Swords of Mars!

The eigth novel in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Cycle begins in an uncharacteristic manner. Most of the time the writer's heroes just react to events, they seldom are the main thrust of the adventures they live. I their calm periods of time, they are in general very happy to stay home and live mundane existences. Here, John Carter, who hadn't been the main character since the third novel, Warlord of Mars, decided to put an end to the wrongdoings of a murderer sect which operates from the city of Zodanga. To this end, he created a counter-organization of jury, judges and executioners of these murderers, and in the present case, he decides to go there in person under a false identity to get the job done.

On location he meets an independent assassin, a spineless coward, who names himself Rapas the Ulsio (Rapas the rat!). This fellow makes him enter the service of a mad scientist, Fal Sivas, who created an extraordinary ship, able to go in space, directed by an electronic brain actioned by thoughts. Carter saves from a peril worse than death (not the one you could think of, there's more than one atrocious way to die at the hands of Fal Sivas!) a young slave named Zanda, who swore the death of John Carter, because she deems him responsible for the deaths of her parents following the events in A Princess of Mars!

The investigation of John Carter is progressing, when the assassins decide to unveil their own anti-Warlord of Mars, namely kidnapping his princess, Dejah Thoris, and bring her on one of the two Barsoom moons, Thuria! A chase ensues on the said moon, which will allow John Carter to make new friends and foes.

A breathless story, as one can expect from Burroughs, which features colorful characters, as this Rapas the Ulsio, awkward traitor and lousy fighter, who nonetheless will be able to survive the adventure, or this master of the assassin guild, Ur Jan, who will bring some surprises of his own! Two mad scientists for the price of one, Fal Sivas and Gar Nal, who both created an interplanetary ship. The visit of a new world, Thuria, essentially a tiny planetoid, where thanks to a weird scientific process, the "compensatory adjustment of masses" (which Burroughs is quick to say is unique to Barsoom), shrinks the travellers who approach Thuria until they are proportionate to the environment!

The end feels unusually rushed, very quick! Did Burroughs have a word quota to respect, or was he just simply tired of writing this story at a given moment? In any case, another delicious novel to put to the credit of the writer!