Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
3.5 to 4 stars – I will round up here to an official 4 star rating.Another classic sci-fi tale that brings forth black and white images from early sci-fi films of bold, muscular heroes, space-damsels in distress, and bizarre/grotesque alien creatures. When the space craft are flying, you might even be able to envision the cord that it is hanging from.But, seriously, it definitely has that feel and if you have enjoyed the other books in the John Carter/Barsoom series, then you should enjoy this o...
By far the best Barsoom book, with different pov's and cool touch of gamedesign by Burroughs. ;) 8/10
I give up. Burrough's Barsoom series has devolved into a Captain-Bill's-Whiz-Bang stories of the simple sensationalism, appropriate at best for adolescent boys.Even though I have several more editions in my Nook, I doubt if I'll read them soon.A waste of time and electrons--at least the trees were spared.
“The Chessmen of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs is the fifth book in the Barsoom series. After “Thuvia, Maid of Mars” was something of a disappointment, this installment may be the best of the series. As with the prior book, this one focuses on different characters than any of the earlier books in the series, this time the focus is John Carter’s daughter Tara, and Gahan, the Jed of Gathol. The story was originally published as a serial in “Argosy All-Story Weekly” in the February 18th, 25th, Marc...
One of my two favorite Barsoom books outside of the initial trilogy. (The other being A Fighting Man of Mars.) Again it's in third person, allowing for different points of view. This time, though, we get a proper John Carter prologue/intro explaining how ERB obtained the manuscript. Very similar to Thuvia, Maid of Mars in structure (lone warrior goes off after missing princess, encounters lost cities and perils and (SPOILER!) gets the girl in the end) but there just seems to be a spark here that...
And extraordinary fantasy by Edgar Rice Burroughs - a story based on the divorce of the Intellect From the Physical - two species evolve - one physically strong but devoid of any brain function except the basic functions of eating, breathing and toiletry, while the other species latches on to their spinal cord and sits like a brain on them, guiding them to do all their work while themselves getting their pleasure only from thinking!A great book for a 14 year old to read and I never forgot this b...
On our trip to Mars this time, we find more lost and forgotten cities, one of which is inhabited by some of the most disturbing creatures ever to be described on paper. Along with great Burroughs style adventure, and classic characters. Well played Mr. Burroughs, well played.
On one hand, I'm relieved that Burroughs was willing to at least advance the story by focusing on the slightly more interesting next generation. On the other, the plot falls squarely into the well-grooved tire tracks of the previous books: the protagonists are lost far from home and fall into various perilous lost cities and civilizations.I did like that Tara of Helium was at some level the main character, which puts her in a more dynamic position than Dejah Thoris had been, and at some level sh...
Burroughs wrote some very good books and I'm pleased to have read them. I think there are a couple more in the series but they are not available in audio so I likely will never get to them. John Carter's daughter Princess Tara is carried away by the wind to the land of heads that separate from their bodies and then on to a deadly chess game. The narrator Gene Engene is not bad and has a great sci-fi voice but his character voices never stay pure; they interchange a lot. It was a nice intro for h...
I think this book caught me off guard. The last book from this collection was good but not as good as its predecesors. So when I started The Chessmen of Mars, I still had the bittersweet taste of Thuvia, Maid of Mars. In the beginning, it was kind of boring, giving a look of a little presumptous girl as she inherited all the Glory of the Warlord of Barsoom. I think she was a careless, selfish and a swagger. But then, as she was lost in a far away place in Barsoom, the book made me feel anxiety,
"The Chessmen of Mars," Edgar Rice Burroughs' 5th John Carter novel out of 11, first appeared in serial form in the magazine "Argosy All Story Weekly" from February to April 1922. It is easily the best of the Carter lot to this point; the most detailed, the most imaginative, and the best written. Carter himself only appears at the beginning and end of the tale. Instead, our action heroes are his daughter, Tara, who gets lost in a rare Barsoomian storm while joyriding in her flier and blown halfw...
To categorize this narrative as science fiction (as it is often referred to as) would, in my opinion, be erroneous as no science is involved. A more fitting genre would be fantasy or maybe to be more unambiguous, action fantasy. Tara, the daughter of John Carter the Virginian visitor to Mars that has graced many of Burroughs’ stories with his action-packed presence, goes out on a joy ride in her flying machine and is caught in a terrible storm. This storm blows her craft to unknown parts of the
My Grandfather owned a copy of this book & he offered it to me to read when I was @ home sick with measles over 50 years ago. It was my introduction to that mystifying & magical world of Science Fiction. Thus began my lifelong love of all things "other worlds" written, filmed, on TV... Amazing author, story & grandfather!
I really have to say... Burroughs is consistently surprising me.I particularly like how he's moving away from the whole Earthling god on Mars bit and focusing on Carter's kids. His daughter is a real firecracker, but only in the older sense of a noble's kid who is taught everything from her doting father in contravention to societal norms. Oh well, right? But this DID come out in 1922. And it's a standard convention by this point. So whatever. This is an ADVENTURE ROMANCE. That means there ought...
Depending on my mood, this is either my favorite or second favorite of the Barsoom books. As with my other favorite, 'A Fighting Man of Mars', the hero of the story isn't that veritable demigod Virginian, John Carter, but a native Martian - in this case Gahan the Jed (or King) of Gathol - a small but very prosperous city state. The story concerns Gahan's attempts to woo the young daughter of John Carter, Tara, who rebuffs Gahan because he does not seem to her to be modest, rugged, and martial en...
A pretty darn good one in the Mars series. I felt Thuvia, Maid of Mars was a little lacking, but this one makes up for that. This one, again, does not focus on John Carter, but rather his daughter Tara, which he suddenly has. She gets captured by the Kaldanes, which are spider-like creatures and can attach themselves to these headless human bodies, called rykors, and control them for their own use. She also gets captured by the Manatorians, which are the chess players; but they play using real p...
When ERB lets his imagination run rampant, his books are a delight. When he focuses on more courtly matters, his books tend to lose me. This is one of his novels of his that does both. The first half of the book features Tara of Helium (John Carter's daughter) lost in the weird community of kaldanes and rykors. Kaldanes are detachable, crab-like heads that ride the headless, human-like rykor bodies. Naturally, being almost all head, the kaldanes are emotionless beings driven by a desire to only
With the fifth book in the Barsoom series, much like Burroughs ability to recycle his stories, I thought I could just repost my review of book four – Thuvia, Maid of Mars – as it pretty much still applies to this novel too. Burroughs again recycles his damsel in distress (of course she's gorgeous), his introduction of two new species of Barsoomians (surprisingly close to Helium to have gone unnoticed), the courageous rescue (by a spurned suitor). It could, again, so easily be the same novel with...
Sadly a huge pain in the arse compared to the earlier books. Tara of Helium is just a whining bunt and the throwing out of random names and places gets old really quick. Just not an interesting enough plot to carry through the flaws
The main characters of The Chessmen of Mars are Carter’s daughter Tara and Gahan of Gathol, a prince of another kingdom. Tara is engaged and is outraged when Gahan declares his love for her because she is not attracted to him at all. She takes off in her flier, only to get caught in a massive storm which sends her flying off into uncharted lands. She's captured by the horrific Kaldanes, who intend to fatten her up for an upcoming feast. She wins over one of the Kaldanes, Ghek, and escapes. in th...