The Chessmen of Mars [Hardcover]

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2005

1922. After a rambunctious youth and series of short-lived jobs including door-to-door salesman, accountant, a peddler for a quack alcoholism cure and finally pencil sharpener wholesaler, Burroughs found his calling as writer. As the story goes, one of Burroughs' duties was to verify the placement of advertisements for his sharpeners in various magazines. These were all-fiction pulp magazines, a prime source of escapist reading material for the expanding middle class. Burroughs spent time reading those magazines and decided he could write those stories just as well. He was lucky his first time out and sold Under the Moon of Mars. The Tarzan series followed this and Burroughs was now a full-fledged writer. In this volume of the Mars series, Helium, a spoiled princess and John Carter's daughter, rejects Gahan, Jed of Gathol, as a suitor and foolishly flies 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. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book is a standard print version using a minimum of 10 point type in a 6 by 9 inch size and perfect bound - a paperback. As with all Quiet Vision print books, it use a high grade, acid free paper for long life. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Held captive by grotesque bodiless heads, Princess Tara of Helium was rescued by a warrior who dared not reveal his name. But escape led the daughter of the Warlord of Mars into even more loathesome peril -- as the prize in a bloody game of living chess. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 429 pages
• Publisher: North Books (December 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582878714
• ISBN-13: 978-1582878713
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burroughs' Best Martian Tale, July 8, 2000

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Chessmen of Mars (Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, N0 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

Conventional wisdom has it that the first three books of Burroughs' Martian series, "A Princess of Mars," "The Gods of Mars," and "The Warlord of Mars" form an excellent trilogy and all the rest of the Martian tales are quite poorly done in comparison. I disagree.

I will cite two examples as to why "Chessmen" is Burroughs' best work in this series.

[1] You can hardly conceive of a more ghastly creature than a spider-being who lives as a parasite on headless human bodies, but that is a perfect description of Ghek the Kaldane, one of the central figures of the book. Burroughs takes this repulsive monstrosity and makes him such a loveable character that you cannot help but like him.

[2] Burroughs not only wrote a good yarn, he wrapped his tale around a striking boardgame that he had invented--jetan, or Martian chess.

It's no real trick to invent a chess variant. There are thousands of them, and most of them are rubbish. What is so singular about jetan is that it is a good chess variant. I read "Chessmen" as a child, and after reading it, the first thing I had to do was make a jetan set and play the game. I whiled away several enjoyable hours with the game. John Gollon, a noted authority on chess variants, had a similar experience when he was writing "Chess Variations." He thought he'd include a chapter on jetan for some comic relief, so he made a jetan set and played a few games. He found jetan "quite good--very playable and interesting." He then pronounced jetan "not a mere novelty, but ... a respectable game."

These two singular achievments (Ghek & jetan) are not the only details that make "Chessmen" so enjoyable. Gahan of Gathol (aka Turan the Panthan) makes for a satisfying hero, and Tara of Helium fills the bill quite nicely for a damsel in distress.

The heros are noble, the villians are wicked, the cause is just, and the action is nonstop. Great escapist reading.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WORTH NOT FORGETTING, October 2, 2004

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chessmen of Mars (Paperback)

Burroughs' Martian Series is worth remembering and rereading from time to time. I first read these books well over 50 years ago and they, and this book, have lost none of their charm. For the student of SiFi and S&S, these are a must read. Granted, the style is certainly different than todays books, but this is a plus. We need to read and remember it. That being said, these books are just simply fun to read. Recommend them highly.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Original and Authentic Magical Adventure, November 26, 1999

By 

William Barton (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chessmen of Mars (Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, N0 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Chessmen of Mars is, I think, the pinnacle of Burroughs career, and certainly the best of the Barsoom series. It's also one of the great science fiction romances of the Twentieth Century. As a boy, reading the typical John Campbell-influenced SF of the 1950s, nothing prepared me for finding this book (and about 30 other moldy Burroughs hardcovers) in my grandmother's attic. There's not an alienated child in the world who could read this book and not be struck deeply by the pathos and courage of Ghek the Kaldane, whose the real hero of the tale, rather than Gahan of Gathol, the golden boy who gets the girl.