A grand adventure. Clearly the best of the 'Barsoom' series. It is interesting to see how much ERB viewed of a classic, sterotyped, gentile, chivalrous, gentlemen of the old southern civil war era and then transplanted him into a very different culture. While his idea of transplanting a 'human' into another alien world or culture was used by him several other times, it is more interesting to reflect how his way of doing this type adventure plot was later used by other writers. Before you read other such stories or go further in other such series, read this book first. While you should not really try to read to much high philsophy or literature into pulp tales, it makes for interesting reflection to seek out the influence of ERB in the works of later adventure writers.