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Tuesday, February 13, 2024

The Gods of Mars (book review)

After finishing (and thoroughly enjoying) A Princess of Mars, I started the sequel almost immediately (if you haven't read APoM, read that review first).

Despite being quite similar to the first one, this book gave me mixed feelings.

This will be a short review - if you enjoyed the first (a must read!), this book is well worth checking out. If you didn't, you will probably not like this one either. Overall, I'm glad I've read it.


This book has all the trappings of the first one: the pulp action, cloak-and-dagger intrigue, fast pacing and, my favorite part, the awesome world building.

New types of Martians are introduced. Maybe they are not as imaginative as Green Martians, but still very interesting. New monsters too; the plant people are fun if a bit too weird.

The influence on D&D is less obvious here, but it's still very likely this book was an inspiration (even if indirectly) to the Drow, for example. The Drow are said to come from Margaret St. Clair (which I am yet to review, but has some interesting ideas), but they might as well have been lifted directly from this book. Barsoom's "first born" have ebony skin, beautiful bare-naked bodies, and a war-like society that worships some kind of she-demon.

The first half of the book is top notch. The sinister plot behind Barsoom's religion is a great twist, and the "dungeons" are ready to be used in your D&D games. We already had ships, swords, psionics and ray guns in the first book, and now the author adds pirates, cannibals, labyrinths and exquisite traps to the mix. What is not to like?

Well, everything is in this book cute feels bigger in the scope than the first one. There are chaotic battles with multiple sides and multiple sites (with fires, floods and traps). There is more intrigue and secret plans. Instead of one princess, we have three - and they all fall madly in love with John Carter, of course.
 
As you can see, everything that was a bit exaggerated in the first book becomes more so in this one. The sheer number of “deus ex machina” instances become almost unbearable, as an incredible number of unlikely coincidences keeps happening to our hero for no apparent reason other than making the plot more interesting and exciting.

By the end of the book, the stakes are incredibly high, but it is difficult to believe any danger the heroes find will be enough to pierce through their plot armor.

In short, is a fun book, not as awesome as the first, but it still gave me plenty of inspiration.

I am not particularly eager to continue the series (but I might read the third book just to finish the original trilogy), although it keeps introducing cool elements: cloning, mind-transferring, walking heads, and more princesses.

[Maybe I'm being too harsh to Carter; Conan has had his share of queens and princesses, and often in a less platonic manner].

In spite of my reservations about the writing, the series will probably continue to serve as inspiration for my D&D settings for a long time.

You can get the book for free here and here.

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