Another fantastic piece of atheist science fiction. ( )

This was a definite upswing in the series. The Barsoom series is at its best when there's a full cast of characters, we get reunited with old friends, bigger existential issues are tackled, and brevity is maintained. This story was about a mad scientist who allows people to pay to have their brains installed in newer, fresher bodies. The hero of this book is a John Carter dupe, a WWI soldier who finds himself dying on the battlefield and then suddenly gets transported to Barsoom which he's read about through all of Burroughs' previous writing. He ends up working for the mad scientist and falls for a beautiful young Barsoomian woman who's body was given to a mean, aging high priestess. In this book, he's quickly joined by a motley crew of warriors to help him retrieve his love's body.

Along the journey, Burroughs lightly tackles internal vs external beauty, war, religion, and sentimentality vs science. The war bit was oddly touching to me. Paxton, our hero, discovers a device that allows him to zoom into the surface of Earth and he sees all the destruction that the war he almost died in caused. That sort of hopeful, concerned homesickness was a nice touch of reality in this sci-fi/fantasy series.

I also have to give Burroughs some credit for how he wrote the heroine. She was once very beautiful and for the first half of the book she's in an old, ugly body. The hero could give her any of the other beautiful bodies that are in the lab, but she refuses. She'd rather have her own body or the old body dealt to her, and nothing else. She refuses to be so vain as to take beauty that doesn't belong to her. And the hero falls for her in her ugly body. Of course, he sets out on a mission to make her hot again, but I really liked that in this fairly shallow series, Burroughs took the time to acknowledge that beauty isn't just skin deep.

My only real complaint is that the pacing felt a little slow, which may just be because I've been in this universe for six books now. ( )

The Master Mind of Mars introduces us to Ulysses Paxton, a World War One officer. After being fatally wounded on the battlefield he found himself transported to Mars much as John Carter was.

He arrives in the country of Toonol and becomes the guest/prisoner of Ras Thavas, the nominal “Master Mind.” Ras Thavas works at embalming, surgery, and brain-switching in his laboratories, and Paxton serves as his assistant. Paxton has fallen in love with Valla Dia, one of Ras' young victims, whose body has been swapped for that of the Xaxa, Jeddara (empress) of Phundahl. He refuses to operate on Ras until his mentor promises to restore her to her rightful body.

Paxton is a good variant on Carter. He's heroic but without Carter’s huge ego. He never shows the same level of martial prowess, and offers almost no action at all until the halfway point. Ulysses Paxton is no John Carter he is still a worthy hero stand among the pantheon of Burroughs creations.

These novels are pulpy adventures in outer space, and despite his failings in terms of narrative and his very dated politics, Burroughs is still a compelling author. ( )

Another earthman makes it to Mars where he becomes involved in organ transplants that include brains. He falls for one of the girls and seeks to get her body back. Although written in the 20's, there is an interesting reference to wireless telephones and cameras. ( )

This is pure escapist SCI FI at its best. Brain Transplants done as routinely as a someone having their tonsils removed. Great story. It is predictable but still makes you go "WHAT?" at the end. ( )