Book Review: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
And after having completed the book a few hours ago, I can say that I liked it but not very much—not as much as I wanted to like it. There were some good bits, but overall it felt a little boring towards the end.
Edgar Rice Burroughs has a very clean style of writing. Even reading most casually, it is easy to follow the plot. The story is about John Carter, a Virginian war veteran and a handsome man of immense dexterity, who after escaping from a group of Native Americans and finding refuge inside a cave in the Arizona plains, finds himself get transported to Mars. And Mars is inhabited. At first, John meets with tribal humanoid green men with extra limbs, and sometimes after, he meets with the red men of Mars who look alike to him except that their skin is reddish in color, and they are more advanced than the green men.
The author quickly puts the hero to the test with one obstacle after another, may it be the low gravity of the planet, or fighting in an arena to reclaim his freedom. The story is action-packed and fast-paced, and you might find at least one fight in each chapter. The battles are started and won over a line or a short paragraph, and the emotions of the characters are detailed and zealous.
Edgar Rice Burroughs has a skill in taking the readers from one scene to the next on a moment's notice. It is a blink-and-you-will-miss-it kind of experience, and while his prose is neat and evocative, his dialogues feel awkward and unrefined.
It might be because it was written a long time ago, or that the characters are talking in a language which might have the purple prose as default, but it grated on my ears something fierce. There are long speeches and exclamations which are more suitable for epic poetry than an action-adventure story.
There is also romance. I don't know what else to say about it. John falls in love with the eponymous princess of Mars, Dejah Thoris, at first sight, and pledges his life to her countless times throughout the book. It does invoke the mannerisms and passions of a medieval knight to his lady, but here I found it obnoxious and somewhat silly.
The quality of the characters varies from interesting to average; John is written as a skilled and heroic man, who likes to keep his sword sheathed as much as possible. He is friendly and loyal, and his deep love for Dejah Thoris is his most striking characteristic (maybe cause it feels so bizarre), and Dejah is a haughty princess, though she is quick to admit her mistakes and ask for forgiveness. But there are two other characters, male and female, whose stories and situations were the most intriguing to me. They overshadowed the main characters, and it is a sad thing that they were utilized so little during the second part of the book.
Speaking of parts, this book can be divided into two parts. One who reads it can easily distinguish them. The first part is great and kept me reading. But the second part started, and I was begging for it to end. Not to say it was dull, it has all the things which made the first section great (except the focus on the two characters I liked), but the first part is so much better than the second part.
If the author had made the first part into the whole novel, tweaked the ending a little bit, then it would a more satisfying read.
As for the ending, I didn't enjoy it much. However, this will depend from reader to reader, and you should read it on your own to decide if you felt it was a nice conclusion to A Princess of Mars.
Overall, it was fun to read. I would recommend you to read it. You can finish it in one sitting if you are ardent enough.
You can buy the book on Amazon or get it free on Gutenberg.
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