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May 04, 2011

Stephen rated it:

2.5 stars. I know, I know. I can hear you out there saying “2.5 stars for one of the ALL TIME PULP SF CLASSICS" and looking at me like I just made a mess on the floor.

Rest assured, I'm not trying to drop gastronomical "leftovers" in the PULP SF punch bowl and my rating does not indicate a dislike for the book. As mentioned below, I was probably between 3 and 4 stars on the book EXCEPT FOR ONE THING THAT DROVE ME BAT SHIT NUTSO. So please let me explain my rating before More...

14 comments like (35 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

Werner rated it:

It can be said at the outset that Burroughs was not a very deep nor a very disciplined writer. His disdain for research often shows in his work, and it does here; and in his science fiction (he would write voluminously in this genre --this novel sparked a series, and he produced two other popular sci-fi series as well) consistent and well-thought world building wasn't his strength. For instance, his Martian children incubate in eggs and hatch only when they're able to eat solid food --but his More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2011

Matthew rated it:

Edgar Rice Burroughs the father of Tarzan created a series of John Carter of Mars novels that are enjoyable to read on a few accounts. First there are about ten novels in the Martian Chronicles measuring in about 200 pages or less. So a quick read of some well written storytelling. Second is the language that is used is an excellent way to expand and strengthen ones vocabulary especially if you are looking for a more descriptive verbiage.

A Princess of Mars begins with one of the greatest intro More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2010

Elijah rated it:

The Mars series of Burroughs are classic adventure novels and their setting on the dying Red Planet allows Burroughs to move away from the racialist dogma found in the Tarzan series. While falling into a classic paradigm of the great hero who overawes and out-competes the "natives", it contains such moments of great humanity, even for people who have four arms and tusks, that I always find it uplifting. The style of Burroughs' adventure writing has always appealed to me and his stori More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2011

Donna rated it:

John Carter, a soldier from Virginia, is transported to Mars, where he has swashbuckling adventures that involve rayguns, airships, many-limbed aliens, and a charismatic princess. All you really need to know about this book is that it and it's first two sequels (at minimum) are required reading for any genre fan with the slightest level of tolerance for pulp adventure. A big screen version will be out in 2012, and we all know that you read the book before you see the movie.

It's prett More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2008

Jon rated it:

Read this as an ebook from the Project Gutenberg edition of this novel - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/62

Very enjoyable via my BlackBerry on my morning commute and before bed.

I was amazed at how well this novel appealed to me. For a science fiction novel published in 1912 (actually as a six-part serial in a magazine that year), it has stood the test of time quite well. Granted what we know of Mars makes much of the story ludicrous if you look at it strictly from a fa More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2008

Matt rated it:

'A Princess of Mars' is the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs 'Barsoom' books, set on a mythical Mars, and the first introduction of the character of John Carter, 'Warlord of Mars', 'the greatest Swordsman of two worlds', and something a demigod of war himself. It is a giant in the history of science fiction, fantasy, and modern superhero stories, and a rollicking good adventure story filled with wonder and imagination. Modern 'Swords and Sorcery' and 'Space Opera' are both deeply indebted to this More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Mar 20, 2011

Bryan rated it:

Transcript from the John Carter sessions
(from the files of Dr. Wm (Bill) Loney, Doctor of Psychiatry)

Carter: So where were we last time, doc?

Doctor: We were talking about representations of things that are ideals for you, and how they are expressed in imaginative fantasies.

Carter: What was that?

Doctor: (sighs) You were telling me about Barsoom and your adventures there.

Carter: Yeah... that's right. I traveled there, yo More...

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2009

Jacki rated it:

Interesting first glimps for me into the Sci-Fi world. I think this quote sums up every chapter of the book:

"I realized that it was fight or die--with good chances of dying in any event--and so I struck the ground with drawn sword ready to defend myself as best I could." p. 195

The whole book was very over the top with "Daring" fight scenes that, while dangerous, never seriously injure our Protagonist. It's a fun and adventurous read if you don't want t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2008

Robert rated it:

These were considered "planetary romances" according to one source back when this series from the creator of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, was written. This series of about 10 books started in 1912 and culminated around 1948. There's an odd mention of a book in 1964, but the other had been dead for 14 years by then. Plus there are a few shorts published in some pulp periodicals of the 1940s (where many of these stories appeared in years prior).

