Book: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Krishna
Yes, this is a story by the same Edgar Rice Burroughs who gave Tarzan to the world. It is written in the early twentieth century and is a story about Captain John Carter. I remember that there was a Keanu Reeves movie on this but have not seen it nor do I know whether it was a commercial success or not, so this review is solely about the book.
Still the first page itself shocks when the author introduces how he knew John Carter. He was Uncle Jack to the family, well loved. But, the author says, ‘the slaves in the house worshipped the ground he trod’. And you are shocked into the realization that it was an everyday occurrence in the olden days in Virginia, USA. The caricature suits the mores of the time. A sample : ‘He was perfect in every way, with kids, adults and old people. His eyes were steel grey, reflecting a strong and loyal character’. Does not translate well to the mores of today.
I am not here to complain or say that this should be rewritten. I only point out the little surprises you feel when you read this, until you realize when it was written.
John Carter (or Uncle Jack) is a man who never aged. He started life as a soldier in the losing Confederate army and penniless goes South East to prospect for gold with a partner called James Powell. When they strike a rich vein, Carter stays to guard their claim while Jerome leaves to get better equipment and men to work the mine, for now they are rich.
But seeing that his partner could have been pursued by the Indians who attacked white men at that time, he goes in pursuit and manages to extricate the body of his friend, scattering the Indians, who had pierced Jerome like a pincushion – in confusion with his bold yelps. But realizing that he is not part of a cavalry and is a lone man, they pursue him and he flees. He hides in a cave where a vapour renders him immobile but fully conscious. The pursuing Indians reach the mouth of the cave and he concludes that his life ends right there. But they see something behind him and they all flee in alarm. Unable to turn back, he lies in wait for a possibly worse fate than being tortured and killed by the tribe that tried to capture him.
He frees himself – was this his spirit, because he sees himself lying on the ground from the edge of the cave – and comes out, looks at Mars and is suddenly transported to it. There he meets a strange animal who seems to be sentient. Its young are hatched from eggs and it is like no animal he has ever seen. He finds himself surrounded by adults of the same species with weapons and amazes them by jumping up to the height of a building. (This is due to a lower level of gravity in Mars). They decide to keep him captive instead of killing him and he, having watched a weird but powerful looking gun made of wood and an alloy, both unknown on earth, wisely decides not to resist. Tark Tars seems to be the leader of these fierce green warriors.
He is paraded but looked after by Sola, a female of the species. He earns the undying love of a beast sent to protect him by stopping it from being killed.
He goes to a chamber where the human lady is being interrogated. She offers friendship and the fruits of her research, as they were on a research expedition when they were attacked. John has secretly learned the language of the Martians from Sola but keeps the skill hidden. So they let him listen in, assuming he understands nothing.
When he kills another man who was trying to torture the beautiful lady Dejah Thoris, John kills him and is immediately awarded all the victim’s wealth, as is the custom. He wins the heart of the girl but they both hesitate around moving further. John also demonstrates to the martian green men how to treat their own animals called Thoats. He demonstrates that they perform better in warfare through kindness than through cruelty.
Sarkoja, the cruel girl, mistreats the girl Dejah and John gets her removed from supervision, for which she is angry. During an expedition, Sarkoja instigates a warrior to fight John and sabotages his chances by shining sunlight from a mirror into his eyes at a crucial moment. He manages to survive, with the help of Dejah who moves the mirror, and also kill the warrior. He realizes he is in love with Dejah Thoris. However, when Sarkoja tries to attack Dejah in great anger, Sola manages to save her, injuring herself.
Sola (uncharacteristically for a real novel but quite normal for this fantasy which is lightweight) confesses to John that Tark Tars is her father but he in turn is unaware that Sola is his real daughter. He is rising fast in the army – and was forced to not recognize his live, Sola’s mother until he could take the place of the evil Tal Hajus – who had tortured and killed Sola’s mother when he was away on a campaign. The mother, before her capture, hid Sola among the children chosen at random from eggs, thereby pretending this to be a part of a random harvest. The Martians do not recognize a family and would have killed the child if they had known that she was reared by a loving family.
They then go ahead and as captives are kept in the custody of the evil Taj Hajus. They manage to escape, Sola, Deja and John. When they are found by another evil sect, John helps Sola and Deja escape and as a decoy gets captured. He finally escapes after feigning death at the hands of a fellow gladiator (who was his friend in the dungeon) and then is rescued by Woola?, his beast.
Finally he paints himself as a red man and reaches the palace of the enemy of Helium and gets into good graces of the ruler Than Tor. He sees Dejah come and promise herself to the prince of the kingdom and is devastated. When she finds out that John Carter, whom she had thought was dead is alive, then she regrets giving the word but then says there is no way out because due to custom she cannot go back on her word. Even if John killed Than Tor, she cannot marry her betrothed’s murderer.
John then enlists the help of another spy from Helium, Kantos and asks him to kill Than Tor so that this conundrum can be unravelled.
When that happens, Dejah happily agrees to be his bride but he leaves her safely to go destroy the enemies of Helium with the help of Sola’s father.
The story moves on to the marriage of John Carter with Dejah, and their life together for nine years and the birth of their own ‘egg’ (child).
At that point, the story takes a twist where the air of Mars starts getting depleted because the two old men who had locked themselves into the fortress with the air making machinery seem to have aged and died, and others who knew the mechanism could not get in.
The story ends with the efforts of John Carter in trying to save Mars and the ending is rather touching. I will leave it out in the interests of avoiding a spoiler.
All in all, a frolicking adventure in the light vein of Tarzan and a fun read. Don’t expect complexity or deep narrative sequences, though. Read it for the ‘ride’ it provides.
6/10
= = Krishna