A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins

by Ann Tonsor Zeddies, Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator), Geary Gravel

INTRIGUE IN THE COURT OF ZOR
Born to an ancient line of noble and courageous forebears, Dejah Thoris, young and headstrong princess of the mighty empire of Helium, longs for a life of excitement and purpose beyond the cloistered walls of her royal palace. When a foreign ambassador arrives with an invitation to visit his city-state in hopes of fostering diplomatic relations, the princess defies the protests of her father and jed, traveling to the shadowy metropolis of Zor as Helium’s emissary. But Dejah Thoris soon finds that her hosts are not like the gallant folk of Helium, and before she knows it, their nefarious machinations ensnare her in a tangled web of artifice, perfidy, and murder -- and a treacherous plot that portends tragedy not only for her own family, but for the entire Heliumetic empire.

Bonus "John Carter of Swords of the Mind" by Geary Gravel
John Carter is baffled when he encounters his son's badly damaged flier racing through the Martian skies with no one on board. The mystery only deepens when he traces the lost ship to its last port of call and finds himself battling for his life in a city of illusions -- where the peril is all too real!

THE FIRST UNIVERSE OF ITS KIND
A century before the term “crossover” became a buzzword in popular culture, Edgar Rice Burroughs created the first expansive, fully cohesive literary universe. Coexisting in this vast cosmos was a pantheon of immortal heroes and heroines -- Tarzan of the Apes, Jane Clayton, John Carter, Dejah Thoris, Carson Napier, and David Innes being only the best known among them. In Burroughs’ 80-plus novels, their epic adventures transported them to the strange and exotic worlds of Barsoom, Amtor, Pellucidar, Caspak, and Va-nah, as well as the lost civilizations of Earth and even realms beyond the farthest star. Now the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe expands in an all-new series of canonical novels written by today’s talented authors!

© Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Trademarks A Princess of Mars®, Dejah Thoris™, John Carter®, John Carter of Mars®, Tarzan®, Tarzan of the Apes®, Edgar Rice Burroughs®, Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe™, and others owned by ERB, Inc.

314 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2024

Reviews

[Chuck Loridans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased the paperback copy of this book at Pulpfest 2024 in Pittsburgh.

As a long time fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, I thoroughly enjoyed both tales in this tome.

To start... The cover by Douglas Klauba is awesome!

To my knowledge, Ann Tonzor Zeddies is the first woman to write a novel taking place in the universe created by ERB. She did not disappoint.

An adventure featuring the Incomparable Dejah Thoris, before she met John Carter is a wonderful concept, and this novel fulfills it very satisfyingly. We get swashbuckling, high flying adventure and palace intrigue. I hope she writes more ERB Universe novels.

The book also contains a novella by Geary Gravel, John Carter of Mars: Swords of the Mind. It picks up where Gravel's John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten left off.

Gravel takes us right into what just might be what's going on, on Barsoom today. We get to know Carter's grandson, who is a fun departure from the typical Barsoomian hero.

Just as fulfilling as a full novel, and a concept is introduced that ties a creature of Barsoom to one of ERB's earthly creatures. I'm hoping Gravel writes more Barsoom adventures soon.

Highly recommended!!!!

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (or ERBU) continues to expand with Ann Tonsor Zeddies’ A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins, the first new canonical novel to truly feature Dejah Thoris in the main role since she was introduced in Burroughs’ first Barsoom novel (also titled A Princess of Mars) in 1911 (when it was originally serialized in All-Story magazine as “Under the Moons of Mars”). Despite the title, A Princess of Mars focused more on John Carter, the amnesiac and long-lived Earthman who is mysteriously transported to Mars and finds himself caught up in the political and existential crises of a world not his own, than it did on the titular Princess. Carter does meet and fall in love with Dejah Thoris, princess of the human city-state of Helium, and her scenes introduce us to a woman adept at statecraft, quick to make decisions, handy with weaponry, and not easily wooed/swayed by the presence of a handsome stranger.

People who have never read Burroughs, who rely only on the television and movie interpretations of his work from the 1950s and ‘60s to inform their opinion of him, are surprised to discover just how progressive (for his time) Burroughs was in writing his female characters. Dejah Thoris, Jane Porter, Duare of Amtor, Dian of Pellucidar, and so many others are not the wilting damsels-in-distress of so much media of the time. They are all strong, intelligent, proud women capable of not only getting into danger but rescuing themselves from it (as discussed in “The Women of Edgar Rice Burroughs” panel at Pulpfest 2024, as discussed in my post earlier this week).

Ann Tonsor Zeddies takes what we know of Dejah Thoris’ personality and history from the Barsoom novels she featured prominently in and delivers a prequel novel that shows us how she grew into the woman John Carter falls in love with. Dejah starts off the novel straining against her father’s (Mors Kajak, jed of Lesser Helium) reluctance to treat her like an adult. While her brother gets to go off on scientific expeditions, Dejah is expected to stay in Helium and await the wooing of suitors from the city’s warrior class. The unexpected arrival of an embassy from another city-state and the bad timing of an attack by a tribe of Mars’ green men conspire to place Dejah in the position of representing her father, and her city, at a series of Olympics-like games in the previously unheard-of city of Zor. (The timing of this novel, which so heavily features sporting competition and the awarding of honors for same, coming out amid the 2024 Summer Olympics may or may not have been planned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. If it wasn’t, it is certainly fortuitous.)

Shadow of the Assassins is somewhat an origin story for Dejah Thoris. We get to watch her grow from a girl who thinks she knows everything to a woman who recognizes that to be a good leader, one must surround oneself with trusted and smart advisors – and not just be in their company, but also listen to them. She bungles her initial interactions with the Jeddak of Zor, Jan Vajo, and his sister Phortara, ignoring the advice of the older friend of her mother’s sent as adviser in Dejah’s retinue. She also takes ownership of her mistakes and strives to make amends – although almost too late – and in the end makes a series of decisions that not only save herself and her friends but also her embattled father.

Zeddies also crafts exciting, engrossing chase and fight scenes full of tension that alternate wonderfully with the scenes of courtly intrigue. Both the action scenes and the intrigue scenes work together to deepen and further the mystery Dejah Thoris must solve: what is really going on in Zor and how will it affect Helium?

Since this is a prequel, we know that Helium will be okay, but the threat still feels palpable. Few of the familiar characters from Burroughs’ original Barsoom novels appear outside of Dejah’s parents and grandparents. But there are winks at some of the friends and threats that appear in the Burroughs books and there are new characters introduced who add to the interesting tapestry of the Barsoom books without contradicting anything we already know and who hopefully will continue to appear as the ERBU grows.

The book also includes a new John Carter of Mars novella, “John Carter of Mars: Swords of the Mind,” written by Geary Gravel (who also wrote the ERBU novel John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten, part of the company’s “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, which I reviewed HERE). The novella is a sequel of sorts to Gods of the Forgotten as well as to Burroughs’ novel Thuvia, Maid of Mars, but you do not have to have read either novel to enjoy this novella. John Carter discovers that his son Carthoris is missing and goes to investigate. An old threat is found to not only still be active but also stronger in power. Geary expertly weaves together and extrapolates from Burroughs’ concepts to expand the mythos with new dangers. And to introduce a new character! One of the things I’ve enjoyed about the new ERBU books is the introduction of the “next generation:” Suzanne Clayton (granddaughter of Tarzan), Victory Harben (daughter of Gretchen von Harben), Janson Gridley (son of Jason and Jana), and now Djon Dihn (son of Carthoris and Thuvia). Burroughs had no problem extending the family trees of his characters (having given us Korak, son of Tarzan, and Carthoris and his sister Tara, children of John Carter and Dejah Thoris), and I think he’d be happy to see the way that tradition is being carried on in the new spate of canonical ERBU books.

I hope this is just the first of several Dejah Thoris prequel novels from Ann Tonsor Zeddies, who also wrote the novella “Victory Harben: Stormwinds of Va-Nah.” I am excited to see where she’ll take Dejah and her new friends next, in the years between this book and A Princess of Mars.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins can be pre-ordered now (in paperback, hardcover, and limited-edition collector’s hardcover versions) at the Edgar Rice Burroughs Incorporated website.

[John]

Dejah Thoris!

In all the annuls of science fiction and fantasy, or literature in general, few names - if, indeed, any - stir the imagination more than that of the incomparable Princess of Helium. And to be clear: by “stir the imagination,” I do NOT refer to the way countless millions of red-blooded American males (and, I have no doubt, red-blooded American females as well) with a certain degree of arrested development have responded over the course of 80-plus years to the many visual depictions of the character - especially those that seem to turn up in every nook and cranny of the Internet these days, executed by amateur “fanboys” who likely have never read any of the original stories featuring the object of their salacious adolescent fantasies.

