Gods of Mars: A Barsoom Novel (Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, #2) (Barsoom, #2) (Martian)

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

After a long exile on Earth, John Carter finally returned to his beloved Mars. But beautiful Dejah Thoris, the woman he loved, had vanished. Now he was trapped in the legendary Eden of Mars—an Eden from which none ever escaped alive.

Three monstrous white apes sprang into the arena. On her throne, Issus, the living goddess of the First Born, leaned forward in keen anticipation. At length the apes spied the huddled knot of terror-stricken maidens and, with demoniacal shrieks of bestial frenzy, charged upon them.

A wave of mad fury surged over me. A single blow sent my guard unconscious to the ground. Snatching up his long-sword, I leaped into tthe arena. The sword whirled and a great ape sprawled headless at the feet of the fainting girls.

The other apes were upon me now—but my act had heartened the prisoners, and the cages vomited forth their inmates hot with the lust to kill—doomed men dedicated to revenge upon Issus!

But against each of us were a thousand warriors of the First Born.

• ISBN10: 0345324390
• ISBN13: 9780345324399
• Publish Date: 12 March 1985 (first published 1 January 1913)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 23 November 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Del Rey Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 192
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780345324399

Reviews

[angelarenea9]

This review is now posted on Reading with AngelaRenea

I know I said that I probably wouldn't read any more of these books, but I can't just leave a series hanging.

The Gods of Mars was interesting. I thought that the religious aspect of traveling down the river to what the people of Mars/Barsoom consider to be Heaven only to find hatred and corruption was interesting. I think that this speaks to a deeper fear that we all have- fear of the unknown. More specifically, fear that we have incorrectly placed our faith in an unknown and it turns out to be entirely wrong.

However yet again, I found the idea of this main character setting himself above the entire world. He finds a race of black Martians who are either evil, or ignorant and need to be educated by the Virginian slave owner. It is starting to stand out that Burroughs is more than a little racist. As I've said in a previous review, I do understand that this book was written in a different time, and there is a completely different historic context to it, but it is entirely out of control. Not only that, but I found the portrayal of women thus-far to be quite offensive. I think that there was a good idea under all of the ignorance, but found it hard to enjoy the book, and impossible to feel for the main character.But that's just me, there are many people who love these books and they have obviously stayed popular through out the years.

I would really only recommend this book to someone who enjoyed the first one. There are so many better science fiction books out there, you would be much better off picking one of those.