Swords of Mars begins as a cloak and dagger thriller and ends as an interplanetary odyssey. In this novel John Carter, transplanted Earthman, returns to his status of protagonist and first-person narrator for the first time since the third Martian novel, The Warlord of Mars.

Mavis Ironmonger is nobody's idea of a good diplomatic wife. She drinks too much, she's awfully friendly with the staff at the Washington embassy, and her music-hall roots have a way of bursting out at the most inappropriate moments. Indeed, it's at an embassy reception that Mavis manages to insult a visiting ambassador and get herself hauled off to sober up. With the party winding down, Mavis is due downstairs, to say the official goodbyes, but in...