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| New English Library 1977, Tim White |
One: My Debt To M. Clarchet: As a boy, Michael Kane learns how to handle a sword from the neighborhood French military retiree M. Clarchet. When he grows up, he invents a teleportation device, but when he uses the machine for the first time, he is transported to a new world: Mars. There, he encounters a beautiful blonde-haired female and her 3-horned cyclopean mount.
Two: The Astounding Truth: Kane is taken to the Green City of Varnal and learns that the girl is Shizala, Princess of the Karnala. Kane also learns that he is on Mars sometime during the dinosaur age on Earth. The Karnala live simply but have a few laser guns and spaceships left behind by the mysterious rarely-seen Shreev. However Princess Shizala mourns her missing father, who disappeared years ago during a conflict with the hostile blue giants known as the Argzoon.
Three: The Invaders: After a brief tour in which Kane learns that Varnal is a trading city and does not adhere to any religious beliefs, Kane is heart-broken to learn that Shizala is betrothed to the boorish Prince Telem Fas Ogdai as part of a political alliance. Riding into the wilderness, he sees a hostile horde of Argzoon approaching.
Four: The Attack: Caught off guard, Kane is forced to slay the first Argzoon he encounters, but spares the second. He quickly then returns to Varnal to raise the alarm. Telem Fas Ogdai is sent off on an airship to call for reinforcements, while Kane and Shizala’s brother Darnad make plans to prepare for the approaching Argzoon horde.
Five: A Desperate Plan: When the Argzoon attack Kane helps the Karnala defend their city walls. Kane suspects Telem Fas Ogdai of betraying the Karnala which angers Shizala. Kane proposes a plan in which an airship can drop him into the midst of the Argzoon camp so that he can try and assassinate the Argzoon’s commander. Shizala pilots the airship and Kane drops from the ship.
Six: Salvation – And Disaster: In the commander's tent, Kane finds a large Argzoon and a mysterious and exotic human woman named Horguhl. Kane manages to kill the huge Argzoon, but is then nearly overcome by his angry warriors. Fortunately reinforcements from Srinai arrive and the Argzoon are repelled from Varnal's gates. After the battle, Kane looks for Shizala but she is missing, presumably kidnapped by Horguhl.
Seven: The Pursuit: Kane and Shizala’s brother Darnad head north where they capture and interrogate Argzoon warriors in order to learn where Shizala might have been taken. They eventually arrive at Narlet, city of murderers and thieves.
Eight: The City of Thieves: Darnad learns of Shizala’s whereabouts from his friend Old Belet Vor. Kane and Darnad find the imprisoned Shizala, but are themselves then captured by Narlet's despotic ruler, Chinod Sai.
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| New English Library 1971, Richard Clifton Dey |
Ten: Into the Caves of Darkness: Kane, Darnad and a Narlet underground resistance force eventually defeat Chinod Sai’s men, but Horguhl and Shizala are missing. Kane learns that Horguhl has continued north to take Shizala back to the Argzoon’s home in the Caves of Darkness. After a journey of several weeks and an encounter with an 8-legged heela monster, Kane and Darnad finally reach the entrance to the Caves of Darkness.
Eleven: Queen of the Argzoon: After Kane sends Darnad back to gather reinforcements, he sneaks into the Argzoon city deep inside the cavern. He finds a slave and learns that the Argzoon had lured the forces of Varnal there and then ambushed them. Horguhl appears and reveals that she is in fact the Queen of the Argzoon.
Twelve: The Pit Of The N’aal Beast: Horguhl explains that she had been enslaved by the Argzoon as a child but then one day learned that she had mental powers over their sacrificial snake god-monster N’aal. After further developing this power she united the Argzoon with the intention of taking over the world. After Kane resists her mind-control sexual advances she orders him to be sacrificed to the N’aal Beast. However, after Kane is thrown into the pit, another Argzoon warrior jumps down after him - the one Kane had spared earlier outside Varnal.
Thirteen: An Unexpected Ally: The friendly Argzoon (Movat Jard) and Kane kill the N’aal Beast and follow a tunnel to the slave pens. They rally the slaves into a rebellion against the Argzoon, who fight listlessly as they no longer have faith in Horguhl's leadership. Kane learns of Shizala’s whereabouts and races to the Tower of Vulse. Inside, he is stricken to find that Telem Fas Ogdai has arrived there before him.
