<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Tarzan joins Jason Gridley in a rescue mission to Pellucidar
Review: "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" is unique in the Edgar Rice Burroughs ouvre because it is a crossover novel. This was the 13th Tarzan novel and the 4th Pellucidar story and not surprisingly ends up being one of the better offerings in both series. Originally published as a seven-part serial in "The Blue Book Magazine" in 1929-30. The story fits better into the Pellucidar series, where it works mainly as a sequel to "Tanar of Pellucidar," and it is Tarzan fans who would be more lost in this one than readers of the Pellucidar books. The plot is standard fare for a ERB novel, involving a rescue mission, with the key difference between not so much Tarzan's involvement as the idea that the person who needs to be rescued is not a damsel in distress but David Innes, first Emperor of Pellucidar. Innes is being held in the dungeons of the Korsars, and Jason Gridley (inventor of the Gridley wave that allowed ERB to "receive" the Martian stories from John Carter, which accounts for the other major ERB series) persuades Tarzan to come along fr the fun. Gridley builds a zeppelin and uses it to descend into the land of Pellucidar (do not get me started on the physics involved in a lighter than air ship descending to the Earth's core. Once in Pellucidar Tarzan and Gridley have their separate adventures, and ERB seems to go out of his way to come up with new races of people (e.g., the Horibs) and prehistoric type creatures to beleaguer both of the book's heroes. The romance, of course, happens with Gridley, who meets Jana, the Red Flower of Zoram. Even everybody gets back together and they remember why they came to Pellucidar in the first place. "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" is a solid ERB pulp fiction yarn all things considered. What makes it work is that Tarzan has some competition for the role of hero in the story. He is more of a major supporting character than the lead, because Gridley is the leader of the expedition and even disadvantaged in the jungles of Pellucidar, where Tarzan finds himself quite at home, even with that weird burning sun in the sky that never sets, manages to hold his own for the most part. Burroughs also includes the set up for the next Pellucidar novel, when Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Horst, the mate of the zeppelin, vanishes. Unfortunately he would have to wait until 1935 to be rescued in "Back to the Stone Age." Meanwhile, Tarzan would go back to his usual run of episodes back in Africa.
Rating:
Summary: Tarzan joins Jason Gridley in a rescue mission to Pellucidar
Review: "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" is unique in the Edgar Rice Burroughs ouvre because it is a crossover novel. This was the 13th Tarzan novel and the 4th Pellucidar story and not surprisingly ends up being one of the better offerings in both series. Originally published as a seven-part serial in "The Blue Book Magazine" in 1929-30. The story fits better into the Pellucidar series, where it works mainly as a sequel to "Tanar of Pellucidar," and it is Tarzan fans who would be more lost in this one than readers of the Pellucidar books. The plot is standard fare for a ERB novel, involving a rescue mission, with the key difference between not so much Tarzan's involvement as the idea that the person who needs to be rescued is not a damsel in distress but David Innes, first Emperor of Pellucidar. Innes is being held in the dungeons of the Korsars, and Jason Gridley (inventor of the Gridley wave that allowed ERB to "receive" the Martian stories from John Carter, which accounts for the other major ERB series) persuades Tarzan to come along fr the fun. Gridley builds a zeppelin and uses it to descend into the land of Pellucidar (do not get me started on the physics involved in a lighter than air ship descending to the Earth's core. Once in Pellucidar Tarzan and Gridley have their separate adventures, and ERB seems to go out of his way to come up with new races of people (e.g., the Horibs) and prehistoric type creatures to beleaguer both of the book's heroes. The romance, of course, happens with Gridley, who meets Jana, the Red Flower of Zoram. Even everybody gets back together and they remember why they came to Pellucidar in the first place. "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" is a solid ERB pulp fiction yarn all things considered. What makes it work is that Tarzan has some competition for the role of hero in the story. He is more of a major supporting character than the lead, because Gridley is the leader of the expedition and even disadvantaged in the jungles of Pellucidar, where Tarzan finds himself quite at home, even with that weird burning sun in the sky that never sets, manages to hold his own for the most part. Burroughs also includes the set up for the next Pellucidar novel, when Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Horst, the mate of the zeppelin, vanishes. Unfortunately he would have to wait until 1935 to be rescued in "Back to the Stone Age." Meanwhile, Tarzan would go back to his usual run of episodes back in Africa.
Rating:
Summary: Tarzan joins Jason Gridley in a rescue mission to Pellucidar
Review: "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" is unique in the Edgar Rice Burroughs ouvre because it is a crossover novel. This was the 13th Tarzan novel and the 4th Pellucidar story and not surprisingly ends up being one of the better offerings in both series. Originally published as a seven-part serial in "The Blue Book Magazine" in 1929-30. The story fits better into the Pellucidar series, where it works mainly as a sequel to "Tanar of Pellucidar," and it is Tarzan fans who would be more lost in this one than readers of the Pellucidar books. The plot is standard fare for a ERB novel, involving a rescue mission, with the key difference between not so much Tarzan's involvement as the idea that the person who needs to be rescued is not a damsel in distress but David Innes, first Emperor of Pellucidar. Innes is being held in the dungeons of the Korsars, and Jason Gridley (inventor of the Gridley wave that allowed ERB to "receive" the Martian stories from John Carter, which accounts for the other major ERB series) persuades Tarzan to come along fr the fun. Gridley builds a zeppelin and uses it to descend into the land of Pellucidar (do not get me started on the physics involved in a lighter than air ship descending to the Earth's core. Once in Pellucidar Tarzan and Gridley have their separate adventures, and ERB seems to go out of his way to come up with new races of people (e.g., the Horibs) and prehistoric type creatures to beleaguer both of the book's heroes. The romance, of course, happens with Gridley, who meets Jana, the Red Flower of Zoram. Even everybody gets back together and they remember why they came to Pellucidar in the first place. "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" is a solid ERB pulp fiction yarn all things considered. What makes it work is that Tarzan has some competition for the role of hero in the story. He is more of a major supporting character than the lead, because Gridley is the leader of the expedition and even disadvantaged in the jungles of Pellucidar, where Tarzan finds himself quite at home, even with that weird burning sun in the sky that never sets, manages to hold his own for the most part. Burroughs also includes the set up for the next Pellucidar novel, when Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Horst, the mate of the zeppelin, vanishes. Unfortunately he would have to wait until 1935 to be rescued in "Back to the Stone Age." Meanwhile, Tarzan would go back to his usual run of episodes back in Africa.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't care for this one as much as I did the others
Review: An Urgent message from Pellucidar, that world of primitive men and primeval jungles that lies inside the crust of the Earth, called on Tarzan of the Apes for assistance. Tarzan, used to the dangers of darkest Africa, heeded the call to Pellucidar, where all his skill in the jungle, all his talents with beasts and primitive men, would but to the extreme test.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best of the Pellucidar Stories
Review: Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a number of series. Some series consisted of as few as two or three novellas. The Tarzan series stretched to 24 volumes. Almost all of the series were interrelated in some way or another. Clark A. Brady maps out the complex interrelationships in Appendix C to his "Burroughs Cyclopaedia" (available from Amazon.com). "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" makes the clearest connection between two Burroughs series. It is the 13th Tarzan novel and the 4th Pellucidar novel. The Tarzan stories represent some of Burroughs' best work. The Pellucidar stories do not. Burroughs stretches credulity in all his stories, but he takes it to the limit in the Pellucidar stories. In the Pellucidar seriest Burroughs employs a preposterous concept (a hollow Earth with an inner world where time stands still) and adds insult to injury with highly improbable plot twists. This makes the quality of "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" all the more surprising. It stands as the absolute best Pellucidar story and one of the best Tarzan stories. Ironically it stands near the middle of both series. David Innes, the hero of the Pellucidar stories, is in trouble. Jason Gridley, inventor of the Gridley Wave, hears the radio distress signal from the center of the Earth, and organizes a rescue party. Many stalwart adventurers, including Tarzan of the Apes, enlist in the expedition. Where Innes got to the Earth's core in a mechanical mole, Gridley's party travels there in an airship. Read the book to find out how they fly an airship to the center of the Earth and confront the many perils of the savage world they find.
Rating: 
Summary: Not As Good As the Others
Review: Edgar Rice started a brilliant series with energy, but in this fourth installment, he fails to capture the full mystery and awe presented in his first three installments of the Pellucidar Series. By "Tarzan at the Earth's Core", you can tell the Pellucidar Series is starting to lose steam.
Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As the Others
Review: Edgar Rice started a brilliant series with energy, but in this fourth installment, he fails to capture the full mystery and awe presented in his first three installments of the Pellucidar Series. By "Tarzan at the Earth's Core", you can tell the Pellucidar Series is starting to lose steam.
Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As the Others
Review: Edgar Rice started a brilliant series with energy, but in this fourth installment, he fails to capture the full mystery and awe presented in his first three installments of the Pellucidar Series. By "Tarzan at the Earth's Core", you can tell the Pellucidar Series is starting to lose steam.
<< 1 >>
|
