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The gods of Mars

by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950)

  • Free to read
  • 5 hours to read
  • 23 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"The Gods of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs is a science fantasy novel first published as a serial in 1913. John Carter returns to Mars after ten years, only to materialize in the Valley Dor—the Martian afterlife from which no one may leave. There he discovers a dark truth: the supposed gods of Mars are frauds who enslave and devour pilgrims seeking paradise. Carter must fight through layers of deception, rescue his beloved Dejah Thoris, and lead a massive fleet against false deities to expose the lies that have deceived an entire world.

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  • Science fiction
  • Mars (Planet)
  • Life on other planets
  • Carter, John (Fictitious character)
  • Dejah Thoris (Fictitious character)

Read the opening

Chapter I: The Plant Men

As I stood upon the bluff before my cottage on that clear cold night in the early part of March, 1886, the noble Hudson flowing like the grey and silent spectre of a dead river below me, I felt again the strange, compelling influence of the mighty god of war, my beloved Mars, which for ten long and lonesome years I had implored with outstretched arms to carry me back to my lost love.

Not since that other March night in 1866, when I had stood without that Arizona cave in which my still and lifeless body lay wrapped in the similitude of earthly death had I felt the irresistible attraction of the god of my profession.

With arms outstretched toward the red eye of the great star I stood praying for a return of that strange power which twice had drawn me through the immensity of space, praying as I had prayed on a thousand nights before during the long ten years that I had waited and hoped.

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Contents

  1. Foreword
  2. Chapter I: The Plant Men
  3. Chapter II: A Forest Battle
  4. Chapter III: The Chamber of Mystery
  5. Chapter IV: Thuvia
  6. Chapter V: Corridors of Peril
  7. Chapter VI: The Black Pirates of Barsoom
  8. Chapter VII: A Fair Goddess
  9. Chapter VIII: The Depths of Omean
  10. Chapter IX: Issus, Goddess of Life Eternal
  11. Chapter X: The Prison Isle of Shador
  12. Chapter XI: When Hell Broke Loose
  13. Chapter XII: Doomed to Die
  14. Chapter XIII: A Break for Liberty
  15. Chapter XIV: The Eyes in the Dark
  16. Chapter XV: Flight and Pursuit
  17. Chapter XVI: Under Arrest
  18. Chapter XVII: The Death Sentence
  19. Chapter XVIII: Sola’s Story
  20. Chapter XIX: Black Despair
  21. Chapter XX: The Air Battle
  22. Chapter XXI: Through Flood and Flame
  23. Chapter XXII: Victory and Defeat

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About this edition

This free edition of The gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #64, released 1993-05-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Adventure, Novels, American Literature.

Other editions: eBook #29405.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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