THE FIRST BARSOOM OMNIBUS: The Classic Martian Trilogy

Rating:
Summary: The Classic Martian Trilogy by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Review: Edgar Rice Burroughs will always be remembered first and foremost for his creation of Tarzan, but it was the character of John Carter, who first appeared in "A Princess of Mars," who served as a template for other science fiction writers. From Lin Carter's "Green Star" series to John Norman's "Gor" books there are tales of the man from Earth traveling to strange new worlds and having wondrous adventures. "The First Barsoom Omnibus: The Classic Martian Trilogy" contains the first three books in the series.

In "A Princess of Mars" we first meet John Carter, a gentleman of Virginia who finds himself looking at his dying body in an Arizona cave. Opening his arms to the planet Mars, Carter is suddenly whisked to the Red Planet, where rival tribes battle while the planet's atmosphere continues to dissipate. Captured by a band of six-limbed giants, Carter soon earns their respect for his prowess as a warrior and forges a lasting friendship with Tars Tara's of the Tharks. But then the Tharks attack a fleet of airborne vessels and capture Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium, the greatest city on Barsoom (as the Martians call Mars). Of course, they get off on the wrong foot, since Carter knows nothing about the culture of the red humanoid race. But the lovely Princess of Mars has captured the Virginian's heart. Abandoning dreams of returning to Earth, he wants nothing better than to win her love. In the meanwhile, he has to protect her from the amorous attention of the depraved ruler of the Tharks, bring some semblance of civilization to the barbarian tribes, and stop all out war between the green men and red men from ending Barsoom's last chance for survival.

At the end of "A Princess of Mars" John Carter got the factory that produced oxygen for Barsoom working again, but had collapsed. When he revived he found himself back on earth, separated from Dejah Thoris. "Gods of Mars" was originally published in 1913 as a serial in "All-Story Magazine," and tells of how John Carter returned to Mars and set off to find his beloved Princess. Knowing that it was originally published as a serial is useful because Burroughs loads on the cliffhangers throughout the novel. When Carter returns to Barsoom a decade has passed and he finds himself in that part of the planet that the natives consider to be "heaven," which proves to be a more ironic idea. Carter has to reunite with his friend the fierce green warrior Tars Tarkas, fight with the great white apes of Barsoom and plant men, violate some significant religious taboos, survive the affections of an evil goddess, help with a slave revolt, fight in an arena, and still save Dejah Thoris in the middle of a giant air battle between the red, green, black and white people of Barsoom.

Edgar Rice Burroughs did not intended to write a trilogy, but his 1914 pulp novel "The Warlord of Mars" completes the story and finally brings John Carter and his beloved Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium (i.e., no cliffhanger ending this time around, boys and girls). The story picks up six months after the conclusion of "The Gods of Mars," with our hero not knowing whether she is dead or alive in the Temple of the Sun of the Holy Therns where he last saw here with the blade of Phaidor was descending towards her heart as the evil Issus, queen of the First Born, had locked his mate in a cell that would not open for another year. However, it turns out that the exiled leader of the Therns has reached the trapped women to rescue his daughter and to seek revenge on Carter for exposing his evil cult. The focus of "The Warlord of Mars" is on Carter's relentless pursuit of the villainous Thurid who have taken his beloved princess from the south pole of Barsoom across rivers, desert, jungles, and ice to the forbidden lands of the north in the city of Kadabra where the combined armies of the green, red and black races attack the yellow tribes of the north, thereby justifying the book's title. Carter's heroics in this novel have the same sort of over the top implausibility we find in contemporary Hollywood blockbusters as ERB pours on the action sequences one on top of another. Whether he is scaling towers in the dark of night or surviving in a pit for over a week without food and water, John Carter is a manly hero in the great pulp fiction tradition of which ERB was an admitted master.

If Dejah Thoris is not the most beautiful woman in the history of fantasy and science fiction, then she certainly has the all-time best name. John Carter is able to take advantage of the Red Planet's lesser gravity to do great feats of leaping about, but it is his innate intelligence and intense sense of personal honor that make him almost idealistically noble. When I first read every ERB novel I could get my hands on in Middle School, Tarzan was always Tarzan, but there was something about John Carter that somehow made him the greater hero in my eyes. Maybe it was the way he handled a sword or how he was always determined to make Barsoom a better place that made him seem Burrough's finest creation. Certainly you will find ERB's most imaginative work, including the great game of Martian Chess, in this series. Do not stop with this first three tales, because while these novels are fast approaching being a century old, they hold up much better than the writings of Jules Verne or H. G. Wells.

