Customer Reviews

The John Carter of Mars Collection

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The John Carter of Mars Series is my all time favorite Science Fiction series...and its nice to see it collected on a cd rom...but this is really only part one as there are eleven novels in the full series and only the first five are on the cd rom. (#6 The Master Mind of Mars, #7 A Fighting Man of Mars, #8 Swords of Mars, #9 Synthetic Men of Mars, #10 Llana of Gathol, #11 John Carter of Mars..are not included.) The first three books, A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars form a trilogy, so its good to have them together. Barsoom is a strange place, where martians have been genetically altered to bear eggs instead of live young, where the honor code requires meeting an oppoenent with a sword instead of your ray (radium projectal) gun if that is all he has. Where a lifespan of 1000 years is considered normal and no one dies a natural death. Where the navy consists of airships and oxegen is produced in a giant plant to keep all alive on "dying Mars". Back in 1912 with the first novel, ERB produced a world that was a fresh and exciting then as it still is now.

This book follows the adventures of John Carter, a cowboy who finds himself upon Mars. A Princess of Mars is the first in a series of magical, mythical, colorful books detailing the generations of martians Carter has affected. This story has action, adventure, sci-fi, romance, comedy, and a style all its own. Burroughs describes Barsoom (Mars) so completely, the reader can almost taste the atmosphere and see the sea bottoms and villages. It's remarkably easy reading, even with the introduction of an entirely different vocabulary, the martian vocabualry. It's a page-turner all the way through the series.

Yeah, there are more titles in the whole series, but the first three make a full novel with the story of John Carter's arrival, his almost "super-human" abilities to jump and fight, and his undying love love for the incomparable Dejah Thoris. You have seen it all before, but the power of Burrough's vision and the details of the world of Barsoom show how good ERB could write when the spirit moved him. These three books are far superior to the others of the series and, let's face it, you can't beat the cost at about a buck. I hate to sound like a brown-noser, but Amazon has a winner with its prices and the Kindle.

I read this series when I was in high school (11 books in all), and dreamed about being John Carter for years. Who wouldn't want to be? Now that a movie is coming out, I am a bit concerned about how well the original books will be represented. Nevertheless, any movie can never detract nor equal the books in scope and intensity. In my opinion, this is the greatest series ever of Sci-Fi combined with Action/Adventure, although not of the Sci-Fi genre as a whole. If you love strange races on alien planets, powerful heroes, beautiful heroines, epic battles of swordsmanship, and so on, this series has it all.

Captain John Carter is a hero of the past that I ran across almost by accident. This collection of stories wraps a complete arc of his first journey to Barsoom/ Mars. He's a professional soldier, who fought with the confederacy during the civil war. He brings that background to a dying alien world whose strange races vie for their planets dwindling resources. On mars his strength and agility are magnified by the lower than earth gravity, making him almost super heroic. At least while he's on mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs also wrote the Tarzan tales, so expect old school action and romance. But even though the story takes place in the past, it's very much a Science Fiction story. I'd have to say that it's the type of Science Fiction that the first Star Wars movie was aiming for, or even trying to mimic. I was delighted to hear that there's going to be a movie in 2012 about "Captain Jack", and hope it lives up to the legacy.

I didn't know this writer until I put him on my Kindel and now I am in love. I will end up with everything that he has written. the story was good and I could not get enough of it. I was mad when I got to the end of the books and I read all 3 of them in about 10 days. I will be getting everything I can by this writer.

I grew up on this stuff. John Carter, Doc Savage, The Grey Lensmen. They don't write it like this anymore. Sheer action! Great nostalgia! Awesome price!

i read my first John Carter book when i was 12 years old; i am considerably older than that now and still enjoy re-reading them; a must for anyone who likes good story telling with the added dimension of science fiction - science fiction that was remarkably advanced for its time

I just finished this set, and i have never read better, it even puts bradbury to shame, i read another series by him years ago and it was equally beautiful, you become john carter, and conquer with him

Be careful!!! I have this and my CD box cover lists a price of $19.99.