The Gods of Mars

<i>Rolling ochre sea bottom of long dead seas, low surrounding hills, with here and there the grim and silent cities of the dead past; great piles of mighty architecture tenanted only by age-old memories of a once powerful race, and by the great white apes of Barsoom.</i><br /><br />If anything, Edgar Rice Burroughs is the founding father of the guilty pleasure. No, these books aren’t literary masterpieces. No, these books are not politically correct. But <b>damn</b> they’re fun to read! <br /><br /><i>There was a brief and futile effort of defence. Then silence as the huge, repulsive shapes covered the bodies of their victims and scores of sucking mouths fastened themselves to the flesh of their prey.</i><br /><br />Over the top <b>Sword and Planet</b> fare… this is the stuff that pre-teen dreams are made of. <i>Gods of Mars</i> is fairly violent, even for this kind of thing, and there is a lot of “cleaving” and “crushing” filling the pages. Robert E. Howard and the other pulp writers no doubt drew a lot of inspiration from here.<br /><br /><i>What was that! A faint shuffling sounded behind me, and as I cast a hasty glance over my shoulder my blood froze in my veins for the thing I saw there.</i><br /><br />The religious theme (or theme of <i>deception through the abuse of religious belief</i>) present here is interesting. This kind of thing is commonplace in Science Fiction today, but it doesn’t strike me as ERB’s style. Could be worth further investigation…<br /><br /><i>I put the thought of death out of my mind, and fell upon my antagonists with fury that those who escaped will remember to their dying day.</i><br /><br />Burroughs did seem to rehash some plot events every now and again. There are things happening here that I could have sworn I’d also read in one of the many Tarzan novels. Typical example: door slams shut behind protagonist, plunging him in darkness… followed by maniacal laughter. The feelings of Phaidor toward John Carter, and the circumstances under which they occur, also mirror the relationship between La (of Opar) and Tarzan. To a tee. <br /><br /><i>Sparks flew as steel smote steel, and then there was the dull and sickening sound of a shoulder bone parting beneath the keen edge of my Martian sword.</i><br /><br />As campy and old school as this is, I struggle to find it in myself to entirely dislike it. It is the product of an era, and it’s only fair that it be treated as such. Expect any number of coincidences that aid the “good guys” on their way. But hey, nobody said this was high literature. In the end, the baddies are all fodder and John Carter lives to fight another day, and another, and another. No, this isn’t a spoiler, unless you’ve been asleep under a Martian stone. <br /><br /><i>Back and forth across the room we surged, until the floor was ankle deep in blood, and dead men lay so thickly there that half the time we stood upon their bodies as we fought.</i><br /><br />What fun!<br /><br /><i>Better judgment</i> has no place in this review. Four stars. <br />

Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs is a fun book. <br><br>Taking up where <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/40395.A_Princess_of_Mars__Barsoom___1_" title="A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) by Edgar Rice Burroughs" rel="noopener">A Princess of Mars</a> left off, it is the story of John Carter’s second visit to Barsoom and chronicles his encounter with an ancient religion that has deceived Martian culture. <br><br>Entertaining, imaginative and even a little allegorical it also displays Burroughs knack for weaving a cliffhanger, as every other chapter finds the characters in some trouble they cannot get out of. Even the ending is designed to make the reader want to buy the next installment. <br><br>Pulp science fiction / fantasy at its best.<br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1477656041i/20976586.jpg" width="320" height="400" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy">

