| The Gods of Mars | |
|---|---|
First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
| Cover artist | Frank E. Schoonover |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Barsoom |
| Genre(s) | Planetary romance |
| Publisher | A. C. McClurg |
| Publication date | 1918 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 348 pp first edition |
| 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.[1] 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.
Contents |
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 separation 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, Carter materializes in the one place on Barsoom from which nobody is allowed to depart: the Valley Dor, which is the Barsoomian afterlife.
After John Carter's arrival, a boat of Green Martians arrive on the River Iss and are ambushed by the previously unknown Plant Men. The lone survivor is his friend Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak of Thark, who has taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find Carter.
Carter and Tars Tarkas discover that the Therns, rulers of Valley Dor, a white-skinned race of self-proclaimed gods, have for eons deceived the Barsoomians of the outer world by disseminating the myth that the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor is a journey to paradise. Most arrivals are killed by the beasts of Valley, the survivors enslaved by Therns.
Carter and Tars Tarkas rescue Thuvia, a slave girl, and attempt to escape, capitalizing on the confusion caused by an attack by the Black Pirates of Barsoom upon the Therns. They are separated during the attack: Tars Tarkas and Thuvia hijack a Black Pirate flier, while Carter fights his way aboard another, 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, called the "First Born", also think of themselves as gods, and prey upon the Therns as the Therns prey upon others. He also discovers that the captive Thern is Phaidor, daughter of the "Holy Hekkador" (high priest) of the Therns. When their flier is recaptured by the First Born, they are taken to their land, built around the underground sea of Omean, below the lost sea of Korus and the Valley Dor. Both are located at the South Pole of Barsoom.
Once there, Carter is taken before Issus, the goddess of Barsoom; an ancient, evil woman who has manipulated her own people and the rest of Barsoom into maintaining an hierarchy with the First Born on top. Issus dictates the policies of the Therns through secret communications with them. The Therns, thinking they are receiving divine communications, do not realize that they are duped by their enemies.
Issus takes Phaidor into her service as a handmaiden for one Martian year. Carter is imprisoned, with Xodar as his slave as punishment for being defeated by Carter. Thereafter Carter treats him with honor, and thus gains in him 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 their bodies will be eaten by Issus and her nobles. Carter leads a revolt of the prisoners, killing many of the First Born. Carter and the youth almost kill Issus before the First Born suppress the revolt. Carter and the youth escape via underground tunnels, and give themselves up to guards unacquainted with the revolt to be returned to their prison island. Upon hearing the story of the revolt, Xodar rejects the notion of Issus’ divinity.
Carter, Xodar and the youth hijack a flier and escape. Soon after, Carter discovers that the youth is his son, Carthoris. The flier is damaged and must be abandoned in unknown territory. They encounter Thuvia, who describes the capture of Tars Tarkas by the green warriors of Warhoon (a clan rival to his own). Carter goes alone to rescue Tars Tarkas, but is discovered. After a chase, Thuvia is sent on alone mounted while the men attempt a last stand against the Warhoons. They are rescued by the Heliumetic navy; but do not find Thuvia.
Commanding one of the warships is Carter’s friend Kantos Kan; but the fleet is commanded by Zat Arras, a Jed (chieftain) of the hostile client state of Zodanga, and Carter is suspected of returning from Valley Dor, which is punishable by death. 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, having led fleets in search of Carter. Later, Carter discovers that Dejah Thoris is missing, believed to have taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find him.
Upon returning to Helium, Carter is tried for heresy by the Zodangans; but the people of Helium do not tolerate this. To avoid civil war, Carter's judgment is deferred for a year. Sola, the daughter of Tars Tarkas, arrives, having escaped the First Born.
Carter realizes that Dejah Thoris will be selected as a handmaiden of Issus, and thus will have only a year to live; wherefore he and his comrades go to rescue her. They uncover evidence that Thern spies are monitoring them, and Carter is kidnapped by the Zodangans. Carter refuses Zat Arras’ offer of freedom in exchange for endorsing Zat Arras as Jeddak of 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 lent by Tars Tarkas.
Upon approaching the South Pole, a Thern fleet challenges Carter’s fleet, and behind Carter’s fleet arrive another fleet led Zat Arras. Finally, a fleet of First Born arrives, leaving the rescue mission for Dejah Thoris in jeopardy. Carter encourages the Therns and First Born to fight one another, and the Heliumetic crews of the Zodangan fleet mutiny in support of Carter. Carter then takes his remaining fleet with Tharkian troops to invade the underground sea of Omean.
The combined Heliumites and Tharks defeat the First Born, and Issus herself is killed; but Dejah Thoris, Thuvia, and Phaidor, each of whom loves John Carter, are imprisoned in a room of the Temple of the Sun, of whose rooms each opens only once per year.
Carter is able to talk to Dejah Thoris through the doorway and give the women sufficient food supplements to last them the year; but the room cannot be opened. Just before the room closes, Phaidor attempts to kill Dejah Thoris, and her success or failure are left unknown. The story is carried on in the third book of Burroughs’ Martian series, The Warlord of Mars.
