A Princess of Mars [Paperback]

One of Edgar Rice Burrough's earliest works, the first chapter in the Martian series is also one of his finest. A page turning adventure with lots of action make John Carter one of Burrough's most beloved heroes. His imagination ran wild in creating the martian landscape, and this is a delight to read for all ages.

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 Tarkas 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.

"A Princess of Mars" is the first of eleven volumes in the Martian Series by Burroughs, most of which involve a hero fighting his way across Barsoom to rescue the woman he loves. 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 Burroughs's finest creation while Tarzan was finding lost civilizations in the interior of Africa. Certainly you will find ERB's most imaginative work, including the great game of Martian Chess, in this series. Do not stop at the first book, 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. Not in terms of science, of course, but rather in terms of adventure fantasy.