There are a number of differences between the Mars of our world and the Barsoom of John Carter that cause us to ask the question, "Are the two worlds the same?" When the Viking I and II landers first alighted upon the surface of Mars, they only found dust and rock, not an ochre plain. No ancient cities, no incubators. The Mars we know is too inhospitable to support any life other than the simplest of microbes; human life is impossible. The answer is no, Barsoom is not the real Mars.

Bereft of once mighty oceans and a natural atmosphere, Barsoom is a world of strange and dangerous contradictions. At one end of the spectrum is a science so evolved that it exceeds anything on Earth, yet at the other it is a world of savage barbarity unlike anything found on our planet.

Though Barsoom is smaller than Earth, it has more land surface than the third planet! Burroughs populated this vast desert world with some of the oddest and most interesting alien races ever to spring forth from his fertile imagination.

Hordes of nomadic green martians rule the dead sea bottoms. These creatures, averaging 14-15 feet in height, often take a deserted, ancient city as a gathering point, tribes up to 60,000 strong with a possible world population of 5 million.

The hereditary enemies of the green martians are the red martians. Quite human in appearance, though the female lays eggs rather than giving birth to live infants, it is among these peoples that John Carter gains acceptance which matches his admiration for their finer qualities.

The south pole is ruled by the Therns (a white race) and the First Born (a black race). Burroughs has major fun debunking Martian religions as represented by the First Born Issus and the tenets of the Holy Hekkadors of the Therns.

The north pole is the land of the yellow race, the Okarians. They have an advanced science based on electromagnetics. Like all the other races of Barsoom, the Okarians are forever at war with all peoples as a matter of survival on this world of dwindling resources.