Synthetic Men of Mars - 02039
Barsoom • Book 9
Narrated by Alan Crookham
Why Listen to This Audiobook?
Burroughs dreamed up rebellious synthetic life decades before it became a sci-fi cliché — and this one still has teeth.
- Great if you want: classic pulp Mars adventure with a mad-science twist
- Listening experience: brisk and episodic — vintage serial pacing, not modern slow-burn
- Narration: Crookham handles Burroughs' melodramatic register with steady conviction
- Skip if: you haven't read earlier Barsoom books — context matters here
About This Audiobook
When John Carter is taken deep into the pestilential Great Toonolian Marshes, he encounters Ras Thavas, a brilliant and amoral surgeon who has done the unthinkable: created synthetic life. Those artificial beings, built to serve, have begun to develop a will of their own, and their rebellion threatens not just their creator but the entire dying world of Barsoom. Edgar Rice Burroughs' ninth entry in the series blends pulp adventure with something approaching a horror-inflected meditation on creation and control.
Alan Crookham navigates Burroughs' sweeping, planetary-romance style with energy and conviction, leaning into the adventure without winking at the melodrama. The marsh setting and the unsettling premise of synthetic humanity give this installment a distinct atmosphere compared to earlier entries, and Crookham's steady pacing lets the eerier elements linger. At under seven hours, it moves with the brisk momentum that defines Burroughs at his best.
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