What do you think?
Rate this book
Barsoom #10
Llana of Gathol
"Llana of Gathol" is a collection of four novellas written in the Martian series of Edgar Rice Burroughs which was written for Amazing Stories in 1941. Llano, the daughter of Gahan of Gothol, is the perfect damsel in distress. "Llana of Gathol" consists of four stories. First "The Ancient Dead" (originally "The City of Mummies") followed by "The Black Pirates of Barsoom", "Escape on Mars" and finally "Invisible Men of Mars". The four books in this series is truly comprised of parody and satire. These books are a good laugh with many futuristic encounters and wild characters.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
About the author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
2,096 books2,639 followersEdgar 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
May 17, 2023
Nice SiFi/adventure read. But that is to be expected by the master of adventure. Very recommended
July 8, 2010
I didn't realize that Burroughs was parodying himself until after I finished. In hindsight, the parodic elements were certainly present: three strange lost/hidden/secret cities, each with strict "no leaving" policies; a damsel in distress that appears apparently on cue; yet another poor deluded maid who falls head-over-heels for John Carter in time to render assistance in escape; and a seeming conga-line of swordmen (each claiming to be the best of Barsoom) for Carter to dramatically and extravagantly crush. But these elements are relatively subtle given the broad writing and genre. It's hard to take the standard Burroughsian action up the requisite notch to make it satirical.
The book is constructed of connected short fiction, and while this keeps things moving at quite a clip--fifty pages to introduce the new problem, work with it, and eliminate it--it sacrifices depth. I would like to know more about the nearly-abandoned secret city of Horz, its inhabitants dwelling within a hidden citadel against discovery by Green Martian raiders, or more development of the dastardly Hin Abtol, whose mad dreams of conquest drive him to lead a ragtag, disloyal horde of scavenged, obsolete warships against the city of Gathol from the greenhouse city of the polar region.
The book is constructed of connected short fiction, and while this keeps things moving at quite a clip--fifty pages to introduce the new problem, work with it, and eliminate it--it sacrifices depth. I would like to know more about the nearly-abandoned secret city of Horz, its inhabitants dwelling within a hidden citadel against discovery by Green Martian raiders, or more development of the dastardly Hin Abtol, whose mad dreams of conquest drive him to lead a ragtag, disloyal horde of scavenged, obsolete warships against the city of Gathol from the greenhouse city of the polar region.
October 23, 2014
Not really a 4 star book unless you really like ERB & the Barsoom series. This is one of the best in that series.
December 11, 2018
Maybe a 3.25; probably not quite a 3.5. This is one of Burroughs' late-period books, written as a series of four linked novelettes -- he did the same thing with late Tarzan, Venus and Pellucidar books. John Carter is the narrator again; he gets involved in a series of adventures mostly involving nations of red and black men who live near Mars' north pole (home of the yellow men in Warlord of Mars).
The stories themselves aren't bad; one thing I found jarring, however, was the frequent reuse of descriptive passages from previous books -- various Martian creatures' descriptions seemed taken almost word-for-word from their original appearances.
Llana of Gathol herself, John Carter's granddaughter, is an engaging character although she gets little actual screentime.
The stories themselves aren't bad; one thing I found jarring, however, was the frequent reuse of descriptive passages from previous books -- various Martian creatures' descriptions seemed taken almost word-for-word from their original appearances.
Llana of Gathol herself, John Carter's granddaughter, is an engaging character although she gets little actual screentime.
December 19, 2008
This is an absolute joy. Burroughs must have had enormous fun writing this because it is as full of adventure as a pudding is of raisins. It is like reading one of the old movie series which would end with cliff-hanger after cliff-hanger. Heroes are threatened with certain death; beautiful, pure maidens are kidnapped and risk ravishment. Swords clash; airships are hi-jacked; pirates proliferate; dead cities are not quite as dead as they look. This is wonderful brain candy. It redeems much of the tedium of the books which immediately preceded it and leaves a delicious taste in the mental mouth. I shall read it again one of these days.
July 16, 2016
In this penultimate novel in the John Carter series, our hero discovers still more unknown tribes on the red planet.
The evil Hin Abtol, self described Jeddak of Jeddaks in the north, is bent on conquering all of Barsoom and claiming John Carter's grandaughter, Llana of Gathol in the bargain.
From the lost city of Horz, to a tribe that has created a pill to make themselves invisible, John Carter fights his way back to Helium with Llana in tow, meeting steadfast companions along the way.
Another in an always enjoyable series.
The evil Hin Abtol, self described Jeddak of Jeddaks in the north, is bent on conquering all of Barsoom and claiming John Carter's grandaughter, Llana of Gathol in the bargain.
From the lost city of Horz, to a tribe that has created a pill to make themselves invisible, John Carter fights his way back to Helium with Llana in tow, meeting steadfast companions along the way.
Another in an always enjoyable series.
February 7, 2021
The penultimate book in the adventures of John Carter of Mars. This features four interconnected novelettes detailing Carter's adventures with his granddaughter, Llana of Gathol. By this time, it's clear Burroughs knew his characters well and was having fun with them. More tongue-in-cheek humor in this one than earlier books in the series. Three of the novellas follow essentially the same plot, but the fun comes from the way Burroughs mixes up the details.
June 20, 2019
Más que un libro, son como tres libros. Tres aventuras con un hilo conductor: salvar a la mujer. De nuevo John Carter necesita disponer de tiempo y alejarse de su lujosa vida, con la mujer más hermosa de todo el universo para ir a buscar pelea: este tío es tonto.
Afortunadamente el autor sabe guiar las aventuras y de forma fluida nos transporta de una tribu a otra, utilizando los esquemas de anteriores libros. Nos vuelve a refrescar conocimientos de Barsoom como si fuésemos noveles y aparecen personajes antiguos con nuevas facetas. Una vuelta más a las aventuras.
En este libro se desvela el misterio de porqué Barsoom parece un mundo infinito, mucho más grande que el propio júpiter. La teoría no se sustenta, pero bueno, es fantasía y se acepta tal como es. Pues está saga hay que leerla con la sangre necesitada de aventuras. Los personajes femeninos continúan siendo premios ornamentales.
Afortunadamente el autor sabe guiar las aventuras y de forma fluida nos transporta de una tribu a otra, utilizando los esquemas de anteriores libros. Nos vuelve a refrescar conocimientos de Barsoom como si fuésemos noveles y aparecen personajes antiguos con nuevas facetas. Una vuelta más a las aventuras.
En este libro se desvela el misterio de porqué Barsoom parece un mundo infinito, mucho más grande que el propio júpiter. La teoría no se sustenta, pero bueno, es fantasía y se acepta tal como es. Pues está saga hay que leerla con la sangre necesitada de aventuras. Los personajes femeninos continúan siendo premios ornamentales.
March 9, 2020
Although this novel exasperated the level of unlikely chance occurring, it still featured John Carter of Mars in his finest as both a master swordsman and a cunning tactician. The author, looking on how to expand his stable of unique people on Mars tested the limit of credulity with the invisible people. They seemed so silly.
December 16, 2023
This was a boring, bad one. I’ve never struggled so much with the length of a 190 page book.
This is the same story four times. John Carter is the best swordsman. He has no plan or tactics but everything falls in his lap because he’s the best swordsman. But he’s not braggy about it. He just knows it to be true so that doesn’t count as bragging.
Good lord this book was boring.
This is the same story four times. John Carter is the best swordsman. He has no plan or tactics but everything falls in his lap because he’s the best swordsman. But he’s not braggy about it. He just knows it to be true so that doesn’t count as bragging.
Good lord this book was boring.
August 2, 2024
2.0/5
Behold! A microcosm of the Barsoom series, but repeated four times over. Each and every tired trope trotted out to have it's two pages in the sun - damosels in distress, heretofore undiscovered tribes and peoples, imprisonment and the inevitable singular friend from the hostile city. At least the new Audible narrator was pretty good.
Behold! A microcosm of the Barsoom series, but repeated four times over. Each and every tired trope trotted out to have it's two pages in the sun - damosels in distress, heretofore undiscovered tribes and peoples, imprisonment and the inevitable singular friend from the hostile city. At least the new Audible narrator was pretty good.
August 28, 2021
While this was great fun to read it wasn't the same level of writing that ERB created in the earlier Barsoom novels.
April 25, 2024
The last in the Barsoom series published before ERB's death, this was another action-packed tale of Mars. A little jauntier in tone, it's a ton of fun to read.
August 22, 2011
"Llana of Gathol" is the 10th of 11 John Carter of Mars books that Edgar Rice Burroughs left to the world. This book is comprised of four linked short tales that first appeared in "Amazing Stories Magazine" from March to October 1941. Each of these stories is around 50 pages in length and is made up of 13 very short chapters.
In the first tale, "The Ancient Dead," John Carter goes for a spin in his flier to get away from it all, and winds up in the ancient Barsoomian city of Horz. This long-dead city, however, turns out to be anything but. In "The Black Pirates of Barsoom," Carter discovers an enclave of the First Born (last seen in book 2, "The Gods of Mars") and is forced to fight in their gladiator-style games. In "Escape on Mars," Carter goes to the aid of the besieged city of Gathol, and winds up stealing a battleship and putting together an untrustworthy crew of mercenaries and assassins. Finally, in "Invisible Men of Mars," Carter and his granddaughter, the eponymous Llana, come upon the lost city of Invar, and its invisible inhabitants. Space does not permit me to go into the remarkable plot twists and surprises that this book offers. Each of the tales is a little gem of swift-moving action, but this time presented with a decidedly lighthearted touch. For all the serious goings-on, this Carter volume features the most humor yet seen in the series. This combination of deadly action, presented with a light tone, is a very appealing one. The book is also something of a nostalgia piece; of all the books in the series, this one refers back to events in previous volumes more than any of the others. Indeed, I can hardly see how a reader could really enjoy this collection without a thorough knowledge of ALL the previous entries in the series. And in addition to previous events being referred to, we also see, in "Llana of Gathol," the return of several characters from earlier volumes: Ptor Fak from "A Princess of Mars," Tan Hadron from "A Fighting Man of Mars," Zithad from "The Gods of Mars" and so on. This harking back to old events and characters strikes me as being not repetitive, as some readers have claimed, but a nice, almost nostalgic tribute to past events. The book also features one of the longest and nastiest sword fights that Carter has ever engaged in; the one with Motus, in the city of Invar. This is one memorable sequence, indeed. Carter is told several times during the course of this novel, by one or another of his many enemies, that "Resistance is futile." I can't help wondering whether the creators of Star Trek's Borg menace were Burroughs fans! Anyway, these short-story gems will certainly entertain any lover of fast-moving sci-fi/fantasy.
All of which is not to say that the book contains no problems, however. Like ALL the previous books in the Carter series, this one contains some doozies. For example, the use of outrageous coincidence, while frequent in past volumes, is waaay overused in this book. I refer here to the coincidence of bumping into Llana in Horz and the coincidence of meeting the brother of Janai (heroine of book 9, "Synthetic Men of Mars"), not to mention the coincidence of meeting all the other "old friends" mentioned above. Worse still is the fact that by the book's end, the fate of several of the main characters remains unknown; e.g., the fate of Hin Abtol, the main villain of the saga, and of Tan Hadron and Fo-Nar. We are told by Carter at one point that he will soon explain how the First Born have come to be in the lost rift valley, but he never gets around to it. There are the usual inconsistencies that pop up, too: Why do the CLOTHES of the invisible inhabitants of Invar become invisible also? Why haven't the CLOTHES of the living dead in Horz not long since disintegrated? How is Carter able to read the hieroglyphs on the king's crown in Invar, when in previous books Burroughs has told us that each city has its own written symbols? Why is it necessary for Hin Abtol's ships to drop men with equilibrimotors (flying belts) into the besieged city of Gathol, when these soldiers could just fly in themselves? I should perhaps add at this point that I have been told by one of the founders of the ERB List (the best Burroughs Website that any fan could ever hope for) that many of these errors and discrepancies are absent from the original versions of the Carter books, but only added later by addle-brained copy editors. I can only speak of what I have read (the Ballantine/DelRey paperbacks from the early '80s), and these books are something of a mess. Still, the vision of Burroughs does manage to shine through, and despite the glitches, this book is a veritable packet of wonders.
In the first tale, "The Ancient Dead," John Carter goes for a spin in his flier to get away from it all, and winds up in the ancient Barsoomian city of Horz. This long-dead city, however, turns out to be anything but. In "The Black Pirates of Barsoom," Carter discovers an enclave of the First Born (last seen in book 2, "The Gods of Mars") and is forced to fight in their gladiator-style games. In "Escape on Mars," Carter goes to the aid of the besieged city of Gathol, and winds up stealing a battleship and putting together an untrustworthy crew of mercenaries and assassins. Finally, in "Invisible Men of Mars," Carter and his granddaughter, the eponymous Llana, come upon the lost city of Invar, and its invisible inhabitants. Space does not permit me to go into the remarkable plot twists and surprises that this book offers. Each of the tales is a little gem of swift-moving action, but this time presented with a decidedly lighthearted touch. For all the serious goings-on, this Carter volume features the most humor yet seen in the series. This combination of deadly action, presented with a light tone, is a very appealing one. The book is also something of a nostalgia piece; of all the books in the series, this one refers back to events in previous volumes more than any of the others. Indeed, I can hardly see how a reader could really enjoy this collection without a thorough knowledge of ALL the previous entries in the series. And in addition to previous events being referred to, we also see, in "Llana of Gathol," the return of several characters from earlier volumes: Ptor Fak from "A Princess of Mars," Tan Hadron from "A Fighting Man of Mars," Zithad from "The Gods of Mars" and so on. This harking back to old events and characters strikes me as being not repetitive, as some readers have claimed, but a nice, almost nostalgic tribute to past events. The book also features one of the longest and nastiest sword fights that Carter has ever engaged in; the one with Motus, in the city of Invar. This is one memorable sequence, indeed. Carter is told several times during the course of this novel, by one or another of his many enemies, that "Resistance is futile." I can't help wondering whether the creators of Star Trek's Borg menace were Burroughs fans! Anyway, these short-story gems will certainly entertain any lover of fast-moving sci-fi/fantasy.
All of which is not to say that the book contains no problems, however. Like ALL the previous books in the Carter series, this one contains some doozies. For example, the use of outrageous coincidence, while frequent in past volumes, is waaay overused in this book. I refer here to the coincidence of bumping into Llana in Horz and the coincidence of meeting the brother of Janai (heroine of book 9, "Synthetic Men of Mars"), not to mention the coincidence of meeting all the other "old friends" mentioned above. Worse still is the fact that by the book's end, the fate of several of the main characters remains unknown; e.g., the fate of Hin Abtol, the main villain of the saga, and of Tan Hadron and Fo-Nar. We are told by Carter at one point that he will soon explain how the First Born have come to be in the lost rift valley, but he never gets around to it. There are the usual inconsistencies that pop up, too: Why do the CLOTHES of the invisible inhabitants of Invar become invisible also? Why haven't the CLOTHES of the living dead in Horz not long since disintegrated? How is Carter able to read the hieroglyphs on the king's crown in Invar, when in previous books Burroughs has told us that each city has its own written symbols? Why is it necessary for Hin Abtol's ships to drop men with equilibrimotors (flying belts) into the besieged city of Gathol, when these soldiers could just fly in themselves? I should perhaps add at this point that I have been told by one of the founders of the ERB List (the best Burroughs Website that any fan could ever hope for) that many of these errors and discrepancies are absent from the original versions of the Carter books, but only added later by addle-brained copy editors. I can only speak of what I have read (the Ballantine/DelRey paperbacks from the early '80s), and these books are something of a mess. Still, the vision of Burroughs does manage to shine through, and despite the glitches, this book is a veritable packet of wonders.
April 23, 2021
Although there was a bit too much repetition of "I'm the best swordsman in 'xxx', wam bam, I'm better", it was still entertaining.
December 30, 2015
Your enjoyment of LLANA OF GATHOL entirely depends on whether or not you can turn your brain off without losing all ability to be entertained. Even by old-school pulp sci-fi standards, this book is dumb. And yet, as with all John Carter novels, it possesses a certain kind of charm for anyone reading it for purely escapist reasons.
LLANA OF GATHOL is composed of four inter-connected novellas, each with the same basic story structure: A strange new city is discovered, Llana is taken prisoner, and John Carter must break free from his captors and rescue her. And, since Carter is a god-man who is the very best at absolutely everything he does, his eventual success is never in question.
The repetitiveness and shallowness of these stories would render them boring were it not for the fact that Burroughs creates a mythology interesting enough to compensate for the majority of the book's shortcomings. Every new city that John Carter visits has its own unique and fascinating characteristics--the kind of settings that would've made for great episodes of the original STAR TREK.
Though recommended for John Carter fans only, LLANA OF GATHOL is the sort of ultra-lowbrow entertainment that keeps you coming back for more.
LLANA OF GATHOL is composed of four inter-connected novellas, each with the same basic story structure: A strange new city is discovered, Llana is taken prisoner, and John Carter must break free from his captors and rescue her. And, since Carter is a god-man who is the very best at absolutely everything he does, his eventual success is never in question.
The repetitiveness and shallowness of these stories would render them boring were it not for the fact that Burroughs creates a mythology interesting enough to compensate for the majority of the book's shortcomings. Every new city that John Carter visits has its own unique and fascinating characteristics--the kind of settings that would've made for great episodes of the original STAR TREK.
Though recommended for John Carter fans only, LLANA OF GATHOL is the sort of ultra-lowbrow entertainment that keeps you coming back for more.
February 8, 2012
Probably the weakest of the Barsoom series, as Edgar Rice Burroughs resorts to a bit of parody of his own earlier stories by casting John Carter's granddaughter, Llana, daughter of Tara & Gahan of Gathol, in the role originally reserved for her grandmother, 'the incomparable' Deja Thoris.
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.
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.
July 9, 2021
Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1941 Llana of Gathol, tenth in the eleven-book Barsoom series, begins, as these novels often do, with a visit from John Carter to the fictionalized author, during which the Warlord regales Burroughs with a Martian tale of adventure and heroism, which the author then transcribes for us as his first-person story. This time, the encounter takes place on a moonlit lanai with Burroughs "watching the white[-]maned chargers of the sea racing shoreward" toward "the windward shore of the Island of Oahu" (1979 Del Rey paperback, page v). The setting of Hawaii in late 1941 raises the hair on the back of the neck for the modern reader, but of course this piece was written, and even was published, when the attack upon Pearl Harbor could not yet even be imagined by his American audience.
The novel we now read actually first was published in Amazing Stories as four novellas appearing in mid-'41: "The City of Mummies," which here is titled "The Ancient Dead," in March; "The Black Pirates of Barsoom" in June; "Yellow Men of Mars," called "Escape on Mars" here, in August; and "Invisible Men of Mars" in October (page iv). Book 1, Book, 2, and Book 3 actually all do have what I might call a sub-conclusion, each of the first two with an almost sitcom-like droll shrug regarding the superior smugness of women during courtship, and the third with more of an ominous foreboding about the ultimate resolution of the overall plot. Although each Book pretty much could stand alone as its own work, with the Books 2 through 4 each having a broad intro sentence allowing us to start in medias res after an escape from some grave danger, there is, after all, a single story that runs through the entire adventure.
The novel begins with John Carter, who, despite the pleasure of "be[ing] with [his] family, [his] friends, [his] fighting men," nevertheless is "at times equally keen to be alone," going on one of his occasional "glorious adventures in solitude," when he "take[s] a one-man flier and range[s] the dead sea bottoms and the other uninhabited wildernesses of this dying planet" (page 9). On this particular jaunt he comes upon what "is, perhaps, the oldest and the greatest of the dead cities of Barsoom," Holz, whose "oldest part...lies upon the edge of a vast plateau" and whose "newer portions, though they are countless thousands of years old, are terraced downward into a great gulf, marking the hopeless pursuit of the receding sea upon the shores of which this rich and powerful city once stood" (pages 10-11). Surprisingly, though, as John Carter "float[s] lazily above the deserted city," he suddenly espies a sword fight in which "a lone red man [is] beset by half a dozen fierce green warriors" (page 11) of huge stature and with four arms. And by now, already nine books in, we know that "no man worthy of his metal would abandon one of his own kind in such dire extremity" (page 11), don't we?
Yes, of course. And so "the master swordsman of two worlds" (page 27) comes down to help...but, again, with our familiarity with Burroughs, we know somethin's gonna go wrong. Even after vanquishing the huge green warriors, for example, John Carter and his newly made friend, Pan Dan Chee, might be sent by an unyielding king to the dark pits below the city, there to encounter, ahem, the ancient dead. And Llana of Gathol, John Carter's granddaughter and she who gives name to the book? Well, this chick is down there in a stone casket in the dark, too, and though the random coincidence sounds crazy, Burroughs has her tell a backstory of abduction by a baddie both classless and cowardly that at least sort of makes sense.
Oh, yes-- And Pan Dan Chee already has been awestruck by the "gorgeous beauty" of the likeness of Llana of Gathol carved into one of the tiny pieces of John Carter's portable set for Jetan, or Martian chess, and would consider it "sacrilege" to use this "figure of a goddess" in a game (page 28). Upon meeting girl, therefore, he "unbuckle[s] his sword and [lays] it at her feet," which "is not exactly an avowal of love or a proposal of marriage" but, "in a way, something even more sacred," indicating "that as long as life lasts that sword is at the service of him at whose feet it has been laid" (page 40). The princess of Gathol apparently is "pleased," for she "accept[s] his offer of fealty" (page 40) while at the same time pointedly avoids seeming to notice any implications of love.
So the novel has a subplot of love interest, and somewhere out there there's still that baddie from the north polar regions of Mars, who not only desireth the supple flesh of Llana of Gathol but also hopes to conquer noble Helium with his strange army of...mm, well, I guess I should avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say, then, that we will encounter an outpost city of the First Born, also known as the Black Pirates of Barsoom, where John Carter naturally will be enslaved and yet in a contest will perform some exquisitely mischievous sword work upon a boastful jackass who truly deserves it. Once the First Born are given the slip, we will find out why the bad guy's henchmen speak ruefully about having been "frozen in" at his secret northern city, and we'll see John Carter in yet another contest teach a different blowhard the meaning of swordsmanship. And yes, there indeed eventually will be invisible men, too.
Swordplay, captures, escapes-- Courage and perseverance, and the occasional befriending of seeming enemies in the name of fairness and common humanity-- Ancient cities and the rugged open vistas of a slowly dying world-- The clank of arms hanging from carved and jeweled leather trappings, and sly humor, and wild coincidences-- These are the characteristics of the Barsoomian tales, and Burroughs's Llana of Gathol a solid 4-star entertainment no less than its predecessors.
The novel we now read actually first was published in Amazing Stories as four novellas appearing in mid-'41: "The City of Mummies," which here is titled "The Ancient Dead," in March; "The Black Pirates of Barsoom" in June; "Yellow Men of Mars," called "Escape on Mars" here, in August; and "Invisible Men of Mars" in October (page iv). Book 1, Book, 2, and Book 3 actually all do have what I might call a sub-conclusion, each of the first two with an almost sitcom-like droll shrug regarding the superior smugness of women during courtship, and the third with more of an ominous foreboding about the ultimate resolution of the overall plot. Although each Book pretty much could stand alone as its own work, with the Books 2 through 4 each having a broad intro sentence allowing us to start in medias res after an escape from some grave danger, there is, after all, a single story that runs through the entire adventure.
The novel begins with John Carter, who, despite the pleasure of "be[ing] with [his] family, [his] friends, [his] fighting men," nevertheless is "at times equally keen to be alone," going on one of his occasional "glorious adventures in solitude," when he "take[s] a one-man flier and range[s] the dead sea bottoms and the other uninhabited wildernesses of this dying planet" (page 9). On this particular jaunt he comes upon what "is, perhaps, the oldest and the greatest of the dead cities of Barsoom," Holz, whose "oldest part...lies upon the edge of a vast plateau" and whose "newer portions, though they are countless thousands of years old, are terraced downward into a great gulf, marking the hopeless pursuit of the receding sea upon the shores of which this rich and powerful city once stood" (pages 10-11). Surprisingly, though, as John Carter "float[s] lazily above the deserted city," he suddenly espies a sword fight in which "a lone red man [is] beset by half a dozen fierce green warriors" (page 11) of huge stature and with four arms. And by now, already nine books in, we know that "no man worthy of his metal would abandon one of his own kind in such dire extremity" (page 11), don't we?
Yes, of course. And so "the master swordsman of two worlds" (page 27) comes down to help...but, again, with our familiarity with Burroughs, we know somethin's gonna go wrong. Even after vanquishing the huge green warriors, for example, John Carter and his newly made friend, Pan Dan Chee, might be sent by an unyielding king to the dark pits below the city, there to encounter, ahem, the ancient dead. And Llana of Gathol, John Carter's granddaughter and she who gives name to the book? Well, this chick is down there in a stone casket in the dark, too, and though the random coincidence sounds crazy, Burroughs has her tell a backstory of abduction by a baddie both classless and cowardly that at least sort of makes sense.
Oh, yes-- And Pan Dan Chee already has been awestruck by the "gorgeous beauty" of the likeness of Llana of Gathol carved into one of the tiny pieces of John Carter's portable set for Jetan, or Martian chess, and would consider it "sacrilege" to use this "figure of a goddess" in a game (page 28). Upon meeting girl, therefore, he "unbuckle[s] his sword and [lays] it at her feet," which "is not exactly an avowal of love or a proposal of marriage" but, "in a way, something even more sacred," indicating "that as long as life lasts that sword is at the service of him at whose feet it has been laid" (page 40). The princess of Gathol apparently is "pleased," for she "accept[s] his offer of fealty" (page 40) while at the same time pointedly avoids seeming to notice any implications of love.
So the novel has a subplot of love interest, and somewhere out there there's still that baddie from the north polar regions of Mars, who not only desireth the supple flesh of Llana of Gathol but also hopes to conquer noble Helium with his strange army of...mm, well, I guess I should avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say, then, that we will encounter an outpost city of the First Born, also known as the Black Pirates of Barsoom, where John Carter naturally will be enslaved and yet in a contest will perform some exquisitely mischievous sword work upon a boastful jackass who truly deserves it. Once the First Born are given the slip, we will find out why the bad guy's henchmen speak ruefully about having been "frozen in" at his secret northern city, and we'll see John Carter in yet another contest teach a different blowhard the meaning of swordsmanship. And yes, there indeed eventually will be invisible men, too.
Swordplay, captures, escapes-- Courage and perseverance, and the occasional befriending of seeming enemies in the name of fairness and common humanity-- Ancient cities and the rugged open vistas of a slowly dying world-- The clank of arms hanging from carved and jeweled leather trappings, and sly humor, and wild coincidences-- These are the characteristics of the Barsoomian tales, and Burroughs's Llana of Gathol a solid 4-star entertainment no less than its predecessors.
December 9, 2017
This tale of Barsoom opens with an unidentified narrator relaxing on a Hawaiian beach, with one of his kin, John Carter, coming and telling the story of the titular character, Llana of Gathol, daughter of Gahan of Gathol and Tara of Helium. The main action opens in one of the oldest and supposedly greatest dead cities of Barsoom, Horz, where John Carter, the narrator for the remainder of the story, fights green men, and is captured by Lan Sohn Wen. Carter is sentenced to death in a series of catacombs, and a little before then befriends Pan Dan Chee, the two seeking an exit, laughter and light eluding them.
Carter and Pan Dan Chee ultimately encounter Llana, whom they take along, going to a canyon of Barsoom, with some backstory involving Martian reproduction. The editor further gives an aside in the middle of a chapter on radium powder, and the company goes to a gleaming white city, where Carter poses as a slave to the Black Pirates, and regularly engages in swordfights with adversarial characters. The company ultimately flies to Gathol, although they’re at first unwelcome due to posing as emissaries of the Black Pirates.
Carter goes by an alias throughout the story, although he does occasionally tell his true identity to a select few characters, and takes odd jobs such as thawing and reviving human corpses in the northern city of Pankdor. The final part of the book involves the narrator’s exploits among the invisible men of Barsoom, who attain their status thanks to special spheres, and where Carter once more shows off his swordsmanship, overall culminating in a satisfying conclusion to the story, although Martian terminology of things such as time can occasionally be confusing, even with the translations of equivalent Earth time.
Carter and Pan Dan Chee ultimately encounter Llana, whom they take along, going to a canyon of Barsoom, with some backstory involving Martian reproduction. The editor further gives an aside in the middle of a chapter on radium powder, and the company goes to a gleaming white city, where Carter poses as a slave to the Black Pirates, and regularly engages in swordfights with adversarial characters. The company ultimately flies to Gathol, although they’re at first unwelcome due to posing as emissaries of the Black Pirates.
Carter goes by an alias throughout the story, although he does occasionally tell his true identity to a select few characters, and takes odd jobs such as thawing and reviving human corpses in the northern city of Pankdor. The final part of the book involves the narrator’s exploits among the invisible men of Barsoom, who attain their status thanks to special spheres, and where Carter once more shows off his swordsmanship, overall culminating in a satisfying conclusion to the story, although Martian terminology of things such as time can occasionally be confusing, even with the translations of equivalent Earth time.
January 25, 2018
It's possible that letting a somewhat random process choose which book I read has done me a disservice in this instance. Normally, I'd put aside books from a series until I have read the previous ones, but sometimes I get a sense that the story is less serialized, and that letting myself skip ahead a little won't be a big deal. Starting the Barsoom series at #10 couldn't be so bad, right?
Well. Reading through other reviewers who described this as a satire has fixed a lot of problems I had with the stories here. For one, they are all exactly the same. If ERB was consciously parodying himself, that would explain it. Coming in without knowing his style whatsoever makes it difficult to enjoy a parody the way it was intended. With this in mind, I'll refrain from overanalyzing the text. I still can't give it a higher rating, as I really can't say that I enjoyed it, but I dug this pit, the least I can do is stand in it.
It may be that by reading this I have made it impossible to ever enjoy another book from this series. That would be a shame. One thing I did appreciate was Burroughs commitment to world-building, and it would be nice to someday go back and get a good sense of the rest of this world.
Well. Reading through other reviewers who described this as a satire has fixed a lot of problems I had with the stories here. For one, they are all exactly the same. If ERB was consciously parodying himself, that would explain it. Coming in without knowing his style whatsoever makes it difficult to enjoy a parody the way it was intended. With this in mind, I'll refrain from overanalyzing the text. I still can't give it a higher rating, as I really can't say that I enjoyed it, but I dug this pit, the least I can do is stand in it.
It may be that by reading this I have made it impossible to ever enjoy another book from this series. That would be a shame. One thing I did appreciate was Burroughs commitment to world-building, and it would be nice to someday go back and get a good sense of the rest of this world.
December 27, 2019
Entertaining nonsense. There are four stories attempting to live together as a novel here, and it doesn't really work: each story is fine on its own but the idea that they create a narrative is silly. There's a faint throughline provided by a warlord attempting to seize the titular grand-daughter of John Carter of Mars and make her his eighth wife, but it's not enough. It would have been better if these had been individual stories, each with an intro and resolution of their own, instead of the ramshackle collection they form as published.
Still, there's fast action and some cleverness here, and I liked it. It's goofy to run into a 2nd colony of invisible Martians (especially when acting as if there had not been a first) but whatever. It's John Carter. You just read it and allow the ridiculousness to wash on over you and pass you by.
Still, there's fast action and some cleverness here, and I liked it. It's goofy to run into a 2nd colony of invisible Martians (especially when acting as if there had not been a first) but whatever. It's John Carter. You just read it and allow the ridiculousness to wash on over you and pass you by.
June 9, 2021
A typical entry in the series. This book is comprised of four tightly-linked novelettes chronicling John Carter's rescue of his grandaughter Llana of Gathol. Each novelette features a specific Barsoomian culture such as the Black Pirates or a clan of forest-dwelling red men that use invisibility. The stand out creation of this book is Lum Tar O, an ancient man who was embalmed so perfectly that he does not realize that he is dead! A decent entry in the series with the bonus that it does feature John Carter.
December 8, 2023
One of the last Barsoom books, and definitely not one of the best. It was written as four novellas, which means the story is marred by a less-than-coherent plot. It is not exactly parody, as the above description suggests, but it is certainly more humorous and lightweight than earlier Barsoom stories. There are also a lot of descriptions borrowed word-for-word from earlier stories, and very little effort at characterization. Overall a fun read, but it doesn’t feel like Burroughs really put his heart into this one.
December 21, 2021
The last completed Barsoom novel, this upholds the high standards of the series and, due to being serialized in four parts, the story rarely drags and just keeps building to peaks. Callbacks to many previous characters and encounters add to the fun. It's as if ERB were taking a victory lap. Also, out of nowhere, John Carter makes a Babe Ruth joke and knocks it out of the park. Mars' low gravity helps.
December 8, 2017
It's hard for me to rate this book. It is divided into 4 sections. The first was arguably my favorite sequence in the entire series. The 2nd and 3rd were good but the 4th was very bland and disappointing. Had the book ended differently I think I should have enjoyed it a lot more. It's still a fun and very fast paced read.
September 23, 2023
Read as fantasy, rather than SF, and once tuned in to the style and conventions of the period, these are really enjoyable and what many writers of 'proper' SF grew up reading themselves; not to mention George Lucas and the creation of Star Wars. If you wanted to pick faults, there are too many to mention - but why would you?
October 8, 2017
If you like John Carter you'll like this.
Like Catholics was main character in Thuvia Maiden of Mars, John Carter is main character of Llana. In fact Llana is a minor character unlike Thuvia. She was the reason for the stories. In that it is similar to other John Carter stories.
Like Catholics was main character in Thuvia Maiden of Mars, John Carter is main character of Llana. In fact Llana is a minor character unlike Thuvia. She was the reason for the stories. In that it is similar to other John Carter stories.
November 7, 2017
Fun penultimate book in the Barsoom series and the last one, wholly acknowledged, as being penned by ERB himself. Very much enjoyed it.
June 9, 2018
John Carter is captured while seeking to rescue his granddaughter Llana. In the first (of 4) part, he is taken captive in the dead city of Horz. And it goes from there.
June 6, 2019
Yet another John Carter book. Same basic plot as the other 10.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews