A Princess of Mars

Hmm... I gotta stop into these classics with high expectations, especially one with over a century of difference in values. To be perfectly honest, I found the John Carter movie to be much more entertaining and much more believable than the book (obviously, since the movie is much more recent). And because of the movie, I guess I was expecting something else.

I won't judge the scientific oddities, of which there are quite a few – radium, the incredible properties of the eighth and ninth rays of light, the terraforming of an entire planet within a one single plant, distance fallacies, and the somewhat illogical ideas regarding ground-to-air and air-to-air warfare.

What I found to be rather disappointing about the book's plot is that it's entirely created and conceived solely around the purpose of putting a human on Mars and making him moon over a Martian woman. All the plot hooks and events are engineered for that sole purpose – fortunate coincidences are around every corner – with implausible situations chalked away to sheer luck, sheer prowess, or simply left unexplained and ignored.

For example: How the heck did he go to Mars in the first place? The movie explained it. The book didn't even attempt to – even the protagonist simply accepts that he's on Mars. There are a lot of such details that are just glossed over. I guess it comes from its roots as a serial publication rather than being a novel right from the start.

His oh-so-manly physical prowess (I'm a guy and I cringe every time I read his self-praise) is also quite annoying. Telling the reader how good he knows he is, before performing an action is downright bad – doing it the other way round might've made it more tolerable.

I'm definitely taking the book way too seriously and from a way too modern outlook. It's obviously more of a planetary romance with bits of sci fi and bits of a primitiveness thrown in, as opposed to the action thriller the movie made it into. It's lacking in world-building, filled with bland, stereotyped and rather uninteresting characters (protagonist and princess included), and a plot littered with coincidences and holes.

Why two stars then? What I did like about book are two things: The pacing is great. There are no dragging moments in the book. It just zips from one incident to another. Reading the book, despite my dislikes, is quite a pleasure. The pulpiness of the plot is in there in full and the prose is not overly flowery, making for an easy and quick read.

Another one of those classics of the genre that I've never read - I'd heard the name John Carter before, but going in that was around all that I knew.

This was a fun read! Carter appears at times to be a bit superhuman, and as a result there doesn't seem to be in serious danger at any time, and the story as a result feels like a swashbuckling travelogue as much as anything else. Perhaps that shouldn't be too surprising, given the era that the novel came out of, and it makes for a refreshing read.

It's not really a science fiction novel, though, at least not in the way that I usually think of the term. Aside from the extraterrestrial setting of the novel, any science in the novel is incidental - how Carter gets to Mars isn't really explained, and there are no real difficulties raised regarding living on Mars - it has atmosphere, and plants and animals that provide food, and aliens that are very similar to humans, aside from their ubiquitous telepathic ability (which don't work on Carter, so are a bit of a moot point). A Princess of Mars has more in common with stories like those of Gulliver or Sinbad than those written by the likes of Wells, Clarke, or Asimov. And yet, reading about it it's incredibly influential, not only to science fiction authors but to actual scientists instead. Anything that could inspire a range of people as wise as Carl Sagan and George Lucas must have something special to it.

One of the things about A Princess of Mars that I found interesting, but which a lot of people might find off-putting, is that it's a novel dripping in Manifest Destiny. Before going to Mars, Carter was a soldier in the Confederate army and is in conflict with a group of Apaches, who are portrayed as ‘savages'; after he goes to Mars, he quickly learns their language and rises to a leadership position among both the green and red Martians as a result of his inherent superiority as a Southern Gentleman. It's a little grating at times, but if you're able to keep perspective of when and where the novel was published, it shouldn't hamper one's enjoyment of the story too much.