Which novel is that?
The Mastermind of Mars. Paxton ends up on Mars and, in the employ of the mad scientist, is trained to do brain transplants. It’s a fun book.
It’s pretty late in the series, after JC himself is already Jeddak of like the entirety of the Red Team, has the girl, has a *son *who’s already pretty much a super-soldier himself in his teens, and Burroughs realized (perhaps a bit belatedly) that writing about a person who has a perfect life is pretty damn boring.
So Ulysses got drafted to be the up-and-coming newbie and have to go through all the crap that JC already did - showing up on the planet (although he more clearly died and got resurrected there, at least more clearly than JC did), and the resulting gallivanting across the plains, rescuing hot nekkid girls, learning about mad Martian -er - Barsoomian science, and dealing with the crazies.
Isn’t *Mastermind *the same one where the big pusating ooze monster made of people bits keeps getting bigger because it’s eating itself? I always was a little :dubious: about that, even as a kid.
I’m pretty sure it was. Any my reaction was more like “What? How could anyone at all, much less someone in an educated profession like writing, possibly think something as absurd as that?”.
That would be Synthetic Men of Mars. I read 'em all 
I did too, but they sort of ran together after a while. I even re-read the series a few years back, and still can’t keep the individual titles straight.
I don’t know what to think of the fliers I got a glimpse of. I was hoping for the fliers of the book covers- seemingly wooden oceangoing ships given the ability to fly, with railings for the defeated captains to dive over. Weren’t there such ships in the Star Wars series apparently inspired by those pulp cover fliers? (I don’t know my Star Wars).
And what’s with the lightshow emanating from the crystal (?) at 0.47? 
THAT’S why they looked familiar! 
I mean, er, yes, you are correct.
Lucas stole from everybody.
Yeah, but that was worth stealing.
Probably the special Martian prism that splits light into nine colors, instead of seven, with the extra two making their ships fly and generating the atmosphere.
These are the “Barsoonian Rays” I vaguely remember, or are you whooshing us?
I remember the “9th ray” being described as the lifting agent for the fliers, but not much else about it. Are prisms mentioned anywhere in the books, or are you, indeed, whooshing? 
I recall there being “light refracting” widgets of the hand-wavy sort in the different airships, but can’t recall any on the ground.
That does not mean there weren’t any, just that they didn’t make it past the background noise level of “shit he made up because it sounded cool” otherwise known as the general background, setting, and plot devices.
Well, I’m not intentionally whooshing, so if I am, I’m whooshing myself, too. But IIRC, the atmosphere plant that Carter has to repair (or reactivate or whatever) is based on one of the extra colors of the spectrum, and the lifting is from the other.
Of course, it’s been a long time since I’ve read the books, so it’s quite possible I’m misremembering.
I don’t remember any details at all about the workings of the atmosphere plant, and about the only time the 9th ray is mentioned, besides the fact that it provides lift, it’s because it’s leaking from a flier, forcing the crew to abandon ship. I don’t remember any instances of the buoyancy tanks being refilled.
There’s gotta be an ERB nerd here who can answer these important questions 
Oh, please. I know the fanboys rage about Star Wars I-III, but charging him with plagiarism? That’s just sad.
Saw the trailer today before Captain America. I’m not familiar with the books, but the movie looks like it could be good.
An accusation of “stealing” in a colloquial sense doesn’t always imply plagiarism, nor infringement, for that matter.
Oh, please yourself. Lucas admits that he swiped the whole structure of the attack on the Death Star from WW1 movies. He grabbed ideas from every serial and pulp magazine in existence.
:rolleyes: