John Carter: Barsoom Series (7 Novels) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Description:  When John Carter goes to sleep in a mysterious cave in the Arizona dessert, he wakes up on the planet Mars. There he meets the fifteen foot tall, four armed, green men of mars, with horse-like dragons, and watch dogs like oversized frogs with ten legs. His adventures continue as he battles great white apes, fights plant men, defies the Goddess of Death, and braves the frozen wastes of Polar Mars. In other adventures, the Prince of Helium encounters a race of telepathic warriors, the Princess of Helium confronts the headless men of Mars, Captain Ulysses Paxton learns the secret of human immortality, and Tan Hadron's idealized notion of love is tested as he fights off gigantic spiders and cannibals.

Note: Due to my own inattentiveness to what I had bought, this review includes the first seven books in the series, which are: A Princess of Mars; Gods of Mars; Warlord of Mars; Thuvia, Maid of Mars; Chessmen of Mars; Master Mind of Mars; and, Fighting Man of Mars.

Review 5 of 5 Stars

Growing up, when I thought of Edgar Rice Burroughs I always thought of Tarzan books. Since these novels first appeared around 100 years ago I just hadn't ever read them, but after seeing the John Carter movie and knowing that the books are generally better than the movies that are made from them I thought it would be fun to see what the original story was. As I expected there were quite a few differences between the film version and the novels which were definitely the better story.  I had to give this group of novels five stars as I didn't pause at all in the reading of all seven of them and greatly enjoyed the adventure as a whole for the 99 cents I spent to buy it (what a bargain).  From reading these I'm also led to believe that Mr. Burroughs didn't know what a defeatist attitude was as even in the most dire of circumstances his characters always seem to push aside the hardships and impossibility of their situations with an upbeat attitude and light heart because as the mantra for Mr. Burroughs' books goes, "I still live."

The first books are about John Carter's experiences.  Later books move on to cover his children and finally others from Mars and another human transplant to the red planet. It was a really fun read and it was interesting to see things that were only science fiction then, but that we use every day now such as 'wireless telephony'. I know I generally try to read and share more recent material by independent authors, but it was a great story and I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure as a whole.

It's a series about striving forward, honor, loyalty and the will to go on which I think is timeless. I admit that I enjoyed some of the novels a little more than others, but as I read it on my e-reader it was really just like one really long, sweeping adventure. So if you have some spare time and want to step back 100 years to some really great early science fiction, I think I can confidently say that any true science fiction buff would enjoy the trip. It's not like there aren't plenty of good reviews about these books over the last century to make you feel confident as you step out on Mr. Burroughs' path to Mars, but if you haven't read them or thought about it you might want to reconsider.