Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs

4 primary works

Gods of Mars

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Published 1 January 1913

After the 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.

The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Science Fiction, Adventure

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Published 1 July 2002

Warlord of Mars

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Published 1 December 1913

Far to the north, in the frozen wastes of Polar Mars, lay the home of the Holy Therns, sacred and inviolate. Only John Carter dared to go there to find his lost Dejah Thoris. But between him and his goal lay the bones of all who had gone before.

Imagine, if you can, a bald-faced hornet of your Earthly experience grown to the size of a prize Hereford bull, and you will have some faint conception of the winged monster that bore down upon me. 

Frightful jaws in front and a might, poisoned string behind made my relatively puny long-sword seem a pitiful defense indeed. Nor could I hope to escape the lightning-like movements or hide from these myriad faced eyes which covered three-fourths of the hideous head, permitting the creature to see in all directions at once.

To flee was useless, even if it had ever been to my liking to turn my back upon a danger; so I stood my ground, my only hope to die as i had always lived—fighting.

The Chessmen of Mars

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Published 1 November 1922

The fifth book in the popular Barsoom series, The Chessmen of Mars is a 1922 science fiction novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tara, princess of the great city state of Helium, is initially impervious to the courtship attempts of Gahan, prince of the city state Gathol. But when she loses control of her craft in a storm and is captured by the Kaldanes, horrific crab-like creatures who've sacrificed their bodies in the pursuit of intellect, the deeply smitten Gahan sets out to rescue his princess and prove his worth. But this is a challenge that may forfeit his life and hers, as he and his companions are forced to become pawns in a game of Jetan, Barsoomian Chess on a life-size board that uses the living as its pieces and the dead as its conquests.