Tanar of Pellucidar

You can judge a book by its cover. I mean, just look at this. You know it's gonna be bad ass. Frank Frazetta painting of a muscled barbarian holding a dagger dripping with blood. He's just vanquished his foe and he's poised ready for more action. How could it not be great?

Edgar Rice Burroughs is famous for writing Tarzan, but he also had a series of books centered around the fictional realm of Pellucidar. This was my first exposure to the author and although it started cold I feel it definitely warmed up.

Pellucidar is in the center of the Earth. The inhabitants are in various states of cultural and physical evolution. There are some gnarly prehistoric creatures mixed with 17th Century era firearms like canons and harquebuses. There are a few people who have travelled from the surface down into Pellucidar and brought with them modern day technology. It's crazy shit. Their sun is perpetually at its zenith so there is no night and there is no concept of north, south, east or west. Things are different in the center of the Earth.

So, I felt like the book was a second-rate Conan yarn. Where are Robert E. Howard would have some sort of rising drama and eventual climax punctuated with small sub-dramatic elements along the way, I felt like this one was often times just one small drama to the next to the next to the next, with no clear destination. It took a while but eventually it started to coalesce. I just felt like a decent amount of the book was Burroughs making up one calamitous event after another for the sake of taking up pages. Girl is captured, Tanar fights some villagers, Taner frees girl, both are captured, they both escape, rinse wash, repeat.

But at the end of the day I definitely dug the book. I think the second half was better than the first. I probably needed to get used to Burroughs writing. I will continue to buy books for the Pellucidarian series whenever I see them at local stores. Hell, I'll read more Burroughs and maybe I'll get into Tarzan. Why not.

Dig it.