The Master Mind of Mars

Our hero, Ulysses Paxton (yes), is dying on a WWI battlefield in France. He has always loved reading Burroughs' books about John Carter and his adventures on Mars, and in his final thoughts he focuses on the stars and thinks about how much he wishes he could have seen this amazing world. Then, through the wonder of astral projection (or something), he wakes up in the compound of a scientist on the red planet. Yay!

The scientist, Ras Thavas, quickly teaches Paxton the Barsoomian language and gives him a new name: Vad Varo. Ras Thavas has perfected a method of transplanting the brain and soul of one person into the body of another, and is charging wealthy Barsoomians tons of money to trade into younger and better looking bodies. He can also bring the dead back to life and transplant limbs and organs. It's a pretty good system really.

Paxton plays along as his lab assistant until he meets Valla Dia, a beautiful and benevolent young woman who has had her body switched against her will with an old and ugly empress. Paxton falls in love with Valla Dia's mind, even though she is stuck inside a crappy body, and vows to reunite her with her proper form. This leads to all kinds of adventures, and Paxton teams up with a revived assassin, a giant ape that has half of a man's mind (one of Ras Thavas' many experiments), and a proud warrior whose body was stolen by an evil courtier to woo away the woman he loved. Confused yet? Top that all off with some pretty funny critiques of religion and the masses and you have a very fun science fiction book that shows Burroughs at the top of his form. An excellent read.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2008/11/mastermind-of-mars-1928.html ] ( )

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500161h.html

Carter gets a compatriot.

Ulysses Paxton, a captain in the first world war is a big fan of the John Carter and Mars story, and really would prefer to be there, than in rat infested trenches. After his legs get blown off, he makes a desperate mental effort, and does end up alone on Mars.

Alone, a white boy, and in the clutches of a mad scientist whose specialty is the old brain transplant caper.

e.g. taking the old and wealthy and putting them in the bodies of the young and gorgeous.

He also needs an assistant, and a newly arrived earthman with no contacts, friends, or prospects, and of some native intelligence, is an ideal candidate.

Hard to stomach working for a mad scientist for long when there is a beautiful princess to save, though.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2008/08/barsoom-06-master-mind-of-mars.html ( )

Volume 6 of the John Carter series. ( )