A Princess of Mars

Science fiction

First published: 1973
Print length: 160 pagesDover Publications, 2005

Description

John Carter, a former Confederate soldier prospecting in Arizona, is mysteriously transported to Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. On this dying desert world, lower gravity grants him extraordinary strength and agility, qualities that win him a place among the nomadic Green Martians and the friendship of the Thark chieftain Tars Tarkas. When the Tharks capture Dejah Thoris, a princess of the Red Martians, Carter resolves to return her to her people. Protecting her draws him into rival cities, tribal customs, aerial warfare, and struggles for political power, while the planet's failing air supply threatens every faction. The novel combines romance and combat with the expansive invention of an early sword-and-planet adventure.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Ornate

Pace

Fast

Tone

Atmospheric · Earnest · Romantic · Suspenseful

Structure

Framed · Linear

Focus

Plot · Relationships · World

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

FreedomFriendshipLovePowerSurvivalWar

About Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was a prolific American writer of adventure, science fiction, and fantasy whose serial imagination produced several expansive fictional worlds. He is best known for Tarzan and John Carter, but his work also ranges across the subterranean Pellucidar novels, the Venus-set Amtor sequence, and the Caspak trilogy. Burroughs built stories around swift movement, physical ordeal, rescue, rivalry, and encounters with unfamiliar societies. Tarzan of the Apes follows a man raised by apes as he discovers his human origins, while the Barsoom books turn Mars into a continuing arena of warfare, romance, political conflict, strange species, and contested belief. His prose is generally direct and descriptive, designed to keep elaborate adventures moving. What distinguishes the body of work is its combination of recurring heroes with large, reusable worlds that sustained long sequences and adaptations beyond print. That reach is inseparable from a serious limitation: his fiction, especially Tarzan, also expresses his support for eugenics and scientific racism.

Series

John Carter of Mars · Book 1

Martian Tales · Book 1

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Dover Publications
Language: English
ISBN: 9780486443683

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