I rather like the audio books, though I haven't had much occasion to listen to them. It seems there's a different person reading each chapter, and they all seem to be pretty good; clear and easy to understand.
- Heh, should do this sort of thing as a Troper project.
March, 1886; John Carter stands on that little bluff by the Hudson, arms outstretched to Mars, as he has done for the past ten years. Suddenly, he is paralyzed, has that horrible sensation of fear, and flees out of his skin. This time, however, he's eager. He's been waiting ten years to return.
And he wakes up in a forest; very un-Martian. Of all the planets he could have been hurled to, it didn't have to be Mars. Crushed by despair, he lies there.
- The grass and shrubs look Martian, but the trees, and the bird(like thing)s, and the open sea...
Getting up to investigate the water, he goes flying. Maybe it is Mars; the gravity's similar, and it seems he has to get used to it, again.
- One wonders if he had to do much adjustment when returning to Earth.
- He also mentions that perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising, as he's seen only a small part of Mars. Seems like an aversion of Single-Biome Planet.
As he walks along, it seems laid out, like a park or an orchard. As he walks along, he finds a beautiful meadow, with a beautiful river flowing into the sea, and a herd of horrifying monsters grazing. Always with the monsters.
Ten or twelve feet tall but human-like in proportion, though they have massive, beaverlike tail and rubbery, boneless arms. Their hairless skin is blue, save for a white band around their protruding all white eye. Their nose is described as "a ragged, inflamed, circular hole in the centre of its blank face; a hole that resembled more closely nothing that I could think of other than a fresh bullet wound which has not yet commenced to bleed.". The rest of the face is blank; they seem to feed through a pair of mouths on each taloned hand. Adorning it's head is wriggling, black, wormlike hair. They seem to be budding. And they have giant feet.
- Wow, seems like a contemporary of HP Lovecraft. I wonder if they were correspondents? Lovecraft seemed to write with everyone, including Robert E Howard (it showed).
- I can't help but picture them as some kind of Mass Production Eva.
- That might make an interesting crossover; too many Neon Genesis Evangelion crossovers with Warhammer40000, we need a crossover with John Carter Of Mars.
He is about to go out and show himself, when he hears a shriek; all of the monsters turn and run off towards it, and John follows.
A group of green Martians! Men and women, surprisingly they appear to be from different clans. Unfortunately, they're surrounded and armed only with swords. And, uh, most are quickly massacred; the monsters seem to be attacking by leaping over their prey and crushing heads with their tails. The last one struggles mightily, slashing his way towards the forest.
John, moved by his courage, leaps up and charges down to assist, scooping up a sword along the way. Back to back they fight what seems to be an endless stream of the monsters. Covered in the sap of their slain enemies, they see a humanlike figure in the distance blow a whistle, calling down a second wave of monsters, along with some strange fourlegged breed.
Turning to share some final words with his companion, they recognize each other; John Carter of Virgina, and Tars Tarkas, his friend.
Wow, jumping straight into the action. I have to wonder if this is related to whoever sabotaged the oxygen plants, or what. You'd think he'd have remembered something like this if it's been a problem during his time as Prince. Maybe it's the end of the great river that everyone goes to as a pilgrim? Hah, if things had been going really well, it'd be an interesting side-effect of terraforming; monsters come back. Maybe that's why, even with the oxygen plants, Mars was still a crappy place to live; too much green, monsters kill you. Some kind of anti-Green Aesop?
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