{"product_id":"2940014087551","title":"THE GODS OF MARS","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I.  The Plant Men\u003cbr\u003e    II.  A Forest Battle\u003cbr\u003e   III.  The Chamber of Mystery\u003cbr\u003e    IV.  Thuvia\u003cbr\u003e     V.  Corridors of Peril\u003cbr\u003e    VI.  The Black Pirates of Barsoom\u003cbr\u003e   VII.  A Fair Goddess\u003cbr\u003e  VIII.  The Depths of Omean\u003cbr\u003e    IX.  Issus, Goddess of Life Eternal\u003cbr\u003e     X.  The Prison Isle of Shador\u003cbr\u003e    XI.  When Hell Broke Loose\u003cbr\u003e   XII.  Doomed to Die\u003cbr\u003e  XIII.  A Break for Liberty\u003cbr\u003e   XIV.  The Eyes in the Dark\u003cbr\u003e    XV.  Flight and Pursuit\u003cbr\u003e   XVI.  Under Arrest\u003cbr\u003e  XVII.  The Death Sentence\u003cbr\u003e XVIII.  Sola's Story\u003cbr\u003e   XIX.  Black Despair\u003cbr\u003e    XX.  The Air Battle\u003cbr\u003e   XXI.  Through Flood and Flame\u003cbr\u003e  XXII.  Victory and Defeat\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PLANT MEN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I stood upon the bluff before my cottage on that clear cold night in\u003cbr\u003ethe early part of March, 1886, the noble Hudson flowing like the grey\u003cbr\u003eand silent spectre of a dead river below me, I felt again the strange,\u003cbr\u003ecompelling influence of the mighty god of war, my beloved Mars, which\u003cbr\u003efor ten long and lonesome years I had implored with outstretched arms\u003cbr\u003eto carry me back to my lost love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot since that other March night in 1866, when I had stood without that\u003cbr\u003eArizona cave in which my still and lifeless body lay wrapped in the\u003cbr\u003esimilitude of earthly death had I felt the irresistible attraction of\u003cbr\u003ethe god of my profession.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith arms outstretched toward the red eye of the great star I stood\u003cbr\u003epraying for a return of that strange power which twice had drawn me\u003cbr\u003ethrough the immensity of space, praying as I had prayed on a thousand\u003cbr\u003enights before during the long ten years that I had waited and hoped.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSuddenly a qualm of nausea swept over me, my senses swam, my knees gave\u003cbr\u003ebeneath me and I pitched headlong to the ground upon the very verge of\u003cbr\u003ethe dizzy bluff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInstantly my brain cleared and there swept back across the threshold of\u003cbr\u003emy memory the vivid picture of the horrors of that ghostly Arizona\u003cbr\u003ecave; again, as on that far-gone night, my muscles refused to respond\u003cbr\u003eto my will and again, as though even here upon the banks of the placid\u003cbr\u003eHudson, I could hear the awful moans and rustling of the fearsome thing\u003cbr\u003ewhich had lurked and threatened me from the dark recesses of the cave,\u003cbr\u003eI made the same mighty and superhuman effort to break the bonds of the\u003cbr\u003estrange anaesthesia which held me, and again came the sharp click as of\u003cbr\u003ethe sudden parting of a taut wire, and I stood naked and free beside\u003cbr\u003ethe staring, lifeless thing that had so recently pulsed with the warm,\u003cbr\u003ered life-blood of John Carter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith scarcely a parting glance I turned my eyes again toward Mars,\u003cbr\u003elifted my hands toward his lurid rays, and waited.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNor did I have long to wait; for scarce had I turned ere I shot with\u003cbr\u003ethe rapidity of thought into the awful void before me.  There was the\u003cbr\u003esame instant of unthinkable cold and utter darkness that I had\u003cbr\u003eexperienced twenty years before, and then I opened my eyes in another\u003cbr\u003eworld, beneath the burning rays of a hot sun, which beat through a tiny\u003cbr\u003eopening in the dome of the mighty forest in which I lay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe scene that met my eyes was so un-Martian that my heart sprang to my\u003cbr\u003ethroat as the sudden fear swept through me that I had been aimlessly\u003cbr\u003etossed upon some strange planet by a cruel fate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy not?  What guide had I through the trackless waste of\u003cbr\u003einterplanetary space?  What assurance that I might not as well be\u003cbr\u003ehurtled to some far-distant star of another solar system, as to Mars?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI lay upon a close-cropped sward of red grasslike vegetation, and about\u003cbr\u003eme stretched a grove of strange and beautiful trees, covered with huge\u003cbr\u003eand gorgeous blossoms and filled with brilliant, voiceless birds.  I\u003cbr\u003ecall them birds since they were winged, but mortal eye ne'er rested on\u003cbr\u003esuch odd, unearthly shapes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe vegetation was similar to that which covers the lawns of the red\u003cbr\u003eMartians of the great waterways, but the trees and birds were unlike\u003cbr\u003eanything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and then through the further\u003cbr\u003etrees I could see that most un-Martian of all sights--an open sea, its\u003cbr\u003eblue waters shimmering beneath the brazen sun.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I rose to investigate further I experienced the same ridiculous\u003cbr\u003ecatastrophe that had met my first attempt to walk under Martian\u003cbr\u003econditions.  The lesser attraction of this smaller planet and the\u003cbr\u003ereduced air pressure of its greatly rarefied atmosphere, afforded so\u003cbr\u003elittle resistance to my earthly muscles that the ordinary exertion of\u003cbr\u003ethe mere act of rising sent me several feet into the air and\u003cbr\u003eprecipitated me upon my face in the soft and brilliant grass of this\u003cbr\u003estrange world.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079942455536,"sku":"2940014087551","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014087551_p0.jpg?v=1763609667","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014087551","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}