Oh dear...all that work and D.T. is still in mortal peril...guess I better get on to the third book. But seriously, it is easy to understand how these books were so popular when they were written. Old Ned really knows how to leave us hanging!

After ten years on Earth, our hero, Barsoom's most beloved hero and saviour the great and powerful almighty John Carter, finally figures out the 'secret' to interplanetary travel that he used all those years ago.
He
just
thinks of Mars or something. It's not explained. And boom! He's in a lush dense forest!
Wait. This isn't Mars, it's can't be bone dry with only the trickle stream the Great Iss as any important amount of water....
And what are those strange... things... coming my way... like with a giant hole for a nose and mouths for fingers and ears at the end of their hair ... and I think eyes in the middle of their heads and I think they look like leeks, personally the way he describes them. Giant carnivorous leeks. Oh and for nostalgia's sake, giant six-limbed white apes.
These are the fearful truth that awaits any Barsoomian who takes the voluntary "Final Pilgrimage" down the Iss, as Barsoomians either die in battle, or at the age of some thousand years they take the long pilgrimage down the Iss "never to return".
It's supposed to be the Martian Heaven, an Elysian field ruled by a benevolent goddess, but as Carter soon learns, this final naturally irrigated area of the dying planet is home to nested levels of cannibalous beings, who keep alive their "lessers" so that they may harvest them for either slaves or food.
He manages to find old friends and make new ones, even amongst the First Born, the most ancient sapient race of all of Barsoom, who hole up at the south pole with their goddess and eat the rest of the Barsoomians.
He meets his son - yes despite all Barsoomians being oviparous and about ten times the lifespan, they are sexually compatible with Earth humans.
(That wasn't a surprise at all you could see it coming ten miles away. "Oh who oh who could this boy be?". Oh, and somehow this is ten (Earth) years later and the boy is basically a young adult, trying for an Odysseus/Telemachus theme.

And the Brilliant Saviour of all Marskind John Carter, Jedak of Helium is in his sworn duty to protect all of Barsoom from the hideous evil of this false religion!
The amazing 1% atmosphere of Mars really helps his fighting ability. Attacked by man-eating plants and giant gorillas, then dozens or random fierce animals, with absolutely no rest at all, then on to another fight... He is basically always on the go, except when he does get a chance to sleep (I think 5 times in the book) he always gets rudely awakened.
But magic Mars Atmosphere Carter (perhaps it's the proximity to the home sun like the Kryptonians?), is even kidnapped for a whole 365 days, trapped in an underground cell, with just a bit of food and maybe water every day, no light at all except from the torch of the guy who brought the food, unconversationally, for 365 days, his leg in irons, and TWO days of travel later he takes on literally legendary armies. Literally harrows out the Martian hell. If you needed a bigger Jesus cliché.

Loved that crazy revolving torture tower idea tho. Really cool.
But. If they were tossing canned food into the ever decreasing hole (Just really imaging the scale of this thing to be moving at the strange speed it is (0º30'/d) :::: knowing the diet of the locals, what is that food made of, and who canned it, how and why? I guess it's okay because it's food enough? How big is that cell, I think it would definitely cause insanity... Is it stark bright white? That's how I imagined it. Would 100% need ventilation to work.
[[Edit - Did the math - Even if the chambers were 2 kilomteres wide, it would at the mouth be moving at 3m/h (that's metres to you metricophobes). That they could jump out of that "swiftly" moving ride preeety easily, unless I'm missing something very important...

As a sequel, not quite as compelling as the origin story. It was a bit harder to get through at times, as the pace was quick and the plot chaotic. Still, lots of imagination and plenty to like here. Serious cliffhanger ending too!

I have to say I liked the first book better

Gods is much more exciting, tense and well written than Princess. All the way to the cliffhanger ending, it is packed with danger and new foes. I think what I like most is the imagination of it all. It is not a deep book, but has such an interesting world. One thing I will note that I heate was the five different points where John fails to realize that the boy he is talking to is his son. The book makes it clear the first time and the second time was somewhat excusable... but five freaking times... ugh. That being said, it was the only portion of the book that significantly annoyed me. The only thing I was left wanting more of was Tars Tarkas and Kantos Kan becuase they are awesome.

Libby/audio

This was much better than the first book, imo. Probably because a lot happens, and all of it was new, rather than rehashing what i knew from the movie.

However, it still has its flaws.
1- it’s still told as journal entries. This is a little baffling because as far as i can tell(maybe i missed something?) John Carter has been blasted back to earth, and it’s been 10 years. Im not sure what he’s been up to, but apparently talking to his nephew wasn’t it. So as he’s about to head back to Mars( how? Who knows-again, i may have missed something?) he points to his stack of notes, bids a hasty farewell to the nephew, and he is gone again. And so, as he reads away, we hear the story.

2- John Carter refers to himself as John Carter fairly often, and it makes him come across as ridiculously arrogant. Though, i don’t really feel that he actually is. It’s just an annoying trait from a long ago style of writing, I’m sure.

3- He seems to simply just know a lot of random Mars info, from obscure places, and i find this convenient. It’s also convenient that every enemy he captures/talks to spews relevant exposition and info to let him know exactly what he needs to beat them.

4- the gals in these books are kinda weak. Princess deja is a typical simpering female of the time. It’s just a minor irritation. The rest of the females in the story are no better. And of course all the princesses on the planet fall madly in love with JC, despite his being married already, and that they don’t know him at all. But again, the times. Sigh.

5- everyone on the planet is described as naked. This is just something that bugs me personally.

Oh, and, i dont really love the audio for this series. Especially irking are the female voices.

Not as good as Princess of Mars. Although it does make some challenging points about the role of religion in society. But the battle and escape scenes become too repetitive.

This took me forever to read because I just nibbled at it occasionally on my phone app in waiting rooms, etc...

The John Carter books have been very fun reads so far. It's awesome reading sci-fi in such formal language. There is action on pretty much every page, and although it gets repetitive, I still found myself wanting to know what happened by the end of the book (cliffhangers! Ahhhhh!!!).

I'm sure I will at least finish book three.

I am also impressed by Edgar Rice Burroughs making a point of showing that men of all races and colors, green, white, black, and red, can all equally be jerkwads, or can work together peacefully. The women he writes are generally pretty self-sacrificing and noble, although they let the men do all the fighting. I still think the books hold up pretty well.