A Fighting Man of Mars

A Fighting Man of Mars was published in 1931 and is one of the shorter and more economical Barsoom novels. The protagonist is Tan Hadron of Hastor, a young red Martian padwar from a minor military family, who is in love with the noblewoman Sanoma Tora and follows her after she is kidnapped to the unknown southern city of Jahar. Jahar turns out to be ruled by the jeddak Tul Axtar, who is building a fleet of warships invisible to standard Barsoomian detection.

The political stakes are higher than in some of the side novels because Tul Axtar plans a campaign of conquest against the Helium-led alliance. Tan Hadron eventually meets and falls in love with Tavia, a slave girl who is far more interesting than the original princess he was chasing. The novel is briskly paced and works as a clean stand-alone introduction to Barsoom for readers who do not want to commit to the John Carter trilogy first. The invisibility technology is one of Burroughs’s better science-fictional concepts. A solid mid-period entry.