Mars Trilogy: A Princess of Mars; The Gods of Mars; The Warlord of Mars Paperback – Illustrated, February 7, 2012

Font is easy to read, beautiful, spaced and easy on the eyes. There are gaps between the paragraphs similar to what I see with large font using a kindle reader! Incredible print! Now I need one for myself , how can I give this gift away. Opening this book is always awesome.

Edgar Rice Burroughs brings his John Carter on Mars stories to life with action, excitement and great description on what the planet is like. He first Published his stories in 1912 and brings the dyeing world to life. Put aside today's knowledge of what modern science has discovered about the red planet and enjoy Burroughs story telling with this book and the first three Barsom, (that's what the Martians call Mars) tales. A fun and easy read.

I downloaded this collection when I heard that they were making a movie of it (a movie that I have yet to see, even after its premiere) because I wanted to see what it was all about. I have to admit that I enjoyed the collection. Even though you can see that the writing is dated, the story does flow well and with a little disconnect between what we know now about Mars and what was known then, it is a very good read. The characters, while stereotypical of the time and the culture are well developed and you find yourself identifying with the protagonist and the various central characters. Of the three stories in this collection, I enjoyed the first the most. It was fun and fast pace if just a little wordy. However, as I progressed through the collection, I found my interest waning. There is a lot of repetition in these stories and some passages are long winded. This detracts from the overall enjoyment of the stories as presented. Still I feel that the books have survived the ravages of time and are just as interesting today as they probably were when they were first published. I really enjoyed reading this collection of the first three books of the John Carter series.

Despite most of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom/John Carter stories now being in the public domain (ie available to anyone for free), I was after an illustrated edition of the John Carter series in the run up to the Disney film being released and I found this hardcover version.The stories are pure escapism, the classic sci-fi planetary romance from the early pulp era, clearly the inspiration for Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Star Wars, Avatar and more. The illustrations by Thomas Yeates, are really excellent and give you a real sense of what Barsoom (as the natives in the stories call Mars) was really like as well.The first three novels in the eleven book series are reprinted here in one volume and give you a chance to read and absorb the story as one continuous tale, and as the stories were originally published in episodic format in the pulp magazines at the time, makes for an epic, but worthy read.The only negative for me is the cover design. Maybe we've been spoilt by the covers from Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel Jr, Gino D'Achille, Michael Whelan and the rest, but they could've chosen a better illustration by Thomas Yeates for the cover. The one on the cover is from the third story; 'Warlord Of Mars' and loses some of it's impact as it doesn't convey the trilogy at all.This volume is well crafted. The endpapers and volume breaks, page decorations, lists of illustration and other features make this a book of high quality, and definitely worth getting if you're a fan of Burroughs' world of Barsoom.

I started reading these on a dare...and I'm so glad I lost the bet because I would've lost out on the gems that are these stories! I'm a fan of the classics, so I do enjoy the sort of archaic writing style employed here (personally to understand it better, I have to listen to the audiobook version which you can listen to for free read by volunteers on the audiobook iphone app. It's a free app that is orange and gray and looks like a cassette tape). It's an interesting glimpse into old science fiction stories, as they differ a great deal from today's concepts. It's interesting to analyze how things have changed over time in reference to the differences in world paradigms and attitudes at the time. I personally enjoyed these stories greatly and plan on reading them to my children. I'll admit, the first few chapters of the first book were a little painfully boring, but please push through it. If you don't like it by the chapter regarding Sola's story (one of my favorite chapters in the series) in the first book, then you can quit. The first book will always be my favorite and while I appreciate the different perspectives in the stories Thuvia, maid of mars and The Chessmen of mars, I don't think they were as good as the first three, but they were still enjoyable. If you're someone who can get into old science fiction, try the John Carter of Mars collection. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I absolutely love this series it is fantastic especially for being so old, but it is one of the pioneers of the scfi/fantasy genre!!I'm giving this a not great rating because though I was ecstatic to get 3 books in 1, this particular printing did not continue, because there are 9 books in this series (not including shoThe Collected John Carter of Mars, Vol. 1: A Princess of Mars / The Gods of Mars / The Warlord of Marsrt stories) and they did not put the other stories into compiled books for this printing, they did put out a compilation of short stories various other writers made in fan continuation to the saga. You can get the next 6 books in a compilation but from a different printing company with different binding, (wish I knew this before I got this version). You can also get a version which pt the first 7 books together, but it doesn't include the last 2, so that is another publishing curfuffle!!!So if you like your series to have the same binding and match, get this other version which link I attached, also available here on amazon, it has 3 volumes, each with 3 stories by original author Edgar Rice Burroughs!