A Princess of Mars

After the American Civil War, veteran John Carter is prospecting in Arizona when pursuit drives him into a cave. He is mysteriously transported to Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. The planet's lower gravity gives him extraordinary strength and agility, but those advantages do not explain its languages, customs, or rival peoples.

Carter is taken among the six-limbed Green Martians called Tharks. Martial ability earns him status and the respect of the chief Tars Tarkas. When the Tharks capture Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, Carter tries to protect her and becomes involved in the political struggle among Barsoom's city-states, including Helium's enemy Zodanga.

Edgar Rice Burroughs combines frontier adventure, planetary romance, and science fantasy in A Princess of Mars. Barsoom is imagined as a dying desert world whose canals, warfare, and social codes make survival a political problem as well as a physical one. Readers can follow how Carter's familiar code of honor changes when transferred to an unfamiliar society. His power opens doors, but alliances with Tars Tarkas and Dejah Thoris require judgment, loyalty, and a willingness to cross divisions between peoples.