On March 4, 1912, Burrough's editor at All-Story Magazine, Newell Metcalf wrote suggesting a sequel to Under the Moons of Mars (serialization title of A Princess of Mars). The Valley of Dor, the River Iss and the Sea of Korus were all key locations in the Martian conception of heaven or the afterlife, which Burroughs had introduced in A Princess of Mars. Metcalf, who thought the appeal of these mystical locations might be strong for readers of the previous tale, suggested that John Carter could arrive from Earth at this location and be instrumental in exposing and destroying this religion as a falsehood. These ideas, which may have already have occurred to Burroughs, appeared to be highly inspirational.[2]
During 1912 Burroughs had been working on Tarzan of the Apes, which he finished in June of that year. Incredibly by 20 September 1912 Burroughs had almost completed the sequel to A Princess of Mars, which was entitled The Gods of Mars. It was submitted on October 2, 1912. Metcalf had suggested killing off Dejah Thoris in the story, but Burroughs admitted to be unable to do so. Although readers had already complained about the suspense created at the end of A Princess of Mars, Burroughs once again, produced a story with a cliff hanger ending. The tale was advertised in the December 1912 issue of All-Story magazine.[3]
The Gods of Mars was serialized in five parts in All-Story magazine, the first part published in January 1913 and the final part published in May 1913.[3] Burroughs was paid $750 for the novel.[4]
Burroughs introduced A Princess of Mars, the first Barsoom Novel as though it were a factual account passed on to him personally. He imagines John Carter to be an avuncular figure known to his family for years who entrusted the manuscript of the novel to Burroughs for publication 21 years later.[5] The Gods of Mars is the second Barsoom novel to use this device. John Carter 'visits' Burroughs 12 years after the events of A Princess of Mars, claiming to have mastered the secret of inter-planetary travel and stating this will be the last time he makes such a journey from his adopted home. However, the device was used to two further Barsoom novels, The Chessmen of Mars and Swords of Mars.[6]
While the novel is an example of science fiction, it is most closely related to the planetary romance genre.[7] The genre is similar to sword and sorcery, but includes scientific aspects.[8] Planetary romances mostly take place on the surface of an alien world, frequently include sword fighting, monsters, supernatural elements such as telepathic abilities (as opposed to magic), and civilizations similar to Earth in pre-technological eras, particularly with the inclusion of kingdoms, empires or religious societies. Spacecraft may appear, but are not central to the story (something which makes these tales distinct from Space Opera, where spaceships are usually a key focus of the narrative). There were some Planetary Romances prior to the publication of the Barsoom novels, but A Princess of Mars and The Gods of Mars and other novels in the Barsoom series were the most influential on the numerous similar stories that were published subsequently.[7]
Burroughs vision of Mars was loosely inspired by astronomical speculation of the time, especially that of Percival Lowell, who saw the planet as a formerly Earthlike world now becoming less hospitable to life due to its advanced age, whose inhabitants had built canals to bring water from the polar caps to irrigate the remaining arable land.[9] Lowell was influenced by Italian astronomer, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, who in 1878, had observed features on Mars he called canali (Italian for "channels"). Mistranslation of this into English as "canals" fuelled belief the planet was inhabited.[10] The theory of an inhabited planet with flowing water was disproved by data provided by Russian and American probes such as the two Viking missions which found a dead, frozen world where water could not exist in a fluid state.[9]
A million years before the narrative commences, Mars was a lush world with oceans. As the oceans receded, and the atmosphere grew thin, the planet has devolved into a landscape of partial barbarism;[11] living on an aging planet, with dwindling resources, the inhabitants of Barsoom have become hardened and warlike, fighting one another to survive.[12] Barsoomians distribute scarce water supplies via a worldwide system of canals, controlled by quarreling city-states. The thinning Martian atmosphere is artificially replenished from an "atmosphere plant".[13]
Race is a major theme in the Barsoom novels. It is a world with clear territorial divisions between White, Yellow, Black, Red and Green skinned races. Each has particular traits and qualities, which seem to define the characters of almost every individual thereof. Nevertheless Burroughs' concept of race, as depicted in the novels, is more like a division between species than between ethnicity.[14]
The Gods of Mars introduces two new races; the White-Skinned Therns and the Black-Skinned First Born, both of which are strongly connected to the Martian religion that John Carter exposed in the novel.
The Therns are white skinned and bald, wearing blond wigs. They live in a complex of caves and passages in the cliffs above the Valley Dor, the supposed Martian heaven. The Therns control the dangerous beasts that live in the valley, and ransack, enslave, or eat the flesh of the survivors. They consider themselves a unique creation, different from other Martians. They are themselves raided by the Black Martians.[15]
Supposedly the inhabitants of a Martian moon, the Black Martians actually live along the coast of the subterranean Sea near the south pole. They call themselves the 'First Born', believing themselves a unique creation among Martian races, and worship Issus, the false deity of the Martian religion. They raid the White Martian Therns, carrying them off as slaves and have a massive aerial navy, which John Carter defeats.[15]
There are a number of incidences of religious deception, or the use of superstition by those in power to control and manipulate others, in the Barsoom series. This theme was introduced in A Princess of Mars,[16] but is central to The Gods of Mars. Upon reaching 1,000 years of age almost all Martian undertake a pilgrimage along the River Iss expecting to find a valley of paradise; but find in fact a deathtrap, populated by ferocious creatures and overseen by a race of cruel, cannibal priests known as Therns, who perpetuate the Martian religion through a network of spies across the planet.[1] John Carter's battle to track down the remnants of the Therns and their masters, continues in the sequel The Warlord of Mars.[17] More deceitful priests in a theocratic nation appear in The Master Mind of Mars, where they manipulate a temple idol to control followers.[18]
Burroughs continued this theme in his Tarzan novels. Burroughs was not anti-religious; but was concerned by the abuse and exploitation of religious belief, and saw this as a common feature of organized religion.[19]
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.
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.
| Preceded by A Princess of Mars |
Barsoom series The Gods of Mars |
Succeeded by The Warlord of Mars |