The Chessmen of Mars: Amazon.ca: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Amy Sterling Casil: Books

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Product Description

From AudioFile

In this fifth installment of Burroughs' Mars series, Tara, Princess of Helium, battles strange creatures in her effort to return to Kansas, or rather, Helium, after a vicious storm blows her into a strange new country. John Bolen gives each character in the intricate extraterrestrial thriller an accent from some country on Earth. But so strongly does he perform these that dialogue is often lost to human ears. His shrill, simpering female characters, admittedly few, all sound the same. These problems, combined with mispronounced words and oddly accented phrases, detract from the great story. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Book Description

First Published - 1922.
Helium, a spoiled princess and John Carter's daughter, rejects Gahan, Jed of Gathol, as a suitor and foolishly flys off into a great storm. Gahan gives chase. By the time he finally catches up to Tara, she has forgotten who he is, and he assumes the name Turjun, a panthan mercenary. Together they challenge the power of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator, whose barbaric nation of Red Men have preyed upon Gathol for centuries. The Manatorians have elevated Jetan, Martian chess, to an unprecedented level of skill and excitement: they use live chessmen who fight for live princesses. Gahan finds himself fighting for Tara on the chessboard of Manator, and haunting O-Tar's palace.

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First Sentence
TARA of Helium rose from the pile of silks and soft furs upon which she had been reclining, stretched her lithe body languidly, and crossed toward the center of the room, where, above a large table a bronze disc depended from the low ceiling. Read the first page

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps The Best Of The Series, May 5 2009

By	Dave_42 "Dave_42" (Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Chessmen of Mars (Hardcover)

"The Chessmen of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs is the fifth book in the Barsoom series. After "Thuvia, Maid of Mars" was something of a disappointment, this installment may be the best of the series. As with the prior book, this one focuses on different characters than any of the earlier books in the series, this time the focus is John Carter's daughter Tara, and Gahan, the Jed of Gathol. The story was originally published as a serial in "Argosy All-Story Weekly" in the February 18th, 25th, March 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th editions in 1922 before being published in book for in November of the same year.

It is true that there are some issues with it. For one thing, the Prelude initially seems unnecessary and doesn't quite fit with the book. The premise is that John Carter returns to Earth briefly to relate the tale, but when the story starts he is speaking from a perspective of Tara, not himself, and that is the case for most of the book. When one gets to the end, then having John Carter telling the tale makes a bit more sense, because it allows Burroughs to quickly tell what happens after the main action without a drawn out couple of chapters. The other issue is that it is a bit difficult to believe that Tara doesn't recognize Gahan at their second meeting. While one can understand that it is important for the way the story is told, it doesn't seem believable, and then it leads to issues with the narration referring to Gahan by the wrong name and position, even when it doesn't make sense to do so. The reader knows that he is not a Pathan and that his name isn't Turan, and it would have made sense to consistently refer to him with the proper name and rank when it is from another character's perspective, rather than the general narration.

Those problems are minor though, as the story is very enjoyable, and the new characters add a lot to the series. Ghek is a member of a rather horrifying race (the Kaldane), but when he becomes an ally it adds a great deal to the story. The city of Manator likewise is very inventive with its social behavior, and of course we have the use of the game of Jetan, which is much like chess which plays an important role in the story. The story is so entertaining, that one hardly notices that one of the major plot devices, that Tara is promised to another but is falling for Gahan/Turan is rather similar to the one used in "Thuvia, Maid of Mars".

One of the reasons I feel that this book is probably the best of the series thus far is that unlike John Carter in the first three books, the major characters in this book are much more vulnerable. Carter always seemed invincible, as he could fight countless foes hour after hour. While it is true that Gahan faces one foe for a long period in this book, it is the same one who would also be suffering the ill-effects of a prolonged combat. Of course, one cannot deny that this book does not stand on its own, and that you need to read at least the "Princess of Mars" before it, and better yet all of the prior books, and so one can understand why others may feel that it is those books are more important to the series, but I don't think this one is behind any of the previous ones when it comes to the entertaining storyline.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The most creative of all the ERB pulp fiction novels, Aug 27 2003

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Chessmen of Mars (Hardcover)

"The Chessmen of Mars" is the fifth novel in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian (a.k.a. John Carter of Mars, Barsoom) series. Originally published serially in "Argosy All-Story Weekly" in 1921 and in hardback the following year it is arguably one of ERB's most imaginative stories. This reputation rests on two things. The first is the relationship between the Kaldanes "heads" and the headless Rykors who are the "descendants of exceedingly stupid humanoid creatures bred by the Kaladane over eons for strength, health, beauty and microcephaly." True, this makes no sense from an evolutionary standpoint, but it is one of the more imaginative parasitic relationships in science fiction history. The second is jetan, the Martian version of chess, which is usually played on a 10 x 10 game board of alternating black and orange squares in the cities of Barsoom, but in the city of Manator is played with living pieces in a giant arena. Of course in the living version of the game a moving piece is not guaranteed a square but has to fight for it.