Today we call this stuff sc More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2007

Andrew rated it:

I would actually recommend this book more than my three-star rating might suggest; it's a freewheeling, swashbuckling story about John Carter, an ex-Confederate officer magically transported to dying Mars, where his powerful Earth-muscles grant him extraordinary abilities. What's not to like?

In his travels, Carter lives with (and escapes from) the green men of Mars- hulking, four-armed barbarians who've lost all human affection (through evolution!)- and falls in love with the incomp More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2007

Matt rated it:

I read this book in the sixth grade, and I remember it distinctly. I tore through most, if not all of the series, and loved them all at the time. Later my fondness for them was increased by the fact that Robert Heinlein had also clearly read and loved them as a boy, as he referenced them pretty heavily. I don't know what edition I originally read, but my wife recently brought home the Penguin Classics edition, and I decided to reread it to see how well it reads for my older self.

It h More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2012

Pestozesto rated it:

I have a soft spot for old-school science fiction, so of course, I enjoyed this immensely. Yes, the hero is the archetypal testosterone-driven, manliest manly fellow, but you kind of have to think about when this was written - way before women's rights and equality and all of that. I'm not excusing those flaws, but well, just think about it. This book paved the way for a lot of the contemporary science fiction novels that we love today, and Burrough's Mars is incredibly real and fleshed out. Loo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 22, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

This book along with the rest John Carter of Mars series is seriously racist (not to mention insanely sexist as well).

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Mike rated it:

Edgar rice Burroughs is a writer you might be familiar with, even if you don’t recognize the name. If you’ve ever heard of Tarzan, you’re familiar with his work. But before he wrote of everyone’s vine-swingin’ adventurer, Burroughs wrote of another superhuman swashbuckler: John Carter of Mars.

A Princess of Mars is the first in the Barsoom series (Barsoom being another name for Mars) which is about to hit the big screen in the new Disney film. It’s a fine example of Pulp Fiction: escapi More...

0 comments like

Mar 23, 2009

Ken rated it:

i love these old sci-fi books. they are not based on good science, and the feats of their characters don't stand up to critical thinking, but they are filled with adventure and romance. just perfect for bringing out the inner pre-pubescent boy in me. this book is the first installment of the "John Carter on Mars" adventures. (i am already well into the second book of the series.)

by the way. i did not read the Penguin Classics version. this was a free, on-line version More...

0 comments like

Feb 15, 2009

Travis rated it:

Why did I read this book?

Three main reasons.
1. Money was burning a hole in my pocket as I shopped for a book for my grandma.
2. I wanted to verify that I can still read for pleasure.
3. A creeping sense that my English vocabulary is on the wane, restricted to -ion words and articles, with most verbs transformed into substantives.
4. The cover, and its Shera-like hero-martienne.

Well, actually this book is disgusting colonialist clap-trap. The real Princess o More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 05, 2009

Dave rated it:

Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1st, 1875 - March 19, 1950) was a writer of adventure series, including, of course Tarzan, but also the Barsoom series, of which this is the first novel. This novel was written between July and October of 1911, and published in "All-Story" as a six-part serial from February through July of 1912. It then was published in book form in October of 1917. This novel and series may have been inspired by "Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation" a nove More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Christopher rated it:

I've owned this edition of A Princess of Mars since 1998. I just read it for the first time last month. I read the book now because the film adaptation, John Carter is coming out in March. I don't want to be the only person in the theater who has not read the book. I'm starting to feel that most people won't have read this book.

The novel itself is not without its flaws. It is clearly the first novel that Burroughs wrote. There were several scenes when the description of the actio More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Brent rated it:

I used to love ERB's novels, and this first of the John Carter of Mars series in particular, because I could start and finish one in an evening of reading! Pulp fiction... from almost 100 years back! Good for all ages.
That cover illustration must be Gil Kane pencils and Dave Cockrum inks from the 1977-9 Marvel Comics adaptation, which I enjoyed because of their art. I was introduced to the characters from the 1972 DC Comics adaptation by editor Joe Kubert, with art by the wonderful Murphy More...

