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Barsoom #10-11
Llana of Gathol / John Carter of Mars
2-in-1 edition containing "Llana of Gathol" & "John Carter of Mars".
314 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
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173 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
2,834 books2,734 followersEdgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 31, 2009
Clearly the worst of the John Carter works, this is for completists only. The first of the three books this collection contains is run-of-the-mill, while the second book was apparently written by ERB's son for a young audience. The shift in voice from Carter's first-person narration to an omniscient POV is jarring, to say the least. The third book is unfinished, and just sort of stops between chapters, with very little resolved.
July 3, 2012
One of my all-time favorite series...Burroughs is a master craftsman & I never tire of these stories...
June 29, 2025
Llana of Gathol continues filling out the vast Martian landscape—since it’s no longer mostly water, as Earth still is—with weird cultures and science. Lllana is John Carter’s granddaughter on Mars, the daughter of his daughter, Tara. Tara married Gahan of Gathol in Chessmen of Mars.
Carter’s disdain for slavery continues in this series, with him describing his own encounter with being sold into slavery:
As one might guess, the purchase of John Carter didn’t go well for his buyer, Xaxak, even though Xaxak was relatively lax as First Born slaveholders go.
They call themselves the “First Born” because they are the last remnants of the million-year-dead seagoing races of Mars. All of the myriad warring tribes of Mars, even the Red Martians that Carter has married into, are faint shadows of that great civilization.
It puts into much more perspective just how barren Mars is compared to its past.
Llana of Gathol appears to be the final of the novels of Barsoom. This book also collects two shorter stories. John Carter and the Giant of Mars is very different, and I don’t think it was meant to be canonical with the rest of the series. It was originally published as a “Better Little Book”, a series I for some odd reason know better as “Big Little Books”, despite their apparently getting the “Better” name well before I was born. These books were aimed at younger children rather than the young adults (and older adults) who would have enjoyed the more intricate and strange novels.
“The Giant of Mars” is still plainly weird, and references the other books, such as the creator of the synthetic men, whose lesser students made the titular giant. It may not even have been written by ERB.
It’s written in a completely different third-person style and reads very much like any other Big Little Book, or at least as I remember then many decades on.
The final installment is a short story, The Skeleton Men of Jupiter, which takes John Carter to Sasoom, that is, Jupiter, or Eurobus, as the native Morgors call it. It was published in Amazing Stories in 1943, and judging from the ending was probably meant to be longer. It ends in the way that the novels often send Carter from an apparent success into further adventure. It is, in that sense, of course, a perfectly reasonable ending to the story, though not for the series.
I suspect it was meant to bring John Carter throughout the solar system as a fitting end for his interplanetary adventures. It is an amazing Barsoom-like view of Mars, very different, very weird, and blatantly against the modern theories of scientists who “still insist that Mars is neither habitable or inhabited”.
I now very much want to re-read every one of these more closely together.
Carter’s disdain for slavery continues in this series, with him describing his own encounter with being sold into slavery:
The next day a number of the First Born came down into our cell to examine us, as one might exam cattle that one purposed buying.
As one might guess, the purchase of John Carter didn’t go well for his buyer, Xaxak, even though Xaxak was relatively lax as First Born slaveholders go.
They call themselves the “First Born” because they are the last remnants of the million-year-dead seagoing races of Mars. All of the myriad warring tribes of Mars, even the Red Martians that Carter has married into, are faint shadows of that great civilization.
It puts into much more perspective just how barren Mars is compared to its past.
It could not have been more than two days, as we still had strength; and more than two days without water will sap the strength of the best of men. Twice more we saw the light and heard the laughter. That laugh! I can hear it yet. I tried to think that it was human. I didn’t want to go mad.
Llana of Gathol appears to be the final of the novels of Barsoom. This book also collects two shorter stories. John Carter and the Giant of Mars is very different, and I don’t think it was meant to be canonical with the rest of the series. It was originally published as a “Better Little Book”, a series I for some odd reason know better as “Big Little Books”, despite their apparently getting the “Better” name well before I was born. These books were aimed at younger children rather than the young adults (and older adults) who would have enjoyed the more intricate and strange novels.
“The Giant of Mars” is still plainly weird, and references the other books, such as the creator of the synthetic men, whose lesser students made the titular giant. It may not even have been written by ERB.
It’s written in a completely different third-person style and reads very much like any other Big Little Book, or at least as I remember then many decades on.
The final installment is a short story, The Skeleton Men of Jupiter, which takes John Carter to Sasoom, that is, Jupiter, or Eurobus, as the native Morgors call it. It was published in Amazing Stories in 1943, and judging from the ending was probably meant to be longer. It ends in the way that the novels often send Carter from an apparent success into further adventure. It is, in that sense, of course, a perfectly reasonable ending to the story, though not for the series.
I suspect it was meant to bring John Carter throughout the solar system as a fitting end for his interplanetary adventures. It is an amazing Barsoom-like view of Mars, very different, very weird, and blatantly against the modern theories of scientists who “still insist that Mars is neither habitable or inhabited”.
Unquestionably, the scientists appear to be correct in theory. Equally incontrovertible is it that I am correct in fact.
I now very much want to re-read every one of these more closely together.
“My better judgment tells me it would be a foolish thing to do,” I said, “but if I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.”
May 13, 2024
The last of the Barsoom series with the final book split with two novellas with a total of three stories for the collection. Whereas some of the previous books were recycling plots, Burroughs tries to create new plotlines here and refocuses attention back on John Carter instead of other heroic figures which were patterned off Carter's character. The novellas are the more interesting where Carter is battling different potential conquerors of Mars, the second finding him away on Jupiter against a warlord. Carter has to escape from prison and try to destroy their fleet so they are stopped in their tracks.
March 1, 2019
Divertente il primo libro, il secondo così così, non ho capito cosa sia successo col terzo libro pare quasi lasciato a metà... Arrivederci John Carter, arrivederci su Barsoom!
February 5, 2023
Gli albori della fantascienza. Commovente.
August 30, 2017
Llana of Gathol was the usual decent ERB Barsoom adventure.
The second one isn't as good. Two smaller "novels":
The first, "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" is written in third person, unlike ALL the other books.
The second, "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" ends abruptly, and doesn't resolve the problems.
The second one isn't as good. Two smaller "novels":
The first, "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" is written in third person, unlike ALL the other books.
The second, "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" ends abruptly, and doesn't resolve the problems.
June 7, 2010
Barsoom,ERB,John Carter
November 28, 2011
Women get kidnapped - men go to the rescue - - more of the same.
But again it was fun to read these old stories
But again it was fun to read these old stories
March 21, 2012
A good yarn, especially for its time. Makes me want to read the first one in the series (this is all I could find in the library)
Read
March 3, 2013I would have loved to have read this but the software got into a loop and never would open it!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews