The Chessmen of Mars

The Story

The narrative begins with a curious framing: John Carter, the legendary Warlord of Mars, appears in his earthly grandson’s library, signaling that he has a story to tell from the red planet. He recounts the journey of his daughter, Tara of Helium, a spirited and fiercely independent princess. Seeking adventure, Tara pilots her flier away from her home in Helium, but she is quickly caught in a ferocious Martian storm. Blown off course and unable to control her craft, she is eventually wrecked in an unknown, desolate region of the planet.

She is soon captured by a bizarre race known as the Kaldanes. These creatures are little more than oversized, highly developed brains that view their own physical bodies—and the "rykor" slave-bodies they graft themselves onto—with clinical detachment. Tara finds herself a prisoner in a land where intelligence is worshipped at the expense of all human emotion. She encounters a peculiar Kaldane named Ghek, who, unlike his brethren, begins to develop a sense of loyalty and empathy through his interactions with her.

While Tara is lost, Gahan, the Jed of Gathol, learns of her disappearance. He embarks on a mission to find her, eventually tracking her down to the strange, isolated city of Manator. This city is a relic of a dying age, populated by people who maintain an eerie, frozen silence, watching the world from their balconies as if waiting for a past that will never return. In Manator, the ruling class is brutal and the law is absolute. Tara, having escaped the Kaldanes, is captured by the Manatorians and slated to be a human "piece" in their deadly, high-stakes version of the game of Jetan—a sport where the "pieces" are living men and women who fight to the death.

Gahan enters the city in disguise, calling himself Turan the panthan (a mercenary), and he manages to infiltrate the royal court. He witnesses the decadence and corruption of the Jeddak O-Tar, who keeps the city in a grip of fear. Gahan’s primary goal is to save Tara from the arena. He discovers that he can challenge for her freedom by participating in the Jetan games himself. As he ascends the ranks of the tournament, he earns the grudging respect of the crowd, despite their outward hostility toward outsiders. He relies on his superior swordsmanship and his strategic mind, which he has honed as a ruler of Gathol.

The climax arrives at the final Jetan match. Gahan faces off against the city’s champions, not for sport, but to secure Tara’s life. Through a series of desperate maneuvers and secret alliances with sympathetic Manatorians who despise O-Tar’s tyranny, Gahan manages to turn the tide. He reveals his identity at the critical moment, disrupting the royal hierarchy and challenging the Jeddak’s authority directly. The ensuing chaos allows Gahan and Tara to escape the city, but their path is fraught with narrow misses and betrayals. They must navigate the city’s complex underground tunnels—secret passageways they learned of through their allies—before they finally break out into the open plains of Mars.

Their journey concludes as they return to Helium, having forged a bond that transcends their status as royalty. They bring with them not only their lives but a newfound understanding of the Martian landscape and the diverse, often nightmarish societies that inhabit its fringes. Tara, once a proud and sometimes haughty princess, has been humbled by the fragility of life, while Gahan has proven his worth not through his title, but through his devotion and courage.

The People

• Tara of Helium: A proud, sharp-tongued princess who initially values her autonomy above all else. Her journey strips away her aristocratic detachment, forcing her to rely on, and eventually trust, the man she once considered a mere stranger.
• Gahan of Gathol: A leader who values justice and loyalty over political posturing. He is the strategist who maneuvers through the deadly game of Jetan. He must prove himself to Tara not as a king, but as a warrior and a partner.
• Ghek: A Kaldane whose evolution diverges from his kin. By choosing to value the "unreasoning tuitions of the heart" over pure, cold intellect, he becomes an essential ally, bridging the gap between the monstrous logic of his people and the humanity of the protagonists.
• O-Tar: The Jeddak of Manator, a ruler whose paranoia and cruelty define the city's stagnation. He represents the danger of absolute power untethered from empathy, viewing his subjects—and even his own citizens—as disposable pawns.
• I-Gos: The ancient taxidermist of Manator, a withered figure who clings to the past. He serves as an obstacle, using his intimate knowledge of the city’s hidden, dusty corridors to hunt the heroes, embodying the persistent threat of the old world’s decay.

