The Chessmen of Mars

Fortunate indeed are those in which there is combined a little good and a little bad, a little knowledge of many things outside their own callings, a capacity for love and a capacity for hate...

Book #16 of 20 in the SDE Classics Science Fiction Collection

Martian Lions. Headless men and their grotesque overlords. A game of Martian chess using live people as the pieces in a battle of mortal combat All in store for Tara, Princess of Helium, and her suitor Gahan, Jed of Gathol.

Book #5 in the Barsoom series, The Chessmen of Mars shifts to Tara, daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris.