From the Bookshelf of Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy…

A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1)

Edgar Rice Burroughs,

John Seelye (Introduction)

Start date: August 1, 2015

Finish date: August 23, 2015

Discussion: Book Discussions

Discussion leader: Hillary Major

Why we're reading this: Group classic novel discussion August 2015
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What Members Thought

Jun 17, 2013 Jason Koivu rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi, fiction

A Princess of Mars is a forerunner in the sci-fi genre and as such some of the science herein is off. On the other hand, one has to be impressed with the guesswork a fictional novelist made regarding living conditions on another planet, considering he was writing at a time prior to space exploration. Hell, this was written a mere nine years after the first flight by man.

The real reason this didn't resonate with me had to do with the story's hero, John Carter. He's just too good at everything to ...more

68 likes · Like · see review

May 13, 2013 Alex rated it did not like it

Shelves: boobies, science-fiction, early-fantasy-project, wank

Let's not try and pretend that Princess of Mars is some kind of unique trailblazing original that Science fiction and fantasy writing owes some huge debt to. Authors had been writing about Sci-fi concepts involving other worlds and other cultures for a long time, and as early as the 17th Century we have an example (The Blazing World) of a writer imagining another world full of beasts and bird-men, whose entrance is located at the North Pole. Popular Victorian author Edgar Bulwer Lytton wrote abo ...more

32 likes · Like · see review

Aug 03, 2015 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1paper, fantasy, 3series, scifi, action

My paperback cost $1.25, an expensive replacement back in the 1970's. My original was only 35¢ when my father bought it. This was one of my first ERB novels & is possibly my favorite series of his, but it hasn't aged as well as I thought it would have. He's not as racist or sexist in this as some, the action is nonstop, & the overall plot is pretty good, but there are just too many coincidences.

It's not really SF as much as a fantasy. The science is pretty magical. Radium, specific rays of the s ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2023 seak rated it liked it

Shelves: 2023

This is one of those classics that's almost mandatory reading for a fantasy/scifi fan. I found this to be a bit dated though the adventure story is still lots of fun despite the earlier "cowboys and Indians" talk.

It's definitely that classic fantasy, short and sweet, though that also means skipping over vast swathes of important details which adds essentially a deus ex machina effect. Suddenly our hero is where he needs to be, no real explanation why. Suddenly we gathered tens of thousands of tr ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Mar 06, 2012 Kivrin rated it liked it

A fun read. No, it's not great literature, but a good story. Tarzan of the Apes was one of my fave books as a kid, so I have a fondness for Burroughs. The manly man, poor woman in distress stuff was a hoot, but if you take into account when this was written, you can't take it to seriously.

...more

1 like · Like · see review