The Chessmen of Mars

In this fifth installment of Burroughs's Mars series, Tara, Princess of Helium, battles strange creatures in her effort to return to Kansas, or rather, Helium, after a vicious storm blows her into a strange new country. John Bolen gives each character in the intricate extraterrestrial thriller an accent from some country on Earth. But so strongly does he perform these that dialogue is often lost to human ears. His shrill, simpering female characters, admittedly few, all sound the same. These problems, combined with mispronounced words and oddly accented phrases, detract from the great story. R.P.L. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine