John Carter and the Giant of Mars (1940) by John Coleman Burroughs @ Automotive World

Book ELEVEN in the Barsoom series is John Carter and the Giant of Mars (1940) which was actually written by Edgar Rice Burroughs's son, John Coleman Burroughs.

Here's the full listing and proper order of the series of books:

1. A Princess of Mars (1912)
2. The Gods of Mars (1914)
3. The Warlord of Mars (1918)
4. Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)
5. The Chessmen of Mars (1922)
6. The Master Mind of Mars (1928)
7. A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)
8. Swords of Mars (1936)
9. Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)
10. Llana of Gathol (1948)
11. John Carter and the Giant of Mars (1940) Actually written by Burroughs's son, John Coleman Burroughs.
12. Skeleton Men of Jupiter (1942)

Conquering all of Barsoom is the goal of genius hormad Pew Mogel with his army of human-brained white apes and a giant he created. His plan for world domination starts at Helium with the abduction of a Princess of Mars, Dejah Thoris.

From the first word you read in this short novel you can tell something is amiss. The lack of olde tyme flowery language is missing. The strangely brief descriptions and explanations. Even the basics of martian life and culture seemed off. It was certainly EASIER to read, but didn't make the story better. Examples:

• While the hormads were involved in this story, the name HORMAD was never used. Instead, they were referred to repeatedly as Synthetic Men, which was never used in the book Synthetic Men of Mars. (My review here) 
• John Carter was referred to as Earthman several times, however Martians call the Earth Jassoom. Why would that come up at all?
• Instead of using the radium pistols and rifles from all the previous books, suddenly warriors were equipped with RAY GUNS! Warriors didn't use flyers and airships, but PLANES?!?!
• For the first time ever we see the use of televisions and long-wave radio. Um, what? When did that technology arrive on Barsoom?

With so many inconsistencies in this story, it makes you wonder if JCB ever read any of his father's books!

Those issues aside, it was still a fun ride. While it moved at a faster pace than a usual John Carter novel, it still painted an interesting picture of another tale of hard life on Barsoom. As always, Dejah Thoris gets captured and John Carter has to thwart the villain.

An easy read, although not keeping in time with the entire series. If you got this far, you should just knock this short tale out, as well.