I was a young boy, and found I still had the same problem now that I am in my dotage. We do have a new character here, a fellow by the name of Baxter, so we get away from following John Carter somewhat. In a way this was good. All this series should be read and studied by SiFi and S&S Fans, as they are the basis for so much that is written today. All in all recommend this one and the entire series quite highly.
Rating:
Summary: ERB's pulp fiction adventure of brain transplants on Barsoom
Review: For "The Mastermind of Mars," the sixth volume in his Martian series, Edgar Rice Burroughs introduces another new hero as American Ulysses Paxton crosses the void between Earth and Barsoom to become the chief assistant to the red planet's greatest scientist. Original published in the first "Amazing Stories Annual" in 1927, the story again begins with a letter, from Paxton, a Captain in the U.S. Army, to ERB in which he tells how he was fatally injured on a World War I battlefield and was transported to Barsoom, in the same way John Carter made the trip in "A Princess of Mars." Paxton has sent the author the manuscript, which allows Earthmen to "become better acquainted with the manners and customs of Barsoom." In what strikes me as an attempt to further explore the brain switching from previous novel, "The Chessmen of Mars," with the Kaldanes and Rykors, ERB's pulp fiction story has to do with human brain transfers performed by the title character, Ras Thavas. Early in the novel Paxton witnesses the scientist transferring the brain of Xara, Jeddara of Phundahl, in the body of a young girl. Now called Vad Varo, Paxton becomes the bodyguard and assistant to Ras Thavas in the city of Toonol, and falls in love with Valla Dia, the young girl whose mind is now in the ancient body of Xara. Our hero helps Ras Thavas transfer his brain to a younger body as well, but extracts a promise from the scientist to help restore Valla's body. Of course, just to make things interesting, Valla is the daughter of Kor San, Jeddak of Duhor, so once again ERB's damsel in distress is Barsoomian royalty (that is to say, yet another princess of Mars). The remainder of the novel follows Vad Varo's attempt to restore his beloved to her own body, which is complicated by a series of brain transplants that alternately help and hinder his effort. The brain switching angle is rather interesting, and actually makes more sense than your standard "strange alien device transfers consciousness between bodies" that we usually find in such science fiction stories (I just saw that on an old "Farscape" episode), but "The Master,ind of Mars" is pretty much an ERB potboiler where everything is resolved in the final chapter. The novel also has his standard indictment of the futility of war and a rather humorous little attack on false religions, as well as a rather confusing roster of characters. After the classic "Chessman" this next Martian yarn is a bit of a disappointment, but it is still at least an average offering in what is ERB's best series.
Rating:
Summary: ERB's pulp fiction adventure of brain transplants on Barsoom
Review: For "The Mastermind of Mars," the sixth volume in his Martian series, Edgar Rice Burroughs introduces another new hero as American Ulysses Paxton crosses the void between Earth and Barsoom to become the chief assistant to the red planet's greatest scientist. Original published in the first "Amazing Stories Annual" in 1927, the story again begins with a letter, from Paxton, a Captain in the U.S. Army, to ERB in which he tells how he was fatally injured on a World War I battlefield and was transported to Barsoom, in the same way John Carter made the trip in "A Princess of Mars." Paxton has sent the author the manuscript, which allows Earthmen to "become better acquainted with the manners and customs of Barsoom." In what strikes me as an attempt to further explore the brain switching from previous novel, "The Chessmen of Mars," with the Kaldanes and Rykors, ERB's pulp fiction story has to do with human brain transfers performed by the title character, Ras Thavas. Early in the novel Paxton witnesses the scientist transferring the brain of Xara, Jeddara of Phundahl, in the body of a young girl. Now called Vad Varo, Paxton becomes the bodyguard and assistant to Ras Thavas in the city of Toonol, and falls in love with Valla Dia, the young girl whose mind is now in the ancient body of Xara. Our hero helps Ras Thavas transfer his brain to a younger body as well, but extracts a promise from the scientist to help restore Valla's body. Of course, just to make things interesting, Valla is the daughter of Kor San, Jeddak of Duhor, so once again ERB's damsel in distress is Barsoomian royalty (that is to say, yet another princess of Mars). The remainder of the novel follows Vad Varo's attempt to restore his beloved to her own body, which is complicated by a series of brain transplants that alternately help and hinder his effort. The brain switching angle is rather interesting, and actually makes more sense than your standard "strange alien device transfers consciousness between bodies" that we usually find in such science fiction stories (I just saw that on an old "Farscape" episode), but "The Master,ind of Mars" is pretty much an ERB potboiler where everything is resolved in the final chapter. The novel also has his standard indictment of the futility of war and a rather humorous little attack on false religions, as well as a rather confusing roster of characters. After the classic "Chessman" this next Martian yarn is a bit of a disappointment, but it is still at least an average offering in what is ERB's best series.
