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Barsoom #2-3
The Gods of Mars / The Warlord of Mars
The Gods of Mars: John Carter makes a spectacular return to the Red Planet in search of his wife, Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium. Landing in the Valley Dor, he witnesses a brutal attack on a party of green Martians by plant men and giant white apes, and then joins the battle--only to find himself fighting side by side with his old friend, the mighty Tars Tarkas!
The Warlord of Mars: Far to the north, in the frozen wastes of Polar Mars, lay the home of the Holy therns, sacred and inviolate. Only John Carter dared to go there to find his lost Dejah Thoris. But between him and his goal lay the bones of all who had gone before.
The Warlord of Mars: Far to the north, in the frozen wastes of Polar Mars, lay the home of the Holy therns, sacred and inviolate. Only John Carter dared to go there to find his lost Dejah Thoris. But between him and his goal lay the bones of all who had gone before.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
2,993 books2,788 followersEdgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 17, 2022
I rescued a hardbound edition of this(probably from the town transfer station stuff trailer) from 1971 with the dust cover in so-so condition. Started last night with some crazy Mars creatures(the Plant Men) and plenty of slam-bang action. The language is JUST A BIT DATED ... The Frank Frazetta cover illustration is AWESOME - of course!
There's action a-plenty in this tale, which so far has taken place in a part of Mars/Barsoom unfamiliar to John Carter. Mr Burroughs' language is by turns annoyingly turn-of-the-20th-century formal and chuckle inducing. Considering when this was written I assume that ERB is considered a pioneer in the area of sci-fi/fantasy. I don't know enough about the genre to say one way or another. Certainly there are solid links to the fantasy literature which came later in the 20th century.
- more connections: Philip Jose Farmer's "World of Tiers" series, Spartacus, The Odyssey, The Chronicles of Amber ... and plenty more.
Finished up with the first novella last night as John Carter wins a mighty battle only to find an insurmountable (what?) blocking his ... erm ... "reunion" with his lovely wife. I assume that will be resolved in the second half of this two-story book. Meanwhile we have a credibility issue with the ending of this story. It is NOT BELIEVABLE that Zat Arras didn't find out about our hero's organizing of a huge army and a huge fleet behind his(Zat's) back.
Finished this one last night as a Martian peace seems to have evolved out of 300+ pages of relentless blood(and other fluids)shed. The astounding Mr. Carter himself seems to killed thousands all by himself. It's amazing there's anyone left alive! A dated but still-entertaining fantasy, but not up to the level of intelligence of H. G. Wells. I can't compare this with Jules Verne as I've never read one of his books(yet). Notes ...
- Shouldn't "try their metal" be "try their mettle"? Shouldn't "non-plused" be "non-plussed"?
- The illustration at the beginning of "The Warlord of Mars" is inaccurate, as it shows the participants without the winter/fur clothing they were described as wearing at that point. And ... there's no knot at the end of the rope, as it was described in the text covering this scene.
There's action a-plenty in this tale, which so far has taken place in a part of Mars/Barsoom unfamiliar to John Carter. Mr Burroughs' language is by turns annoyingly turn-of-the-20th-century formal and chuckle inducing. Considering when this was written I assume that ERB is considered a pioneer in the area of sci-fi/fantasy. I don't know enough about the genre to say one way or another. Certainly there are solid links to the fantasy literature which came later in the 20th century.
- more connections: Philip Jose Farmer's "World of Tiers" series, Spartacus, The Odyssey, The Chronicles of Amber ... and plenty more.
Finished up with the first novella last night as John Carter wins a mighty battle only to find an insurmountable (what?) blocking his ... erm ... "reunion" with his lovely wife. I assume that will be resolved in the second half of this two-story book. Meanwhile we have a credibility issue with the ending of this story. It is NOT BELIEVABLE that Zat Arras didn't find out about our hero's organizing of a huge army and a huge fleet behind his(Zat's) back.
Finished this one last night as a Martian peace seems to have evolved out of 300+ pages of relentless blood(and other fluids)shed. The astounding Mr. Carter himself seems to killed thousands all by himself. It's amazing there's anyone left alive! A dated but still-entertaining fantasy, but not up to the level of intelligence of H. G. Wells. I can't compare this with Jules Verne as I've never read one of his books(yet). Notes ...
- Shouldn't "try their metal" be "try their mettle"? Shouldn't "non-plused" be "non-plussed"?
- The illustration at the beginning of "The Warlord of Mars" is inaccurate, as it shows the participants without the winter/fur clothing they were described as wearing at that point. And ... there's no knot at the end of the rope, as it was described in the text covering this scene.
June 13, 2017
ERB is not everyone's cup of tea. But if adventure is your game, Burroughs is the name.
