The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
**This review was originally posted on my Goodreads**
I know I said that I probably wouldn't read any more of these books, but I can't just leave a series hanging.
The Gods of Mars was interesting. I thought that the religious aspect of traveling down the river to what the people of Mars/Barsoom consider to be Heaven only to find hatred and corruption was interesting. I think that this speaks to a deeper fear that we all have- fear of the unknown. More specifically, fear that we have incorrectly placed our faith in an unknown and it turns out to be entirely wrong.
However yet again, I found the idea of this main character setting himself above the entire world. He finds a race of black Martians who are either evil, or ignorant and need to be educated by the Virginian slave owner. It is starting to stand out that Burroughs is more than a little racist. As I've said in a previous review, I do understand that this book was written in a different time, and there is a completely different historic context to it, but it is entirely out of control. Not only that, but I found the portrayal of women thus-far to be quite offensive. I think that there was a good idea under all of the ignorance, but found it hard to enjoy the book, and impossible to feel for the main character. But that's just me, there are many people who love these books and they have obviously stayed popular through out the years.
I would really only recommend this book to someone who enjoyed the first one. There are so many better science fiction books out there, you would be much better off picking one of those.
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