The Gods of Mars

infobox Book |
name = The Gods of Mars
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Edgar Rice Burroughs
cover_artist = Frank E. Schoonover
country = United States
language = English
series = Barsoom
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = A. C. McClurg
release_date = 1918
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 348 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by = A Princess of Mars
followed_by = The Warlord of Mars

"The Gods of Mars" is a 1918 Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the second of his famous "Barsoom" series. It was first published in "All-Story" as a five-part serial in the issues for January-May 1913. It was later published as a complete novel by A. C. McClurg in September, 1918.

Throughout his novels, Burroughs uses the classic device of a fictional Foreword or Preface that suggests that the contents of the following story reflect true events.

Plot summary

At the end of the first book, "A Princess of Mars", John Carter is unwillingly transported back to Earth. "The Gods of Mars" begins with his arrival back on Barsoom (Mars) after a ten year hiatus, separated from his wife Dejah Thoris, his unborn child, and the Red Martian people of the nation of Helium, whom he has adopted as his own. Unfortunately, John Carter materializes in the one place on Barsoom from which nobody is allowed to depart: the Valley Dor, which is the Barsoomian heaven.

Soon after his advent, a party of Green Martians arrives by boat on the River Iss, and is ambushed by a previously unknown Barsoomian species, the Plant Men. John Carter comes to the aid of the Green Martians, and the lone survivor of the attack is his good friend Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak (roughly equivalent to king) of Thark. Tars Tarkas has taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to search for John Carter, who disappeared ten years earlier while saving the world by opening the portals of the non-functioning atmosphere plant that provides breathable air for the dying red planet.

Together John Carter and Tars Tarkas discover that the Valley Dor is not a heaven, but rather a hell. The Therns, a white-skinned race of self-proclaimed gods who rule the Valley Dor, have for eons deceived the Barsoomians of the outer world by disseminating the myth that the pilgrimage on the River Iss to the Valley Dor was a journey to paradise at the end of a long life of violence and strife. But many of the pilgrims are actually killed by plant men or the white apes of Barsoom upon their arrival in Dor. Those that escape the beasts are captured by the Therns and kept as slaves. The tradition in the outer world, secretly promulgated by the Therns, is to kill as heretics any who return from the Valley Dor.

John Carter and Tars Tarkas rescue Thuvia, a slave girl, and try to escape the Therns. They capitalize on the confusion caused by an attack by the Black Pirates of Barsoom upon the Therns, but are separated during their escape: Tars Tarkas and Thuvia hijack an unoccupied Black Pirate flier, and John Carter fights his way aboard a manned flier, killing all but one of the Pirates, and rescuing a captive Thern princess.

Carter, talking with the captured Pirate Xodar, discovers that the Black Pirates, or "First Born," also think of themselves as gods, and prey upon the Therns like the Therns prey upon the races of the outer world. He also finds that the captive Thern is Phaidor, daughter of the "Holy Hekkador" (high priest) of the Therns. But their flier is surprised and recaptured by the First Born.

They are taken to the land of the First Born, which is built around the underground sea of Omean, which is turn lies directly below the lost sea of Korus, located in the Valley Dor. The land of the First Born is literally underneath the land of the Holy Therns, and both are located at the South Pole of Barsoom.

John Carter is taken before Issus, the goddess of Barsoom. Issus in an ancient, evil woman who has manipulated her own people, the Therns, and the rest of Barsoom into maintaining an hierarchy with the First Born on top. Issus sets the policies of the Therns through secret communications with them. The Therns, thinking they are receiving the divine communications of their goddess, do not realize that they are the dupes of the First Born, their hereditary enemies.

Issus takes Phaidor into her service as a handmaiden, the term of which is one Martian year. After a year of slavery, handmaidens are sacrificed in the arena at the monthly games of Issus. Carter is taken to prison, and Xodar is to be treated as his slave as punishment for being defeated by Carter. However, Carter treats him with honor, thus winning a friend. In prison, they meet a young Red Martian captive from Carter’s home country of Helium. Soon thereafter, Carter and the youth are taken to the monthly games of Issus.

In the games, the handmaidens of a year before are sacrificed, and Carter discovers that their bodies will be eaten by Issus and her nobles. Carter goes on a rampage and leads a revolt of the prisoners/gladiators. The revolt kills many of the First Born in the arena, and Carter and the youth almost catch and kill Issus before the First Born suppress the gladiators. Carter and the youth escape the arena via underground tunnels, and cleverly give themselves up to guards unacquainted with the revolt to be returned to their prison island. Upon hearing the story of the revolt, Xodar is able to reject the notion of Issus’ divinity.

