Barsoom

Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The first Barsoom tale was serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in pulp magazine The All-Story from February to July 1912 and published compiled as a novel as A Princess of Mars in 1917. It features John Carter, a late-19th-century American Confederate veteran who is mysteriously transported from Earth to the dying world of Mars where he meets and romances the beautiful Martian princess Dejah Thoris. Ten sequels followed over the next three decades, further extending his vision of Barsoom and adding other characters.
The Barsoom series, particularly the first novel, is considered a major influence on early science fiction.

Series

Burroughs began writing the Barsoom books in the second half of 1911 and produced one volume a year between 1911 and 1914; seven more were produced between 1921 and 1941. The first Barsoom tale was serialized in The All-Story magazine as Under the Moons of Mars, and then published in hardcover as the complete novel A Princess of Mars. The final Barsoom tale was a novella, Skeleton Men of Jupiter, published in Amazing Stories in February 1943. The novel editions of A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars and Llana of Gathol contain newly written forewords describing Edgar Rice Burroughs' interactions with John Carter, who is described as Burroughs' great-uncle.
Collectively, this series of novels has been referred to as the Martian Series.

Order	Title	Published as serial	Published as novel	Fictional narrator	Year in novel
1	A Princess of Mars	February–July 1912, All-Story	October 1917, McClurg	John Carter	1866–1876
2	The Gods of Mars	January–May 1913, All-Story	September 1918, McClurg	John Carter	1886
3	The Warlord of Mars	December 1913 – March 1914, All-Story	September 1919, McClurg	John Carter	1887–1888
4	Thuvia, Maid of Mars	April 1916, All-Story Weekly	October 1920, McClurg	third person	1888~1898
5	The Chessmen of Mars	February–March 1922, Argosy All-Story Weekly	November 1922, McClurg	third person	1898~1917
6	The Master Mind of Mars	July 15, 1927, Amazing Stories Annual	March 1928, McClurg	Ulysses Paxton	1917
7	A Fighting Man of Mars	April–September 1930, Blue Book	May 1931, Metropolitan	Tan Hadron	1928
8	Swords of Mars	November 1934 – April 1935, Blue Book	February 1936, Burroughs	John Carter	1928~1934
9	Synthetic Men of Mars	January–February 1939, Argosy Weekly	March 1940, Burroughs	Vor Daj	1934~1938
10	Llana of Gathol	March–October 1941, Amazing Stories	March 1948, Burroughs	John Carter	1938~1940
11	John Carter of Mars – A collection of two novellas. John Carter and the Giant of Mars	January 1941, Amazing Stories	July 1964, Canaveral	third person	1940
11	Skeleton Men of Jupiter	February 1943, Amazing Stories	July 1964, Canaveral	John Carter	1941–1942

Etymology

Burroughs frequently invented words of the languages spoken by the people in his novels, and used these extensively in the narrative. In Thuvia, Maid of Mars he included a glossary of Barsoomian words used in the first four novels. The word "Barsoom", the native Martian word for Mars, is composed of the Martian name for planet, "soom", and the Martian word for eight, "bar". This reflects counting Mars as the eighth body in the inner solar system, by counting not just planets, but the Sun and the satellites of Earth and of Mars.

Character focus

A Princess of Mars, the first novel in the Barsoom series, with its sequels The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars, form a trilogy centered upon protagonist John Carter and damsel in distress Dejah Thoris. John Carter's and Dejah Thoris's son Carthoris is also introduced as a minor character in The Gods of Mars, as is Thuvia.
Three other books focus on their descendants: Carthoris, in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, his sister, Tara of Helium, in The Chessmen of Mars, and Tara's daughter, Llana of Gathol, in Llana of Gathol.
Ulysses Paxton, another Earth man transported to Mars, is the focus of The Master Mind of Mars, and the rest of the books focus on John Carter's later adventures, or on native Martian characters.

