Book Review: Thuvia, Maid of Mars

Book Review: Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

It has been some years since Thuvia, princess of Ptarth, was rescued from her captivity by the Therns, thanks to John Carter and his son Carthoris. In the process, she and Carthoris had become attracted to each other, but having been returned to her rightful position, Thuvia is bound to the marriage her father arranged for her to Kulan Tith, Jeddak (Emperor) of Kaol. Thus the young woman cannot reciprocate Carthoris’ affection, though they can still be friends.

Carthoris understands Thuvia’s dilemma, though he chafes under the restrictive social codes of their culture. Astok, prince of Dusar, is less understanding. Overcome by lust, he attempts to force his attentions on Thuvia. Carthoris pastes Astok a good one, but due to the wicked prince’s diplomatic status, everyone has to pretend that he’s leaving the city of his own free will. Astok vows revenge in his heart, as one does.

Astok comes up with a plan to separately abduct Thuvia and Carthoris, making it look like the prince of Helium is responsible for the other disappearance. The abductions and frame job go off well at first, but keeping heroes in captivity is harder than getting them there! Now out of Dusarian hands, Carthoris and Thuvia, together and separately, must survive the wilderness of Mars and its violent inhabitants in hopes of preventing war.

This is the fourth book in the Edgar Rice Burroughs “Mars” series. The very popular “planetary romance” series began publication with A Princess of Mars in 1912. Captain John Carter of Viriginia, a Civil War veteran, was prospecting in Arizona when by a series of strange events he found himself on the planet Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. Thanks to Mars’ lower gravity, John Carter had superbarsoomian strength and leaping ability, which combined with his already excellent swordsmanship made him one of the most powerful fighters on Mars. He helped overthrow the corrupt chief of the Green Martian tribe he first met, befriended their new leader, overthrew the evil dictator trying to take over the Red Martians, and won the hand of Helium’s princess, the lovely Dejah Thoris. Exciting stuff, and brand new at the time.

The fourth volume, printed in 1916, moves John Carter to the background so that his son Carthoris and Thuvia, previously supporting characters, could be the protagonists. The Dusarian plan, as mentioned earlier, gets both of them to the abandoned city Aaanthor. Just as Carthoris arrives, Thuvia is abducted from her abductors by a passing non-friendly Green Martian. Carthoris is delayed from following her by having to fight the Dusarians, and his craft is damaged, so he has to trail the kidnapper by a considerable distance.

By the time Carthoris catches up, the hostile Green Martian tribe is attacking the lost city of Lothar. The Lotharians turn out to be masters of mental power, but by the time they became masters, they’d already lost all their women and their city-state is on a slow slide to extinction as the men are whittled away by accident or sacrifice to their god Komal. The arrival of the outsiders triggers a political crisis in the city.

Thuvia and Carthoris manage to escape with their lives but get separated again; however, Carthoris gains an ally in Kar Komak, a bowman of Lothar whose nature is…unique. The two new friends make it back to Barsoomian civilization, but now must find a way to free Thuvia from her yet again captivity and stop the war.

Good: ERB knows how to write an adventure story with lots of excitement, twists and turns, just enough romance to keep the plot moving and some fine ideas scattered in. This is the fine old vintage of planetary romance.

Carthoris is not quite as overwhelming a fighter as his father, but more mechanically inclined. He’s invented a combined autopilot and collision avoidance system for his antigravity fighter, as well as a supposedly genius-level anti-tampering system to protect it. (Then promptly hands the key to the anti-tampering system to someone who is prepared to take steps to copy it.) His sense of honor and need to do the right thing conflict with his love for Thuvia, giving him a bit of much-needed depth.

Thuvia is also a fine adventure heroine, not just a pretty face. She’s brave in the face of overwhelming danger, able to use a dagger if she has to (though she’s no match for most of the fighting men and hostile wildlife), and is able to make friends with banths, the Martian equivalent of lions, which comes in handy more than once. She too has to struggle with the differences between who she wants to be with, and who she must be with.

The lost city of Lothar is a fine creation, and raises more questions than the story has time to answer. Especially sweet to a would-be intellectual like me is the clash between philosophical schools that might not be entirely pointless, but seems so to outsiders.

ERB did not shy away from making up lingo; most editions come with a glossary.

Less good: The story relies, as is normal for Burroughs adventure novels, on a high level of coincidence. This becomes especially and gratingly noticeable at the end when the writer realizes he’s running out of pages and quickly gets the heroes where they need to be to tie up the most essential plot points.

There’s a lot of emphasis on male characters having the hots for Thuvia and many of them not caring about her opinion on the matter. Prince Astok has a bit of an excuse; we learn that his father is so loathsome that no other city’s noblewomen would agree to a political marriage, and multiple women of Dusar committed suicide rather than wed him. So the old jeddak forced a slave woman into marriage, then had her killed off as soon as she produced a legitimate heir. Yeah, we can see where Astok gets it from.

Which brings me to something that I had forgotten in the decades since I last read these books. The Red Martians practice slavery. Even Helium, the more or less “good guy” city-state. Carthoris owns slaves. He doesn’t buy them himself or interact with them in this volume, that’s handled by his head servant. But that’s still kind of disturbing.

This ties in, I think, back to John Carter’s past. He fought on the Confederate side during the American Civil War, which would indicate that he wasn’t morally opposed to slavery. While John Carter and the other heroes of this series will sometimes free slaves from bad masters (especially if those slaves are princesses), they’re not interested in reforming society to do without slave labor.

At the time Edgar Rice Burroughs was writing this series, there had been decades of “Lost Cause” writers trying to romanticize the Confederacy and whitewash the evil of slavery. It wasn’t that unusual for a former rebel to be the hero of a novel and have his actions against the Union excused or glossed over. The pendulum has since swung against this type of character, but you can still find such in old Westerns and the like.

Content note: Lots of fighting, often fatal. Animals are killed. Sexual harassment.

Overall: I enjoyed this immensely, and it’s a treat for planetary romance fans. But if the hero being a slaveowner is a dealbreaker for you, I certainly cannot fault you for giving this a miss.