"As I stood upon the bluff before my cottage on that clear cold night in the early part of March, 1886, the noble Hudson flowing like the grey and silent spectre of a dead river below me, I felt again the strange, compelling influence of the mighty god of war, my beloved Mars, which for ten long and lonesome years I had implored with outstretched arms to carry me back to my lost love. "With arms outstretched toward the red eye of the great star I stood praying for a return of that strange power which twice had drawn me through the immensity of space, praying as I had prayed on a thousand nights before during the long ten years that I had waited and hoped."The redoubtable John Carter finds himself once again in alien territory in The Gods of Mars, the second book of Edgar Rice Burrough's famous Barsoom series. Skillfully woven into Burrough's tale of adventure and derring-do is a thoughtful exploration of the intersection of religion, race, and slavery. Another excellent example of a planetary romance, The Gods of Mars even yet gives the contemporary reader much upon which to reflect.