Edgar Rice Burroughs takes us back to Barsoom (Mars), but this time we follow John Carter and Deja Thoris’s son, Carthoris (…oy) and his chaste love interest Thuvia.  Plot wise, this hits very, very familiar beats if you’ve been reading this series.  Honestly, we’re only four books in, and it feels like there’s a set formula.  Thuvia is promised to someone else.  Carthoris does the honorable thing.  A mustache twirling villain kidnaps Thuvia, and Carthoris goes on an adventure to find her.  They discover a “lost race” living in a secluded part of Mars who have strange powers.  We’ve been here before.

If you’re a fan of Burroughs, this is a perfectly readable, mid-tier novel from him.  It’s got some solid action and a couple cool ideas.  The fact that Carthoris has essentially created a GPS navigation system, paired with an autopilot is pretty wild.  Of course it’s all hand-waved, so it’s done with radiation and rays and whatnot.  But it’s still cool.

This was Burroughs first time working with a new editor, apparently.  I didn’t especially notice any difference.  In fact, it really feels like rehash.  Carthoris is not noticeably different from John Carter, and in fact, most of the time everyone notices how much like John Carter he is.  Thuvia is not much different from Deja Thoris in personality.  I know Burroughs was fast and prolific, but this book took about three months for him to finish, while he was working on several other projects.  It shows.  It feels rushed, conceptually.  It’s sort of like when you see a sequel and think, “isn’t this just the same movie we watched last time?”  

Again, if you enjoy Burroughs’s stuff, it’s fine. It’s a fast read. It’s entertaining. But we’re only four books into an eleven book series and it’s feeling a bit stale.  Here’s hoping the next book feels a bit less boilerplate.  

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