Tarzan and the Ant Men

Rating:
Summary: Tarzan in a jungle version of "Gulliver's Travels"
Review: "Tarzan and the Ant Men" is the tenth novel about the Ape Man by Edgar Rice Burroughs and sets the tone for the rest of the series where Tarzan was constantly discovering new lost regions of the Dark Continent. In you stopped with the previous novel, "Tarzan and the Golden Lion," you will end up with a better feeling about the series than if you follow it all the way to the end of the 24th volume. Remember: you were warned.

This time around there is the Great Thorn Forest, which has never been entered until Tarzan takes his first solo flight in an areoplane and crashes on the other side. There he finds the Alali, strange stone-age giants where the women consider all men to be slaves. After escaping from their clutches Tarzan enters the land of the Ant Men (the Minunians), who are eighteen inches tall. Tarzan is the honored guest of the Trohandalmakus, but then he is captured by the warriors of the Veltopismakus, a rival Ant Men tribe. There Tarzan is shrunk to their size and set off to be a quarry slave named Zuzanthrol, owned by Prince Zoanthrohago Zertol (Nobody had as much fun coming up with names as ERB). As an added treat, we also find out what happened to Esteban Miranda, the Tarzan look-alike who went mad and became the captive of Chief Obebe and his tribe of cannibals.

Obviously "Tarzan and the Ant Men" is going to remind you of "Gulliver's Travels," but only in terms of the little people capturing the visiting giant. You are not going to find any sort of Swiftian satire here. What you get is pure adventure in what becomes the standard formula for ERB's Tarzan adventures. If it was not for the fact that Tarzan is now a grandfather you might never know this was the tenth Tarzan instead of one of the earlier works. Ironically, you enjoyment of these Tarzan novels depends on how many you have read, because the more of these you have read the less you will be impressed with this one. But it is a ripping yarn in its own rights, even as an ERB potboiler written because of the public's insatiable demand for Tarzan novels

Rating:
Summary: Tarzan in a jungle version of "Gulliver's Travels"
Review: "Tarzan and the Ant Men" is the tenth novel about the Ape Man by Edgar Rice Burroughs and sets the tone for the rest of the series where Tarzan was constantly discovering new lost regions of the Dark Continent. In you stopped with the previous novel, "Tarzan and the Golden Lion," you will end up with a better feeling about the series than if you follow it all the way to the end of the 24th volume. Remember: you were warned.

This time around there is the Great Thorn Forest, which has never been entered until Tarzan takes his first solo flight in an areoplane and crashes on the other side. There he finds the Alali, strange stone-age giants where the women consider all men to be slaves. After escaping from their clutches Tarzan enters the land of the Ant Men (the Minunians), who are eighteen inches tall. Tarzan is the honored guest of the Trohandalmakus, but then he is captured by the warriors of the Veltopismakus, a rival Ant Men tribe. There Tarzan is shrunk to their size and set off to be a quarry slave named Zuzanthrol, owned by Prince Zoanthrohago Zertol (Nobody had as much fun coming up with names as ERB). As an added treat, we also find out what happened to Esteban Miranda, the Tarzan look-alike who went mad and became the captive of Chief Obebe and his tribe of cannibals.

Obviously "Tarzan and the Ant Men" is going to remind you of "Gulliver's Travels," but only in terms of the little people capturing the visiting giant. You are not going to find any sort of Swiftian satire here. What you get is pure adventure in what becomes the standard formula for ERB's Tarzan adventures. If it was not for the fact that Tarzan is now a grandfather you might never know this was the tenth Tarzan instead of one of the earlier works. Ironically, you enjoyment of these Tarzan novels depends on how many you have read, because the more of these you have read the less you will be impressed with this one. But it is a ripping yarn in its own rights, even as an ERB potboiler written because of the public's insatiable demand for Tarzan novels

Rating:
Summary: Occasionally Offensive, But Ultimately A Tarzan Page-Turner
Review: Returing to this book for the first time since childhood, I was surprised at how offensive the politics of this book could be. I didn't remember how sexist and racist Burroughs could be, not to mention his rather child-like (and I think not well-thought out), "civilization is inherently evil/nature is inherently good" platform.

But on the plus side, I realized that Burroughs had an unique gift for the cliff-hanger. He keeps you clinging to the last paragraph, revealing only then if everything is ultimately going to work out all right for the characters. The man should have written for soap operas ... I think, perhaps, if he was a screenwriter working today, he would be turning out some of the best action movies (of the Schwarzenegger variety) of the time.

Also, his imagination seems bottomless in his capacity to create detailed "undiscovered civilizations." You just have to shake your head and marvel at the various cultures he could envision, as well as how he could impart these details without overly slowing what is inherently an action story.

Ultimately, I'd have to say that this book is a brief and pretty well constructed comic book. If you're a quick reader, it may provide a pleasing afternoon's distraction. But it may have more value in terms of nostalgia for those who read Burroughs in their youth and who may get a kick out of viewing this author's work from an adult perspective.

Rating:
Summary: Occasionally Offensive, But Ultimately A Tarzan Page-Turner
Review: Returing to this book for the first time since childhood, I was surprised at how offensive the politics of this book could be. I didn't remember how sexist and racist Burroughs could be, not to mention his rather child-like (and I think not well-thought out), "civilization is inherently evil/nature is inherently good" platform.

But on the plus side, I realized that Burroughs had an unique gift for the cliff-hanger. He keeps you clinging to the last paragraph, revealing only then if everything is ultimately going to work out all right for the characters. The man should have written for soap operas ... I think, perhaps, if he was a screenwriter working today, he would be turning out some of the best action movies (of the Schwarzenegger variety) of the time.

Also, his imagination seems bottomless in his capacity to create detailed "undiscovered civilizations." You just have to shake your head and marvel at the various cultures he could envision, as well as how he could impart these details without overly slowing what is inherently an action story.

Ultimately, I'd have to say that this book is a brief and pretty well constructed comic book. If you're a quick reader, it may provide a pleasing afternoon's distraction. But it may have more value in terms of nostalgia for those who read Burroughs in their youth and who may get a kick out of viewing this author's work from an adult perspective.