A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Feb 21, 2012 Tracey rated it liked it

Shelves: e-text, owned-etext

Not sure how I've overlooked this for so long... you'd think when I went thru my Conan the Barbarian stage back in middle school, I would have stumbled across the Barsoom series as well. Decided I'd better check it out before seeing the John Carter movie coming out in a few weeks.

This novelette is a fun, quick read that definitely helped set the stage for both the fantasy and sci-fi genres. There's plenty of manly adventure, and the occasional bit of dry humour. Yeah, the character development ...more

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Oct 07, 2007 Annie rated it liked it

Shelves: sf-f

Sf has come a long way since 1912, but it's always good to read the classics. An interesting, speculative story well ahead of its time. Written in a style I normally don't enjoy; not a lot of dialogue and mostly showing instead of telling, but good description and exposition despite the sometimes shortcomings of the narrative. John Carter is the quintessential masculine hero of early sf, a man’s man, self depreciating and arrogant at the same time. But such a good read that I was able to get bey ...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Dave Johnson rated it really liked it

i had a review mostly typed out and then i hit the wrong button and the internet page went somewhere else and i lost it. :( so now i type again...

i bought this book because of the pictures. true story. i wish publishers made more novels with illustrations. i've had this for some time, but just now started reading because of the movie adaptation of this book (John Carter) is coming out shortly.

this is an old book. and it shows. but that's not a bad thing. the age gives it a certain novelty when i had a review mostly typed out and then i hit the wrong button and the internet page went somewhere else and i lost it. :( so now i type again...

i bought this book because of the pictures. true story. i wish publishers made more novels with illustrations. i've had this for some time, but just now started reading because of the movie adaptation of this book (John Carter) is coming out shortly.

this is an old book. and it shows. but that's not a bad thing. the age gives it a certain novelty when reading that allows for a forbearance of cliche and structure that one might not have with modern novels. as the granddaddy of sci-fi's, it actually makes me appreciate it's cliches and terse writing style. this book seems like it was made for a medium that allows for a more episodic structure, like a magazine. i am unfamiliar with the context and history of its writing, so i dont know if my guess is right or wrong, but it feels like it was made with that purpose in mind. each chapter is an adventure in itself, and though it has a semblance of a plot overall, it's vague. that's not a bad thing, but it stands out. the writing, though sometimes sounding like verbiage from the Gettysburg Address, is well done and very simple. it's sometimes hard to follow, but that's just how some older classics are. but it's still a lesson in writing simplicity. the fight scenes are sublime at times, and make me wish that some fantasy writers would learn from his simplicity. the setting is cliche...only that it's not. since it's one of the first sci-fi's, you can't judge this to other cliches of "little green men on mars" even though that's exactly what it is. what i love about this book is that it seems like a mix between a western (complete with "cowboys" and "indians" so to speak), a fairy tale, and a sci-fi. people will see the sci-fi right away because they're on Mars, but miss the other two. and i think that when viewed as a book with all three elements, it really shines and has a lot of depth. there are a lot of subtle messages in here for a pulpy farce as it is. but that's what makes it such a great sci fi. :) the book didnt blow me away, but i enjoyed it quite a bit. i'll definitely be reading the next two in the series. ...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Bryan457 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fights-n-fighters, action-adventure, science-fiction, own-it, classics, own-it-audio, own-it-ebook

Classic ERB pulp.
ERB stories run the spectrum from poor to great. I really like Tarzan of the Apes & Back to the Stone Age (A Pellucidar spinoff). OTOH, I hated his main Pellucidar series & the Land that Time forgot series.
A princess of Mars is in the middle, not as good as Tarzan, not as horrid as Pellucidar.

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