John Carter of Mars: The Collection - A Princess of Mars; The Gods of Mars; The Warlord of Mars; Thuvia, Maid of Mars; The Chessmen of Mars

45 years ago in Jr. High School I read all of Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter on Mars Sci Fi/fantasy series books. I loved them all. All 5 stars To add to our family library I was looking for a leather bound book with a collection of his best John Carter books. I couldn't find one. Instead I bought this big paperback book. Great colored front with cover illustration of 5 of his best John Carter books. Included A Princess Of Mars, The Gods Of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, Thuvia Maid Of Mars, and the Chessman of Mars. All are 5 stars. There are several great B/W illustrations from the original books. On Mars (Barsoom) Captain, John Carter, Virginian end of Civil War is mysteriously teleported to Mars after being chased into a cave by a bunch of Indians in western US. ERB uses his fantastic imagination to create an entire living world on dieing Mars (Barsoom). We see the various warlike races of red ,green, yellow, and black Martians, their Jeddick(kings), Jeds, Princess, giant white apes, Martian lions, giant 10 legged thoats ( vicious huge horse like creatures) and more. Vast armies and navies with marvelous technology using rays we don't have on Earth. The Martians can live about a thousand years although most die much younger from warfare. War, and assassination seem to be the number 1 and 2 occupations. John Carter meets Dejah Thoris beautiful Princess of Helium. He eventually marries her and they have a waring son and a princess daughter. John Carter is a master swordsman with his long sword and a born fighter able to easily jump 30 feet with his Earth muscles against Mar's lesser gravity and air pressure. His son is similarly blessed with partial Earth muscles. The Gods of War John Carter must go into the everlasting death zone where Martians go never to return, in order to save his Princess. He battles huge white apes, blood sucking plant men and the evil ancient Issis being. The Warlord of Mars. John Carter unites the Martian races and becomes the supreme Warlord of Mars. Thuvia Maid of Mars is kidnapped and John Carter's son must rescue her. He too is a master swordsman battling various races in different cities. The Chessman of Mars. John Carter's daughter stupidly gets caught in a mighty storm in her small one person aircraft and is blown thousands of miles away. We see a race of Martians with misshapen heads with tentacle like legs connected to the head enabling the head to manipulate the spinal column of headless/mindless living bodies. We see John Carter's daughter rescued by a Jed admirer and eventually her father with a vast army and navy. All these books were fantastic with great description of an entire world and its different people, animals, plants and beautiful cities. ERB 1875-1950 wrote some other John Carter books I plan to get. He also wrote Tarzan of the Apes. He wrote 70 novels and almost 100 adventure stories. One of my favorite authors. Edgar Rice Burroughs had a great imagination. Today we know there is no Macro life on Mars due to high UV radiation, no liquid surface water and less than 1% earth atmosphere...almost all CO2. However there maybe extinct or living microorganisms under the regolith near frozen underground water sources or deep in lava tubes. ERB John Carter Mars books caused an interest in Mars to launch me to becoming a 40 plus year amateur astronomer and Life Member Mars Society. P.S. News Alert! Feb 7 2012. Just got an email from Disney. The movie John Carter of Mars is coming out March 9 on IMAX. I saw the trailer. It looks great. Just hope Disney does not do a politically correct version but keeps as close to the first book (Princess of Mars) as possible. I've been waiting for this movie a long time. My family and I will be seeing it ASAP when its playing near us. I hope its a blockbuster so sequels will be made. Way to go Disney and ERB! PPS. Saw the premier of John Carter of Mars by Disney in real 3D at the movies. I won't ruin it for you. Just say Disney was about 90% true with ERBs Princess of Mars. There were a few differences.I rated the movie 4 1/2 stars and is well worth seeing. I strongly recommend you read the book first as the book Princess of Mars was 5 star and will give you a good heads up to what to expect from the movie.

This is a collection of Edgar Rice Borroughs' (author of the "Tarzan" books) "John Carter Of Mars" series. Written in the early 20th century, some of the sci-fi aspects such as "radium engines" and "ray tanks" have not stood the passage of time well, but it makes great fantasy even in this 21st century. This large-format book (it is a big book, see dimensions) contains five John Carter books: A Princess Of Mars, The Gods Of Mars, The Warlord Of Mars, Thuvia Maid Of Mars and The Chessmen Of Mars. The story begins with the Earth-man John Carter mysteriously transported to Mars where he finds himself lost in an alien world of constant warfare and alien peoples, races and species. John Carter's body, used to the gravity of Earth, seems to have super-human strength and leaping ability on Mars which he uses to his advantage. I don't want to have any "spoilers" for those who haven't read any of Burroughs' works, but suffice to say there's an entire new world of adventure and derring-do in these books! I want to point out that Burroughs is a product of his time and there is no sex, cursing or the arrogant anti-heroes of today in his books. Those who choose to read these books will not be disappointed though for the author is a fine writer and uses language that is both more sophisticated than the slang-filled writing all too common today and often very beautiful in it's descriptions. The hero is brave, honorable, noble and merciful even to defeated enemies - the ideal hero of Burroughs' time which, I think, will still resonate for many today. I think Edgar Rice Burroughs was an excelent popular writer of his day and if the sci-fi devices don't work well, the fantasy aspects are still very enjoyable and will keep you turning pages! Five stars!

My Dad introduced my brothers and I to this series of books when we were children, dimestore novels that he'd purchased when he himself was younger. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them then, and reading them again now is an equally enjoyable experience. Obviously technology since these stories were written has proven that there are no tribes of martian warriors or red men wandering the barren deserts of Mars, but all it takes is a little imagination and suspension of disbelief to still enjoy these books. I'm sure they won't appeal to everyone, but if you are a fan of action and adventure stories in a science fiction setting, I highly recommend this collection.

A great book series for ERB better than Tarzan to bad all attempts to make a move is not the best Disney did ok but bad release.

After seeing the movie I felt compelled to read the books again. I'd read them as a small boy centuries ago and had largely forgotten about them until the movie was released and the memories returned but were mostly blurry. I mean, I could recall how amazing they were, but most of the details had long since faded away. I remembered Sola and Tars Tarkas and Dejah Thoris but that was about it. But the original excitement of the books was still vital and strong. I had thought of them occasionally over the years when George Lucas and James Cameron and many others thoroughly plundered the entire John Carter catalogue. I mean, I loved "Avatar" but the Na'vi are so obviously descendants of the Tharks, for just one example. Mr. Cameron had to make Neytiri beautiful in an alien way, so there were some changes made but the Thark spirit is still there, alive and well. As for George Lucas, forget it. He basically just changed the names and a few other details and called it all his own. I greatly anticipated "John Carter" and was crazy about it when I saw it and I felt inspired to try the books again. Unfortunately, Edgar Rice Burroughs is long, long, long gone from my local library and mall bookstores. So I got this book and it's perfect. The 1st 5 JC of Mars books in one 7.5" x 9.75" x .625" paperback. The complete books with tables of content, original color covers and B&W illustrations, rules of Martian chess (!!!) and a glossary. WOW! Now I'm just an old nerd, but these books make me feel like a 5-yr-old nerd again. Another one I have to find is "Synthetic Men of Mars". I can still clearly remember one of the illustrations from that book to this very day: "There on a table before me, lay my body." WOW! Another issue is that Disney radically bungled the marketing of the film and it bombed as disastrously as if it had been deliberately sabotaged. So we won't see any sequels and ERB will never be credited with another movie again, although he will certainly continue to be robbed over and over, same as always. His books greatly deserved to stand on their own but the irony is that any ERB movies will be seen as imitations of those who in fact extensively copied him, just like "JC" was. So we have to settle for the books themselves and the one movie. But it was fantastic to see Sola and Tars and Dejah and good old noble John himself on the screen even if only for one time. So anyway, this edition is ingeniously packaged and will bring back many memories and much delight for ERB fans everywhere. He clearly had his limtations as a writer but his imagination was second to none. His many original creations were incredible and deserve to be remembered as the template for most of sci-fi and fantasy books and movies.

The book is heavier than it looks. The pages are of a better quality than the average paper back. The print is small but easy to read. The text is the same as the books I read 68 years ago. This book is now a part of my library.

Classic sci-fi, before the genre was well known.

Always have enjoyed Edgar Rice Burroughs and this is the best for having all the books in one at a great price.

I'am italian. We don't have here a book collection about John Carter. So I had to buy it if I'd read something about it. The book is well printed with clear font. The collection it is not completed however there are the first 5 john carter's books, which is good.

I initially downloaded this ebook pack because of the interesting description and good price. I started reading it and thought it was a bit slow and tedious to understand so I put it down for 2 weeks. I picked it up again an began reading more of the book and understood why the story started how it did. The story is very well thought out and written. A lot of details to remember, so the author does a marvelous job of creating the characters and environment and makes the story very believable and interesting. It was hard to put it down. Well done.

I first read the John Carter series many years ago when I was in my early teens and was blown away by the fantasy and descriptive powers of ERB. I was delighted to see and purchase these 5 volumes in all one book. Very well presented and illustrated book. Still makes me smile and relive my youth. Mind you part of the requirement way back then was to read ERB when under the influence of some "red leb", sadly those days are gone but the book remains a quality read whatever your age and influences!

Ein sehr gutes Buch. Kann ich nur wärmstens weiterempfehlen. Den Autor kennt man hauptsächlich durch Tarzan, dennoch sollte man es sich nicht nehmen seine Science Fiction Reihe über John Carter zu lesen. Diese Ausgabe enthält wie auf dem Cover zu sehen ist die ersten 5 Bücher in der John Carter Reihe. Das Vorwort von Edgar Rice Burroughs wurde mitgedruckt, was leider nicht in allen Ausgaben der Fall ist. Dieses Vorwort empfinde ich als ziemlich wichtig für die Story, da sie den Rahmen für die Handlung liefert. Manko in diesem Fall ist, dass durch den Einband ein Teil des Textes nur schwer zu lesen ist, da man den Rücken ziemlich malträtieren muss um den gesamten Text sehen zu können. Hier hätte es sich gelohnt etwas mehr Rand zur Mitte hin zu lassen. Das Buchformat an für sich ist leider etwas ungünstig gewählt, da es viel zu breit und hoch ist um ordentlich drin lesen zu können. Deswegen 2 Punkte abzug für die Haptik des Buches. Den Inhalt zu bewerten maße ich mir hier nicht an, wobei ich persönlich der Meinung bin, dass es sich hier um ein sehr geniales Buch handelt. Natürlich aus heutiger Sicht völliger Unfug, dennoch sehr kurzweilig. Er präsentiert eine schöne Welt und beschreibt gekonnt die Erlebnisse seines Titelheldens

My copy of this book - the paperback version by Purple Rose Publishing - begins near the end of Chapter 15 of the first book, with the sentence "I never saw my mother after that night". I just opened the cover. No title page. No publishing information. It just starts halfway through A Princess Of Mars. For the record, the other four books seem intact, right through to a glossary of Martian names and terms at the end.