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srreid's review against another edition
3.0
A bit more adventurous than the last one, took a while to get to the actual chessmen part of the story, and it didn't seem to last very long for being the title. Also half the characters seemed to disappear around the middle and only showed up again right at the end, would have been better if we heard a bit more what happened to them in the big storm.
sean67's review against another edition
2.0
Book five in what normal people call the John Carter series, Goodreads has some weird name no one has ever heard of before but anyway, basically the series seems very dated and a little bit of a chore to get through.
maggotqueen666's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
theatlantean's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. The whole tale of adventure, rescue-capture, rescue-capture, and rescue and recapture was made pointless, by the Deus ex machina of john Carter turning up at the last minute.
quoththegirl's review against another edition
3.0
Burroughs' attitude towards plot is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," so once again we have a princess getting kidnapped and in need of a rescue. I will say, though, that I enjoyed this installment more than the previous one because for once the princess (in this case Tara, John Carter's and Dejah Thoris' daughter) is a character in her own right, and we actually follow her experiences more than those of her rescuer. Tara is also a lot more proactive than her predecessors, which was a nice change. Burroughs resurrects his frame narrative for this book, albeit perfunctorily. While I do wonder what he does with the series after this, I'm going to conclude my little adventure through Barsoom, at least for now. Gotta take a break from all these kidnappings.
murkymaster's review against another edition
5.0
Where as Thuvia was at times helpless, Tara of Helium, daughter of the Warlord of Mars, stacks bodies as well as her erstwhile lover and rescuer. This tale is also high in more political intrigue and infinitely interesting characters than the other Barsoomian yarns. A treat to be sure!
itheory's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. Gave up after 100 pages or so. Loved the first three books, but the series becomes redundant after taht.
vintonole's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting story line, but predictable. I slogged through a few parts, but I am interested in reading the entire series. As with the comics and other media some stories are better than others. Like the last novel this story isn't about John Carter of Mars, but his daughter Tara and her adventure to a land far from Helium. The cover is cool and the Jetan sequences (Chess) were good, but very short considering it is the title of the book. Sadly no giant green Tharks in this one.
souljaleonn's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.25
blchandler9000's review against another edition
3.0
When ERB lets his imagination run rampant, his books are a delight. When he focuses on more courtly matters, his books tend to lose me. This is one of his novels of his that does both.
The first half of the book features Tara of Helium (John Carter's daughter) lost in the weird community of kaldanes and rykors. Kaldanes are detachable, crab-like heads that ride the headless, human-like rykor bodies. Naturally, being almost all head, the kaldanes are emotionless beings driven by a desire to only think. The rykors just want to eat. There are shades of Baron Munchausen's moon folk here, though Raspe's head/bodies are played for laughs and ERB leans more towards horror.
Then the book shifts to another lost city—this one populated by humans—where deadly games of chess are played with living men and women being the pieces. The chess aspect is fun, but it only plays a small part of the book's second half, with more time spent on dungeon crawling and the selfish decrees of an antagonist king. The city's gladiatorial chess games are not its only curiosity. The dead are not buried here, but taxidermied and posed on balconies and public hallways. To my disappointment, ERB never really spends the time to explain this. He cites ancestor worship often while describing the superstitions of the city's residents, so maybe the preserved dead are part of that? The whole second half of the book seemed more of a jumble of cool ideas that ERB just pasted over the usual romance & heroics outline. On top of that, the ending comes way too fast.
I did like that Tara is given more than half of the book's POV. It was nice to have a woman be the main character for a while. Her personality starts as pretty much that of a brat, though she softens marginally as the book goes on. I suppose hanging out with beings of pure thought and wicked emperors will do that.
The first half of the book features Tara of Helium (John Carter's daughter) lost in the weird community of kaldanes and rykors. Kaldanes are detachable, crab-like heads that ride the headless, human-like rykor bodies. Naturally, being almost all head, the kaldanes are emotionless beings driven by a desire to only think. The rykors just want to eat. There are shades of Baron Munchausen's moon folk here, though Raspe's head/bodies are played for laughs and ERB leans more towards horror.
Then the book shifts to another lost city—this one populated by humans—where deadly games of chess are played with living men and women being the pieces. The chess aspect is fun, but it only plays a small part of the book's second half, with more time spent on dungeon crawling and the selfish decrees of an antagonist king. The city's gladiatorial chess games are not its only curiosity. The dead are not buried here, but taxidermied and posed on balconies and public hallways. To my disappointment, ERB never really spends the time to explain this. He cites ancestor worship often while describing the superstitions of the city's residents, so maybe the preserved dead are part of that? The whole second half of the book seemed more of a jumble of cool ideas that ERB just pasted over the usual romance & heroics outline. On top of that, the ending comes way too fast.
I did like that Tara is given more than half of the book's POV. It was nice to have a woman be the main character for a while. Her personality starts as pretty much that of a brat, though she softens marginally as the book goes on. I suppose hanging out with beings of pure thought and wicked emperors will do that.