![]() ![]() From the lost city of Horz, to a tribe that has created a pill to make themselves invisible, John Carter fights his way back to Helium with Llana in tow, meeting steadfast companions along the way. The evil Hin Abtol, self described Jeddak of Jeddaks in the north, is bent on conquering all of Barsoom and claiming John Carter's grandaughter, Llana of Gathol in the bargain. In this penultimate novel in the John Carter series, our hero discovers still more unknown tribes on the red planet. I shall read it again one of these days.more It redeems much of the tedium of the books which immediately preceded it and leaves a delicious taste in the mental mouth. Swords clash airships are hi-jacked pirates proliferate dead cities are not quite as dead as they look. Heroes are threatened with certain death beautiful, pure maidens are kidnapped and risk ravishment. #LIST OF BARSOOM AIRSHIPS MOVIE#It is like reading one of the old movie series which would end with cliff-hanger after cliff-hanger. #LIST OF BARSOOM AIRSHIPS FULL#Burroughs must have had enormous fun writing this because it is as full of adventure as a pudding is of raisins. It redeems much of the This is an absolute joy. ![]() Llana of Gathol herself, John Carter's granddaughter, is an engaging character although she gets little actual screentime.more The stories themselves aren't bad one thing I found jarring, however, was the frequent reuse of descriptive passages from previous books - various Martian creatures' descriptions seemed taken almost word-for-word from their original appearances. John Carter is the narrator again he gets involved in a series of adventures mostly involving nations of red and black men who live near Mars' north pole (home of the yellow men in Warlord of Mars). This is one of Burroughs' late-period books, written as a series of four linked novelettes - he did the same thing with late Tarzan, Venus and Pellucidar books. The stories themselves aren't bad one thing I found jarring, however, was the frequent reuse of de Maybe a 3.25 probably not quite a 3.5. I would like to know more about the nearly-abandoned secret city of Horz, its inhabitants dwelling within a hidden citadel against discovery by Green Martian raiders, or more development of the dastardly Hin Abtol, whose mad dreams of conquest drive him to lead a ragtag, disloyal horde of scavenged, obsolete warships against the city of Gathol from the greenhouse city of the polar region.more The book is constructed of connected short fiction, and while this keeps things moving at quite a clip-fifty pages to introduce the new problem, work with it, and eliminate it-it sacrifices depth. It's hard to take the standard Burroughsian action up the requisite notch to make it satirical. But these elements are relatively subtle given the broad writing and genre. In hindsight, the parodic elements were certainly present: three strange lost/hidden/secret cities, each with strict "no leaving" policies a damsel in distress that appears apparently on cue yet another poor deluded maid who falls head-over-heels for John Carter in time to render assistance in escape and a seeming conga-line of swordmen (each claiming to be the best of Barsoom) for Carter to dramatically and extravagantly crush. In hindsight, the parodic elements were certainly present: three strange lost/hidden/secret cities, each with strict "no leaving" policies a damsel in distress that appears apparently on cue yet another poor deluded maid who falls head-over-heels for John Carter in time to render assistance in escape and a seeming conga-line of swordmen (each claiming to be the best of Barsoom) for Carter to dramatically and extrava I didn't realize that Burroughs was parodying himself until after I finished. I didn't realize that Burroughs was parodying himself until after I finished. ![]()
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