The Gods of Mars

I either loved or hated this. I'm really not quite sure which.

On one hand, it has a lot of the problems the first one did, most of which can be forgiven as products of the time it was created. On top of that, though, this was and feels like a cash-in from the first one, primarily made because of the popularity of the first one.

At the same time though, if we continue the thesis that Burroughs was writing about his society, rather than Mars, there is some nicely subversive stuff going on here; John Carter learns that the religion of the Barsoomians is a fabrication, and that the ruling class uses that religious belief to keep themselves in power and to leech off of the mainstream population. That's pretty subversive stuff for 1918, and I have to admire Burroughs for including that.