Ten years (at least on Earth) after the events of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/3623775.A_Princess_of_Mars__Barsoom___1_" title="A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) by Edgar Rice Burroughs" rel="noopener">A Princess of Mars</a>, John Carter returns to Mars and discovers new places to journey to and new enemies to fight. He soon runs into his Green Martien friends Tars Tarkas who is under attack by the white apes and the planet me. Through Tarkas, we learn that the Red Martians and Green Martians, especially John's beloved Dejah Thoris, how long mourned John's disappearance from Barsoom. John desperately wants to see Dejah again, however the therns of the White Martians and Issus, deranged pretend goddess of the First Born Black Martians seek John's head on a platter. Both use their own religious beliefs to decide a pecking order among all Martians and both will not stop till John is dead. Hopefully, John's newest allies, even those most unlikely to be allies, can help John save the day.<br /><br />Much like <i>A Princess of Mars</i>, <i>The Gods of Mars</i> is a fun old sci-fi adventure, though it is burdened by some uncomfortable things. Edgar Rice Burroughs' eugenics can be seen here; the divisions between each of the Martian races becoming more and more palpable and the description of the Black Martians' antagonism being quite vicious. Nonetheless, there is a continued theme of all the races coming together despite their differences, and as John points, both the White Martians and Black Martians are equally terrible here. Issus, the Black Martians' goddess, has White Martians enslaved and tortured and sacrificed to her, however, when Phaidor a princess of the White Martians describes how awful this is John points out that the Black Martians are only responding to the violence and slavery the White Martians initially inflicted on them. It's still a messy and problematic thing, but by the end of the book the Black Martians end up being more virtuous than the White Martians, especially John's new friend Xodar. Still, I'd refrain from calling Burroughs progressive of any form.<br /><br />That aside, I do think that this book was an improvement upon <i>A Princess of Mars</i>. The flow of the writing is much better and less clunky, especially the battle scenes. The pacing towards the end of the book gets much faster too. I also enjoyed the newer characters that <i>The Gods of Mars</i> brought with it. Thuvia, a young Red Martian woman, had some spunk with her; she was able to control the various creatures within the thern prison, allowing her and John to best the White Martians. Like I said, I love her spunk, just wish we saw more of her. Xodar, a Black Martian who starts out as John's enemy but then becomes his ally, was also a welcome cast member. Through him, John learns just how different Mars is for some other people. There's also Carthoris, John's son who he never got to see be born (or hatched rather) after the events of the previous book. A good kid with a good heart, much like his dad. Wish we could've seen more of him too.<br /><br />One of my favorite things from the previous that still remains is John's gentleman behavior. Once again, despite the outdated parts of the book, I am surprised at the depiction of masculinity in these books. Yes, the story is still one of those macho adventures and every woman falls for John though his one true is still Dejah whom he never cheats on, but it is still so surprising to see how soft (for a lack of a better term) John is. When he hugs his son, he cries but does not care that he cries. He even cries in front of Dejah and doesn't feel shame that a woman is seeing him cry (I know that sounds ridiculous, but that was a thing men were expected not to do). He admires the courage, strength, and fighting abilities of those around him, even his enemies. Most strikingly, he platonically admires the muscular bodies of his fellow men. Like, not throughout the entire book, but still, it happens quite a bit. Given this was written in 1913, I guess there was no anxiety over doing that yet--I assume, at least. John only kills when absolutely necessary; thanks to this ideal, we get to see him and Xodar become friends. John also cannot bring himself to kill women, even when they're someone as vile as Issus. Which...I respect the ideal, but she was literally torturing and sacrificing people, so I think chivalry could've taken the bench on that one.<br /><br />The battles flow a lot better in <i>The Gods of Mars</i> and go by so quick. Seriously, the ending snuck up on me. Speaking of the ending, I did not expect a cliffhanger. After going through so much--fighting so many people, going to new places, being imprisoned--John and Dejah are briefly only to be separated again. I'm kind of peeved, but I guess Burroughs had to shake it up a bit.<br /><br />Anyway, fun story.

Return to Barsoom!<br /><br />Edgar Rice Burroughs is the master of the adventure story. His stories move at a lightening shot, but he somehow manages to cram extensive, imaginative, world-building into the 200 page count. Having watched the movie from 2012, and reading the first book, I assumed ERB would take his already established world and throw a couple new whoozits or whatchamacallits in there and make anther rip-roaring action/adventure novel starring the green and red men of Mars. Instead, he decided John Carter would plunk down in another part of the planet, then go check out the underworld, all the while learning a whole new mythology of Mars. Needless to say, I was enthralled.<br /><br />One thing I couldn't stop thinking about was how science fiction/fantasy books of today quite obviously borrow from what's come before. Maybe you read a book that has warp drive in it, but it wasn't Star Trek, or whatever. But whom did Burroughs have to borrow? He may have borrowed from the greats in his later works (the Caspak trilogy and Pellucidar books come instantly to mind), but for something like the world of Barsoom . . . how did he blaze that trail? The book was written in 1913, so it must have melted the brains of anyone who touched it.<br /><br />Sure, the character of John Carter could probably use a little more fleshing out. As it stands, he's just this guy who knows how to swing a sword, moving the story forward with every slash while searching for his lost love (predates Conan, for those keeping track). But I guess there's only so much you can do in 200 pages. But those pages are all magic.<br /><br />If you know someone who needs to start reading for fun, who is around the ages of 6 to 15, do him a favour and give him a Barsoom book. Or if you want quick, imaginative escapism yourself, send yourself to Barsoom.<br /><br />3.8 stars--after a deduction for the cliffhanger ending.