I like Tarzan well enough, but I must admit that I have always been a particular fan of the Martian novels. John Carter is a great character, as is his bride Deja Thoris, along with all the other inhabitants of Barsoom. I last read this book more than 30 years ago, but I enjoyed it just as much.
I like Tarzan well enough, but I must admit that I have always been a particular fan of the Martian novels. John Carter is a great character, as is his bride Deja Thoris, along with all the other inhabitants of Barsoom. I last read this book more than 30 years ago, but I enjoyed it just as much.
September 14, 2024
It is easy to get jaded reading Tarzan. There are so many of them; some of them are amazing, and some of them are phoned-in boilerplate. But so far, Barsoom hasn’t had that problem. If anything, these second and third installments are even more exciting and more fantastic than the original. It isn’t just non-stop action but non-stop wonders. Mars never stops growing stranger throughout these two books.
I had thought that the tradition of a successful first book being followed by a second and third book that are really one book was a relatively new one, but it’s exactly what Burroughs did here: book two ends on a cliffhanger (albeit a year-long one perfectly suited to the ancient dangers of Mars) that book three resolves.
Born as it was of the idea of canals on Mars that, by 1913, only the greatest diehards still believed existed, this line almost has to be an in-joke for any astronomers reading the series:
As he starts filling out the various colors of people on Mars, he goes out of his way to avoid treating them the same as earth stereotypes; his black Martians are clearly not Earth’s blacks, and his yellow Martians clearly not Asians (although they are technologically-gifted, 1913 predates that Asian stereotype by about half a century).
He does not, however, go out of his way to avoid calling out slavery as an evil that, as Lincoln would have said, no one wants for themselves:
This apologist for the “holy race”, who are John Carter’s main enemies throughout the books, even compares the slavery (and worse) of “lesser races” to the domestication of animals, as Lincoln’s enemies did.
A theme of this book, like A Princess of Mars, is the eradication of unthinking prejudice among the various races of Mars. There are no lesser and greater races, only lesser and greater individuals. John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Tars Tarkas, Xodar, Thuvan Dihn, Thuvia of Ptarth, and Prince Talu of Marentina are greater individuals. Those who would enslave men and women are lesser individuals.
Burroughs’s Barsoom series is also explicitly called out in the infamous appendix n, and there must have been a lot of inspiration for Gygax in these two books. It’s not just the strange creatures and wondrous devices of this lost world, but the very ethos that infuses John Carter’s love of adventure.
Carter is constantly praising, or lamenting the lack of, the marvelous salves that heal an injured warrior fully by the next day—healing potions are ubiquitous on this ancient world.
Mars is almost an incarnation of Valhalla. Warriors who survive are ready to fight at full strength the very next day, and no matter what side they’re on.
Even more amazing from a D&D standpoint is that John Carter visibly goes up a level toward the end.
Several pages later Carter emphasizes his newly-enhanced fighting prowess, his “sword hand that seemed to have gained a new wizardry from its experience with the cunning Solan”.
I had thought that the tradition of a successful first book being followed by a second and third book that are really one book was a relatively new one, but it’s exactly what Burroughs did here: book two ends on a cliffhanger (albeit a year-long one perfectly suited to the ancient dangers of Mars) that book three resolves.
Born as it was of the idea of canals on Mars that, by 1913, only the greatest diehards still believed existed, this line almost has to be an in-joke for any astronomers reading the series:
Once we thought we discerned a gilded minaret gleaming in the sun amidst the waving tops of far-distant trees, but we soon abandoned the idea in the belief that it was but an hallucination born of our great desire to discover the haunts of civilized men in this beautiful, yet forbidding, spot.
As he starts filling out the various colors of people on Mars, he goes out of his way to avoid treating them the same as earth stereotypes; his black Martians are clearly not Earth’s blacks, and his yellow Martians clearly not Asians (although they are technologically-gifted, 1913 predates that Asian stereotype by about half a century).
He does not, however, go out of his way to avoid calling out slavery as an evil that, as Lincoln would have said, no one wants for themselves:
“You do not understand,” she replied. “We therns are a holy race. It is an honor to a lesser creature to be a slave among us.”
This apologist for the “holy race”, who are John Carter’s main enemies throughout the books, even compares the slavery (and worse) of “lesser races” to the domestication of animals, as Lincoln’s enemies did.
A theme of this book, like A Princess of Mars, is the eradication of unthinking prejudice among the various races of Mars. There are no lesser and greater races, only lesser and greater individuals. John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Tars Tarkas, Xodar, Thuvan Dihn, Thuvia of Ptarth, and Prince Talu of Marentina are greater individuals. Those who would enslave men and women are lesser individuals.
Burroughs’s Barsoom series is also explicitly called out in the infamous appendix n, and there must have been a lot of inspiration for Gygax in these two books. It’s not just the strange creatures and wondrous devices of this lost world, but the very ethos that infuses John Carter’s love of adventure.
