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Book Details

The Chessmen of Mars

71.4% complete
1922
87,201
1990
Never (or unknown...)
See 24
Prelude - John Carter Comes to Earth
1 - Tara in a Tantrum
2 - At the Gale's Mercy
3 - The Headless Humans
4 - Captured
5 - The Perfect Brain
6 - In the Toils of Horror
7 - A Repellent Sight
8 - Close Work
9 - Adrift Over Strange Regions
10 - Entrapped
11 - The Choice of Tara
12 - Ghek Plays Pranks
13 - A Desperate Deed
14 - At Ghek's Command
15 - The Old Man of the Pits
16 - Another Change of Name
17 - A Play to the Death
18 - A Task for Loyalty
19 - The Menace of the Dead
20 - The Charge of Cowardice
21 - A Risk for Love
22 - At the Moment of Marriage
Jetan, or Martian Chess
Book Cover
Has a genre Has comments Has an extract Has a year read Has a rating In my library In a series 
150
 Barsoom*
#5 of 11
Barsoom*   See series as if on a bookshelf
Also known are the Mars series is a series of serialized science fiction stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs originally published in magazine installments.

1) A Princess of Mars
2) The Gods of Mars
3) The Warlord of Mars
4) Thuvia, Maid of Mars
5) The Chessmen of Mars
6) The Master Mind of Mars
7) A Fighting Man of Mars
8) Swords of Mars
9) Synthetic Men of Mars
10) Llana of Gathol
11) John Carter of Mars
Shea had just beaten me at chess, as usual, and, also as usual, I had gleaned what questionable satisfaction I might by twitting him with this indication of failing mentality by calling his attention to the nth time to that theory, propounded by certain scientists, which is based upon the assertion that phenomenal chess players are always found to be from the ranks of children under twelve, adults over seventy-two or the mentally defective - a theory that is lightly ignored upon those occasions that I win.
May contain spoilers
A moment later he was gone.
Comments may contain spoilers
First published as a seven-part serial in Argosy magazine, starting on February 18, 1922.
Synopsis not on file
Extract (may contain spoilers)
The song that had been upon her lips as she entered died there—frozen by the sight of horror that met her eyes. In the center of the chamber a headless body lay upon the floor—a body that had been partially devoured—while over and upon it crawled a half a dozen heads upon their short, spider legs, and they tore at the flesh of the woman with their chelae and carried the bits to their awful mouths. They were eating human flesh—eating it raw!

Tara of Helium gasped in horror and turning away covered her eyes with her palms.

"Come!" said her captor. "What is the matter?"

"They are eating the flesh of the woman," she whispered in tones of horror.

"Why not?" he inquired. "Did you suppose that we kept the rykor for labor alone? Ah, no. They are delicious when kept and fattened. Fortunate, too, are those that are bred for food, since they are never called upon to do aught but eat."

"It is hideous!" she cried.

He looked at her steadily for a moment, but whether in surprise, in anger, or in pity his expressionless face did not reveal. Then he led her on across the room past the frightful thing, from which she turned away her eyes. Lying about the floor near the walls were half a dozen headless bodies in harness. These she guessed had been abandoned temporarily by the feasting heads until they again required their services. In the walls of this room there were many of the small, round openings she had noticed in various parts of the tunnels, the purpose of which she could not guess.

They passed through another corridor and then into a second chamber, larger than the first and more brilliantly illuminated. Within were several of the creatures with heads and bodies assembled, while many headless bodies lay about near the walls. Here her captor halted and spoke to one of the occupants of the chamber.

"I seek Luud," he said. "I bring to Luud a creature that I captured in the fields above."

The others crowded about to examine Tara of Helium. One of them whistled, whereupon the girl learned something of the smaller openings in the walls, for almost immediately there crawled from them, like giant spiders, a score or more of the hideous heads. Each sought one of the recumbent bodies and fastened itself in place. Immediately the bodies reacted to the intelligent direction of the heads. They arose, the hands adjusted the leather collars and put the balance of the harness in order, then the creatures crossed the room to where Tara of Helium stood. She noted that their leather was more highly ornamented than that worn by any of the others she had previously seen, and so she guessed that these must be higher in authority than the others. Nor was she mistaken. The demeanor of her captor indicated it. He addressed them as one who holds intercourse with superiors.

Several of those who examined her felt her flesh, pinching it gently between thumb and forefinger, a familiarity that the girl resented. She struck down their hands. "Do not touch me!" she cried, imperiously, for was she not a princess of Helium? The expression on those terrible faces did not change. She could not tell whether they were angry or amused, whether her action had filled them with respect for her, or contempt. Only one of them spoke immediately.

"She will have to be fattened more," he said.

The girl's eyes went wide with horror. She turned upon her captor. "Do these frightful creatures intend to devour me?" she cried.

 

Added: 29-Dec-2002
Last Updated: 18-Jun-2022

Publications

 01-Jan-2014
ePub Books
e-Book
In my libraryHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Jan-2014
Format:
e-Book
Pages*:
348
Internal ID:
2371
Publisher:
ISBN:
Unknown
Country:
United States
Language:
English
From epubbooks.com:

A freak storm on Mars throws Tara, Princess of Helium and beautiful daughter of John Carter, wildly off course after she embarks on an imprudent flight. Gahan, Jed of Gathol, her new admirer, takes off in pursuit and they soon find themselves in a land of bodies without heads and heads without bodies. In Chessmen of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs once again whirls the reader into an entertaining maelstrom of breakneck action.
Cover:
Book Cover
Notes and Comments:

Related

Author(s)

Edgar Rice Burroughs  
Birth: 01 Sep 1875 Chicago, Illinois, USA
Death: 19 Mar 1950 Encino, California, USA

Awards

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*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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