Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars"

[bropous]

And, yes, another author you should try, dusty and venerable though his tomes may be.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, also wrote some very readable science fiction, and one of the characters he created was John Carter.

A Virginian ripped from nineteenth-century Earth to "Barsoom" [the natives' name for Mars], John Carter fights his way across the Red Planet in a world reminiscent of the 1930s-era "Flash Gordon" series. Winning and losing his life's love time and again, Carter's tale is bittersweet, and even though you might find the language and sensibilities a bit stilted, Burroughs does paint a detailed picture of the imaginary world that many of his time existed on Mars (back in his day, they thought they saw canals stretchign across the orange deserts of Mars).

If you want a good, fun read without the moralizing and preachiness of many modern authors, you might want to pick these books up. Barnes and Noble has released an omnibus edition, with the full Mars trilogy included, and I do recommend these books for anyone who wants to see from where modern science fiction came.

[IronParrot]

I picked up the first John Carter book, A Princess of Mars about two years ago. I'm going to have to second that recommendation, though I'm not exactly sure I would go so far as to claim that it isn't heavy on "message." Yes, there's a certain purity to its element of adventure that isn't polluted by obvious political subtext, but I think it definitely advances a certain humanistic argument in favour of a civilizing mission.

Then again, this is the same Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote Tarzan, so that really shouldn't be a surprise. And it doesn't take away from the fun at all - this is just an observation of mine.

[GrayMouser]

Also Carson of Venus, a similar if slightly wetter series. Loved them as a kid, though lacking somewhat in plausibility, i.e. flying boats that outperform airplanes combined with cavalry charges; guns that can shoot miles, but lots of swordplay....good stuff though.