A Fighting Man of Mars was serialized in The Blue Book Magazine from April to September 1930, then published in book form by Metropolitan Books (John Day Company) in 1931. The novel departs from the John Carter narrative to follow Tan Hadron of Hastor — a minor officer in the navy of Helium — on a quest to rescue the woman he loves from the mad scientist Tul Axtar of Jahar.
The narrative takes Hadron through some of Burroughs’s most inventive Martian set pieces: a city rendered invisible by scientific technology, a laboratory where a mad jeddak breeds armies of synthetic warriors, aerial battles between fleets of Martian airships, and the dead sea bottoms where danger lurks in every ruin. The pace is characteristic Burroughs — relentless, episodic, each chapter ending with a new threat or complication.
Using a new protagonist allowed Burroughs to explore different aspects of his Martian society. Hadron is not a demigod like Carter — he is a competent but ordinary man who must rely on ingenuity, luck, and the help of allies rather than superhuman strength. This makes the adventure more tense: the reader cannot be certain Hadron will survive each confrontation the way Carter inevitably does.
The novel also demonstrates Burroughs’s growing interest in science-fiction gadgetry: invisibility devices, disintegration rays, synthetic biology, and advanced weaponry feature prominently. The pulp science fiction of the 1930s was becoming more technology-focused, and Burroughs adapted his planetary romances accordingly while maintaining the sword-and-adventure core that defined the series.
Collecting A Fighting Man of Mars
First edition (Metropolitan Books/John Day Company, New York, 1931): Cloth binding, dust jacket with J. Allen St. John illustration.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $500–$1,500
- Very good/very good: $200–$500
- Good: $75–$200