Tarzan and the Forbidden City : (#20)

Rating:
Summary: Standard ERB potboiller for the 20th Tarzan novel
Review: "Tarzan and the Forbidden City" was the 20th novel in the Tarzan series and by the time it came out in 1938 Edgar Rice Burroughs was just turning them out by the formula to pay the bills. Adventurer Brian Gregory was seeking the legendary city of Ashair looking for the Father of Diamonds, the biggest gem in the world, but disappeared in the jungle two years later. Tarzan does not care for either Gregory's quest or his fate, but when old friend Paul d'Arnot makes a personal plea for the Lord of the Jungle to guide the rescue mission organized by Gregory's father and sister Helen, he agrees. Also involved is Atan Thome, a stereotypical ERB Eurotrash bad guy, who is also after the Father of Diamonds and has sabotaged the Gregory safari. Everybody arrives at Ashair at which point they are made prisoners by Brulor, the Ashair High Priest, who plans horrible deaths for all of the intruders, thereby explaining why the place is referred to as "the Forbidden City" in the title. Throw into the mix Atka, the sexy queen of Ashair, the rival forbidden city of Thobos led by King Herat, and a tribe of local great apes led by Ungo. So, there is nothing new here, but if you have made it all the way to the 20th Tarzan story then you might as well keep going and push on through the final four books. If anything, "Tarzan and the Forbidden City" continues to evince the idea that Edgar Rice Burroughs was the king of potboilers during the golden age of pulp fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Standard ERB potboiller for the 20th Tarzan novel
Review: "Tarzan and the Forbidden City" was the 20th novel in the Tarzan series and by the time it came out in 1938 Edgar Rice Burroughs was just turning them out by the formula to pay the bills. Adventurer Brian Gregory was seeking the legendary city of Ashair looking for the Father of Diamonds, the biggest gem in the world, but disappeared in the jungle two years later. Tarzan does not care for either Gregory's quest or his fate, but when old friend Paul d'Arnot makes a personal plea for the Lord of the Jungle to guide the rescue mission organized by Gregory's father and sister Helen, he agrees. Also involved is Atan Thome, a stereotypical ERB Eurotrash bad guy, who is also after the Father of Diamonds and has sabotaged the Gregory safari. Everybody arrives at Ashair at which point they are made prisoners by Brulor, the Ashair High Priest, who plans horrible deaths for all of the intruders, thereby explaining why the place is referred to as "the Forbidden City" in the title. Throw into the mix Atka, the sexy queen of Ashair, the rival forbidden city of Thobos led by King Herat, and a tribe of local great apes led by Ungo. So, there is nothing new here, but if you have made it all the way to the 20th Tarzan story then you might as well keep going and push on through the final four books. If anything, "Tarzan and the Forbidden City" continues to evince the idea that Edgar Rice Burroughs was the king of potboilers during the golden age of pulp fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Not much new here....
Review: Tarzan and the Forbidden City has all the usual elements of the formula: cruel villians, some comedy, lovely heroines, and threatening wild beasts. The first half of the book was better than average pulp adventure. Here, the pace moved quickly; the story's main conflicts emerged in the midst of Burrough's evocative depictions of the threatening and unknown regions of the African jungle. However, towards the end, the tension bogs down into a series of relentless and wild action sequences where cliffhanger follows upon cliffhanger, stretching the bounds of plausibility, even for a Tarzan story.

Rating:
Summary: Not much new here....
Review: Tarzan and the Forbidden City has all the usual elements of the formula: cruel villians, some comedy, lovely heroines, and threatening wild beasts. The first half of the book was better than average pulp adventure. Here, the pace moved quickly; the story's main conflicts emerged in the midst of Burrough's evocative depictions of the threatening and unknown regions of the African jungle. However, towards the end, the tension bogs down into a series of relentless and wild action sequences where cliffhanger follows upon cliffhanger, stretching the bounds of plausibility, even for a Tarzan story.