Swordsman of Mars

Harry Thorne had lost everything: his business, the love of his life, even his own self-respect. As he's contemplating suicide he's made an incredible offer. He can go back in time and switch places with a look alike who lived on Mars millions of years ago when it was a lush, beautiful planet full of promise and adventure. Seizes his last chance at salvaging his life is transported millions of years into the past to a Mars peopled with beautiful women, mighty warriors, fearsome beasts, and awesome magics.

"The Outlaws of Mars" introduces you to Captain Jerry Morgan and his travel to Mars in the early 20th century. When Jerry, expert swordsman, left the American Army, his scientist uncle, Dr. Richard Morgan, had no difficulty in persuading the adventurous young man to take a trip to Raliad, largest city on Mars in a space ship, directed by mental telepathy. For Jerry's first moment there involved him in a costly mistake which was to throw him into conflict not only with the forces of evil and Mars' many monsters but also against the trained weapons of a haughty empire! Solid planetary adventure romance in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs — this has all the clichés, Mars setting, Earth hero, princess in distress, political strife, sword fights, villains etc...

Jerry Morgan, is a man with no future on Earth, he is offered a new life on Mars and he takes it. He starts out his new life on Mars on the wrong foot by meeting a princess and killing the fearsome-looking Martian he wrongly believes is menacing her. Which in actuality is the princess's beloved pet. From there Morgan becomes entangled in the politics of the Byzantine Martian royal court, spurns the advances of a would-be lover, escapes his hosts and role as an expendable political pawn. Various adventures follow, with dazzling swordplay, feats of strength, and other trials, tribulations and treacheries. Kline's Mars has multiple parallel canals, surrounded by walls and terraces, and the construction of the canals by Martian machines is described. The story has a race-war element that may jar the modern reader.