The framing device for "The Chessmen of Mars" is told by John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom, on a visit home to Earth to see his nephew (rather remarkable given how long it took Carter to get back to Barsoom after his first adventure). Over a game of chess Carter tells of jetan and the adventures of his daughter, Tara of Helium, in Manator. As was the case with the previous Martian novel, "Thuvia, Maid of Mars," ERB introduces a new hero for this adventure in Gahan, Jed of Gathol. The novel opens with the two of them dancing at a royal function in Helium. She has her eyes set on Djor Kantos, sons of her friend's best friend, but he is interested in somebody else. When Gahan declares his love for her, Tara throws a fit and we know these two are meant for each other. Taking her flier on an unadvised flight during a Gale, the princess ends up blown across Barsoom and as happened with both her mother and her sister-in-law, her hero has to track her down and effect a rescue.

The combination of the Kaladanes jumping from one Rykor to the next with the jetan game to the death is quite captivating. For many readers of ERB's pulp fiction yarns "The Chessmen of Mars" is a favorite and while it has the standard hero rescues beloved plot that is a Burroughs staple it is layered with all this interesting stuff. Actually, the romance is the least interesting part of the story. This is far and away the most memorable volume in the Martian series, which is saying something because from start to finish it is ERB's best. With the Tarzan series you can basically leave off once he meets La of Opar, but the Martian series is the one worth reading from start to finish and "Chessmen" is the highpoint.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A NEAR MASTERPIECE, Mar 7 2003

By	s.ferber (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chessmen of Mars (Audio CD)

"The Chessmen of Mars," Edgar Rice Burroughs' 5th John Carter novel out of 11, first appeared in serial form in the magazine "Argosy All Story Weekly" from February to April 1922. It is easily the best of the Carter lot to this point; the most detailed, the most imaginative, and the best written. Carter himself only appears at the beginning and end of the tale. Instead, our action heroes are his daughter, Tara, who gets lost in a rare Barsoomian storm while joyriding in her flier and blown halfway across the surface of the planet, and the Gatholian jed Gahan, who goes in search of her. In the first half of this novel, Tara and Gahan wind up in the clutches of the kaldanes--bodiless brains who live in a symbiotic relationship with their headless "rykors." One of these brains, Ghek, befriends the couple and tags along with them for the remainder of their odyssey. Ghek is a wonderful character, touching and fascinating and amusing all at once. In one passage, Ghek gives us some very interesting philosophy regarding the relationship between mind and body. In the second half of the book, the trio is captured by the hordes of Manator, and Gahan winds up fighting for Tara in a game of Martian chess, or jetan, a game in which real men are used in lieu of pieces and fight to the death for possession of squares. The jetan sequence is extremely exciting and detailed, and a knowledge of chess is not necessary for full enjoyment. One need not be a chess buff to appreciate the detailed moves that Burroughs gives us. "Chessmen" is, as I mentioned, very well written for a Burroughs novel; even, dare I say it, poetically written in spots. The action is relentless, the standard of imagination very high, and the denouement extremely satisfying. It is a near masterpiece. Why only "near"? Well, as is usual with these books, there are some problems....
As in the previous Carter novels, these problems take the form of inconsistencies and implausibilities. At the book's beginning, Burroughs, who has just been told this tale by Carter himself, writes that "if there be inconsistencies and errors, let the blame fall not upon John Carter, but rather upon my faulty memory, where it belongs." He is excusing himself in advance for any mistakes that he might make, and well he should, because there are many such in this book. I, however, cannot excuse an author for laziness and sloppy writing. Saying "excuse me" doesn't make for good writing. Just what am I referring to here? Let's see.... Tara, in several spots in the book, refers to Tardos Mors as her grandfather, when in actuality he is her great-grandfather. The Martian word "sofad" is said to be a foot; but in the previous book, "Thuvia, Maid of Mars," an "ad" was said to be a foot. Tara, in one scene, smites Ghek on the back of the head. Gahan is watching this fight from a distance, and sees her hit Ghek in the face! In the game of jetan, the thoat pieces are said to wear three feathers; but in the Rules for Jetan at the book's end, they are said to wear two. This book is based on events told to John Carter, conceivably by Tara, Gahan and/or Ghek, and yet scenes are described in which none of those characters appear; thus, they could have had no knowledge of these events described. This, I feel, is a basic problem with the book's structure. Besides these inconsistencies, there are some things that are a bit hard to swallow. For instance, that Gahan could fall 3,000 feet from a flier in the middle of a cyclone and, freakishly, survive. It's also hard to believe that Tara does not recognize Gahan when he comes to her rescue, and fails to remember where they have met, until the very end of the book. In addition, I feel that the character of Ghek is underutilized in the book's second half. It might have been nice to see the old boy loosening up a bit, as he got more in touch with his emotions, Spockstyle. Anyway, all quibbles aside, "Chessmen" is a wonderful piece of fantasy, one that had me tearing through the pages as quickly as I possibly could. It is an exceptionally fine entry in the John Carter series.

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