Hey, science-fiction fans! As you probably know, today’s the broadcast premiere of “The Empress of Mars,” the latest episode of the long-running TV series Doctor Who. In it, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and his companions Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) and Nardole (Matt Lucas) arrive on the Red Planet to find Victorian Era soldiers battling old-school DW villains (and native Martians) the Ice Warriors, who this time are led by the never-before-seen Martian Empress (FYI, that’s not the empress in the banner up top). If you have plans to watch it this weekend, perhaps you might be interested in one of our titles that stars a different sort of female Martian royalty…
A Princess of Mars, originally published in 1912, is the first in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “John Carter of Mars” ten-novel series about a post–Civil War era American who suddenly finds himself on the Red Planet, battling to stay alive against all sorts of alien threats, and ultimately to win the love of the titular Martian princess. It served as the basis for Disney’s 2012 film adaptation, John Carter, and inspired a century’s worth of SF works, including Flash Gordon, Star Wars, and James Cameron’s Avatar. The special StarWarp Concepts edition—available in both print and digital formats—features six incredible illustrations by SWC artist supreme Eliseu Gouveia (Carmilla, Lorelei: Sects and the City), and a special introduction by Mars-fiction expert John Gosling, author of Waging the War of the Worlds. Here’s the back-cover synopsis:
Captain John Carter thought his days as a fighter were over. The South had lost the Civil War, and as a soldier now without a battle to fight or a cause to believe in, he journeyed west in search of a new life.
But not even Carter could have expected that his new life would begin with his death in the Arizona desert, and his inexplicable arrival on the barren plains of the planet Mars. Or that he would find love in the eyes of the beauteous Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium.
A prisoner of the giant, green-skinned warrior race called the Tharks, Dejah Thoris is meant to be used as a pawn in the ongoing war between the Tharks and her people, the red Martians—unless the gentleman from Virginia takes sword in hand to free her…and thus unite a divided world.
Once more, John Carter has a cause to fight for—and this time, a love to win, as well….
A Princess of Mars is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page for ordering information.
