Thuvia, Maid of Mars.

By Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Synopsis:
(Borrowed from the front cover, because it sums up the book's plot so beautifully) Carthoris of Helium, son of John Carter, Warlord of Mars, fights for the love of Thuvia of Ptarth.

Review:
Rather tragically, it took me almost half of this book to work out where Carthoris' name came from.

Anyway, compared to the first book, which is the only other one I've read so far, this seemed more like your average adventure story. Rather than an introduction to Mars, as seen through the eyes of a stranger, this is a native of Mars kicking various assorted arses.

Carthoris takes after his father. He's dull and heroic, and you long for the man-eating white apes of Mars to remember what their preferred food is and get the hell on with it. The plot bears suspicious similarities to a Princess of Mars, ie, the point of the book is for Carthoris and Thuvia to get it on, and, surprisingly enough, they do. The imaginary armies, huge battles, aforementioned man-eating apes, and false gods that happen along the way never happen for very long. The only vaguely significant incident results in Carthoris getting an imaginary friend (awww...), except that someone else imagined him, and now he's real.

Despite all the bad points, this was fairly entertaining. It has a wonderful over-the-top style, which personally I quite enjoyed, although I can see how it would get annoying. Especially to someone with slightly more taste.