A Princess of Mars

Originally parceled out as a serial, this pulp novel has many cliffhangers - including the book itself. Many indicate this is really the first book of a trilogy, with eight more sequels after those.

Despite gaping plot holes, the story works. It rushes at times, dispatching whole armies in a few short pages. It was written during Taft administration, more than 100 years ago, and originated many of today's standard tropes.

The introduction has Burroughs finding this story and publishing it, framing as a story within a story and providing a convenient excuse for any poor writing. This framing device was used by Verne as well, to better effect - his narrator wasn't the main character. John Carter comes across as a braggart, and it is painful to read his descriptions of his actions. I wonder if anyone has analyzed this in light of Carter being an unreliable source?

It is a classic work with many flaws, and I liked it. I plan to rate the first three as a trilogy separate from the individual books, but by itself this novel is a solid 3 stars.

I first read A Princess of Mars about 30 years ago. It's easy to see why I rated it highly back then - for a ten-year-old, it had just enough technology and awe and plenty of adventure and swashbuckling.

Reading it now, though, also shows some basic flaws. The characters are paper-thin: John Carter is a gentleman from Virginia who's much loved by his distant relatives. Dejah Thoris is a swooning beauty whose only features seem to be her looks, aristocratic lineage and the pride that comes with it. Tars Tarkas is the only character who actually seems to develop over the storyline, all other Tharks - not to mention Warhoons - are just undeniably barbaric and often downright evil.

There's plenty of exposition, some of it regarding technology. Radium was pretty recent discovery when the book was originally published, and it shows: it's used in ammunition, pumps, engines... The most magical things are the "eighth and ninth ray of light" which are harnessed to provide atmosphere and antigravity.

It's also kind of hard to not read the Green Martians as native Americans - partly because Burroughs actually makes that comparison right at the beginning of the book. If you read it like that, the depiction of Tharks as barbaric, unemotional brutes who only value strength and relish in torturing their culturally superior Red Martian enemies comes out as horribly racist.

Of course, it's worth noting that this is a hundred years old book written by a veteran of late Indian Wars. That also at least partly explains the depiction of women (woman) as objects of desire who need to be protected.

It's also interesting to read about the Green Martians and how the way they value violence is considered as negative - while at the same time the romanticized Virginia gentleman is quite happy to answer bad behavior with punches, mow through a group of guards just to be able to speak to a woman, and indeed, be ready to kill the whole planet for the one woman the gentleman desires.

Having said all that... It's hard to not value the nostalgy of the book. It's part of my own youth, and it's still an action-packed adventure which provides simple problems with straight-forward solutions.