Fourteen: Sweet Joy And Bitter Sorrow: After Shizala reveals that Telem Fas Ogdai is actually allied with Horguhl, Kane kills Telem Fas Ogdai in a duel. With his dying breath Ogdai explains that years ago he had come to the Argzoon’s Black City in an attempt to liberate Shizala’s father, but had then become enslaved by Horguhl himself. Shizala and Kane reunite with Carnak (Shizala’s long-lost father) and head back to Varnal in order to become married. However, Kane is suddenly pulled back to his Earth laboratory by his technicians. Kane ends his testimony to Bradbury.
Epilogue: Bradbury believes Kane’s story and together they proceed to work on a new matter transmitter which will allow Kane to return to Mars.
Blades of Mars / Lord Of The Spiders
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| New English Library 1979, Tim White |
One: The Barren Plain: Kane arrives on Mars but in an unfamiliar location and unsure of the time period. He is soon threatened by a crystalline monster but aid arrives in the form of Hool Haji, one of the Mendishar, a northern relative of the Argzoon. Hool Haji tells Kane of the ancient Mightiest War between the Sheev and the Yaksha. During this conflict the Yaksha had recruited some of the blue giants of the north to help them attack the caverns of the Sheev. After the few remaining Sheev had escaped the planet, the Yaksha then departed in pursuit of them. The blue giants remaining in the Sheev’s abandoned cavern created their Black City in the Caves of Darkness and renamed themselves the Argzoon. In the north, the blue giants who had not joined the Yaksha became known as the Mendishar. In recent years, the Mendishar have fallen under the control of ruthless Priosa warrior priests led by their ruler Jewar Baru. An opposition force has asked the former leader Hool Haji to lead them against the Priosa. Kane elects to join Hool Haji on his journey to the rebel camp, but they are soon attacked by two of the Priosa.
Two: Ora Lis: Kane and Hool Haji defeat the Priosa warriors and arrive at Asde-Trahi where his supporters reside. He is greeted by the local leader Morahi Vaja, as well as a female named Ora Lis who is infatuated with Hool Haji by reputation.
Three: Hool Haji’s Duty: Hool Haji is forced to tell Ora Lis that he is not as interested in her as she had hoped. Ora Lis is broken-hearted.
Four: Betrayed!: The camp is found and attacked by a horde of Priosa and destroyed. Kane and Hool Haji barely escape and eventually come across a dying Ora Lis. Ora Lis confesses that she had betrayed the rebels' location as a form of impulsive vengeance for her romantic rejection. Hool Haji forgives her as she dies from her wounds.
Five: The Tower In the Desert: Forced to flee into the harsh desert, Kane, Hool Haji and the other survivors of the Priosa attack eventually come across a ruined tower complex. Inside, they discover dozens of chambers filled with laboratory equipment. In the last chamber they are horrified to come across white ghouls.
Six: The Once-were-men: Despite some casualties, Kane and the Mendishar fight off the vampiric ghouls who Hool Haji surmises are degenerate descendants of the now-extinct Yaksha. Kane uses materials found in the complex to assemble a primitive helium balloon airship. As they take off, the white ghouls counterattack with a laser cannon.
Seven: City of the Spider: Kane uses a reflecting mirror to turn the degenerated Yakshas’ laser beam against themselves. After he and his friends escape the Yaksha complex, a wind blows their airship into the western lands, a wasteland left over from an atomic war. After Hool Haji disappears during a resupply landing, Kane heads into the forest and discovers an obsidian city. He is soon captured by “spider men” (spiders with human top halves).
Eight: The Great Mishassa: Kane is taken to an audience with a giant spider named Mishassa who intends to eat them. Kane uses a hidden knife to free Hool Haji and himself and they leap on the back of Mishassa and kill it. After collecting some of the spider men’s poisonous venom in bottles, they head back to the airship.
Nine: Sentenced to Die!: Kane and the Mendishar fly their airship back to the outskirts of Priosa-controlled Mendishar. Kane and Hool Haji sneak into the capitol and learn that their allies from the rebel camp have been captured and are to be executed the next day. Kane proposes a plan.
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| Lancer 1971, Behan |
Eleven: The Flying Monster: Kane eventually ends up flying near the Black City of the Argzoon. A giant two-headed heela monster flies into the skies and pursues Kane’s ship. Kane hits it with a few of the poison-tipped spears but the monster still manages to bring down the airship and Kane is knocked out.
Twelve: New Friends: Kane wakes and sees that the heela monster has finally succumbed to the poison spears. After putting the beast out of its misery, he relaunches in his airship and eventually encounters sea ships manned by dark-skinned men. He learns that they are from Mishim Tep and returns to their city with their leader, Vorum Saz Hazhi.
Thirteen: Horguhl’s Treachery: Kane learns that the city is preparing for war. Mishim Tep’s mesmerized king is being controlled by Horguhl, and Darnad (Shizala’s brother) is being held prisoner. Kane frees Darnad and they escape back to Varlan, where they happily reunite with Carnak and Shizala.
