A Princess of Mars

(3 stars)

Kzitek

Love the story and consider myself a big fan of Burroughs, but for the love of God 6 different readers!?!? All of the different accents on the part of the readers really detract from the story. Come on Ralph Snelson help a brother out! Can't you just take over all of Burroughs' books?

Interesting story, but didn't age well

(3 stars)

probablyjd

For the most part I enjoyed the story. It is wonderfully imaginative and has some exciting sequences. If you are a fan of old-fashioned scifi that reads like the adventure novels of a bygone era (i.e. lots of exposition about imaginary peoples and monsters) then you will probably enjoy it. For me the exposition was a bit dry and cliche, though to be fair it probably was not cliche when it was written more than 100 years ago. The romantic passages are laughably silly at best, and insultingly sexist at worst (again, mostly a product of the times). My biggest complaint, though, is with the narration - the narrator changes nearly every chapter. Narrators range from pretty good to nearly unintelligible. Each one has their own style, some even affecting an attempt at a southern drawl (I suppose because the protagonist is from Virginia). Bafflingly, some readers did several chapters, but not consecutively. The constant switching between voices would be jarring even if they were all good (they are not).

(5 stars)

Leah

I love this series. It’s in my top ten favorite books. Maybe it’s just nostalgia cause I listened to this when I was a lot younger but I love it. I also don’t agree with the summary at all. The women are not all needy damsels to be saved and it is not just a boys book. I’m a fairly hardcore feminist so if you’re only avoiding this book because you think all the girls are going to be damsels in distress I suggest you try it anyway!

Accurate title

(4.5 stars)

MakerMovement

Many authors read different portions of the book so it takes some getting used to each voice. Text was read clearly and I fully enjoyed the book! The movie John Carter is based on this book, I believe.

Decent but dated.

(4 stars)

Dillon3235

I was a little disturbed to learn John Carter was a confederate, I have not seen the film. And it seems to me that the war-like ways of the Green Martians and their habits of communal property, was meant as a condescending mirror of Earth's Native North American peoples. The fact that the Green men were depicted as redemable allows me to extend a measure of forgiveness. The impications of John Carter winning "possession" of the Princess by means of combat and even war struck me as more than a bit misogynistic and the regretfull narration of the author, refering to the deaths of his enemies among the rival nations of Red Martians as "useless sacrifices of brave men", seem like a paltry attempt to excuse the fact that the hero is waging war for the sake of looting property and women. Though I notice he seldom expresses the same attitude of admiration when Green Martians die in combat. When I look past these dated faults, it is an overal decent adventure story, and I am sure that i will read and enjoy the rest.

a shame

honest charlie

I listened to many of the chapters but finally had to give up. One of the readers had either a very deviated septum, some kind of allergy or perhaps a sinus infection which made her voice so nasally and horrible to listen to that I finally couldn't take it anymore. Unfortunately it seems as though she was reading more chapters than anybody else. I'm only being honest, it just ruined the experience for me and I was really disappointed because I was really enjoying the story.

(4 stars)

An Analogue at my table

Rivetting! It takes a while to get used to the different readers, but the story is so tight and well imagined that it travels well. I am onto all of ERB's Barsoom books now using LV. I have to say the Southern gentleman reader has the most engaging style. Hard to imagine the author is not known for this science fiction classic. He was far ahead of his time.

Great story, multi readers ruin it

(3.5 stars)

Linda in PNW

I loved the story. yes, it is dated, chauvinistic, old sci-fi and silly love story. Regardless, I loved this and found it hard to stop listening. The descriptions of Martians and their animals allowed my imagination to go crazy. I enjoyed that the human was a "good" guy and helped some locals to embrace emotions other than hatred.