![]() ![]() Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris - from the film He is, naturally, curious about the new resident. (The film pads her resume with some science credits) Having established his warrior cred by kicking several Tharkian butts, JC has some wiggle room among Thark society and manages to learn a fair bit. Dejah Thoris is princess of the city-state of Helium (and no she does not speak with a silly-high voice) and of the book title, and is notable for her regal bearing, smokin’ looks and courage under duress. Can the girl be far behind? Not a chance.Īfter the Tharkian horde does battle with a race of human-like sorts, they take a prisoner, a female. But as the locals treat their gigantic ferocious domestic critters rather harshly, it turned out to be receptive to JC’s kinder treatment, so we add a loyal-to-death pet, with the blood-curdling name "Woola" for our hero. TT had put a guard dog (actually a Shetland-size, many-tusked critter called a calot ) in charge of JC. (ERB’s hero appears twenty years before that Kal-el character, and Jerry Siegel has said that JC was indeed influential in the creation of that better known super-guy.) Tarkas and Carter find common cause eventually and thus begins a beautiful friendship. TT was most impressed by JC’s fighting prowess and his ability to leap tall building in a single bound, a benefit of having muscles adapted to the much higher gravity on a different planet. He is taken prisoner by a group of Tharks, a race of six-limbed, twelve-to-fifteen foot tall green warriors (think taller, thinner, ancestors of Klingons), led by one of their less bloodthirsty sorts, a fellow named Tars Tarkas. The film of course had to come up with a better excuse than that. He is trapped in a cave by hostile forces, when he wishes himself, pretty much, to Mars, the god of his profession. John Carter, a soldier (Civil War veteran), mercenary, and apparently occasional miner, begins on Earth. And to prepare it seemed that, fifty years after having first encountered Barsoom through books, it was worth giving at least some of the books a second look. Good, bad or mediocre, this was must-see territory. So one might imagine the anticipation bubbling up when I learned that a film was in the offing. Reading ERB as a kid was one of the best things about being a kid. I followed the adventures of John Carter the way readers of a certain detective followed his exploits in issues of The Strand. Prime among the treasures to be found in those bags were the Barsoom novels of ERB. This was the way I got one of my first scents of the lifetime of reading that awaited. ![]() Lift the treasure to your nose and inhale deeply. I remember the glee I felt when a parcel would arrive, the soft packaging that sprinkled to the floor if you opened the pull-tag a little too energetically. ![]() Wells, Robert Heinlein, Jules Verne, and plenty more from that gang of idiots. Of course there were others, all vying for my immature attention, Arthur C. And the brazen hussy that led me down that path was none other than Edgar Rice Burroughs. Not with a girl, (well, there were one or two cracks opened in that young heart, but we do not speak of that now) but with reading. Some years back David Bowie asked the musical question, "Is there life on Mars?" Had he read A Princess of Mars he might have known the answer.īack in the early 60’s I fell in love. Similar in face and figure to women of Earth, she was nevertheless a true Martian-and prisoner of the fierce green giants who held me captive, as well! Her oval face was beautiful in the extreme, her every feature finely chisled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. And when his captors take as prisoner Dejah Thoris, the lovely human-looking princess of the city of Helium, Carter must call upon every ounce of strength, courage, and ingenuity to rescue her-before Dejah becomes the slave of the depraved Thark leader, Tal Hajus! Captured by a band of six-limbed, green-skinned savage giants called Tharks, Carter soon is accorded all the honor of a chieftain after it's discovered that his muscles, accustomed to Earth's greater gravity, now give him a decided advantage in strength. It's the beginning of an incredible odyssey in which John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia and a Civil War veteran, unexpectedly finds himself on to the red planet, scene of continuing combat among rival tribes. A Princess of Mars is the first of eleven thrilling novels that comprise Edgar Rice Burroughs' most exciting saga, known as The Martian Series. ![]()
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