(To further clarify: I’m no prude, and I like a well-done visual depiction of a scantily clad fantasy princess as much as the next fellow - I am my father’s son, after all. But, honest to Issus, some of those pictures… sometimes if I listen close, I think I can hear Edgar Rice Burroughs spinning in his cremation urn in frustration over what some people have done to his creation.)

No, when I talk about Princess Dejah’s impact of the imagination of her truest fans, I’m referring to what she represents to the history of her genre - and to the very concept of female empowerment in general. (One might well wonder what I, as a man, really know about such things. And if I’m being honest, my answer would have to be: Not much, other than the lessons I’ve learned over the years through personal experience and the examples set by my mother and my wife - both of them women and, believe me, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.) That’s the thing I think so many of those artists tend to forget in their depictions of Dejah Thoris - and why the accusations of sexism hurled at ERB over the years have always struck me as being way off base. While they sometimes found themselves in that position, his female protagonists - from Jane Porter and Lys La Rue to Wichita Billings, Victoria Custer and Marsha Sackett - and were always something more than mere “damsels in distress.” They were brave, resourceful, and possessors of a fighting spirit that made them heroes in their own right. This was especially true of Dejah Thoris - the spiritual ancestor to Princess Leia Organa - whom the transplanted Earthman John Carter deemed as “incomparable” not for her physical beauty alone, but for her strength, her spirit and her wisdom.

Maybe it was the aforementioned influence of my wife and mother, but in my mind these are the attributes that have always made Dejah Thoris worthy of attention and admiration. And perhaps not surprisingly, it has taken a woman author to point this out to a new generation of fans - and to remind of some the rest of us old farts of something we should have known all along.

The latest in a series of new novels set firmly within the canonical ERB Universe, “A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins” - written by Ann Tonsor Zeddies, whose previous work includes stories featuring the Marvel Comics character Silver Surfer - is a prequel to the original series of 11 novels about the Red Planet that Burroughs wrote over the course of his career (beginning with his first published work, “A Princess of Mars,” in 1911). Set in the years prior to John Carter’s arrival on her world from Earth (or Jasoom, as it is known to the denizens of ERB’s Mars, or Barsoom), “Shadow of the Assassins” depicts Dejah Thoris as headstrong young woman who still has a lot of learning and growing up to do - ignoring advice of family and friends, and pretty much making a mess of things as she sets out to represent her home - and its ruler, her father - during a mission in the city of Zor. To her credit, she owns up to the mistakes she makes along the way… and in doing so, takes a big step forward to becoming the character who so beguiled John Carter - and the rest of us - in his first recorded adventure.

I’ve read several reviewers express how much they enjoyed not only Zeddies’ story in general, but her take on the character of Dejah Thoris in particular - and express hope that we will be seeing more stories of Dejah from Zeddies in the future. I’ll happily and heartily add my voice to those who have already expressed such sentiments. Zeddies manages to strike the perfect balance between that authentic Burroughs flavor older fans like myself have loved for so long, and a modern sensibility that should attract a new generation of fans, thus helping to ensure that the legacy of the Grandfather of American Science Fiction endures well into the future.

The book also contains a bonus story: “John Carter of Mars: Swords of the Mind,” Geary Gravel’s latest contribution to the Barsoomian canon - and a sequel of sorts to his own Carter novel “Gods of the Forgotten,” part of the recent four volume “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc. (A prequel AND a sequel, all in one volume - what’s not to love?) I’ve been a fan of Gravel’s ever since I picked up his novelization of the animated film “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” back in 1993, and it pleases me more than I can properly express to see how well he has acquitted himself so far in the Burroughsian Mythos.

I have been reading Burroughs since I was a small boy in the early 1970s, and count myself among those who have spent a good chunk of my life clamoring for new adventures that capture the spirit of ERB’s originals. There have been attempts over the years - but with only a tiny handful of exceptions, most of them have fallen well short of the target. With the advent of ERB Incorporated’s current series of canonical “ERB Universe” tales, fans like me are finally getting the kind of new stories we’ve longed for (while also adding some of those aforementioned exceptions to the official canon, as well, which please me no end) - and with this volume we have ample evidence that the future of the Burroughs Universe appears to be in very good hands indeed!

