A few weeks ago, when I discussed the graphic novel Warlord of Mars: The Fall of Barsoom, I mentioned that I didn’t know of many novels that told new stories in the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs. What I hadn’t realized when I said that is that Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc – the company Burroughs himself founded to manage his literary estate – has recently started publishing new novels by noted authors set in the worlds Burroughs created. This includes novels about Tarzan, Barsoom, Pelucidar, and more. As I perused their offerings, I discovered that one of their Barsoom novels, A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins had received a very good review from Anthony R. Cardno, whose work appears in Hadrosaur Productions’ anthology Kepler’s Cowboys. I took that as a solid recommendation and decided to try the book.

A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins, written by Ann Tonsor Zeddies, is a prequel to Burroughs’ Barsoom series. In the novel, we meet Dejah Thoris on the cusp of adulthood. She’s the daughter of Mors Kajak, Jed (or prince) of Lesser Helium and granddaughter of Tardos Mors, Helium’s Jeddak (or king). As the story opens, Dejah Thoris’s brother has just left on a scientific expedition. She’s just at the age to bristle at not being included, so she sets out on her own to follow him just as far her father’s orders will allow. Unfortunately, she comes across a tribe of Barsoom’s twelve-foot-tall four-armed green warriors making an incursion into Helium’s territory. They shoot at her flier, so she has to retreat. Of course, Mors Kajak is not going to let this incursion stand, so he prepares to go out and do battle with the green warriors. However, an ambassador from the city-state of Zor appears and indicates he wants to build better relations with Helium. He invites Mors Kajak to a series of games to be held in Zor. Mors Kajak must beg off, but Dejah Thoris persuades her father to let her go in his place.

When Dejah Thoris arrives in Zor, accompanied by one of her mother’s close advisors and a guard detachment, she finds the people are not as refined as they are in her own country of Helium. The Jed of Zor, Jan Vajo, is a little too forward and ill-mannered as he courts Dejah Thoris. What’s more, plots seem to be afoot. Assassins are stalking the streets and the Jed must maintain food tasters and guards at all time to assure that his own people don’t attack him. When the games happen, it becomes apparent that the Jed and his sister have favorites and expect Dejah Thoris in her role as arbiter of the games to pick them as winners. While those favorites win based on technicalities, the princess decides to give accolades to others who show skill and bravery as well. After the games, the princess and one of the athletes she favored are kidnapped and taken out to the desert where it looks like they may be held as hostages. Of course, this being Dejah Thoris, she won’t sit still and wait for whatever ransom demands might be forthcoming.

All in all, I rather enjoyed this 2024 novel about Barsoom. All of the familiar characters feel authentically like Burroughs’ creations. While Dejah Thoris bristles at the boundaries her parents set for her, I liked the way she came to see the wisdom of their boundaries and how she learned to respect what they told her, even if she still insists on forging her own path forward. There was a nice balance between court intrigue and action. I was especially impressed by how well this short novel maintained a voice consistent with Burroughs. Aside from a couple of more modern turns of phrase, I could almost imagine I was reading a lost novel of Barsoom.

The book also contained a bonus novella, John Carter of Mars: Swords of the Mind by Geary Gravel. This story opens with John Carter on his way home from a visit to a friend at Mars’s south pole. He soon crosses paths with a damaged flier that belongs to his son Carthoris. Carter is able to catch up with the flier and get aboard. However, he finds it empty. Reasoning that Carthoris must have gotten in trouble and sent the flier on autopilot home so people would know to come looking for him, Carter sets the flier to take it back to where the flight started. The ship takes him to the hidden and mysterious city of Lothar, which is under the rule of a man named Tario, who can create soldiers with his mind who are so real, they can inflict damage on their opponents. Within the city’s walls, Carter discovers not his son, but his grandson Djon Dhin. It turns out Tario has taken him captive and is trying to teach him mind control powers so Djon Dhin can help him rule all of Barsoom. Tario has also captured Carthoris and is using him as leverage to bend Djon Dhin to his will.

John Carter of Mars: Swords of the Mind was a nicely balanced novella. Again, I felt like I was reading a lost Burroughs story. I liked how Gavel expanded the Burroughs cannon a little bit by explaining how the mammalian Martians engineered themselves to lay eggs as an adaptation to their difficult environment. He doesn’t expound on that idea much, but it was nice to see a thoughtful nod to one of the oddities of the Barsoom series. I was so impressed with both the short novel and novella that I plan to read more of the novels published by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. You can find their complete catalog online at: https://www.edgarriceburroughs.com/ which includes not only these newer books, but authorized editions of the original Edgar Rice Burroughs classic novels. The editions are also available from your favorite online retailers.

One of the things I have long appreciated about the Barsoom novels is how they sparked my imagination and helped me see Mars as a real place we could visit and explore. Sure its a fanciful Mars, but its not far off from how astronomers like Percival Lowell and Camille Flammarion imagined the red planet. When NASA scientist Steve Howell and I decided to compile the anthology Kepler’s Cowboys, we had Burroughs very much in our minds. In our case, we wanted to bring real exoplanets to life in the same way Burroughs brought Mars and Venus to life in his novels. You can learn more about Kepler’s Cowboys at: https://hadrosaur.com/KeplersCowboys.php