The Chessmen of Mars

By: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Narrated by: Harry Shaw

Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter, becomes lost in an unknown area of Mars when her single-seat flier is caught in a rare Martian hurricane. She is first captured by the bizarre and hideous Kaldanes, and then the brutal Manatorians, for whom she is the prize in a tournament of Martian chess, jetan, that is played by live game pieces, and to the death!

This is book five of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series.

Public Domain (P)2022 Mark Nelson

Volume Five in the Barsoom series

As with Volume Four of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series (Thuvia, Maid of Mars), John Carter plays only a small role in this volume. The Chessmen of Mars introduces John Carter and Dejah Thoris’ daughter Tara, and the book is entirely focused on her adventures. I read all the Barsoom stories as a youngster, so it’s difficult to give an objective review of this book — much of the enjoyment for me consisted of re-living boyhood adventures and fantasies! If you’ve enjoyed reading any of the other Barsoom adventures, you will almost certainly enjoy this one as well.

Harry Shaw does a fine job narrating this volume. He also narrated the edition of “Thuvia, Maid of Mars” that I listened to. Strangely, there are several different versions of both of these volumes available on Audible, but almost none of the subsequent five or six remaining volumes in the series. Mr. Shaw’s narration is recent (2022) and I personally hope that he (and Audible) has plans to deliver the additional volumes. Having listened to samples of the other editions of this novel on Audible, I liked Mr. Shaw’s narration the best.