Overview
A later Mars adventure with new creatures, cultures and rules of movement, showing how serialized fantasy can make world-building itself part of the plot.
This title is catalogued in Science Fiction & Speculative. Its reading profile is Medium and Easy, with themes including exploration, survival, identity, war, science fiction.
One-Page Summary
The Chessmen of Mars sends the young princess Tara of Helium into a dangerous part of Barsoom after she becomes separated from her escort and captured by strange inhabitants of the planet. The journey leads her into Kesh and toward the giant city of Manator, where political intrigue, captivity, and a lethal form of entertainment await. Along the way she meets Gahan of Gathol, who has disguised himself in order to rescue her, but their relationship becomes complicated by identity, pride, and the social rules of the Martian worlds. The novel’s most distinctive invention is the great chess-like game of Jetan, in which living warriors serve as pieces in a deadly contest.
Burroughs turns the game into a miniature version of Barsoomian politics: strategy, courage, sacrifice, and social hierarchy all become literal life-and-death moves. As Tara and Gahan try to survive, the adventure moves through battles, escapes, strange creatures, and shifting alliances. The romance is as important as the action because both characters must learn to see beyond the identities they initially assume. Burroughs’s Mars remains a world of spectacular pulp imagination—flying machines, alien cultures, ancient cities, and bizarre forms of life—but the emotional engine is simple.
Two people who begin as strangers must decide whether trust is possible in a world where almost everyone has a hidden motive.
Key Themes
Exploration: This title is tagged with exploration as one of its main themes.
Survival: This title is tagged with survival as one of its main themes.
Identity: This title is tagged with identity as one of its main themes.
War: This title is tagged with war as one of its main themes.
Science fiction: This title is tagged with science fiction as one of its main themes.
Speculative: This title is tagged with speculative as one of its main themes.