A Fighting Man of Mars
|
|
A Fighting Man of Mars is the seventh novel in the Martian series of Edgar Rice Burroughs published in 1931. It is the tale of Tan Hadron of Hastor, a lowly, poor padwar (a low-ranking officer) who is in love with the beautiful, regal Sanoma Tora, daughter of Tor Haten, a minor but rich noble. As he is only a padwar, Sanoma spurns him. Then Sanoma Tora is kidnapped, and the novel moves into high gear.
As Tan Hadron crosses Mars ("Barsoom," as Burroughs calls it) searching for Sanoma Tora, he encounters some of Burroughs's most ferocious beasts—huge, many-armed, flesh-eating white apes, gigantic spiders, and the insane cannibals of U-Gor. Of course he also meets the mad scientist Phor Tak (who cackles "Heigh-oo!"), who is crazed with the desire for revenge.
This is one of the best of Burroughs's Barsoomian novels, and one of the best of all his novels. It was originally published in six parts in Blue Book Magazine in 1930, from May to September.
Burroughs, although a workman-like writer, was an imaginative one. His writings have influenced generations of writers and scientists, such as Carl Sagan.