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Synthetic Men of Mars

Synthetic Men of Mars

AdventureFantasy
Published
1940
Language
English

Synopsis

Synthetic Men of Mars is the ninth Barsoom novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first published in 1939. When the warrior Vor Daj is captured and his mind is transplanted into the body of a hormad — a monstrous artificial being created by the mad scientist Ras Thavas — he must fight his way back to his true form while his commander John Carter and the queen Dejah Thoris are held captive in the same hidden city. As Thavas's creations overrun the city of Morbus, the battle for Barsoom's future is decided by the daring of those caught between science, madness, and the savage laws of Mars.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

AdventurousTenseMysterious
QuestSurvivalMorally Grey

Genres

Adventure Fantasy Science Fiction

About the author

E
Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a businessman. During the Chicago influenza epidemic in 1891, he spent half a year on his brothers' ranch on the Raft River in Idaho. He attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and then the Michigan Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1895. He failed the entrance exam for West Point, and so became an enlisted soldier with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. He was discharged in 1897, ha...

Characters

Vor DajProtagonist

A Padwar of Helium whose consciousness is transplanted into the body of a hormad, a monstrous artificial being, and who must survive and fight his way back to his true form.

Ras ThavasAntagonist

A brilliant, morally ambiguous scientist and creator of the hormads, whose experiments and ambition drive the plot's central conflict.

Commander John CarterSupporting

Vor Ds's commander and a legendary Barsoomian warrior, who leads the rescue mission to save Vor Daj and Dejah Thoris.

Dejah ThorisSupporting

John Carter's wife, whose injury sets the plot in motion as she is taken to Ras Thavas's hidden laboratory.

All characters in Synthetic Men of Mars