In Edgar Rice Burroughs’ sequel to “A Princess of Mars”, we find John Carter returning to Mars after a ten-year absence. First published serially in 1913, “The Gods of Mars” is the second volume in the “Barsoom” series. “A Princess of Mars” ended with the heroic Carter being unwillingly transported back to Earth. Having been long separated from his wife Dejah Thoris, his unborn child, and the Martian people of Helium that he has adopted as his own, Carter struggles to return to them. However, he is thwarted when he lands back on Mars in the Valley Dor, the Martian afterlife and a place from which no one is allowed to return. However Carter is not so easily defeated. Brave and determined, he fights countless enemies in his quest to escape the Valley Dor and be reunited with his family and people. Fantastical and far ahead of its time, Burroughs’s futuristic Martian world was an influential classic and inspired many science fiction authors, such as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Carl Sagan. Romantic and exhilarating, “The Gods of Mars” is a captivating and timeless tale of adventure and determination by a masterful storyteller. This edition includes a biographical afterword.
