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26th out of 96 books
—
109 voters
A Fighting Man of Mars (Barsoom #7)
Classic Science Fiction Novel From The Creator Of Tarzan In Which Hadron Of Hastor Seeks Vengeance When A New Weapon Attacks Warlord John Carter And The Lady Helium Disappears.
Mass Market Paperback, 239 pages
Published
October 12th 1984
by Del Rey
(first published 1930)
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Jun 25, 2008
Matt
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Lovers of science fiction, fantasy, or comic books. Boys and girls of all ages.
Shelves:
science-fiction,
fantasy
'A Fighting Man of Mars' is the longest, and probably the best, of Edgar Rice Burroughs classic 'Barsoom' science fiction sword operas.
In this story, John Carter takes a back seat to an ordinary martian soldier. The story just gets better for it. This is the high water mark of the series, both in terms of imagination and the sophistication of the story telling.
The villain of this story is a power mad tyrant who plans to conquer all of Mars using a combination of super science and an uncountable...more
In this story, John Carter takes a back seat to an ordinary martian soldier. The story just gets better for it. This is the high water mark of the series, both in terms of imagination and the sophistication of the story telling.
The villain of this story is a power mad tyrant who plans to conquer all of Mars using a combination of super science and an uncountable...more
"A Fighting Man of Mars" is book 7 of 11 John Carter novels that Edgar Rice Burroughs gave to the world. It first appeared serially in "The Blue Book Magazine" from April-September 1930, and, at almost 250 pages, is the longest of all the Carter novels. As in the previous three books in the series, Carter himself only makes a few token appearances, the action mantle this time falling on a distant relation of his, Tan Hadron. As Carter did for Dejah Thoris in books 1-3, and Carthoris did for Thuv...more
Either this or Chessmen is probably my favorite non-original-trilogy Barsoom book. In this case, Burroughs mixes up the formula a little -- it's first-person narration but from the point of view of a native Barsoomian. Tan Hadron of Hastor is, of course, tall, clean-limbed and a dab hand with a sword; he's also, in some aspects of interpersonal relationships, dumb as a box of hammers.
The set-up is pretty much what you'd expect -- a search to far corners of Mars for a kidnapped woman, during whic...more
The set-up is pretty much what you'd expect -- a search to far corners of Mars for a kidnapped woman, during whic...more
Once again, a doughty fighting man of Barsoom goes off to rescue yet another kidnapped beauty. Ah, but wait – Burroughs throws us a curve on this one and the result is a somewhat more satisfying romance than his usual.
The move toward more of a mainline science fiction direction that became evident in ‘The Mastermind of Mars’ is continued here. That has its good points and its bad; it’s not quite the Barsoom we came to know and love in the earlier novels but it does allow an expansion of ERB’s ba...more
The move toward more of a mainline science fiction direction that became evident in ‘The Mastermind of Mars’ is continued here. That has its good points and its bad; it’s not quite the Barsoom we came to know and love in the earlier novels but it does allow an expansion of ERB’s ba...more
A Fighting Man of Mars is growing on me; this is only the second time I've read it (as opposed to the rest of the series, much of which I read several times in college when I needed a brain break). It departs slightly from the earlier Barsoom books in that the hero is no relation to John Carter and not a Terran; Hadron is a red Martian from a faraway province, Hastor, who takes service in Helium.
While in Helium, Hadron meets a lovely lady. He pursues her romantically, but she isn't interested in...more
While in Helium, Hadron meets a lovely lady. He pursues her romantically, but she isn't interested in...more
For the most part a taut and absorbing read (as they say). I used to eat these things up as a kid, but now I must admit to having a few extraneous thoughts, like wondering why the heck they don't make use of their radium pistols more. Contains what has to be the most ridiculous deus ex machina I've ever encountered, though the narrator assures us that it was all perfectly logical, so I guess we have to believe him (lol). Also, the protagonist is a perfect chowderhead at times, seemingly engineer...more
So this was written around 1930. A mad scientist has developed disintegrator rays that can turn warfare into mass destruction, and a tyrannical jeddak is planning to conquer the whole planet with these weapons and massive armies that he has created with enforced breeding. The hero must stop him and save the woman he wishes to marry from the tyrant's clutches. Business as usual.
The damsel-in-distress plot is subverted by the reveal of the true heroine of the story, who is plucky, resourceful and...more
The damsel-in-distress plot is subverted by the reveal of the true heroine of the story, who is plucky, resourceful and...more
This is one of the most well-constructed and coherent of ERB's Mars novels, although that's not saying too much. Another bright spot is that the romance is sweet and tends to undermine the love-at-first-sight motif more characteristic of these books. And the threats are intriguingly grim (e.g. being stalked as game by cannibals). But the inventiveness this time rests almost entirely on the use of gadgetry: invisibility paint, disintegration rays, a spider silk material, and air-to-air guided mis...more
The later Barsoom novels are definitely not up to the standards of the first five. Fighting Man was marginally less sexist than Master Mind although problematic in its own way. The protagonist spends much of his time swooning over a vapid but hot princess while adventuring around with a homely but intelligent girl. Not better than it sounds. Otherwise it's a little closer to the grand adventures of the John Carter books. By the time you've gotten this far in the series, you probably have your ow...more
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 sci-fi, but it's quite diff...more
Today we call this stuff sci-fi, but it's quite diff...more
It's hard to beat the original 3 (None of the books are as good without John Carter), but besides those, this is probably my favorite in the Barsoom series.
It comes complete with a love triangle, battling nations, giant lizards, giant spiders, invisibility cloaks (That's right, one of Harry Potter's Deathly Hallows was on Barsoom long ago), disintegrating rays, cloaked battleships and so much more.
I even appreciated the love story. Rather than the traditional (for this series, or Disney movies)...more
It comes complete with a love triangle, battling nations, giant lizards, giant spiders, invisibility cloaks (That's right, one of Harry Potter's Deathly Hallows was on Barsoom long ago), disintegrating rays, cloaked battleships and so much more.
I even appreciated the love story. Rather than the traditional (for this series, or Disney movies)...more
Edgar Rice Burrougs did it again! This is the seventh Barsoom book, and still this book is a pleasure to read. Once more Burroughs created situations, persons and communities on Barsoom that are novel and intersting enough to give you a pleasant time while reading about them. It is difficult to realise that this book was written about 100 years ago. It is still fresh as were it written nowadays.
In this book the "I" is a native Martian (although his way of thinking is very "earthly" and this, bu...more
In this book the "I" is a native Martian (although his way of thinking is very "earthly" and this, bu...more
This is the story of Tan Hadron as related by Ulysses Paxton, the hero from "Mastermind of Mars", as Tan Hadron seeks to rescue the beautiful but shallow princess Sanoma Tora. In the course of his quest Tan Hadron befriends Tavia the slave girl who assists him in rescuing Sanoma Tora. When the princess of his desire proves herself unworthy of his love, Tan Hadron accepts Tavia's love instead, and she (surprize-surprize) turns out to be a princess herself.
These stories are not high art, or even g...more
These stories are not high art, or even g...more
It's been so long since I've read these books that the details are lost in the mist of time. That said, I'm sure there are variations in the quality of story and prose throughout this series (it's Burroughs, after all), but I choose to remember the series as a whole, and rate it as I remember it through the eyes and mind of the child that read it for the first time...
Great story. The hero in this story is Tan Hadron who is a minor noble who falls passionately in love with a noblewoman who rejects him. She is later kidnapped and used as a pawn in a war. Tan is called upon to rescue her and would be considered worthy of her. Later he meets up with a strong willed but very passionate and devoted slave-girl named Tavia. In the end I loved what happened. Especially the great battle. Tan proves to be just as noble a hero John Carter and Ulysses Paxton are. The onl...more
It was nice to have a Barsoom story that didn't center on John Carter or his progeny or other Earthly humans. I like how there are always tyrannical dictators to be overthrown... but it gets a wee bit old. Also, the love story was weak and waaaay too heavy-handed. And why did she have to turn out to be nobility after all?
Please note, this 5 star rating is based on my long ago memories of this book - I may have read it greater than 20 years ago. I recall reading and really liking it, and even kept the book to read again in the future (something I only do with good, or otherwise significant books). The memories of an old man are sometimes faulty so this could really only warrant 3.5 to 4.5 stars, instead of the 5 I gave it. Once I re-read the book I will update this rating/review to more accurately reflect my thou...more
a red martian man goes to rescue a martian woman who has been kidnapped. In the process he falls in love with another, discovers yet another crazed, world domineering wannabe and yet another mad scientist. Everything works out in the end. Burroughs uses the word "indubitably". How pretentious.
Another good addition to the mars series. This one was a little more drawn out that the previous book. It had a slightly different type of ending compared to the other books, so that was a nice edge, though you could easily see it coming from 1/4 way through. It doesn't live up to the first 3 in the series, but it's still a good one overall.
In some ways the best story Barsoom story yet. The hero embarks on the usual romantic swashbuckling quest but finds along the way that beauty is only skin deep.
This is the longest and draggiest of the Barsoom books, and Tan Hadron is a bit of a drip. Still, he throws his sword at a giant lizard, so I guess we're cool.
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Jun 19, 2010
Erik Graff
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Barsoom fans
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
sf
It's terrible, but at the age of thirteen I loved this stuff--particularly the Barsoom and Pellucidar series.
Apr 07, 2012
Il Futuro è tornato
added it
Ne abbiamo parlato sul blog nell'articolo sul planetary romance:
http://wp.me/p29Hyy-2w
http://wp.me/p29Hyy-2w
I read this whole series when I was in Junior High and loved them. I was bored at work a while ago and decided to see if I still thought they were any good after 40+ years, so I downloaded them for free and started reading them on my iPad. They are a lot cornier than I remembered and all the plots are very similar, but in spite of that I did enjoy reading them again. I hopefully won't start fantasizing about being John Carter and rescuing the "Incomparable Deja Thoris" like I did as a geeky earl...more
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I loved this whole series. It's pretty sexual and macho and they're all massive page-turners.
Same review for each.
Same review for each.
Have I mentioned that I like this a lot?
Another fun Barsoomian adventure, implausible but entertaining.
The original transported to another planet series
Great as usual! Four to go in the series.
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Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.
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“Emerging, as we had, from the dark and gloomy bowels of the earth, the scene before us presented a view of wondrous beauty, and, while doubtless enhanced by contrast, it was nevertheless such an aspect as is seldom given to the eyes, of a Barsoomian of today to view. To me it seemed a little garden spot upon a dying world preserved from an ancient era when Barsoom was young and meteorological conditions were such as to favor the growth of vegetation that has since become extinct over practically the entire area of the planet. In this deep valley, surrounded by lofty cliffs, the atmosphere doubtless was considerably denser than upon the surface of the planet above. The sun's days were reflected by the lofty escarpment, which must also hold the heat during the colder periods of night, and, in addition to this, there was ample water for irrigation which nature might easily have achieved through percolation of the waters of the river through and beneath the top soil of the valley.”
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