I enjoyed both the Art and the Story, hearing about the Martian princess again from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian novels series was a great blast from the past!

'Dejah Thoris: The Gardens of Mars' by Amy Chu with art by Pasquale Qualano is a graphic novel about a younger Dejah Thoris learning how to rule Mars.

Dejah Thoris wants to renew Mars by finding the legendary Gardens of Mars. She recruits some scholars to help, but the area they have to go to is disputed and they run in to trouble. Dejah finds allies in her enemies and teachers and learns some valuable lessons along the way on leadership and loss.

I really liked this story of a young queen learning and failing and showing aspects of the character we know her to become. The art is almost as good as the writing.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Nice art and costumes, a fun look at dejah thoris as a younger character on Mars and what her life and planet was like.

Thank you to the publisher for extending an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The world building and imagery is gorgeous in stunning graphic novel!
I loved the story and Dejah's overprotective father and grandfather. I liked Dejah's wild and curious nature but her outfits were ridiculous. Every other headdress looked like Loki designed them while drunk. Overall I loved the story and artwork , I rate this 3.5 stars.
FTC DISCLAIMER: I received this book in exchange for an honest review

One of the worst things to have come out of the horrible film adaptation of the John Carter series is that so few new movie goers and readers got to know this Princess of Mars. Dejah Thoris is a powerful and beautiful female character that is along the lines of Red Sonja and I cannot believe it will be long before someone teams them up.

The Garden of Mars by the talented Amy Chu is a terrific way to get to know this character without John Carter.

A terrific book with stunning artwork!

Very creative, beautiful artwork. I thought the story was logical and made sense-- kind of went into it blind without much context so this may not be the best review, haha-- overall, I enjoyed the artistry!

A tale of the Princess of Mars as a young woman. She goes in search of a lost formula to make water. She's headstrong and naive, constantly being bailed out by her servants who save her from her poor decisions. There just didn't seem a point to this. Dynamite has made a ton of these. This is no better or worse than the rest.

Stunning cover and art. But I cannot find it in me to appreciate the story. Characters are terrible people that I cannot somehow find any empathy or relatability, world-building is okay, but plot is very bland for my taste.

I enjoyed reading this graphic novel. Drawings are amazing but something is missing in the story. When i was reading it story is all over the place. Everything happened so fast. Otherwise characters are amazing. I liked to see more of her stories.

Young Martian princess wants to bring her dying—and drying—planet back to life. There’s allies and enemies and enemies-turned-allies, all which make the plot last longer than it really needed to.
Even at my most. . . “licentious teenager,” I still wondered why women like Red Sonja were dressed so ridiculously for combat. One could argue that this is how the original version was done so many decades ago, but these metal bikinis, diaphanous gowns, and ridiculous platform heels could use an upgrade, especially with a woman as writer. And isn’t it a wonder that all these men gaze upon her and feel nothing? She’s not meant to titillate the in-world males with her wardrobe, which makes this the very definition of fanservice. And can you imagine the heat stroke and sunburn wearing that golden armor in the desert?
Funniest line: “Uh-oh.” Also “It would be against their custom to kill prisoners. . . I think.”
I applaud the main character’s courage and morals, but the author keeps showing her lack of maturity, as well as too-highly-developed ego, over and over. People die helping her and, like a royal, she’s not bothered all that much by it.
The living chess game turned out to be a big disappointment.
Almost 30 pages of extras at the end, for which I was glad, as I was tiring.
2.5 pushed up to 3/5

Amazing artwork, the storyline was ok, but lacked something....

I received a copy through Netgalley.

Unmistakably pulpy, this adventure concerning a young nubile Princess leading a ramshackle expedition to find the lost cities and lost waters of Mars, is definitely of the old school. The girl's gear – all pneumatic cleavage courtesy of metal bras and silky shifts – is made OK, apparently, by a female author writing this. The text, full of in-world terms and weird species names etc, is seldom greater than fun hokum, and there's a slight chance I suppose of the publishers working out how to actually spell the lost city concerned – it uses at least three different iterations of its name on these pages. This, the first time I've been aware of this character, was perfectly presentable pap, but while no great shakes wasn't that bad, all in all. Three and a half stars.

I grabbed this because I was excited to revisit the characters I left behind in Edgar Rice Burrough's rollicking Martian adventures. I had no reservations on how the strong and fierce Dejah would fare in the hands of author Amy Chu.

The story centers around a younger and inexperienced Dejah, she has her studies and is growing into her responsibilities as future Jedak. Dejah believes the 'fairytales" her grandfather told her as a child about a city of gardens and water lost to the ages. On a desert planet riddled with war and treachery, Dejah hopes to find this magic water garden and learn how it works, to save and unify Mars. Pardon this next line but she would like to Make Mars Great Again.

Adventure ensues, we see some of the species that Burroughs introduced and meet new characters, both friend and foe. Everything is done in a golden bikini leading me to imagine it's very very hot there.

As a princess living a somewhat sheltered life there are lessons for the naïve Dejah along the way. It was pretty standard action fare and while I would have loved to see Dejah securing all the KOs in battle scenes it all still fell within the spirit of the Barsoom we've come to know.

I'd certainly read another to see how Dejah develops and grows into a truly standalone character; it may have been because of her youth and inexperience but I didn't feel like we got to see her shine as brightly as is her potential. I'm willing to read more though to see that potential happen which is what's important.

A beautifully drawn interesting start to the series. Dejah was a bit annoying at times, but did start to mature at the end.

A sexy, smart, sci-fi thriller of a graphic novel. Lots of great artwork and a very compelling story line throughout this collection.

I rarely read comics as a kid but I did read Heavy Metal magazine during its heyday as well as a few graphic novels after that. I downloaded this title when I ran out of other review titles, just to see how it would read for me. I could pretty much tell by the cover what the target demographic was (young men) and there are plenty of drawings of barely dressed young women in the book. Luckily that's just backdrop. The artwork is beautiful throughout, the layout is professional and effective, and the story as it starts seems to have its heart in the right place. What we see is a tale of climate change set on our neighboring world, using the Barsoom setting to tell its tale. I thought the story moved a little slow but maybe that's what it takes to move a plot through a graphic novel. I think the target demographic would get more out of it than I did. Again, the art is fantastic.

This was drawn and colored well enough and the story is reasonably interesting. But Dejah never takes off as the strong and independent character I have always liked. Dejah never seems in command, or even especially in charge of her own expedition. It's just a bit slapdash and by the numbers.

ARC COpy...although felt different in comparison to the old source material (understandable with the source material being how many years old), it is decent visual adaptation of the world of Barsoom. Dejah does look like she matches the description given in the original books, and nice concept is a princess leading a scientific expedition into the dangerous unknown.