A Princess of Mars

I will say this about the Disney movie John Carter it definitely made me curious of the source material.  The movie is trying to do so much that the simple story gets muddled within.  What makes this story so great is how simple it is.  The Tharks are described as quite imposing green 4 armed giants.  The swashbuckling described in this book reminds me Treasure Island & Prince of Persia.  Also in this book Dejah Thoris is simply a damsel in distress instead of fighting heroine with an attitude like Princess Leia.  Really the only character that the movie got perfect was Woola.  The character of John Carter is part Han Solo, part D’Artagnan & part Wilfred of Ivanhoe.  There is also quite a resemblance to the Flash Gordon character.  The book works well as a stand-alone story but it also leaves the reader wanting more with a cliff hanger.  I can see why this series has remained popular for so long.  One of the really great scenes in this book takes place within a coliseum that last for days.  This was really botched in the movie if they had done it as discribed like in the movie Gladiator; it would have easily made the movie ten times better.   The scene at the end with the atmosphere generator is great but it also is kind of confusing I had to reread the ending because I didn’t get it the first time.