Form

Most of the Barsoom books are novels, but two are collections of shorter works: Llana of Gathol has four linked novelettes, originally published in Amazing Stories during 1941, and John Carter of Mars is composed of two novellas.
Most are first-person narratives. John Carter narrates A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, Swords of Mars, the four novellas in Llana of Gathol, and "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" in John Carter of Mars. Ulysses Paxton narrates one, The Master Mind of Mars. Martian guardsman Vor Daj narrates Synthetic Men of Mars, and Martian navy officer Tan Hadron narrates A Fighting Man of Mars. Two other novels, Thuvia, Maid of Mars and The Chessmen of Mars, are written in the third person, as is "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" in John Carter of Mars.

Introductions

Beginning with A Princess of Mars, Burroughs established a practice which continued in the four sequels of introducing the novel as if a factual account passed on to him personally, wherein John Carter appears as an avuncular figure known to his family for years. The same device appears in several sequels: The Gods of Mars; The Chessmen of Mars; Swords of Mars; and Llana of Gathol.

Authorship

All the Barsoom tales were published under the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs, except Under the Moons of Mars, the first publication of A Princess of Mars, which was published under the pseudonym "Norman Bean". Burroughs had actually typed "Normal Bean" on his submitted manuscript; but his publisher's typesetter changed it to "Norman". The first novella in John Carter of Mars, "John Carter and the Giant of Mars", is thought to have been penned by Burroughs' son John "Jack" Coleman Burroughs, although allegedly revised by his father. It was recognized by fans, upon publication, as unlikely of being Burroughs' work, as the writing is of a juvenile quality compared with that of Burroughs' other stories.

Genre

The stories are science fantasy, belonging to the subgenre planetary romance, which has strong elements of both science fiction and fantasy. Planetary romance stories are similar to sword and sorcery tales, but include scientific aspects. They mostly take place on the surface of an alien world, frequently include sword fighting, monsters, supernatural elements such as telepathic abilities, and civilizations similar to Earth in pre-technological eras, particularly with the inclusion of dynastic or religious social structures. Spacecraft appear in the stories, but are not central to the story. The series can also be classified as the closely related genre sword and planet, which consists of what are essentially sword and sorcery stories that take place on another planet.
The stories also share a number of elements with westerns in that they feature desert landscapes, women taken captive and a final confrontation with the antagonist.
Burroughs' Barsoom stories are considered seminal planetary romances. While examples existed prior to the publication of his works, they are the principal influence on the many works of this type that followed. His style of planetary romance has ceased to be written and published in the mainstream, though his books remain in print.

Plot

Like most of Burroughs' fiction, the novels in the series are mostly travelogues, feature copious violence, and often depict civilized heroes captured by uncivilized cultures and mimicking their captors to survive.
Most Barsoom novels follow a familiar plot structure wherein a hero is forced to a far-off location in search of a woman kidnapped by an odious but powerful villain.
Female characters are likely to be virtuous and fight off amorous advances and other dangers until able to connect with the hero; who himself fights a variety of enemies and deposes petty rulers of severely repressed populations, usually with the assistance of a native.

Motifs

The world of Barsoom is morally unambiguous: characters are either good or evil; there is no sense of moral relativity. A sense of honor transcends race or political affiliation, and characters fight alongside one another and against their adversaries because it is the right thing to do. Qualities of compassion, loyalty, and bravery are celebrated, while callousness, deception, and cowardice are deprecated.
Typically the novels include descriptions of aspects of the Martian world such as the architecture, and the presence of desolate landscapes punctuated by abandoned cities, technological achievements, advanced medicine, cultural elements such as religious practices and eating habits, breeding practices, and methods of population control. Many lost cities and civilizations and journeys into forgotten underworlds appear across the series, and the environment beyond the cities is populated by a variety of ferocious beasts, many roughly equivalent with Earth creatures and most bearing multiple sets of limbs. There are numerous examples of striking coincidences and dei ex machina usually to the benefit of the protagonists.
Mad scientists also appear, Ras Thavas from The Master Mind of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars being the principal example, although another plays a prominent role in A Fighting Man of Mars. Instances of the use of superstition by religious cults to control and manipulate others are also common.
A Princess of Mars was possibly the first fiction of the 20th century to feature a constructed language; although Barsoomian was not particularly developed, it did add verisimilitude to the narrative.