''The Master Mind of Mars'' is a

science fantasy file:Warhammer40kcosplay.jpg, Cosplay of a character from the ''Warhammer 40,000'' tabletop game; one critic has characterized the game's setting as "action-oriented science-fantasy." Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction ...

novel by American writer

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

, the sixth of his

Barsoom Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The first Barsoom tale was serialized as ''Under the Moons of Mars'' in pulp magazine '' The All-Story'' from February to Jul ...

series. Burroughs' working titles for the novel were ''A Weird Adventure on Mars'' and ''Vad Varo of Barsoom''. It was first published in the magazine ''

Amazing Stories Annual ''Amazing Stories Annual'' was a pulp magazine which published a single issue in July 1927. It was edited by Hugo Gernsback, and featured the first publication of '' The Master Mind of Mars'', by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which had been rejected b ...

'' vol. 1, on July 15, 1927. The first book edition was published by

A. C. McClurg A. C. McClurg was a stationer, publisher, and book wholesaler for over 120 years in Chicago, Illinois. The business began in 1844 as Chicago's first stationery store and first retail bookstore', changing hands several times, often as the result of ...

in March, 1928. Burroughs had been unable to place the novel in his standard, higher-paying markets like the Munsey magazines and the

Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc., was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp magazine, pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting year ...

line. Some critics have speculated the publishers were put off by its satirical treatment of religious fundamentalists. He eventually sold it to publisher

Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish American editor and magazine publisher whose publications included the first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stories''. His contributions to ...

for $1,250: only a third of the rate paid by magazines like '' Argosy All-Story'', where the previous book in the series had first appeared. Gernsback chose the novel's final title and made it the cover feature in his newest magazine.

E. F. Bleiler Everett Franklin Bleiler (April 30, 1920 – June 13, 2010) was an American editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" s ...

, ''Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years'', Kent State University Press, 1998, p.560

Plot summary

In this novel Burroughs shifts the focus of the series for the second time, the first having been from early protagonists John Carter and

Dejah Thoris Dejah Thoris is a fictional character and princess of the Martian city-state/empire of Helium in Edgar Rice Burroughs' series of Martian novels. She is the daughter of Mors Kajak, Jed (chieftain) of Lesser Helium, and the granddaughter of Tard ...

to their children after the third book. Now he moves to a completely unrelated hero, Ulysses Paxton, an Earthman like Carter who like him is sent to Mars by looking at the red planet in the sky. Amazing Stories Annual 1927

On Mars, Paxton is taken in by elderly

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insanity, insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabas ...

Ras Thavas, the "Master Mind" of the title, who educates him in the ways of Barsoom and bestows on him the Martian name Vad Varo. Ras has perfected techniques of transplanting brains, which he uses to provide rich elderly Martians with youthful new bodies for a profit. Distrustful of his fellow Martians, he trains Paxton as his assistant to perform the same operation on him. But Paxton has fallen in love with Valla Dia, one of Ras' young victims, whose body has been swapped for that of the hag Xaxa, Jeddara (empress) of the city-state of Phundahl. He refuses to operate on Ras until his mentor promises to restore her to her rightful body. A quest for that body ensues, in which Paxton is aided by others of Ras' experimental victims, and in the end he attains the hand of his Valla Dia, who in a happy plot twist turns out to be a princess.

Setting

Scientific basis

Burroughs vision of Mars was loosely inspired by

astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

speculation of the time, especially that of

Percival Lowell Percival Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, and furthered theories of a ninth planet within the Solar System ...

, who saw the planet as a formerly

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

like world now becoming less hospitable to life due to its advanced age, whose inhabitants had built canals to bring water from the polar caps to irrigate the remaining arable land. Lowell was influenced by Italian astronomer,

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ( , , ; 14 March 1835 – 4 July 1910) was an Italian astronomer and science historian. Biography He studied at the University of Turin, graduating in 1854, and later did research at Berlin Observatory, under ...

, who in 1878, had observed features on Mars he called canali (Italian for "channels"). A misunderstanding that "canals" implied water, fueled belief that the planet was inhabited. The theory of an inhabited planet with flowing water was disproved by data provided by Russian and American probes such as the two Viking missions which found a dead, frozen world where water could not exist in a fluid state.

World of Barsoom

A million years before the narrative commences, Mars was a lush world with oceans. As the oceans receded, and the atmosphere grew thin, the planet has devolved into a landscape of partial barbarism; living on an aging planet, with dwindling resources, the inhabitants of

have become hardened and warlike, fighting one another to survive. Barsoomians distribute scarce water supplies via a worldwide system of

canals Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow u ...

, controlled by quarreling city-states. The thinning Martian atmosphere is artificially replenished from an "atmosphere plant". It is a world with clear territorial divisions between White, Yellow, Black, Red and Green skinned races. Each has particular traits and qualities, which seem to define the characters of almost every individual within them. Burroughs' concept of race in

, is more similar to species than ethnicity.

Relationship to other works

Ras Thavas reappears later in the series to perform more mad science in the novel ''

Synthetic Men of Mars ''Synthetic Men of Mars'' is a science fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the ninth of his Barsoom series. It was first published in the magazine '' Argosy Weekly'' in six parts in early 1939. The first complete edition of th ...

''.

L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American author of science fiction, Fantasy literature, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of ...

enlisted Ras Thavas as guide to Barsoom for his hero

Harold Shea Harold Shea is the protagonist of five science fantasy stories by the collaborative team of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, as well as later stories by de Camp alone, Christopher Stasheff, Holly Lisle, John Maddox Roberts, Roland J. ...

in his short story " Sir Harold of Zodanga" (1995).

Copyright

The

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

for this story was not renewed by December 31, 1955 and therefore is in the public domain.

References

Sources

External links

* *
ERBzine.com Illustrated Bibliography for ''The Master Mind of Mars''

ERBzine.com Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute Site

barsoom.com Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars Site

Zip fileText file
at

Project Gutenberg Australia Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. It is a sister site of Project Gutenberg, though there is no formal relationship between the two organizations. The site hosts free ebo ...

Formatted epub version of the book on erb2ebook Blog

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Master Mind Of Mars, The 1928 American novels 1928 fantasy novels 1928 science fiction novels A. C. McClurg books American fantasy novels American science fiction novels Fiction about body swapping Martian novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs Science fantasy novels Works originally published in Amazing Stories