I read this book a chapter at time over a few months, which I think is a good way to consume this book as the writing is basically of the form "...and then this happened...and then this other thing happened..", which for me can become tiresome. It is written from the point of view of the main character and well, there is no other way to say it, he is kinda full of himself and brags a lot. Anyway I did enjoy these three books, but my favorite was the Gods of Mars, I just really liked the mythology presented in the story.

    1866 Arizona, Confederate officer John Carter, Gentleman of Virginia, forever aged 30, wakes naked on Mars. Low gravity increases his speed and strength exponentially, so he impresses green alien Thark captors with fighting, wins high rank. He frees Dejah Thoris, Princess of red men in Helium, only to lose her to the Prince of opposing red Zodanga.

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      Former Confederate soldier John Carter is trapped in an Arizona cave and then wakes upon Mars, known to the natives as "Barsoom". Because his body is built for Earth's gravity, he has tremendous strength on Mars and can leap great distances with little effort.

     He quickly wins the respect of Tars Tarkas, the ferocious leader of the six-limbed, green Martian Tharks. But when the Tharks capture the beautiful humanoid princess Dejah Thoris, Carter almost immediately falls in love with her and begins plotting their escape.

    With the help of Dejah Thoris, the princess of another clan on Mars, John Carter fights for their freedom and love and to save the entire planet from destruction as the oxygen providing Atmosphere Factory slowly grinds to a halt.

      A Princess Of Mars is a product of another age, an adventure written to entertain an unsophisticated readership. Scientifically impossible and often soddenly narrated, it is too old-fashioned. But the book has been hugely influential, displays a good-natured innocence and certainly doesn't lack for action.

• I like the way Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote about the following things:
• The way a writer portrayed the value of feelings and emotions in life and how love and kindness conquers all.
• The faithfulness of animals no matter on whichever planet they are whether its Mars or Earth. I liked Woola (the loyal friend & dog of John Carter)

Not bad but I feel that there are either holes in the plot or I've missed bits. Some of the description left me cold and there were times when the plot twist seemed obvious.

A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) - Edgar... John Carter is awesome. I know this, because John Carter told me so. Everyone is impressed by John Carter. I know this, because John Carter said so. Dejah Thoris is beautiful. I know this, because John Carter said so. Dejah Thoris is incomparable. I know this, because John Carter told me so.

And for these reasons of awesome impressive incomparableness, these two fine specimens of Earthan and Martian perfection fell in love. The fact that they wear very little clothing may also have had something to do with their fated romance.

To be fair, this is pulp fiction and I assume the “story” told here is standard for the time and genre. Maybe if I read it back then, I’d appreciate it more. Maybe if read the comic version instead, I’d appreciate Dejah Thoris’ jewel covered pretty bits and John Carter’s manly manliness more. But I guess this style just doesn’t work for me, although I am currently tempted to rewrite all my favourite fandoms in pulp fiction style. Commander Shepard really is awesome and would look lovely in tiny pieces of metal and gemstones.

My husband and I watched the movie a few weeks ago and it wasn’t bad at all. Clearly it suffered from Disney’s poor marketing decision, but otherwise, it was a passable film and thankfully it did not follow the story it originated from too closely. I don’t think it would have translated very well in our times. Instead, they opted to make the story a bit more interesting and slightly less about John Carter being awesome and Dejah Thoris served greater purpose than trophy princess.

"John Carter, that most incomparable of manly men, not leader nor fighter nor lover compared him for that moment of being smitten, t'was not her eyes nor her personality that won John 'I'm Awesome' Carter's heart, nay, but solely the sight of her lithesome nudity.

How could such a man find himself lost for words? John 'God I'm Amazing Carter approached the lovely lady, 'Boo?' He murmured, before continuing boldy, 'Bees?'"
~Gratuitously paraphrased by Simon Field

The Warlord of Mars (Barsoom, #3) - Edga... Continuing the series with the third of [a:Burroughs|10885|Edgar Rice Burroughs|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1207155710p2/10885.jpg]'s pulp-science-fiction 'romance' novels, [b:Warlord of Mars|17254638|The Warlord of Mars (Barsoom, #3)|Edgar Rice Burroughs|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358373372s/17254638.jpg|2816562] follows on immediately from [b:The Gods of Mars|841973|The Gods of Mars (Barsoom, #2)|Edgar Rice Burroughs|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348188943s/841973.jpg|2816507]. Having torn down the Martian's false religion, and rescuing several damsels in distress, he is rewarded by one of them dragging his beloved Dejah Thoris into a revolving dungeon (that not only happens to be open at just that time, but also doesn't open again for a whole Martian year) all because he wouldn't return her affections. Talk about being a babe-magnet, the women would happily lock herself in dungeon for a year in order to stop him being with anyone else.

This story picks up almost immediately and Carter's not happy. Luckily a series of unlikely coincidences mean that he'll be able to gain access (although not in time), chase her across Mars (although never quite catching her up), rescue her (only to lose her again) and eventually meet the fabled Yellow Martians – yes, another new colour of Martians, the ones that were heavily foreshadowed in the previous book and I predicted would make an appearance here. Coincidence follows coincidence but at each turn Carter is always just a little to late and Thoris slips through his fingers.

The goodies are good, the baddies are bad (although some of them are redeemable), the damsels are in distress mostly, and Martians love to fight. Luckily John Carter likes to fight too. Especially if his chosen damsel, Dejah Thoris, is singing to cheer him on. Some minor variations in this book, instead of Carter being mostly chased he's mostly doing the chasing; instead of being introduced to two new colours of Martians we're only introduced to one. Ultimately though it's the same book as the previous two – a boys-own adventure in space – but it is fun to read. This seems to tie-up the first three novels into a happy ending. Let's see what bad luck and new races can befall them in the fourth novel...