Customer Reviews

Thuvia, Maid Of Mars

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Don't take the star rating wrong - this is as good as any of the other books in this series, but this edition (Quiet Vision Publishing - paperback, printed in 2000) is the cheapest printing of a book I've ever seen. Only about 20 pages into it, pages started falling out of the back. The type is huge and goes all the way to the edge of the page so your thumbs are constantly in the way while you're trying to read, and there are typographical errors like using two hyphens instead of em dashes. I know they make an electronic version of this book. As part of my job I convert a lot of print-intended content to digital publishing formats, and that's what usually happens to em dashes during that process, so I almost wonder if they just printed out their digital version and bound it. It looks like it was printed on a laser printer (especially the terrible cover illustration which looks like it was drawn by a 12-year old), and the fonts look like they're just PC-standard 'Times'. There are also several footnotes, which in the original edition that I read years ago were placed at the bottom of the page they were referenced from. In this edition they're in the back of the book.

"Thuvia, Maid of Mars" is the 4th of 11 John Carter novels from the pen of Edgar Rice Burroughs. It first appeared in April 1916, as a three-part serial in the magazine "All Story Weekly." This is the first Carter novel that does not feature John Carter himself as the central character; he only makes a brief cameo appearance early on. Instead, the action mantle is taken up by Carthoris, Carter's son, but fortunately, Carter Junior turns out to be just as good a swashbuckler as the old man. In this installment, Princess Thuvia of Ptarth has been kidnapped by the spineless Prince Astok of Dusar, which abduction almost causes a world war on Barsoom (Mars). Young Carthoris, in his quest to free his beloved princess, runs across deserted cities, a forgotten kingdom, banths (10-legged Barsoomian lions), ethereal warriors, mucho swordplay, giant white apes, and on and on. As is usual for these books, the amount of action that Burroughs packs into a small compass is quite surprising. Whereas previous Carter books seem to read more like fantasy/fairy tales than science fiction, this installment veers even more to the fantastic, mainly in the use of those phantom warriors just mentioned. These bowmen are called up from the minds of the remaining members of the lost city of Lothar, and have no "real" concrete existence. However, their arrows can still kill. In this book we also get, for the first time, a nice, detailed look at life in Helium; what the people do, how they live and the like. We also receive a biological explanation of how Carthoris, who was 10 years old but a seeming adult in the previous books, got to be that way. The worldwide peace that apparently prevails at the end of book 3, "The Warlord of Mars," is shown in this volume to be not as widespread as was inferred, which makes for some nice tense situations. So this is a good, fast-moving, detailed entry in the series.
There are some minor problems of inconsistency and fuzzy writing, however, although not as prevalent as in previous entries. For example, in one scene, Carthoris is said to be fighting a force of a dozen Dusarians; three of these are killed, and so three are left. Huh? Carthoris seems to know exactly where to find water in the dead city of Aaanthor, despite the fact that he has never been there before. Wha? Vas Kor, one of Carthoris' chief enemies, fails to recognize him merely because Carthoris is dirty, tired and covered with blood; this is just a bit hard to swallow. Perhaps worst of all, the book ends extremely abruptly, just as all of Barsoom is about to be plunged into that world war. We never learn the fate of several of the main villains, nor do we see the end of hostilities as the realization of the true facts becomes known. This is a short book, and would not have suffered by the addition of such scenes to make it more satisfying. Still, this is a fun entry in the John Carter series, one that all lovers of fast-moving fantasy should enjoy.

It's hard to describe the fulfillment one feels after reading anyone of the books in Burrough's series. The complete dominance of honor, and the constant heroism and adventure in these books is heart warming, as well as thrilling. In this part of the series, somewhat to my dissappointment, John Carter is no longer telling the story, but his son, Carthoris, is. Readers of the first three books don't be alarmed however! Carthoris is "just as good a story teller as his father." And the story is just as exciting.

I first read this book and this series some 52 years ago...I recently dug them out and had another go. They are as fun now as they were then. Burroughs' style is absolutely great and needs to be savored. The books are action packed and certainly reflet a time in our society long past. I feel to understand current SiFi and S&S, you really need to start during this time period. We certainly have come along way, in may ways, but it is very evident that this writer and his contemporaries certainly had a profound influence on what we are getting today. This are books for little boys and girls and thank goodness I have enough of that little boy in me to still enjoy them.

It took the first three volumes of his Martian series for Edgar Rice Burroughs to get his hero John Carter, former cavalier of Virginia, and Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium to the point where they could live happily ever after. Satisfied with the combination of romance and pulp adventure, this fourth Martian novel turns to the next generation of Barsoomians. Cathoris, son of the Warlord of Mars and his beloved princess, is one of two princes and a Jeddak who are seeking the hand of the Thuvia of Ptarth. When she is kidnapped by the sinister Prince Astok of Dusar, the entire planet is about to be thrown into a bloody war and Cathoris has to follow in his father's footstep and deal with savage beasts and phantom armies as he rescues Thuvia and saves Barsoom from a costly war. Of course, by the time he catches up with his beloved, Cathoris finds the situation is slightly more complicated than he thought, mainly because ERB never provides a smooth ending for his couples.

"Thuvia, Maid of Mars" was originally serialized in "All-Story Weekly" in April 1916, which explains the novel's subtext about world war, since one was going on in Europe at that point in time. The original title was "Cathoris," but apparently when it was published as a novel in 1920 somebody wised up and changed it. Thuvia is not as great a name as Deja Thoris, but it is not bad. In many ways this is like the previous novel, "The Warlord of Mars," where the hero chases his beloved across the landscape of Barsoom and has to deal with green men and white apes. Fortunately, unlike ERB's Tarzan series, "Thuvia, Maid of Mars" is really the only time that repeats himself like this in the Martian series, which stands out as his best as he proves in the next and most inventive volume in the series, "Chessmen of Mars."

Sometimes I get the impression the John Carter books served as the blueprints for many Star Trek: The Original Series episodes. You have a hero, a girl, and a lost and ancient civilization which threatens to engulf all known space (er, Barsoom) if someone doesn't do something FAST.

Thuvia, Maid of Mars, passes the torch from father to son as Carthoris, son of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, pursues the heart of the princess Thuvia. To her secret shame Thuvia returns Carthoris' love, but she is already promised to another. When a rival prince kidnaps Thuvia and frames Carthoris for the deed, the son of the Warlord of Mars sets out to rescue the woman he loves no matter what it will cost him.

Undoubtedly the most disturbing but tense part of the story falls in the city of Lothar, where Carthoris and Thuvia must do battle with ancient Barsoomians who possess incredible powers of the mind. And the most unlikely hero of all turns out to be a fignment of a character's imagination. This book is a good demonstration of how Burroughs' world of Barsoom was filled with its own stories, and not just a convenient backdrop for John Carter's adventures.

More similar in its simplicity to a Princess of Mars than Gods/Warlord. John Carter's son engages in search for abducted Thuvia, while he remains the prime suspect in her abduction. Usual strange meetings and stranger neighborhoods, but this story is a little less frenentic than Gods/Warlord, and both Carthoris and Thuvia are solid characters.

Burroughs began writing Thuvia, Maid of Mars, in April 1914, at the time describing it as a 'Carthoris' story. After a break in California, he had begun a furious writing schedule, including other works as well as what was to become Thuvia, Maid of Mars. A new editor, Robert H. Davis, had replaced Newell Metcalf, the previous editor of All-Story Magazine (which had published Burrough's previous Barsoom novels), at the now amalgamated All-story Cavalier Weekly. Davis wrote to Burroughs on June 12, 1914 after reading previous fiction (including Tarzan), suggesting ideas and suggesting a meeting. (From Source: Wikipedia).

In this novel the focus shifts from John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and Dejah Thoris of Helium, protagonists of the first three books in the series, to their son, Carthoris, prince of Helium, and Thuvia, princess of Ptarth. Helium and Ptarth are both prominent Barsoomian city state/empires, and both Carthoris and Thuvia were secondary characters in the previous novel. (From Source: Wikipedia).

Thuvia, Maid of Mars is a science fiction novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fourth of the Barsoom series. The principal characters are the Son of John Carter of Mars, Carthoris, and Thuvia of Ptarth, each of whom appeared in the previous two novels. (From Source: Wikipedia).