Never shall I forget that trip through the pits of Issus. While it was devoid of important incidents yet it was filled for me with a strange charm of excitement and adventure which I think I must have hinged principally on the unguessable antiquity of these long-forgotten corridors. The things which the Stygian darkness hid from my objective eye could not have been half so wonderful as the pictures which my imagination wrought as it conjured to life again the ancient peoples of this dying world and set them once more to the labours, the intrigues, the mysteries and the cruelties which they had practiced…
Carter is constantly praising, or lamenting the lack of, the marvelous salves that heal an injured warrior fully by the next day—healing potions are ubiquitous on this ancient world.
Neither of us had come through the conflict unscathed, but the marvelous, healing salves of Barsoom had sufficed, overnight, to make us as good as new.
Mars is almost an incarnation of Valhalla. Warriors who survive are ready to fight at full strength the very next day, and no matter what side they’re on.
Even more amazing from a D&D standpoint is that John Carter visibly goes up a level toward the end.
That day in the buried chamber beneath the palace of Salensus Oll I learned what swordsmanship meant… the latent possibilities that must have been lying dormant within me for a lifetime came to the fore, and I fought as I had never dreamed a human being could fight.
Several pages later Carter emphasizes his newly-enhanced fighting prowess, his “sword hand that seemed to have gained a new wizardry from its experience with the cunning Solan”.
The one on whom all responsibility rests is apt to endure the most.
September 3, 2012
Premise: Sequels to A Princess of Mars. John Carter has at last returned to Mars, only to find he is still far from regaining his place and his love. He arrives in the Holy Valley of Dor, where the people of Barsoom take their final pilgrimage in the hopes of reaching Heaven. What he finds there is anything but peace and happiness, though. He'll be lucky to live through the day, and if he manages to fight through the ranks of the therns (the white Martians who inhabit the Valley) and reach the outer world again, his own people may condemn him to death for returning from the sacred lands!
If you like action and good comradeship and exotic locales, if you like evil monsters and valiant warriors and beautiful women, if you get shivers when the narrator says “Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!”then I think you owe it to yourself to check out this series.
The epic tale begun in A Princess of Mars reaches new heights in these two books. Hardly a page goes by without John Carter fighting a room full of foes or a giant killer beast or spying on the enemies who would dare keep him from Dejah Thoris. This is science fantasy, a sub-genre that we see very little of these days.
The second and third books in the Barsoom series really go together. The second ends in a cliffhanger, and both build upon the events of Princess of Mars to lead straight toward the climax of the third book. I did enjoy the second (The Gods of Mars) a bit more than the third, but by the end of Warlord, I was fully on board with that one too.
John Carter has fully embraced his life as a Prince of Helium, so when he discovers that the religion of Barsoom is an evil lie propagated by the therns for their own purposes, he is determined to return to the people of Mars to spread the word to everyone. This causes an uproar and a lot of problems, but I liked a lot of how the book dealt with characters trying to understand the news. (It eventually turns out that even the therns are being lied to and betrayed by their beliefs.)
The books have the same balance of humor and epic adventure that so charmed me in the first volume, although I think the prose is a bit smoother here. There is a particular running gag in the first half of The Gods of Mars that caused me to laugh aloud, although I would understand if some think it corny.
There's a wide cast of characters, new and returning, although only once did I get confused and have to flip back a few pages to check someone's identity. I especially liked John Carter's reunion with Tars Tarkas, his brother-in-arms and leader of the Thark tribes.
The female characters are still mostly there to be rescued and fought over, but they're interesting nonetheless, with many skills that are sometimes just as useful as prowess in battle. Although at least once, Dejah Thoris bashes someone with the manacles she's wearing, and I thought that was pretty awesome.
In these books we are not only introduced to the evil white therns, but also the remaining secret populations of black and yellow Martians. (Really coal-black and lemon-yellow, not Earthly skin tones, incidentally.) Both at least start out as deadly enemies to John Carter, and the black Martians, who call themselves the First Born, are described as some of the most callous and savage people in these books so far. It is a bit cringe-worthy, but I will add that the only race that does not have any representatives willing to befriend our hero and fight for the side of truth and freedom are the white therns, so take that how you will.
I thoroughly enjoyed these books, and I look forward to reading more of this series!
If you like action and good comradeship and exotic locales, if you like evil monsters and valiant warriors and beautiful women, if you get shivers when the narrator says “Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!”then I think you owe it to yourself to check out this series.
The epic tale begun in A Princess of Mars reaches new heights in these two books. Hardly a page goes by without John Carter fighting a room full of foes or a giant killer beast or spying on the enemies who would dare keep him from Dejah Thoris. This is science fantasy, a sub-genre that we see very little of these days.
The second and third books in the Barsoom series really go together. The second ends in a cliffhanger, and both build upon the events of Princess of Mars to lead straight toward the climax of the third book. I did enjoy the second (The Gods of Mars) a bit more than the third, but by the end of Warlord, I was fully on board with that one too.