Rating:
Summary: The Classic Martian Trilogy by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Review: Edgar Rice Burroughs will always be remembered first and foremost for his creation of Tarzan, but it was the character of John Carter, who first appeared in "A Princess of Mars," who served as a template for other science fiction writers. From Lin Carter's "Green Star" series to John Norman's "Gor" books there are tales of the man from Earth traveling to strange new worlds and having wondrous adventures. "The First Barsoom Omnibus: The Classic Martian Trilogy" contains the first three books in the series.

In "A Princess of Mars" we first meet John Carter, a gentleman of Virginia who finds himself looking at his dying body in an Arizona cave. Opening his arms to the planet Mars, Carter is suddenly whisked to the Red Planet, where rival tribes battle while the planet's atmosphere continues to dissipate. Captured by a band of six-limbed giants, Carter soon earns their respect for his prowess as a warrior and forges a lasting friendship with Tars Tara's of the Tharks. But then the Tharks attack a fleet of airborne vessels and capture Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium, the greatest city on Barsoom (as the Martians call Mars). Of course, they get off on the wrong foot, since Carter knows nothing about the culture of the red humanoid race. But the lovely Princess of Mars has captured the Virginian's heart. Abandoning dreams of returning to Earth, he wants nothing better than to win her love. In the meanwhile, he has to protect her from the amorous attention of the depraved ruler of the Tharks, bring some semblance of civilization to the barbarian tribes, and stop all out war between the green men and red men from ending Barsoom's last chance for survival.

At the end of "A Princess of Mars" John Carter got the factory that produced oxygen for Barsoom working again, but had collapsed. When he revived he found himself back on earth, separated from Dejah Thoris. "Gods of Mars" was originally published in 1913 as a serial in "All-Story Magazine," and tells of how John Carter returned to Mars and set off to find his beloved Princess. Knowing that it was originally published as a serial is useful because Burroughs loads on the cliffhangers throughout the novel. When Carter returns to Barsoom a decade has passed and he finds himself in that part of the planet that the natives consider to be "heaven," which proves to be a more ironic idea. Carter has to reunite with his friend the fierce green warrior Tars Tarkas, fight with the great white apes of Barsoom and plant men, violate some significant religious taboos, survive the affections of an evil goddess, help with a slave revolt, fight in an arena, and still save Dejah Thoris in the middle of a giant air battle between the red, green, black and white people of Barsoom.

Edgar Rice Burroughs did not intended to write a trilogy, but his 1914 pulp novel "The Warlord of Mars" completes the story and finally brings John Carter and his beloved Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium (i.e., no cliffhanger ending this time around, boys and girls). The story picks up six months after the conclusion of "The Gods of Mars," with our hero not knowing whether she is dead or alive in the Temple of the Sun of the Holy Therns where he last saw here with the blade of Phaidor was descending towards her heart as the evil Issus, queen of the First Born, had locked his mate in a cell that would not open for another year. However, it turns out that the exiled leader of the Therns has reached the trapped women to rescue his daughter and to seek revenge on Carter for exposing his evil cult. The focus of "The Warlord of Mars" is on Carter's relentless pursuit of the villainous Thurid who have taken his beloved princess from the south pole of Barsoom across rivers, desert, jungles, and ice to the forbidden lands of the north in the city of Kadabra where the combined armies of the green, red and black races attack the yellow tribes of the north, thereby justifying the book's title. Carter's heroics in this novel have the same sort of over the top implausibility we find in contemporary Hollywood blockbusters as ERB pours on the action sequences one on top of another. Whether he is scaling towers in the dark of night or surviving in a pit for over a week without food and water, John Carter is a manly hero in the great pulp fiction tradition of which ERB was an admitted master.

If Dejah Thoris is not the most beautiful woman in the history of fantasy and science fiction, then she certainly has the all-time best name. John Carter is able to take advantage of the Red Planet's lesser gravity to do great feats of leaping about, but it is his innate intelligence and intense sense of personal honor that make him almost idealistically noble. When I first read every ERB novel I could get my hands on in Middle School, Tarzan was always Tarzan, but there was something about John Carter that somehow made him the greater hero in my eyes. Maybe it was the way he handled a sword or how he was always determined to make Barsoom a better place that made him seem Burrough's finest creation. Certainly you will find ERB's most imaginative work, including the great game of Martian Chess, in this series. Do not stop with this first three tales, because while these novels are fast approaching being a century old, they hold up much better than the writings of Jules Verne or H. G. Wells.