Okay then, so turns out that Princess of Mars was written as pulp fiction in a serialised manner in a magazine back in the day, before being compiled and published as a book. Which should say enough about the sort of writing one can expect from it. However, the fact this book is the first by the dude who finally went on to give us Tarzan, you have to go see the raw base that masterpieces are worked from.
Plus point - He managed to put in some feminist narrative into what is literally a SciFi escapist fantasy.
Super plus point - He got Michael Wheelan to draw his book a cover, for the 1971 edition, seen above. My love, you see? I mean yeah, it isn't the first cover, or even in the first five chronologically, but it's Wheelan alright? And the longest lasting cover as well - three decades! That's Wheelan right there for you.
Anyhow, the link to the book is above, so read that shizz, and now, moving to the summary and analysis.
Criminally Quick Summary
John Carter, from erstwhile Viginia, USA, is prospecting the Indian country, and gets chased by some Indians. Needless to say, he ends up enjoying (not so much) an out of body experience, one that takes him through time and space, and lands him up in an unknown land. He finds himself in a desert, looking at the two moons of Mars, called Barsoom by its native people.
Of course he runs into the savage green Martians, them with their 12 foot height and their six hands and tusks. And of course, because of the lower gravity of Mars, he impresses them with him enhanced strength. And as is must, they also indoctrinate him all of their green Martian culture, language, the flora and the fauna, and his place in this world where he is deserted. (Get it? Deserted on a desert? Burroughs, man. Bad puns.) All the rest of the first half follows his learning curve, filled with adventures where Carter learns to kill and other manly stuff.
Second half is where the plot picks up with his tribe of Green Martians kidnapping the princess of the Red Martian tribe, Dejah Thoris, whom they plan to either hold for ransom or use as bait in the upcoming gladiatorial games - read brutal violence. No prizes for guessing that John Carter falls in love with Dejah Thoris, and decides to rescue her, escape and return her to her Royal family, at Helium.
Surprisingly (not much), things don't go according to plan, and Carter has to overcome obstacles of different varieties, go all across the Barsoomian desert, to win his love. This includes getting captured by the enemies of his enemies, fighting in the gladiatorial pits, become air force captain for yet another group of Martians, among other epic battles, in the end reuniting with his true love.
Analysis
Before I criticize the work I need to take into account what context the work was born into. This was just before science fiction became a thing, with its own rules and tropes. In fact, I could argue that this story is the father of all tropes, the biggest being the Male Escapist Fantasy. This work was also serialised as a pulp fiction work, and has obvious views to a western cowboy tale, full with a damsel in distress, what have you. One last thing to take note of, is that this was Burroughs first novel, he did go ahead and refine his works, which brought us to Tarzan, but this story is rough, and doesn't have the depth or refinery you expect from science fiction stories these days.
I found the plot to be your basic male escapist story - the silent dream of every teenage boy - become powerful in some way like a superhero, beat up bad guys, win the uber sexy babe who is in peril. Yes there is more to this story, but all said and done, it boils down to trope at its core. Usually such stories are sexist, and bad in general. However, what separates this story from the rest of its ilk is the women. All female characters are written to be strong. I mean, sure, we have a damsel in distress, but let's take into account the fact that we don't see her in the story very much to decide how strong a person she is, and of what little we see, she comes across as strong(ish). Other characters, Martian women in general, are capable of defending themselves, a result of their hostile environment. In the green Martian tribe itself, women are the ones who mine the Radium, build the weapons and bullets, and teach the young about life and war. Sola, for one, is a kind Martian who acts as Carter's guardian.
Burroughs spends a lot of time in his world building - the initial chapters of the book look more like a scientist's travelogue researching martian territory than a novel. And given that this is literally one of the first books in science fiction, this is the first reach of human imagination into what martians might look like, and how life at Mars might be. To back up such an exotic world with such textured detail is evidence of how deep Burroughs researched in the process of developed this book. Given that this is also a serialised rendition in a pulp fiction magazine, Burroughs brings forth an uncanny ability to dramatize the end of each chapter, by setting up cliff hangers and action sequences - and giving birth to more tropes. Of course, while reading it as a novel it often seems jarring, and the action sequences seem short and abrupt, but given the context, they gel well with the intensity built into the tale. Each chapter builds the world slowly at first, then picks up pace, and then ends with a bang.
One way to look at this story is to note that the hero of the tale, is a Southern gentleman - full with chivalry and honesty and moral clocks and whatnot. This is weird today, because of the connotations to slavery, but Carter represents the positive ideals of the stereotype - A gentleman on a planet of savages - hope of civility and decency in an otherwise barbaric setting. This is obviously supposed to contrast the other stereotype - that set by Conan the Barbarian, which states that anarchy, or barbarism is the stronger form of power, and will overpower civilisation. Read this way, Burroughs has subverted the entire concept in his making of A Princess of Mars.
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