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A Princess of Mars  By  cover art

A Princess of Mars

By: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Narrated by: William Dufris
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Publisher's summary

“The green warrior decided to close in and end the battle; just as he rushed me, a blinding light struck full in my eyes, so that I could not see Zad’s approach and could only leap blindly to one side to avoid his mighty blade...”

Suddenly projected to Mars, John Carter finds himself the captive of the savage green men of Thark. With him is the lovely Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium. And between them and rescue lay a thousand miles of deadly enemies and unknown dangers.

Public Domain (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Listening to this book on CD is a delight! McKee’s semi-voiced reading has just the right tone to pull the listener into the adventures of John Carter…”( Kliatt)

What listeners say about A Princess of Mars

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Everyman Civil Warrior = Martian Hercules

Edgar Rice Burrough's popular John Carter/Barsoom novels started with 'A Princess of Mars'. I can only imagine reading this cowboy in space novel when it was first published. It was absolute pulp (violent fights, naked women), but like all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels it can't be contained by any simple labels. Burroughs is able to explore ideas of eugenics and race, war and peace, love and family, all layered into a fast-paced, violent Martian travelogue. Burroughs loves supermen. The idea of John Carter having amazing strength because of the different gravities of Earth and Mars allows an everyman Virginian Civil Warrior to become a singular Martian Hercules.

Obviously, this is an extraordinarily influential sic-fi novel. It influenced everybody from Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) to George Lucas (Star Wars) to James Cameron (Avatar). It is hard to watch Han Solo walk without thinking of John Carter's swagger or dream about Princess Leah in chains without my subconscious somehow floating back into visions of Princess Dejah Thoris in -- yes -- chains. It is a shame that Disney's John Carter movie didn't do better. I would love to see further efforts to make films out of the Barsoom series. It is a strange world where a movie that makes $200M+ globally and is still judged a failure.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Wish Upon a Star

IT WAS LOGIC, GOOD EARTHLY FEMINE LOGIC
If you have read "At The Earth's Core", you will be amazed in how similar the plots are. In both books John or David enter their new world in the nude. The gravity is less, although more so on Mars. He is taken prisoner, but is aloud to roam around and make weapons and plan his escape. He meets a dark haired Princess who is naked on Mars and scantly clad In Pellucidar. He falls in love each time. He kills for the Princess, but immediately follows that up by insulting the princess through his ignorance. Each time he could have proclaimed her his wife, but he does not. Both men are great physical specimens of Man and are rich. There are ape like creatures and humans on Mars and in Pellucidar. There are tall 8ft to 14ft creatures in both who lay eggs. Telepathy takes place in both books.

Princess of Mars, differs in the way John gets to Mars, has more and better characters. Sola is an interesting character and the ten legged Woola is very cute. This story is a little longer and has more fighting. I liked Princess of Mars better then At The Earth's Core. It seemed like more time and thought was put into this book.

Some of the weakness are glaring. I was very disappointed in how he got to Mars, basically he wishes upon a star. At one point he says he was in the military so long that he can't help, but follow orders and ten minutes later he is leaving his post to see his girlfriend. At one point he just happens to hear a plot against him at a most opportune time. He often explains things by saying, "I don't know why, I just knew it."

I was not crazy about the narrator. The books starts out by the author saying he is around 100 years old, but he does not age and that he seems to be around 30 years of age. The narrator ignores this and reads it like an old man talking, slow and gravely.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better versions

Ok. I always loved Barsoom. I took a quick listen as this is free and well....pick up a different addition. The narration ruins a timeless tale. I recommend Scott Brick’s reading if you want to spent a credit.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent! Great narration!

Of course classic! There are not writers like this anymore. The narrator is perfect! He reminds me of a grandpa telling a story. Does great voices!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Princess of Mars

A great story of love, adventure and charm from a master storyteller, Edgar Rice Burroughs!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fun

Easy and enjoyable book. Story is simple but very good. The narration is EXCEPTIONAL. Though I greatly prefer 'hard science fiction' I found this to be a wonderful ans simple reading.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible performance choices

What did you like best about A Princess of Mars? What did you like least?

The book itself is compelling and well written, especially for what is considered a prime example of a "pulp" novel.

What did you like best about this story?

Hard to say. I'm still slogging through it because of the abominable narration.

How could the performance have been better?

A different narrator. Honestly, this actor who was born in Maine and lived for decades in England decides to put on a southern accent that never convinces at the best, and distracts and gets in the way of a competent performance at the worst.

Could you see A Princess of Mars being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

You mean a $100 million Disney movie called John Carter that is much better than people give it credit for?

Any additional comments?

Looking for another audio version of the book, as I would like to finish it.

As a final note, bought this on sale at Audible for 5 bucks and feel I still paid too much.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

This book was a pioneer back in 1912.

Okay story 3.5 overall, the story was mostly written as if reading a diary or thinking back on the past. I'm not a huge fan of this type of writing, but the story itself was pretty good. I did enjoy the first part better than the last. I love his alien dog. Considering this book was published around 1912 it is way ahead of its time and very imaginative considering there was very little of this type of book out for public consumption. Narrator was good but a little dry. This book and the next two in the series can be gotten for free with a Kindle/ Kindle app and then the audio purchased for .99 each with whispersync.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story. Bad narrator.

I read the Story; A Princess of Mars, since I have read the ebook on Amazon. I like the story a lot. And it is an important part of the series since it is the opening act of the whole series.
However, William Dufris as a narrator will not read books to me as I found his narration so hard to bear. he has an exaggerated southern drawn and a gravel in his voice that I can't withstand for even the finishing of the first few chapters. Also he has no enthusiasm for the story and his tone sounded like he, as reading the character, was bored with being on Mars for the first time and that all those monsters around him was not a big deal. I stopped the Audible book before much had happened in the first few chapters. I don't think Edgar Rice Burroughs would have hired him to narrate his books.
I have several other Audible books in that series, but with different narrators. I will try them soon.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

With the narrator's accent it comes off as "rednecks in spaaaace"

Burroughs' dated cheesiness is no longer a delight like it was when i was a kid.

The plot is simplistic, characters 2dimensional, and the protagonist is basically a thoughtless superman. I thought it woukd be fun to review classics of my youth but I am bored of it 1 hour in.

I'd say it's OK for kids but do you want your kid to grow up thinking killing everyone who confronts you is good problem-solving?

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