Barsoom reading order

A plan for the whole series

11 volumes, 2,149 pages, about 40 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 8 weeks.

Stages

3 stages, with 2 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around January 3, 2027, 13 days later than in one go.

1. 1
   Stage 118 habout 3 weeksby November 22, 2026

   • 1. A Princess of Mars1912 · 176 pages · 3 h
   • 2. The Gods of Mars1913 · 200 pages · 4 h
   • 3. The Warlord of Mars1914 · ≈ 195 pages · 4 h
   • 4. Thuvia, Maid of Mars1920 · 176 pages · 3 h
   • 5. The Chessmen of Mars1922 · 234 pages · 4 h
2. Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.82 h, by November 26, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
3. 2
   Stage 219 habout 4 weeksby December 21, 2026

   • 6. The Master Mind of Mars1927 · 146 pages · 3 h
   • 7. A Fighting Man of Mars1930 · 226 pages · 4 h
   • 8. Swords of Mars1936 · 226 pages · 4 h
   • 9. Synthetic Men of Mars1940 · 192 pages · 4 h
   • 10. Llana of Gathol1948 · 250 pages · 5 h
4. BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.05 h, by December 31, 2026. A short book from another shelf, so you come back to the series hungry.
5. 3
   Stage 32 h3 daysby January 3, 2027

   • 11. John Carter of Mars1964 · 128 pages · 2 h
6. The end of the series

   January 3, 2027

We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.

≈ next to a page count: a volume with no page count in our data is counted at this series’s average.

Does the series hold up

Shape of the series: it gets better. Readers scored the opening (7.4) below the ending (7.8). After the first volume you do not yet know how good this series is.

Best volume: The Gods of Mars (7.8, 86 ratings). Weakest: A Princess of Mars (7.4). The series is complete; you can read it start to finish with no waiting. The last volume (7.8) scores close to the series average or above it.