Fourteen: An Unwelcome Decision: After a ceremony in which Kane and Shizala are formally betrothed to each other, Kane hatches a plan to infiltrate the Jewelled City of the Mishim Tep disguised as a Jelusa mercenary. He plans to reach Horguhl and force her to confess using a special Sheev mirror shield hidden in the castle.
Fifteen: Assassin’s Mask: Wearing the customary jeweled mask of the Jelusa, Kane enters the Jewelled City. His false identity is discovered by the Jelusa thief Toxo, but Toxo offers to make Kane his partner in a plan to rob the city treasury. When Kane reluctantly agrees Toxo informs him that he is wearing a Jelusa assassin’s mask.
Sixteen: Woman of Evil: Toxo and Kane gain entry to the palace. When Kane finds Horguhl she distracts him with the offer of an alliance. When the guards arrive he is knocked out and taken prisoner.
Seventeen: The Mirror: Kane breaks out of his makeshift prison and finds Horguhl digging around in the treasure vault. When he accidentally alerts Horguhl to his presence, Toxo appears with the Sheev Mirror of Truth, which mesmerizes Horguhl. They bring Horguhl to Kane’s airship and fly out of the city. Later Kane drops Toxo off at Narlet, city of thieves.
Eighteen: The Truth at Last!: Kane brings Horguhl to where the Mishim Tep are about to engage the weaker forces of Karnala. Using the Mirror of Truth, Kane forces Horguhl to confess to her lies before the Mishim Tep Bradhi (king). The war is called off. Kane and Shizala wed, after which Kane returns to the Yaksha complex to study its advanced technology (the ghouls have all died off from starvation). He eventually creates a machine which allows him to return to Earth at will.
Epilogue: Kane finishes his story to Bradbury and tells him that he must return to Mars to help rebuild the Karnala army, but promises to return with more stories of adventure.
Barbarians of Mars / Masters of the Pit
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| New English Library 1971 Richard Clifton-Dey |
One: The Aerial Expedition: Kane and Hool Haji depart from Varnal in their airship towards the Yaksha complex. On the way they pass over strange and dangerous flora and fauna. When the airship begins having mechanical problems they land in the friendly city of Cend-Amrid.
Two: City of the Curse: In the city they encounter a strange man who claims to be a “mechanic” to humans, and that the city’s inhabitants have succumbed to the “machine” rather than the ”beast” within. Soon a giant carriage borne by slaves appears and two individuals demand that Kane and Hool Haji accompany them into the city.
Three: The Eleven: Kane and Hool Haji are brought before the council of Eleven where they are promised help for their airship in return for knowledge of its technology. They are then imprisoned with the former leader of the council (“One”, or Barane Dasa) who explains that in the past the people of Cend-Amrid had opened an old canister left from the old wars between the Sheev and the Yaksha. A plague (the Green Death) had then come into the city, and the inhabitants had adopted a machine-like philosophy in order to ruthlessly destroy the infected. Kane offers to look for a cure to the plague when he gets to the old Yaksha complex.
Four: Flight From Cend-Amrid: The next morning Kane shows the Eleven some plans to start building engines. He then heads towards his now-repaired airship but is forced to save a desperate peasant girl from the bloodthirsty council of Eleven. Kane, Hool Haji and the girl Ala Mara eventually escape in Kane’s airship.
Five: The Barbarians: Kane and his friends fly to the Yaksha complex vaults and notice that looters have been there. Leaving Ala Mara to guard the airship, Kane and Hool Haji enter the complex to encounter Bagarad barbarians who have been looting the Yaksha complex. Kane and Hool Haji are forced to defend themselves and are eventually overcome by numbers.
Six: Rokin the Gold: Kane and Hool Haji are taken to a coastal area and imprisoned. They eventually meet Rokin the Gold, the Bagarad’s leader, who decides to keep Kane around for his knowledge of the Yaksha technology.
Seven: Voyage to Bagarad: Rokin the Gold brings his booty and prisoners on an ocean voyage into the Western Sea towards Bagarad. A great storm strikes and the ship barely survives.
Eight: The Crystal Pit: The ship eventually makes landfall on an unfamiliar shore. Heading inland they are attacked by club-brandishing "dog-men" (Hahg). Overcome by numbers, Kane, Hool Haji and Rokin are told by the Hahg leader that they are to be sacrificed to the First Masters in the Crystal Pit. The next day they are put in the Crystal Pit, but a "cat-girl" manages to pass on a few swords to them before disappearing.
