39. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I've been looking for this for a while and found it at The Corner Stone Bookshop in Plattsburgh, NY.  It was part of a set of the Ballantine Books Mars series going up to #6, except #2 was missing, which is probably fortunate for me as I might have purchased them all.  I enjoyed the first one, but it didn't suck me in so I probably won't be reading the others.  So I'm glad I don't have that burden on my on-deck shelf.  

I think had I found these when I was 13, I might have gotten really into them.  They are quite fun and wild, with some crazy science fiction (or I guess "science fantasy" if you are going to be really nerdy) concepts about the environment, tech and societies on Mars.  The world-building is a lot of fun.  However, the storytelling is kind of clunky and there are some ridiculous coincidences to move the plot along.  These are not deal-breakers, especially for a book that was serialized and is basically the progenitor of the genre.  It just made the reading a bit slow-going for me at this age.  I feel like if I had to choose between continuing with the Tarzan or the Mars series, I would go for the former most likely.