Barsoom

This is the fifth audiobook in the "Mars Series". There is a game on Mars similar to chess - very similar, save that it is played on a board of a hundred squares, and with ornate pieces. The Martians call it jetan, and it is as old as the civilization of Barsoom. But in the Martian city of Manator, jetan is no game.

Former Earthman Ulysses Paxton served Barsoom's greatest scientist, until his master's ghoulish trade in living bodies drove him to rebellion. Then, to save the body of the woman he loved, he had to attack mighty Phundahl, and its evil, beautiful ruler.

"The Master Mind of Mars" is a science fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the sixth of his Barsoom series. Burroughs' working titles for the novel were "A Weird Adventure on Mars" and "Vad Varo of Barsoom". It was first published in the magazine "Amazing Stories Annual" vol. 1, on July 15, 1927. The first book edition was published by A. C. McClurg in March 1928.

Ulysses Paxton, mortally wounded on the battlefields of WWI France, is transported to the planet of his dreams, Barsoom (Mars). There he becomes the assistant of the Master Mind of Mars, Ras Thavas, a medical genius. Burroughs anticipated such modern marvels as organ and limb transplants, exploding bullets, anti-grav fliers, and some we haven’t yet invented! When Ras Thavas switches the brains of an evil and wizened Jeddara (queen) into the body of a gorgeous young woman, our hero vows to right the wrong. Swords and sci-fi action abound in this sixth of ERB’s Mars series.

World War I infantry captain Ulysses Paxton is transported to Barsoom, where he encounters evil scientist Ras Thavas and his diabolical brain transplant experiments. Paxton falls in love with the beautiful Valla Dia, whose body has been swapped with the cruel Xaxa, Jeddara of Phundahl. Can Paxton save Valla Dia from a hideous fate and win her hand?