Nine: The First Masters: Giant taloned bird-men (identified as Jihadoo by Hool Haji) arrive and carry the Kane and his two compatriots off into the air. Rokin manages to break free but falls to his death. Kane also breaks free but lands safely in some trees.
Ten: The People of Purha: Kane is attacked by a giant vole (rodent) but a group of the cat-people arrive and he is saved. The cat-girl who had given him a sword earlier (named Fasa) takes Kane to meet her wise uncle Slurra. Slurra explains that the First Masters had used the sciences of the Sheev and Yaksha to create the Purha (cat-people) and Hahg (dog-people). Shortly afterwards they then descended into madness, and have since demanded periodic sacrifices to be offered in the Crystal Pit. With Hool Haji apparently a lost cause, Kane asks the Purha to help him get back to Rokin’s ship so that he can try and find looted Yaksha weapons to defeat the First Masters.
Eleven: The Machines Are Gone!: Kane discovers that the Hahg have attacked the Bagarad ship and stolen away with the Yaksha machines. Outside the camp of the Hahg, Kane and his Purha allies see the First Masters fiddle with the Yaksha machines briefly and then depart. The Hahg then begin dragging the machines to the Crystal Pit.
Twelve: The Dance of the First Masters: Kane and his allies head to the Crystal Pit and see the First Masters perform a manic dance above the machines gathered in the pit. After the dance, they go down into the pit and set off an explosion which kills them all (as well as most of the Hahg). Kane suspects that the First Masters had realized what monsters they had become and decided to destroy themselves. Kane and his Purha allies decide to head to Bagarad to see if any remaining Yaksha machines can be found there. On the way they come across a tribe of small-headed men (Perodi) and a yellow-skinned people (the Cinivik). They find and rescue Hool Haji from the Cinivik and learn that Hool Haji had managed to escape from First Masters’ aerie, only to be later captured by the Cinivik.
Thirteen: The Remains: When the group finally reach Bagarad they see that it has been laid waste by an explosion caused by a mishap with the Yaksha machines already brought there. Kane is only able to salvage one unbroken capsule. He and Hool Haji take one of the Bagarad’s boats and head back towards their own continent. On the way they have a peaceful encounter with a Sea Mother (giant hippo) but are later attacked by N’heer, hostile swordfish creatures. Nearly overcome, they are saved by the sudden arrival of Varnalian airships, led by Shizala’s brother Darnad.
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| Lancer 1970, Jim Steranko |
Fifteen: The Threat to Varnal: Kane addresses the horde from the air but they refuse to turn back in their madness – they only wish to give their “peace” to the rest of the world. Kane and Hool Haji soon reunite with their family and friends in Varnal the City of the Green Mists, and Kane leaves the sole capsule that he had been able to rescue from the Yaksha complex in his apartment. Kane and the Karnala ultimately decide it is more honorable to abandon the city than to kill the approaching Green-Death-infected madmen.
Sixteen: The Exodus: The people of Varnal form a caravan and begin establishing homes in the mountains. Darnad tells Kane about a strange, wise old hermit named Ras Masa who may be able to help them find a cure for the Green Death. Kane visits Ras Masa who explains that the solution to the Green Death is not a machine but a bacterium of sorts. However he refuses to help search for this cure, as he believes his concerns are beyond those of his fellow man. Out of curiosity, Kane then decides to check on the new inhabitants of Varnal. He finds that they have all been somehow cured.
Seventeen: To Cend-Amrid: It turns out that the water of Varnal's Lake of the Green Mists has cured everyone. Kane considers it possible that the capsule he had brought back from Yaksha may have been thrown into the Lake and turned it into a cure, but he is not sure (all of the machinery of the city had been thrown into the lake as part of their “cleansing” madness). Kane, Hool Haji and some other Varnalians bring a vat of the curative lake water to Cend-Amrid and address the Eleven. The machine-like Eleven deny that a cure exists and order their puzzled saviors imprisoned. They notice that Barane Dasa has apparently also joined the Eleven and become similarly brainwashed.
Eighteen: Hope For the Future: Just as Kane and his friends escape from their cell, Barane Dasa finds them and takes them to the city reservoir where he reveals that he has only been pretending to be brainwashed, and has already begun administering the curative water from Varnal. He thanks Kane for saving his niece (Ala Mara) and leads them back to their airships. He tells Kane that once the Green Death is gone, he will work from within to cure the corrupted mentality of his people. Kane and his friends fly back to Varnal and Kane reunites with Shizala.
Epilogue: After finishing his account to Bradbury, Kane advises the writer to appreciate moderation in both the physical and the spiritual realm, and then heads back to Mars in his matter transfer machine.
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