John Carter of Mars [Mass Market Paperback]

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine (1978)
• ISBN-10: 0345276515
• ISBN-13: 978-0345276513
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,082,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A sad farewell to a great adventure series, December 15, 2000

By 

Michael Martinez - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Carter of Mars (Paperback)

Other reviews appear to be speaking of the first book in the series, A Princess of Mars. John Carter of Mars is the 11th and last book of the Barsoomian adventure stories. In fact, this book is a combination of two stories: "The Giant of Mars", actually written by John Coleman Burroughs, and "The Skeleton Men of Jupiter", the first of a four-part series that was never finished.

"Giant of Mars" has long confused ERB fans, many of whom have wondered whether he actually wrote this story. The truth has been circulated for years but somehow doubt and literary legend seem to overwhelm it. John Coleman Burroughs did indeed write this story, and he admitted as much publicly.

"The Skeleton Men of Jupiter" is pure ERB space opera and it restores Barsoom's chapion to his former glory. This tale had the potential to become one of the all-time greatest ERB adventures, but he never wrote more than the first of four installments. Our hero resolves a major conflict and the reader is not left wondering if John Carter and Dejah Thoris survive, but their adventure is nonetheless incomplete.

Fans eager to read more about Carter's adventures need to get this book, but let the reader beware, it can only be unsatisfying. One is left with a sense of wonder, for Burroughs is said to have been burned out near the end of his life, but there is much about this story which is fresh and engrossing.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wartlord of Mars & Thuvia, Maid of Mars; CONFUSED REVIEWS, March 29, 2007

By 

Francis L. Fitzpatrick "Frank" (Cranston, RI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Carter of Mars - volume 2 - Warlord of Mars & Thuvia, Maid of Mars (v. 2) (Hardcover)

For some reason, Amazon has mixed in reviews here that have NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS VOLUME. All the talk about "the 11th book" in the series pertain to another volume altogether. I hope someone from Amazon reads this and finds the mistake.

That said . . .

The Mars series by ERB is excellent. I've read each book half a dozen times over the course of my life. Burroughs had an amazingly fertile imagination, but the Tarzan movies his mind look vapid.

But these books are his masterworks.

If you like adventurous science fiction you should love these.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The final adventures of ERB's hero, John Carter of Mars, August 29, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Carter of Mars (Barsoom Series, #11) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the 11th and final volume in the celebrated Martian series by Edgar Rice Burroughs has a couple of shorter stories featuring John Carter. "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" first appeared in the January 1941 issue of "Amazing Stories," and was written by Burroughs and his youngest son John Coleman Burroughs. The story was originally intended for a Whitman Big Little Book, which meant the story had to be 15,000 words long and have facing pages illustrating the action. The younger Burroughs was also the illustrator. At some point 6,000 words were added to the story and it was published in "Amazing," with no one ever knowing for sure how much ERB actually wrote of this story, which was the final complete John Carter tale. As you would expect when ERB was writing for children, he goes back to his standard formula. John Carter and Dejah Thoris are having a nice ride of a thoat when they are attacked and his beloved princess is once again captured. Carter is off to the rescue with help from his old friend Tars Tarkas. Along the way they encounter Joog, a 130-foot tall giant, and a city of rats; just the sort of fantastic characters kids would be looking for in a story. Beyond sticking to the standard Burroughs formula, there is not much here of interest.

"Skeleton Men of Jupiter" was originally published in "Amazing Stories," and was intended to be the first of a four-part story, but ERB died before it could be completed. Since then it has been, by several pastiche writers. John Carter is called away from his beloved princess Dejah Thoris to meet with Tardox Mors in the Hall of Jeddaks, when he is captured by men that look like human skeletons speaking a strange language. It turns out the Morgors are from Sasoom, the Barsoomian name for Jupiter, which is where our hero ends up. ERB has to play fast and loose with science, arguing that Jupiter rotates fast enough that Carter is not crushed by the gravity. Still, he has lost the advantage he had on Barsoom with its lower-than-Earth gravity. Anyway, it would not be a Burroughs Martian novel if the hero did not have to rescue his beloved, and it turns out Dejah Thoris has been captured as well. Consequently, Carter has to escape and tracked down his princess. Slightly better than "The Giant of Mars," the story is hurt by the lack of an ending. Fans will read these stories out of a sense of completeness, but clearly ERB's Barsoom series went out with a whimper.