This story relates the adventures of Princess Tara of helium, impetuous daughter of John Carter and his beloved, 'the incomparable' Deja Thoris, as she is rescued from the Crab-like Kaldanes who breed headless Rykors to serve as their interchangeable bodies and then from the Martian Chessmasters who play barsoomian chess (an unworkable variant of conventional chess) with living chesspieces. Her rescuer, a nameless Martian soldier-of-fortune, who is in reality Gahan of Gathol, whom she had previously spurned as a royal suitor.

These stories are not high art, or even good sci-fi/fantasy; but they are terrific yarns with exotic Barsoomian locales, fantastic beasts, flamboyant princesses, dastardly villains, and cliff-hanging adventures in which the hero gets the girl and the bad guy meets his (or her) just deserts.

I've read and re-read these stories over the years, and even recorded them onto DVD for the local radio station for blind and reading-impaired listeners.