[Ric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe
A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins
Ann Tonsor Zeddies

In modern fandom, the character of Deja Thoris is often met with derision. This is mostly because of the way she’s often presented in van art and comic books, as a voluptuous and imperiled princess, the subject of the hero’s protective stance. Him fighting off adversaries while she is seen clinging to one of his legs in admiration and gratitude. Of course, this is not the literal rendition that Edgar Rice Burroughs focused on in his otherworldly romances on Mars. And thankfully, Ann Tonsor Zeddies’ new novel strides far and away from such demeaning stereotypes.

Readers of prior Mars novels know that many of them focus on John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia. In “A Princess of Mars” Carter was mysteriously whisked off Earth and deposited on Mars for adventures and romances, himself made superhuman by the planets lower gravity. He meets his princess, the titular Deja Thoris, and his adventures involve efforts to “rescue the princess” over the first three Mars novels. In judging this series of novels, we must remember they were written starting in 1911, and for the time Burroughs did a much better than average job of creating a well-rounded, respectful and reasonable “fantasy romance” without lapsing into lurid details that one might have imagined given the book’s covers.

So, this new novel focuses on Deja Thoris, and can do so because it is created as a prequel to the original series. There is no John Carter here. Deja is somewhat younger, and still living a semi-sheltered life as she’s growing into adulthood. This is a terrific way to approach the character because it allows her to shine. And we can thank Zeddies that she does not write Deja as the princess awaiting rescue by her hero. Here, she is the hero.

Indeed, while still giving us the pacing and excitement Burroughs is known for, Zeddies is able to craft new views of Mars for established series readers and provide an interesting starting point for those who have not read any of the prior works. Burroughs had few titled heroines in his works, and in my opinion those adventures did not captivate in the same manner of his heroes. Unfortunate, but somewhat to be expected for their age. But these days such a male-centric focus is limiting when it comes to growing an audience.

Zeddies writes clearly of the world and its peoples, expanding quite a bit, but also paying an informed homage to what has gone before. Some of the characters are familiar, even though we’re seeing them years before (and ironically over a century after) their original appearances. This can be fun as Zeddies shifts the tension to more courtly intrigues. Indeed, the plot of the book does seem more influenced by “The Game of Thrones” and similar fantasy series that dwell on the relationships between and within feudal kingdoms.

Deja manages to convince her father to let her represent him and their kingdom on a diplomatic mission. Of course, this involves meeting with a royal family that is obviously involved in several private intrigues. The kingdom is beset by the aforementioned assassins, and is strangely restrictive of their new guests, who are imperiled by no small number of conflicting agendas, and apparently assassins. Deja and her cadre of ladies in waiting observe, investigate, plan and are plotted against while they uncover the true intent of their hosts. In typical Burroughs fashion, this results in forays into the dangerous wilds of Mars, numerous battles and skulking about, and a good time for readers that does credit to the series.

I’ll go no further into details of the plot and adventures. “A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins” is a quick read, partially because the book also includes a bonus novella “John Carter of Mars: Sword of the Mind” written by Geary Gravel, who has a prior Mars novel “Gods of the Forgotten” which is also published under the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe brand.

This is a particularly good addition to the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe, and stands as a worthy introduction to readers who have yet to play in that Universe.

[Win Scott Eckert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over one hundred years ago, Edgar Rice Burroughs was in the business of creating strong female characters. And while we knew, in our hearts, that long-lived characters such as Dejah Thoris must have had wonderous adventures before her fateful meeting with Earthman John Carter, they were untold and shrouded in mystery--until now!

Ann Tonsor Zeddies' A PRINCESS OF MARS: SHADOW OF THE ASSASSINS delivers on Dejah's mysterious past, while remaining completely true to what we learned of her character and life history after she met John Carter. Full of intrigue and reversals, Zeddies perfectly captures Burroughs' characters, as well as the ever-present background pall hanging over the dying world of Barsoom.

In addition, the book features another entry in Geary Gravel’s continuing chronicles of John Carter himself in a novelette entitled "Swords of the Mind." It's a very satisfying sequel to ERB's THUVIA, MAID OF MARS, and introduces us, in true Burroughsian tradition, to an extended family member of our hero.

Highly recommended!

[Terry Clees · Rating 4 out of 5]

Princess of Mars by ERB is one of my favorite books; therefore I entered into this story with a critical eye for inconsistencies. The story is believable in the Barsoom Universe and I enjoyed the tale told in the frame of other ERB books.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new novel set in the Barsoom universe of Edgar Rice Burroughs featuring Dejah Thoris prior to meeting John Carter.