Rating:
Summary: Solid entry in Burrough's Mars series
Review: Number 6 in Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars series features a new character, Ulysses Paxton, a critically injured World War I soldier given new life on Mars. He awakens in the laboratory of Ras Thavas, Mars' resident expert in body transference. Fun to see another newcomer to Mars tackle it's unique problems in entertaining plot. Story doesn't let up, is fairly short and in the classic save-the-girl Burrough's mold. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Solid entry in Burrough's Mars series
Review: Number 6 in Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars series features a new character, Ulysses Paxton, a critically injured World War I soldier given new life on Mars. He awakens in the laboratory of Ras Thavas, Mars' resident expert in body transference. Fun to see another newcomer to Mars tackle it's unique problems in entertaining plot. Story doesn't let up, is fairly short and in the classic save-the-girl Burrough's mold. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Martian Series, Part 6
Review: This is the sixth novel set upon Barsoom, and it finds a second American making the fateful crossing to the red planet during the first World War. This time, it is Ulysses Paxton, and he arrives upon a thus unmentioned area of Mars, the city of Toonol. Here he meets Ras Thavas, the greatest physician upon the planet and becomes embroiled in his grisly and amazing experiments. Thavas has discovered how to transfer not only organs from body to body, but brains as well. He proceed to train Paxton, now known as Vad Varo, in this discipline, with the objective of achieving immortality for them both. The plan runs astray though, when Vad Varo falls in love with a beautiful woman whose body has been sold to an evil Jeddara, leaving her a wrinkled old husk. What follows is the rather standard "chase the princess across Barsoom (or at least the body of the princess) that has been the mainstay of the Series thus far, with the new added wrinkle of having bodies change hands with regularity. There is, of course, the obligatory meeting with John Carter at the end where everything is wrapped up quite succinctly. Like all of his martian novels, "Mastermind of Mars" is a fast moving easy to read and enjoy adventure. There's nothing horribly new here, but any chance to walk again upon Burrough's red planet is a delight, and most fans will be thorougly pleased with the visit.
Rating:
Summary: Martian Series, Part 6
Review: This is the sixth novel set upon Barsoom, and it finds a second American making the fateful crossing to the red planet during the first World War. This time, it is Ulysses Paxton, and he arrives upon a thus unmentioned area of Mars, the city of Toonol. Here he meets Ras Thavas, the greatest physician upon the planet and becomes embroiled in his grisly and amazing experiments. Thavas has discovered how to transfer not only organs from body to body, but brains as well. He proceed to train Paxton, now known as Vad Varo, in this discipline, with the objective of achieving immortality for them both. The plan runs astray though, when Vad Varo falls in love with a beautiful woman whose body has been sold to an evil Jeddara, leaving her a wrinkled old husk. What follows is the rather standard "chase the princess across Barsoom (or at least the body of the princess) that has been the mainstay of the Series thus far, with the new added wrinkle of having bodies change hands with regularity. There is, of course, the obligatory meeting with John Carter at the end where everything is wrapped up quite succinctly. Like all of his martian novels, "Mastermind of Mars" is a fast moving easy to read and enjoy adventure. There's nothing horribly new here, but any chance to walk again upon Burrough's red planet is a delight, and most fans will be thorougly pleased with the visit.
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