07 Gahan and the slaves of Gathol play a deadly game of Jetan with themselves as live chess pieces.Ġ8 Tara is still captured by the evil O-Tar, so Gahan starts a rebellion with A-Kor and another ally called U-Thor of Manatos, a neighbouring city. Allies are found in the many slaves of Gahol, and a possibly candidate for the throne called A-Kor. 06 The heroes discover the mysteries of Manator, including meeting the mad taxidermist I-Gos, and explore the martian rat tunnels underneath the city. They leave Bantoom in a flier.Ġ5 Gahan, Tara, and Ghek are captured by another lost civilisation called Manator and we meet the evil Jeddak of Manator, O-Tar. She is captured and is sent to the leader of the Luud tribe of Kaldanes.Ġ4 Gahan of Gathol, Tara’s suitor arrives in the land of Batoom and together with Ghek, a newly rebel Kaldane who finds himself partial to Tara’s singing voice, they battle the leader of Luud. 03 Tara discovers the lost land of Kaldanes and the Rykors. Later, Tara goes flying and a storm sends Tara's flyer thousands of miles across Barsoom. 02 Princess Tara, daughter of John Carter, rejects a bloke called Gahan of Gathol at a dance party at Helium. I have further divided these arcs in two to delineate a sort of 4 Act structure.Ġ1 Prologue: John Carter visit with a new story to tell Edgar Rice Burroughs. Paperback (February 16th, 2021): $20.** Barsoom Book 5: The Chessmen of Mars**Ĭhessmen of Mars can be divided into roughly two arcs: The Bantoom Arc and the Manator Arc.In Manator, captives are forced to a fight to the death in the arena, in a modified version of Jetan, a popular Barsoomian board game resembling Chess the living version uses people as the game pieces on a life-sized board, with each taking of a piece being a duel to the death. Gahan ventures into the city seeking food and water, but is tricked and taken prisoner by the inhabitants.

In light of her earlier reaction to him, Gahan decides to keep his identity secret, and identifies himself instead as a Panthan (warrior) called Turan.The three of them manage to reach the isolated city of Manator. Tara doesn't recognize Gahan as the prince she met earlier, as he is worn from his ordeals and no longer dressed in his fancy clothes. He stumbles upon Bantoom, realm of the Kaldanes, and manages to rescue Tara, and together with Ghek they flee in Tara's crippled flier. While imprisoned, Tara manages to win over one of the Kaldanes, Ghek, with her lovely singing voice.Gahan, who has fallen in love with Tara, sets out to find her, only to find himself caught up in the same storm, and he falls overboard while attempting to rescue one of his crew. The Kaldanes imprison Tara, intending to fatten her up, then eat her. The Kaldanes have bred a symbiotic race of headless human-like creatures called Rykors, which they can attach themselves to and ride like a horse. After landing and fleeing from a pack of ferocious Banths (Martian lions), she is captured by the horrific Kaldanes, who resemble large heads with small, crab-like legs. Later she takes her flier into a storm and loses control of the craft, and the storm carries her to an unfamiliar region of Barsoom. 1]Tara meets Prince Gahan of Gathol, and is initially unimpressed, viewing him as something of a popinjay. Both Helium and Gathol are prominent Barsoomian city states. The heroine this time is their daughter Tara, princess of Helium, whose hand is sought by the gallant Gahan, Jed (prince) of Gathol. In this novel Burroughs focuses on a younger member of the family established by John Carter and Dejah Thoris, protagonists of the first three books in the series.

Barsoom chess