A Princess of Mars

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

You can view this book’s Amazon detail page here.

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Started reading:

31st Jul 2006

Finished reading:

2nd Aug 2006

Review

Rating: 6

I started reading A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs to my kids a year ago. I downloaded the text to my PDA from which I can read to them with the lights out. I picked it up again in audio format when I finished Dragons Dawn.

This is a very important peice as the John Carter’s story was the tale ever sold by Burroughs. At age 35, Burroughs had previously had a largely unsuccesful life. He quickly followed this success by publishing the first Tarzan novel. From that point on, his success was secured. This novel grew into a series of 18 novels covering the adventures of John Carter, Apache hunter from the late 1800’s and his heroic wife Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars.

Reading books from around the turn of the last century is always interesting. In the year 1900, everyone assumed all was known and science was at an end, yet novels such as this one would strive to stretch the boundaries.

I do think this novel was initially intended as a commentary on such social topics as Native American relations, communism, slavery and the affects of war on culture. Many of these themes were eventually lost as the adventure of the story grew on Burroughs. Throughout these advendures is characters portrayed the strict honor and morals of Burroughs’ time.

BTW DO NOT or even borrow the audio version of this book. It will ruin the story. The directorial decisions made in the production of the audio book, insult and ruin the story. The free audio version available from librivox, though read by almost a dozen narrators, from what I’ve heard, its quality far out strips the quality of the one that is for sale.