9 h 58 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On Mars, chess pieces live—and a princess’s longing for freedom leads her far from home.
Tara of Helium wants room to breathe, beyond the watchful care surrounding John Carter’s daughter. When she slips away to fly alone, she finds herself lost in a hostile world. In The Chessmen of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs sends her across Barsoom, a dying planet of dry sea bottoms and flying ships.
Gahan of Gathol, the warrior who loves Tara, sets out to find her. His search brings dangers of its own and leads toward Manator, a city devoted to Jetan: Martian chess played with living pieces. Elsewhere, the strange Kaldanes give the divide between mind and body an unsettling shape.
What you’ll discover
- A princess seeking freedom Follow Tara beyond Helium, where her wish for independence meets the dangers of an unfamiliar world.
- A warrior’s determined search Travel with Gahan as love draws him across Barsoom and into dangers of his own.
- Heads on spidery legs Encounter Ghek and the Kaldanes, whose strange bodies bring questions about mind and body into focus.
- A deadly living game Enter Manator, where devotion to Jetan turns the chessboard into a place of deadly stakes.
- Adventure that keeps moving Short chapters and moments of danger carry you through fast chases and strange encounters.
Who will love it
For readers who love pulp adventure, strange worlds and fast chases, and anyone curious about the Barsoom series. A Martian princess, a devoted warrior and chess played with living pieces bring freedom and danger into vivid focus.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A princess slips away to fly alone
- Lost in a land of strange creatures
- The Kaldanes and their headless riders
- Gahan follows, and the city of the game
- What the novel says about minds, bodies and pride
- How Burroughs tells it, and how to read it
Who’s who
- Tara of HeliumThe bold daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, she wants freedom to fly alone and finds herself far from home.
- Gahan of GatholA noble warrior of the city of Gathol who loves Tara and sets out across Barsoom to find her.
- GhekA Kaldane, a clever head that rides a headless body, whose path crosses Tara's in the strange land of his people.
- John CarterThe Warlord of Mars and Tara's father, a famed hero of Helium, whose fame hangs over the whole series.
- Dejah ThorisTara's mother and the Princess of Helium, whose courage lives on in her daughter.
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- Audiobook
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Les Échecs de Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs · 1922
Tara of Helium flies alone into unknown Barsoom, where strange creatures and a deadly game await.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A princess slips away to fly alone
The story begins in the world of Helium, the great Barsoomian city that is home to John Carter, Warlord of Mars. His daughter Tara is a headstrong young woman, and she is the heart of this book. She is the child of Carter and Dejah Thoris, and she has inherited her parents' courage along with a streak of impatience.
Tara loves to fly. On Barsoom, small fliers skim over the dead sea bottoms, and a skilled pilot can cover great distances in a day. She does not like being guarded or fussed over, and she longs to be out in the open sky on her own.
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What is The Chessmen of Mars about?
It is a Barsoom adventure in which Tara of Helium is carried far from home and Gahan of Gathol sets out to find her. Their road leads through the strange Kaldanes and a city built around living chess.
What are the Kaldanes in The Chessmen of Mars?
The Kaldanes are a race of creatures that are mostly large, clever heads with spidery legs. They attach themselves to headless bodies called rykors, which carry them and do their fighting.
What is Jetan in Barsoom?
Jetan is the Martian form of chess, played on a board of one hundred squares with pieces named for ranks such as warriors and princesses. In the city of Manator, the pieces are living people.
The author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
1875–1950 · American adventure novelist
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer born in Chicago in 1875. He wrote novels about Tarzan and novels set on Mars. His first Mars story appeared in 1912 and became the book A Princess of Mars in 1917. He later lived in California and died in Encino in 1950.
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