Carter, Xodar and the youth hijack a flier and succeed in a mad escape. Soon after, John Carter discovers that the youth is actually his son, Carthoris, whom Carter has never met. Their stolen flier was damaged in the escape and must be abandoned, so the three land in unknown territory. They soon encounter Thuvia, the former slave of the Therns, who escaped with Tars Tarkas. She describes the capture of Tars Tarkas by the hostile green warriors of the Southern Warhoons. John Carter goes alone to rescue Tars Tarkas, but is discovered on the way out. After being chased, some mounts collapse, and Thuvia is sent on alone mounted while the men stay for a last stand against the Warhoons. They are rescued by the timely appearance of the Heliumetic navy. However, they never find Thuvia.

Commanding one of the warships is Carter’s old friend, Kantos Kan. But the fleet is commanded by Zat Arras, the Jed (roughly equivalent to lord) of the somewhat hostile client state of Zodanga (which was conquered by John Carter and Tars Tarkas in A Princess of Mars). There is suspicion that Carter has returned from Dor, which is punishable by death, and Zat Arras is threatening, and perhaps ambitious himself. It seems that Tardos Mors, the Jeddak of Helium, and Mors Kajak, the Jed of Hastor (the grandfather and father, respectively, of Dejah Thoris, and thus Carter’s in-laws) are absent from Helium because they led fleets in search of John Carter, and they are now years overdue. Finally, Carter receives the news that his beloved Dejah Thoris is missing, and is thought to have taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find him.

Upon returning to Helium, Carter is tried for heresy by a rigged jury of hostile Zodangans, led by Zat Arras. But the masses of Helium will not stand for it. As a compromise to avoid civil war, the judgment of Carter is deferred for a year. Then Sola, the daughter of Tars Tarkas, arrives. She had taken the pilgrimage with Dejah Thoris, and they had been captured by the Black Pirates (apparently out looking for the escaped Carter, Carthoris and Xodar). Sola escaped, and also noted that the Black Pirates had captured Thuvia.

John Carter realizes that the incomparable Dejah Thoris will be selected as a handmaiden of Issus, and thus will have only a year to live. So he and his comrades begin a stealth campaign to take a fleet to the land of the firstborn to rescue her. They uncover evidence that Thern spies are monitoring them, and then Carter is kidnapped by the Zodangans. Carter refuses Zat Arras’ offer of freedom in exchange for endorsing Zat Arras as Jeddak of all Helium, and is imprisoned. After half a year in a dungeon, Carter wins his freedom through a ruse, and the mission to the land of the First Born is launched, with secretly raised troop levies, ships, and many troops from their Green Martian ally, Tars Tarkas.

Upon approaching the South Pole, a fleet of Therns challenges Carter’s fleet. Then behind Carter’s fleet arrives a fleet led by the Zodangan, Zat Arras. And finally, a fleet of First Born arrives. The rescue mission for the rescue of Dejah Thoris is in dire straits.

Wherever possible, Carter maneuvers Therns and First Born to engage in combat, and since they are hereditary enemies, they fight like cats and dogs. Then the Heliumetic crews of the Zodangan fleet mutiny to support Carter, thus negating that threat. John Carter takes his remaining fleet with Tharkian troops to the underground sea of Omean, to attack the First Born and rescue his princess.

The combined Heliumites and Tharks surprise the First Born and soundly defeat them. Issus is shown to be a fraud in front of her nobles, and they lynch her. But Carter is too late to save Dejah Thoris. The fiendishly clever Issus locked Dejah Thoris, Thuvia, and Phaidor, each of whom loves John Carter, in a room of the Temple of the Sun. Each room of this revolving temple opens only once a year, and they are imprisoned with insufficient food to last the year.

Carter is able to talk to Dejah Thoris through the doorway bars, and slip them sufficient food supplements to last them the year, but the room cannot be opened. Just before the room is closed, Phaidor proclaims that if Carter will not love her, he will not be allowed to love another. She strikes at Dejah Thoris with a dagger, and the last thing Carter sees through the narrow crack is Thuvia lunging in front of the dagger. He hears a scream, but the door is closed, and he is unable to see who was struck by the dagger.

And so we have one of the greatest cliffhangers in literature. The story is carried on in the third book of Burroughs’ Martian series, "The Warlord of Mars".

Characters in "The Gods of Mars"

*John Carter – protagonist
*Dejah Thoris – Carter's wife
*Tars Tarkas – the Jeddak
*Kantos Kan – Carter's friend
*Thuvia – a female slave

Literary significance & criticism

Many consider the first three books of the Martian series to be a trilogy. The books are a showcase of Burroughs’ talents: imagination, colorful descriptions, and adventure. Burroughs’ complicated and sometimes flamboyant prose, vocabulary, and grammatical constructions are surprisingly sophisticated for pulp fiction. Consequently, the books make excellent educational fare for young readers. Fact|date=February 2007

Copyright

The copyright for this story has expired in the United States and, thus, now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg.

External links

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/64 Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg]
* [http://www.erblist.com/erblist/godsum.html Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project page for "The Gods of Mars"]