- "John Carter and the Giant of Mars." A mad scientist makes an army of apes and one (1) giant. This was expanded from a children's book which Burroughs did not write. It's completely awful. 0/4 (Terrible).

- "Skeleton Men of Jupiter." John Carter is abducted by aliens who want to conquer Mars. It's standard captured-and-escape fare, which has gotten really old by this point. It's not helped any by a wartime-spy-stories influence. And it's unfinished. 2/4 (Indifferent).

(Feb. 2022) ( )

Bit of a mixed review for the two stories in this volume. The first, "The Giant of Mars" was a disappointment.

The second "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" showed more promise, but unfortunately is unfinished. ( )

A korábbi kötetekkel ellentétben ez a könyv valójában két különálló történet, ráadásul az elsőt nem is Edgar Rice, hanem John Coleman Burroughs (Edgar Rice fia) írta.

Az első novellában (John Carter and the Giant of Mars) túl sok újdonság nincsen, Dejah Thoris-t elrabolják, Johh Carter megy és megmenti. A fő ellenség ismét egy gonosz tudós. Gondolom túlzás lett volna erre a célra megint Ras Thavas-t választani, így Ras Thavas teremtménye/tanítványa a főgonosz. Egyetlen eredeti ötlet az óriás lenne, de nem igazán van ez a rész kifejtve.

A második novellában (The Skeleton Men of Jupiter) John Cartert rabolják el (és viszik a Jupiterre), de nem csalódunk Dejah Thoris-ban sem, mert később őt is elrabolják és őt is a Jupiterre viszik. Sajnos ennek a történetnek hiányzik a vége, így nem lehetünk benne biztosak, de van egy olyan érzésem, hogy John Carter megmentette volna Dejah-ot, ha Burroughs befejezi a történetet. Érdekes sci-fi elemként talán a láthatatlanságot tudnám megemlíteni, bár már szerepelt az a korábbi történetekben.

Bár a 11. kötet nyilvánvalóan a sorozat leggyengébb darabja aki elolvasta az első 10. kötetet az nem fog itt kiszállni a sorozatból.

Kicsit összefoglalva elég furcsa volt ezt a kb. 70-100 éves sorozatot elolvasni. Egyrészt elég egyszerű a regények szerkezete, sok az ismétlődés, és mai szemmel nézve már elég sok minden régiesnek tűnik (a nők dolga tényleg csak annyi, hogy gyönyörűek legyenek, bajba kerüljenek, majd várjanak a hősre aki megmenti őket?). Másrészt viszont érdekes olvasni azokról a sci-fi ötletekről amelyekről később oly sokan írtak. ( )

This is the eleventh, and final book featuring John Carter, Prince of Helium, Warlord of Barsoom. It was published after Burrough's death, and consists of two completely unrelated stories.

The first, The Giant of Mars, is so different than most of the rest of Burroughs' work that when published, that many people believed that it could not have been written by him. It contains numerous elements that don't show up in other Barsoom tales, and the style of writing is very different from anything else Burroughs ever wrote. The best guess appears to be that the tale was written for a proposed illustrated children's book, although it is hard to think of Barsoom, with naked princesses, warriors killing each other in bloody sword fights, and a host of other very pulpy adult elements as a children's book. The Giant of Mars is pretty gruesome at points: rats feeding on dead flesh surrounded by piles of human bones, decapitations, women sexually attacked by apes and so on, so I can only imagine what the illustrations would have been like.

The second half of the book, titled The Skeleton Men of Jupiter moves John Carter from Barsoom to Sasoom, or Jupiter after he is kidnapped by the titular skeleton men who plan to invade Barsoom and want to torture him into giving them information to aid their conquest. The story involves the usual elements of a John Carter story: Dejah Thoris is placed in danger, Carter secures her escape, is captured, has to fight in an arena, manages a daring escape, and then seeks out his princess. The story seems to end abruptly, and there is some thought that Burroughs had planned to write a series of stories set on Jupiter: Mars having apparently been thoroughly explored in the previous stories. Unfortunately Burroughs died before he could give us anything besides this one story.

It is kind of sad to leave behind John Carter. He is definitely a pulpy character, but he is pulpy in all the good ways: bold, courageous, chivalrous, and more than a little lucky. The story that began in A Princess of Mars is well worth following through the series, even if this final book seems a little disjointed. ( )