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Land Of Terror

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"The Land of Terror" was the sixth of seven novels in the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and is rather unique in that it was never published in magazine form having been rejected by all of ERB's publishers. Instead ERB, Inc. published the book in 1944, although clearly there are five "parts" to the novel that would have worked as a magazine serial. The result is one of the most disjointed Burroughs novels and the low point in the Pellucidar series.

In "The Land of Terror" the focus returns to David Innes, who is rather surprised to learn that he has been living in Pellucidar for 36 years, although he still looks like a young man of about 20. In all that time Abner Perry has brought such wonders of civilization as gunpowder and sailing ships, and now he is working on poison gas. The first adventure has Innes being captured by the women of the village of Oog, who have reversed the traditional gender stereotypes. The second takes Innes to the land of the Jukans, where he is captured by this most bizarre race and forced to make mud pies (no idea what point ERB is making with these crazy society, especially when David declares his name is Napoleon Bonaparte). The third deals with the love story between David's companion, Zor, and Zeeto, while David is off trying to rescue Dian the Beautiful (again) and makes friends with a mastodon. The fourth part of the story has David captured by the giant 6-foot long ants. The final story takes place on Ruva, the Floating Island, where, once again, David ends up a slave. The people of Ruva are black and have white slaves, so there is a racial flip that bookends the opening gender flip. The point this time is that the black masters treat their white slaves better than what happened in human history in the outer world.

The lake of a comprehensive narrative and the repetitive capturing of David Innes easily explain why ERB's usual publishers were not interested in this Pellucidar novel, which is the weakest of the series. There are some philosophical sections to "The Land of Terror," where Innes thinks deep thoughts about how 20th century inventions are making human beings so dependent that they are becoming more helpless than their ancestors. But there are also sections where Burroughs gets caught up in describing the animal life of Pellucidar while he comes up with the next place for David Innes to be held captor. Actually, Dina the Beautiful comes out better in her brief appearance in the early part of the story, before she also becomes an unwilling captor.

I'm an avid ERB fan who has acquired just about all the Master's published work. That said, I consider myself one Burroughs' most ardent admirers. Unfortunately I found little to admire in Land of Terror. The novel is disjointed and incoherent with little or nothing to redeem it in many places. Probably the worst facet of the book is the fact that Dian the Beautiful is so little onstage. She appears early on then disappears till the next to last page, having miraculously made everything all right offstage. Probably the two best parts of the book come in the sections featuring the Jukans and the Ruvans, but everything else feels like padding. Characters appear and disappear with appalling regularity, leaving the reader no chance to identify with them. The whole plot (such as it is) seems to be a travelogue of unexplored areas of Pellucidar while David Innes stumbles obliviously into trap after trap. (Had Burroughs made Innes' inability to find his way home unaided the linchpin of the book, I'd be less caustic; but that is a minor point only occasionally mentioned.) Why ERB made his character so stupid at critical times rather than carefully plotting their temporary downfall is a mystery to me. Richard Lupoff says it is to give the reader a sense of superiority over the character, but Innes' slowness, inability to return home, and general failure to recover his wife accomplish that well on their own. Turning a man who has forged an empire from nothing into a blithering idiot for the plot's purposes is sheer folly. How I wish Burroughs had written this better. Unfortunately he didn't, but the parts where he really applied himself to the story do shine, though they are far too few.

As other reviewers have mentioned and as I've plowed through ERB's sixth Pellucidar novel, it is the weakest of the series. Per "wikipedia", none of his magazine publishers wanted it and I can see why: What 1944 editor wants to publish how women with beards have effeminate males as slaves, have legs "like a linebacker" and beat up and kill with no aforethought. When ERB mentions that it's a good thing men are the leaders in the outer world and what would happen if roles were reversed was quite telling.

Satire regarding "bringing civilation" to the Stone Age inhabitants included inventing rifles and poison gas and other methods of warfare. Yeah, he'd be civilized all right! Clear reference to World War II raging at the time of this writing.

In other adventures, where Inns gets captured quite a lot and finds himself in a society of crazy people and declares himself Napoleon. The stereotype of a crazy person would declare himself so is also telling.

As the reader tiresomely completes this, we have a racial stereotype where the whites are slaves and the blacks are masters. Interesting but not fully developed.

The floating island stuff was interesting as was Dian the Beautiful, who seemed to fare better than David, poor guy.

Better:

Edgar Rice Burroughs Science Fiction Classics: Pellucidar, Thuvia Maid of Mars, Tanar of Pellucidar, the Chessman of Mars, the Master Mind of Mars
The Pellucidar Omnibus: At the Earth's Core & Pellucidar

Movie Adaptation:

At the Earth's Core