So, John Carter goes back to Mars. It's never really clear why he keeps getting warped back there. The first time (in A Princess of Mars), it was a magic Indian cave. This time, he just warps to Mars by warning to go badly enough. As usual, he's beset by an endless series of insanely dangerous threats (plant men, carnivorous white apes, etc). By authorial fiat, he arrives just in time to save his big four-armed green buddy, the deadly Tars Tarkas from a bunch of the aforementioned plant men. The first third of the book has a one-damn-thing-after-another quality, as the protagonists escape an ever-escalating set of frying pans only to fall into an increasingly weird set of fires. With time, though, a theme begins to emerge.

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