In Its Own Voice

The book explores the tension between emotion and intellectual coldness, particularly through the lens of the Kaldanes.

"The future kaldane will be nothing but a great brain. Deaf, dumb, and blind it will lie sealed in its buried vault far beneath the surface of Barsoom--just a great, wonderful, beautiful brain with nothing to distract it from eternal thought."

Tara’s reaction to this sterile vision highlights her own commitment to the complexities of a life lived with heart.

"Yes," replied the girl, "I can think of a number of things that would be infinitely more wonderful."

The rigid structure of the Martian social order is underscored by the importance of the Jetan games, which serves as a metaphor for the protagonists' struggle for agency.

The game is won when any piece is placed on same square with opponent's Princess, or a Chief takes a Chief.

What It's Really About

At its core, this is a story about the intersection of strategy and humanity. The game of Jetan is not merely a background detail; it is the governing metaphor for the book. In the society of Manator, life is treated as a board game where the players are expendable, and the "pieces"—men and women—are sacrificed for the amusement of those in power. The book argues that when a society reduces its people to functions or pieces, it loses its soul, becoming a stagnant, silent place of "dead beauty." The contrast between the living, breathing, and flawed humans and the Kaldanes—who seek to discard their physical bodies in favor of pure, detached thought—reinforces the idea that human experience is defined by vulnerability.

The characters must reconcile the cold logic of survival with the messy, illogical nature of love. Gahan’s struggle is not just to win a game, but to prove that a leader’s true authority comes from their willingness to risk everything for another, rather than from the divine right of a throne. The "perfect mentality" of the Kaldanes is presented as a horror because it lacks the capacity for sacrifice. By contrasting the Kaldanes' quest for pure thought with the Martian tradition of ancestor worship and emotional loyalty, the narrative suggests that intelligence without empathy is a form of death.

Furthermore, the book explores the concept of the "outsider." Both Gahan and Tara are forced into roles that strip them of their status, compelling them to learn how to exist among the disenfranchised. They find that the most profound acts of courage come from those who have the least to gain, such as the slaves of Gathol or the sympathetic Manatorian warriors who defy their Jeddak. The book suggests that true nobility is found in the willingness to abandon one's pride. When the heroes recognize that their own "boastful pride" was a vanity, they achieve a maturity that allows them to return to their own world not as conquerors, but as partners who understand the value of the lives they were once prepared to treat as lightly as the pieces on a board.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy grand-scale adventure and world-building will find much to admire here. The Martian setting is vivid, blending the science-fiction tropes of the early 20th century with the sensibilities of a romantic epic. The pacing is relentless; once the initial setup concludes, the story moves with the speed of a desert wind, dragging the reader through underground tunnels, royal courts, and lethal arenas.

However, modern readers should be prepared for the specific flavor of the era. The dialogue is formal and stylized, reflecting a sense of chivalry that may feel jarringly archaic. The prose carries the weight of a bygone narrative style, where characters are defined by distinct archetypes—the brave warrior, the spirited princess, the villainous tyrant—rather than the psychological interiority common in contemporary fiction. The "period attitudes" are present, particularly in the rigid gender dynamics of Martian society; while Tara is capable and strong, she is still frequently framed through the lens of her status as a princess who must be rescued.

Despite this, the book remains a compelling read for those interested in the history of science fiction. The concept of the Kaldanes—floating, disembodied brains—is a genuinely eerie and imaginative touch that holds up well, reflecting a fascination with evolution and the "superman" tropes of the time. The Jetan game, detailed in the text, offers a rich, tactile element that makes the conflict feel grounded and technical. It is a book that celebrates the thrill of the chase and the triumph of the individual spirit against a cold, uncaring machine. If you are willing to embrace the earnestness and the high-flown language of the period, you will find a story that moves with a singular, driving purpose, leaving you with the sense that you have explored a world where every move, on and off the board, carries the weight of destiny.