0 comments like

Jan 14, 2012

Dale rated it:

A Classic Sci-Fi Novel

Originally published 1912 in a magazine serial. (1917 in book form)

Since the movie John Carter is coming out in a couple of months I decided to go back and re-read the original of the 11 books that Burroughs wrote about Mars (or, as he calls it, Barsoom).
I originally read the entire series, or at least most of it, nearly 30 years ago, when I was in high school. I must admit, I was struck by the art of Michael Whelen's cover (not the one shown here) More...

0 comments like

Dec 30, 2011

Timothy rated it:

How period, how condescending, how American (in a bad way, where elsewhere I'd mean it good.) While the character/perspective was wholly American, it was as if an American was channeling the British in Africa or India -- will you just look at these savages and my superiority over them. Magnificent.

It seems like this book goes back to the basic first step of fantasy, that is, making strange the familiar in order to wonder at it and to understand it differently. I couldn't help thinking More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

Michael rated it:

I tried reading this a couple times as a kid, but was put off by the ponderous writing style. I guess it was easier for me as an adult to embrace the formal nature of a story written in the early 1900s. Burroughs’ story had everything you would expect to find in a pulpy sci-fi adventure, and as much as I enjoyed the futuristic warfare and grueling duels to the death, I liked that John Carter introduces the savage four-armed Tharks to the benefits of treating animals with compassion even more. D More...

0 comments like

Nov 26, 2011

Annette rated it:

I've been exploring Project Gutenberg's Sci-Fi shelf, and made it to Edgar Rice Burroughs, one of the founding fathers of sci-fi.
I rather enjoyed "A Princess of Mars," the first in his John Carter series. Perhaps I would have been less impressed had I not just slogged through most of a 1930's issue of "Amazing Stories," but honestly, it's not too bad if you set your expectations appropriately - specifically, if you think of it as a comic book without pictures. Yes, i More...

0 comments like

Nov 14, 2011

Mike rated it:

There is perfection in the start and finish of this book, and a lot of swill in-between. ERB's a terrible plotter. This one runs on coincidence, information known when it is needed that was not conveyed earlier, and absurdities such as the people of Mars never lying yet knowing what lying is. There must be a dozen eavesdropping scenes. The reader is told that all but one Martian species has smooth skin, that one having hair. We later meet several hairy species and a race that decorates themselve More...

0 comments like

Oct 25, 2011

Samantha rated it:

http://www.libriecaffelatte.com/2011/09/...

A mio avviso MERITA DAVVERO! Almeno il primo libro. Mentre leggevo mi sono passate visioni di scene di film famosissimi. Ancora non ci credo, eppure.
Faccio un esempio: devono ridare l'aria a Barsoom (Marte) perchè sta finendo. John cerca di riavviare il macchinario alieno... a me ricorda Total Recall che poi è tratto da un racconto di P. Dick (1928-1982) "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" e a voi?
Ora non dico che Dick a More...

0 comments like

Oct 23, 2011

Eric rated it:

I read this book because I heard Disney is making a movie based on it. I truly loved this book. It was written in 1910 and yes in Victorian style (which I normally hate) but in this case works well. I was happy that my Kindle app for iPad allowed me to define words I wasn't exactly failure with but even without I believe the story is still perfect for a modern world.

The story stands on its own and yet is enhanced by the time capsule of reading a book written by someone born in mid 1 More...

0 comments like

Sep 05, 2011

Richard rated it:

This is one of those books that has been on my to-read pile for 40+ years! The forthcoming movie in 2012 added to my incentive. When I finally started reading 3 days ago, I was immediately entranced. Edgar Rice Burroughs writing style is great, first in the prologue and then as John Carter in the 1st person narrative. I didn't find the style archaic or wooden at all--unlike other material from the Pulp magazines, this material has aged well. I was thrilled to explore Mars, or as the natives More...

0 comments like

Aug 22, 2011

Sandy rated it:

As most of the world already knows, "A Princess of Mars" is the first of 11 Burroughs novels that tell of John Carter's adventures on the planet Barsoom (Mars, to we Earthlings). This was Burroughs' very first novel, and one of the first books in the swashbuckling space-opera vein; perhaps the very first. It is a marvel of fast-moving action and imagination; indeed, practically every page offers some new marvel or piece of outrageous spectacle. Unfortunately, the book also displays som More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Eric rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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