John Carter has fully embraced his life as a Prince of Helium, so when he discovers that the religion of Barsoom is an evil lie propagated by the therns for their own purposes, he is determined to return to the people of Mars to spread the word to everyone. This causes an uproar and a lot of problems, but I liked a lot of how the book dealt with characters trying to understand the news. (It eventually turns out that even the therns are being lied to and betrayed by their beliefs.)
The books have the same balance of humor and epic adventure that so charmed me in the first volume, although I think the prose is a bit smoother here. There is a particular running gag in the first half of The Gods of Mars that caused me to laugh aloud, although I would understand if some think it corny.
There's a wide cast of characters, new and returning, although only once did I get confused and have to flip back a few pages to check someone's identity. I especially liked John Carter's reunion with Tars Tarkas, his brother-in-arms and leader of the Thark tribes.
The female characters are still mostly there to be rescued and fought over, but they're interesting nonetheless, with many skills that are sometimes just as useful as prowess in battle. Although at least once, Dejah Thoris bashes someone with the manacles she's wearing, and I thought that was pretty awesome.
In these books we are not only introduced to the evil white therns, but also the remaining secret populations of black and yellow Martians. (Really coal-black and lemon-yellow, not Earthly skin tones, incidentally.) Both at least start out as deadly enemies to John Carter, and the black Martians, who call themselves the First Born, are described as some of the most callous and savage people in these books so far. It is a bit cringe-worthy, but I will add that the only race that does not have any representatives willing to befriend our hero and fight for the side of truth and freedom are the white therns, so take that how you will.
I thoroughly enjoyed these books, and I look forward to reading more of this series!
October 6, 2011
Though it's decidedly pulp fiction, I get more enthralled the more I read. It's definitely a page turner, as the two books in this volume are almost literally non-stop action. So much so, that at one of the very rare slow-paced sections, even John Carter wonders why his captive would be talking at such great length. As it turns out, it was simply to distract him so that a battleship can get into position and another all-out fracas could begin. Were this written today, I would assume that it was a marketing tool of a video game. So it makes it all the more amazing that he could be this action-oriented and inventive in the early 20th century, before video games, or video to play them on!
Reading these, I can't help but think (though John Carter would deny it and Burroughs probably had no intention of this at all) that Barsoom is Carter's personal sisyphean hell. He spends practically all of both books almost, but never quite, being able to save his wife Dejah Thoris. He's always stumbling upon clues or conversations, without which he couldn't rescue her, yet despite almost supernatural coincidence he still is always just one step away. You'd think this would dampen the enjoyment of the book, but it actually made it a lot of fun. It got to where I would wonder what bizarrely convenient bit of info would he find, and then how would it not work?
Not that there aren't really good moments, even for action literature. Without giving it away, the scene with Phaidor near the end of "Warlord" was particularly moving.
On a final note, the whole imagined world is fantastic. I had read a review of Edgar Rice Burroughs that said while Tarzan is more interesting than John Carter, Barsoom itself is Burroughs most interesting creation. I completely agree.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2016
So this book, being the next two stories in the series, was even more riveting than the first book! When I had the time to read good portions of the book, I felt like I couldn't put it down. Plus, these two books in one, really flushed out the inhabitants on Mars and how they relate to others on the planet. It also goes into more detail on the whole idea of religion and how what the inhabitants believed ended up being false. A commentary on religion in general, I don't know. That will be for you to decide.
The end was kind of cheesy, but it didn't detract from the story as a whole. Read all three books at once, if possible, to get the full effect of ERB's storytelling.
The end was kind of cheesy, but it didn't detract from the story as a whole. Read all three books at once, if possible, to get the full effect of ERB's storytelling.
April 4, 2015
I'm trying to not mark this off too much for its older English and lack of modern scientific knowledge, but its hard. Even forgetting that, this continuation of the "Jack Carter" saga is a lot of action-reaction.
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May 5, 2009The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
August 13, 2012
One of my all-time favorite series...Burroughs is a master craftsman & I never tire of these stories...
October 31, 2012
The Gods of Mars was more of a bridge between the first book and the last book. Really enjoyed the series--lots of action.
June 7, 2010
Barsoom,ERB,John Carter
June 18, 2017
This series is a good summer read if you like Sci-fi. The character of John Carter, the hero, transporting to another planet! Fighting off ferocious enemies and usually at near death consequences. Throw in a touch of camaraderie for those he rescues and battles for. And at last the theme for which he lives for his undying love,The Princess. At every turn she either gets kidnapped, or she runs away by her own accord. In the meantime, here's John Carter traversing all across this unknown planet swashbuckling, battling alien creatures and pirating flying ships just in pursuit of rescuing his beloved.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews