A Princess of Mars
Ratings121
Average rating3.4
Perfect sci-fi pulp! Was actually taken aback quite a bit by how genuine and moving the love story between John Carter and Dejah Thoris is. And that ending?!
Surprisingly readable – can definitely see why it's the poster-child for its era.
Kindle highlights:
It was now morning, and, with the customary lack of dawn which is a startling characteristic of Arizona, it had become daylight almost without warning.
The Indians had by this time discovered that I was alone and I was pursued with imprecations, arrows, and rifle balls. The fact that it is difficult to aim anything but imprecations accurately by moonlight...
Fear is a relative term and so I can only measure my feelings at that time by what I had experienced in previous positions of danger and by those that I have passed through since; but I can say without shame that if the sensations I endured during the next few minutes were fear, then may God help the coward, for cowardice is of a surety its own punishment.
...the sight of him, now roaring as he perceived his lifeless fellow stretched upon the floor, and frothing at the mouth, in the extremity of his rage, filled me, I must confess, with dire forebodings.I am ever willing to stand and fight when the odds are not too overwhelmingly against me, but in this instance I perceived neither glory nor profit in pitting my relatively puny strength against the iron muscles and brutal ferocity of this enraged denizen of an unknown world; in fact, the only outcome of such an encounter, so far as I might be concerned, seemed sudden death.
Slowly she drifted to the southeast, rising higher and higher as the flames ate away her wooden parts and diminished the weight upon her. Ascending to the roof of the building I watched her for hours, until finally she was lost in the dim vistas of the distance. The sight was awe-inspiring in the extreme as one contemplated this mighty floating funeral pyre, drifting unguided and unmanned through the lonely wastes of the Martian heavens; a derelict of death and destruction, typifying the life story of these strange and ferocious creatures into whose unfriendly hands fate had carried it.Much depressed, and, to me, unaccountably so, I slowly descended to the street.
...but why should I trouble my poor head with such a problem, when my heart tells me that I believe because I wish to believe!” It was good logic, good, earthly, feminine logic, and if it satisfied her I certainly could pick no flaws in it. As a matter of fact it was about the only kind of logic that could be brought to bear upon my problem.
(Semi-LibriVoxed.) FINALLY. Ugh. The best thing about this book was the end. I don't mean that snarkily, I really mean that. The ending was actually quite touching and well-done. Everything else leading up to it, though: less so. Uggghhhh. I need a brain-scrub.
Hmm... I gotta stop into these classics with high expectations, especially one with over a century of difference in values. To be perfectly honest, I found the John Carter movie to be much more entertaining and much more believable than the book (obviously, since the movie is much more recent). And because of the movie, I guess I was expecting something else.
I won't judge the scientific oddities, of which there are quite a few – radium, the incredible properties of the eighth and ninth rays of light, the terraforming of an entire planet within a one single plant, distance fallacies, and the somewhat illogical ideas regarding ground-to-air and air-to-air warfare.
What I found to be rather disappointing about the book's plot is that it's entirely created and conceived solely around the purpose of putting a human on Mars and making him moon over a Martian woman. All the plot hooks and events are engineered for that sole purpose – fortunate coincidences are around every corner – with implausible situations chalked away to sheer luck, sheer prowess, or simply left unexplained and ignored.
For example: How the heck did he go to Mars in the first place? The movie explained it. The book didn't even attempt to – even the protagonist simply accepts that he's on Mars. There are a lot of such details that are just glossed over. I guess it comes from its roots as a serial publication rather than being a novel right from the start.
His oh-so-manly physical prowess (I'm a guy and I cringe every time I read his self-praise) is also quite annoying. Telling the reader how good he knows he is, before performing an action is downright bad – doing it the other way round might've made it more tolerable.
I'm definitely taking the book way too seriously and from a way too modern outlook. It's obviously more of a planetary romance with bits of sci fi and bits of a primitiveness thrown in, as opposed to the action thriller the movie made it into. It's lacking in world-building, filled with bland, stereotyped and rather uninteresting characters (protagonist and princess included), and a plot littered with coincidences and holes.
Why two stars then? What I did like about book are two things: The pacing is great. There are no dragging moments in the book. It just zips from one incident to another. Reading the book, despite my dislikes, is quite a pleasure. The pulpiness of the plot is in there in full and the prose is not overly flowery, making for an easy and quick read.
Truly a remarkable read. Although the science is not as comprehensive as more modern books, it detracts nothing from the first part of this series. In fact, Burroughs description of the bond between Carter and his pet brought me to tears and is probably unparalleled in interspecie relationship descriptions.
Am continuing the rest of the series straightaway. Sadly, Amazon kindle free only has the first 5 books, so hopefully my library membership will come before that.
I recognize that this was originally published in 1912, according to wikipedia, but it was one of the worst sci-fi books I've read. Maybe it was revolutionary and it exciting when it came out, but certainly hits just about every bad trope that sci-fi has become known for . . .
Another one of those classics of the genre that I've never read - I'd heard the name John Carter before, but going in that was around all that I knew.
This was a fun read! Carter appears at times to be a bit superhuman, and as a result there doesn't seem to be in serious danger at any time, and the story as a result feels like a swashbuckling travelogue as much as anything else. Perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising, given the era that the novel came out of, and it makes for a refreshing read.
It's not really a science fiction novel, though, at least not in the way that I usually think of the term. Aside from the extraterrestrial setting of the novel, any science in the novel is incidental - how Carter gets to Mars isn't really explained, and there are no real difficulties raised regarding living on Mars - it has atmosphere, and plants and animals that provide food, and aliens that are very similar to humans, aside from their ubiquitous telepathic ability (which don't work on Carter, so are a bit of a moot point). A Princess of Mars has more in common with stories like those of Gulliver or Sinbad than those written by the likes of Wells, Clarke, or Asimov. And yet, reading about it it's incredibly influential, not only to science fiction authors but to actual scientists instead. Anything that could inspire a range of people as wise as Carl Sagan and George Lucas must have something special to it.
One of the things about A Princess of Mars that I found interesting, but which a lot of people might find off-putting, is that it's a novel dripping in Manifest Destiny. Before going to Mars, Carter was a soldier in the Confederate army and is in conflict with a group of Apaches, who are portrayed as ‘savages'; after he goes to Mars, he quickly learns their language and rises to a leadership position among both the green and red Martians as a result of his inherent superiority as a Southern Gentleman. It's a little grating at times, but if you're able to keep perspective of when and where the novel was published, it shouldn't hamper one's enjoyment of the story too much.