the further adventures of John Carter on Barsoom!<br><br><a href="http://s181.photobucket.com/user/markmonday/media/trippygif-1_zps82c2a955.gif.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1380419570ra/832027.gif" alt=" photo trippygif-1_zps82c2a955.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>John Carter returns to Mars after a mysterious 10-year absence! he appears in the vale of the Plant Men and the White Apes! you better run, John Carter, run! uh oh, John you are running right into the clifftop lair of the dreaded White Men of Mars! and then into the subterranean lair of the dreaded Black Men of Mars! think fast and carry a big sword, John Carter!<br><br>John Carter wears an excited yet contemptuous expression while slaughtering his enemies! he's a man's man! he laughs at danger then runs right towards it! and yet he has no problem shedding tears at the thought of women and children in danger! awww!<br><br><a href="http://s181.photobucket.com/user/markmonday/media/tumblr_meuml8R_zps7aa64de9.gif.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1380419570ra/832028.gif" alt=" photo tumblr_meuml8R_zps7aa64de9.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>the White Men of Mars are cannibalistic theocrats who eat the Red and Green Men! they think they are better than everyone else and so they don't mind eating "lower life forms"! jerks! apparently their genetic heritage is so fucked that the men are all frail and can't even grow hair on their heads - so they have to wear wigs! ha, ha! ugly, wimpy cannibalistic White Men! John Carter spends some time with a princess of the White Men named Phaidor, but she turns out to be a bloodthirsty bitch!<br><br>the Black Men of Mars are cannibalistic theocrats who eat the White Men and kidnap White Women to turn into slaves! they worship an old bat who calls herself the Goddess Issus! i think she is spelling that incorrectly! John Carter describes the Black Men as having features that are "handsome in the extreme" and says "their bodies are divine"! he practically swoons while gazing at the tableau of a bunch of them hanging around in nothing much except beautiful jeweled harnesses! he notes that it may seem odd for a <i>Southerner</i> to think that the Black Men's ebony skin "adds to rather than detracts from their marvellous beauty"! um, awkward comment!<br><br><a href="http://s181.photobucket.com/user/markmonday/media/tumblr_mewd0sJJ_zpsce6c9aef.gif.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1380419570ra/832029.gif" alt=" photo tumblr_mewd0sJJ_zpsce6c9aef.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>John Carter makes two new friends! Thuvia the Red Maid, who loves him so much she wants to be his slave! and Xodor the Black Pirate who is pure awesomeness and the best character!<br><br>John Carter has a 10-year old son! his name is Cathoris! that name sounds like some kind of illness to me! yuck! bad name!<br><br><a href="http://s181.photobucket.com/user/markmonday/media/vintagegif_zps6614db6d.gif.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1380419570ra/832030.gif" alt=" photo vintagegif_zps6614db6d.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>Edgar Rice Burroughs got a little giddy while writing this one! a little over-the-top! it made me snicker a bit! purple pulp prose goes POP! POP! POP! but still, it was enjoyable!<br><br>Edgar Rice Burroughs must have really hated organized religion! he makes a point of showing how the religion of the Red Men and the Green Men is an utter sham! Phaidor describes her White religion and it is totally repulsive and offensive and moronic! Xodor describes his Black religion and it is totally absurd and bizarre like out of some classic pulp scifi novel!<br><br><a href="http://s181.photobucket.com/user/markmonday/media/trippygif-3_zpsdf6add27.gif.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1380419570ra/832031.gif" alt=" photo trippygif-3_zpsdf6add27.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><br>the depiction of the complex and layered and fascinatingly intertwined faiths of Barsoom was the best part of the novel for me! Burroughs sure had an axe to grind and i loved watching him grind it! grind, Edgar, grind!

With this second installment Burroughs really cut loose his wild and vivid imagination to flesh out the fantastically diverse world of Barsoom. Even more so than <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/40395.A_Princess_of_Mars__Barsoom___1_" title="A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) by Edgar Rice Burroughs" rel="noopener">A Princess of Mars</a> it is brimming with all manner of exotic settings, bizarre creatures, treacherous villains, strange men and their mysterious secrets. He reveals much of the long and ancient history of the Martian peoples, the structure of their societies, and uses Carter, an outsider, as a wrecking ball to destroy some of their most closely held beliefs concerning death and religion based on outlandish superstitions and insidious deceptions.<br /><br />SFF grandmaster <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/5376.Jack_Vance" title="Jack Vance" rel="noopener">Jack Vance</a> considered Burroughs one of his earliest and most significant influences. The Gods of Mars makes this readily apparent, both in terms of the richly imagined alien world, and especially in the actions of the lone protagonist in rebelling against the races of the effete and arrogant lords. Surely one of Vance's favorite themes, and one that recurs throughout much of his writings, though of course Vance's heroes are hardly John Carter like swashbuckling supermen.

Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am that I actually LIKE the Barsoom books so far and I'm warming even more to them.<br /><br />Have no doubts. It's a PURE adventure. If the first book was more cowboy meets indians, the second is lambasting the elites in usual old-school American take-no-shit from anyone.<br /><br />Of course, the action progresses nicely from exploration to getting entangled with "godlike" "noble" aliens (with plenty of commentaries) to grand escapes, an even grander WAR that was frankly kind of awesome. <br /><br />The one thing I kept noticing as I read this quite old SF tale was how well it pulled off ALL the grand Steampunk ideals. Of course, the opposite is more true. The entire movement of Steampunk owes almost ALL of its thanks to Burroughs.<br /><br />If any of you folks out there need to top off the steam in your tanks, you REALLY ought to go to the real source. :)

Although I've reviewed Burroughs' series opener, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/40395.A_Princess_of_Mars__Barsoom___1_" title="A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) by Edgar Rice Burroughs" rel="noopener">A Princess of Mars</a>, here on Goodreads, I've never reviewed this sequel; and the recent <i>John Carter</i> movie and resulting uptick of interest in the series suggested to me that I ought to. IMO, it has many of the same strengths (and weaknesses) of the first book, so much of what I wrote in the earlier review (<a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18226623">http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...</a> ) would apply here too. And the first book should definitely be read before this one; you need the grasp of the characters and setting that comes from the first one to fully appreciate the sequel. Also, one of my Goodreads friends suggests that book 3 of the series, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/40379.The_Warlord_of_Mars__Barsoom___3__" title="The Warlord of Mars (Barsoom, #3) by Edgar Rice Burroughs" rel="noopener">The Warlord of Mars (Barsoom, #3)</a>, is virtually the second half of this book, and that you shouldn't read the one unless you can start the next one immediately. Of course, I've never read book 3; but from my general reading about the series in secondary sources before reading even this one, I already knew how the cliffhanger ending here is resolved. But if you don't, the advice to have book 3 handy is well taken; no spoilers here, but the cliffhanger is a MAJOR one!<br /><br />Obviously, this volume begins with John Carter returning to Mars (astral projection is utilized yet again). Plenty of the author's trademark action adventure ensues. One plot development here stretches the long arm of coincidence unbelievably drastically, even for Burroughs; and there are again details to his world building that aren't particularly credible. But his strong points are in evidence as well, and some of these are particularly notable for the period in which he wrote. For one thing (both here and elsewhere in his work) Burroughs is not a sexist writer; several of his female characters are strong, proactive personalities, and his Martian women can be fighters just as much as the males. He's also not racist (or at least not nearly as racist as many of his contemporaries, if at all). Here, we encounter a couple more of the Martian races, a white and a black one. The white race is not a collectively noble and benign apex of virtuous civilization; and the black race isn't depicted as inferior in its moral and intellectual attainments to any of the other Martian races. Xodar, one of the black leaders, is definitely a strong sympathetic character. The implications of this, in 1913, are fairly obvious, and to Burroughs' credit.<br /><br />Burroughs explains the origins of the Martian races in Darwinian terms; this isn't, in the context of his times, when belief in theistic evolution was more common among both Christians and non-Christians than it is now, necessarily to be regarded as an attack on Christianity. (Burroughs' own attitude to origins was probably at least compatible with that of his geologist character in the Pellucidar series, Abner Perry, who's both a Darwinist and described as a devout Christian.) Some readers might read the basic theme of this book, however, as more directly anti-Christian (since Carter discovers the pagan religion of Mars to be a sham, manipulated by a clerisy of charlatan priests and a bogus goddess for personal power and profit). But that reading, IMO, would be equally misguided; Burroughs' message doesn't come across to me as being blanket anti-religion or anti-theistic propaganda in general, nor anti-Christian in particular. The Martian cult as he depicts it has no recognizable similarities to Christianity, unless one assumes that any and all "religions" are essentially similar (and vile) just because they're religions --sort of a "Mother Teresa, Aztec human sacrifice, whatever, same thing" fallacy. There's really nothing to suggest that this is an assumption Burroughs makes, however, much less argues for. To the extent that he consciously intends to send a message for this-world application, I think he's simply warning (and validly so!) that religion CAN be used as a cloak for some people to enrich and empower themselves at other's expense, and that blind bowing to tradition and unsupported superstition aren't the smartest guides to spiritual truth. (Those are actually points the Biblical writers would have been comfortable with --and sometimes make as well.)

Fun, a whole lot of heroic, cheesy fun. That is the best way I can think of to describe the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is not great literature and there are some attitudes towards women and minorities that need to be overlooked as a sign of the times. But there is also adventure and thrills on almost every page and John Carter is a larger than life good guy.. I didn't like this quite as much as the first one, in part because they are structured almost the same and so a bit of the newness has worn off. I still really liked it and plan on reading more of the series.

This might be my favorite book in the series. Now that Barsoom has been established, ERB can really go to town -- the creatures are scarier, the settings more exotic, the villains more villainous and we get the single biggest engagement between aerial navies in the entire series. Again, coincidence plays rather more of a role than it probably should, but the narrative moves so quickly and so forcefully that you hardly notice the creak of the rails.