Tarzan: The Lost Adventures [Mass Market Paperback]

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

Series: Tarzan

For nearly fifty years, Edgar Rice Burroughs's last Tarzan manuscript lay untouched and unfinished, locked away in a vault. It was the stuff of legend until, finally, the magnificent tale was completed with the help of award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale.

Once again the roar of Tarzan resounds through Africa as the Lord of the Jungle battles the savage creatures of the wild and helps a beautiful woman search for ancient Ur, lost city of gold. But Tarzan discovers they aren't alone in their quest. For evil follows in his path, and terror awaits him and his fierce lion Jad-bal-ja in Ur, where incredible treasures lie and horrors even more awesome hunger to destroy the mighty hero.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Meanwhile, back in the jungle, fans of the ape man no longer have to monkey around with imitators. Horror writer Landsdale completed a manuscript left unfinished by Burroughs at the time of his death and delivers a new Tarzan adventure. (Classic Returns, LJ 7/97)
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

The first time I ever went to Tarzana, California, I walked down Ventura Boulevard, noticing that all of the buildings were really ugly. Then I arrive at my destination: a small house, set back from the street, with a beautiful tree shading the entire front yard. Inside, the air was cool and everything was polished wood, especially the incredible, gigantic desk. That's where he worked. It was awesome.

Edgar Rice Burroughs had a huge California ranch, and the land eventually became a town, named for Burroughs's most famous character. Burroughs created one of the few heroes everyone knows, and at that desk, he took Tarzan to exotic lands, had him face bizarre creatures and endless, exotic challenges. Those adventures spirit the reader away to a timeless time of action and heroism. And sitting in that office, I was a permanent convert. For me, and for countless others, the legend will never cease. And that's as it should be.
                        --Steve Saffel, Senior Editor

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; Reprint edition (April 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345412737
• ISBN-13: 978-0345412737
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,029,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Should have picked another writer to finish it, November 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tarzan: The Lost Adventures (Mass Market Paperback)

I eagerly awaited this book for about 15 years, ever since I learned that there was an unfinished Tarzan story by Burroughs, but I was quite disappointed by what was done with ERB's manuscript. Compare Lansdale's version with the synopsis of ERB's 80 page manuscript in the appendix to the Porges biography of ERB. Lansdale really butchered many elements already worked out by ERB. I understand it's very hard to match the quality of ERB's storytelling, and I don't like to overly criticize people, but it doesn't seem that Lansdale even tried to write a decent book. It reads to me like a hack job, with little regard for style or the character created by ERB. For example, would ERB have written "Keep your mind off the loincloth, dear?" I don't think so. Nor is ERB's Tarzan a braggart. His character is existential. But not so existential that he would just give up on Jane and enter Pellucidar. In the Dark Horse 4 part serial version of this book, there are so many errors as to believe that Lansdale was half asleep when he wrote this. For example, there are characters in certain scenes which are actually someplace else in Africa in a different part of the storyline. Tell me Lansdale didn't just write this book as quickly as he could. As for the reviewer who criticised ERB's supposedly dense style and praised Lansdale's stilted 3 word sentences and then said, "Well, I've read all the Tarzan, Barzoom, and Pellucidar novels at least twice, so I guess I'm well-informed also"... All I can respond to that is, if you've read Burroughs' Mars books so many times, why don't you know how to spell Barsoom? And one more thing, ERB's style is elegant, the thing which makes his stories immortal. Philip Jose Farmer should have been given the chance to finish ERB's last Tarzan novel (I'm not referring to his Tarzan pastiches A Feast Unknown and Lord of the Trees, which were meant to be humorous, not true adaptions of ERB's character). At least he understands the character better (read THE DARK HEART OF TIME for an example of this). This book gets 2 stars, not for Lansdale's efforts or lack thereof, but because of the occasional glimpse of a paragraph penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Master of Adventure.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, this one is not worth the time., November 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Tarzan: The Lost Adventures (Mass Market Paperback)

Same old sceanrio in a Tarzan story, spend your valuable time reading the earlier books in the series, you'll be happy you did!

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good read, and true to the spirit of the original . . ., May 6, 1999

By 

Patrick J. Callahan (La Crosse, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Tarzan: The Lost Adventures (Mass Market Paperback)

I've noted that some other reviewers did not like this book. Actually, I was very satisfied with it. One of my favorite characters, little Nkima, the monkey, has a prominent place in this book. The book also has pretty women, savage tribes, and a very spooky and decadent lost city, which is a setting for much action.

Some have criticized the new author's style. However, Burroughs himself writes a kind of very dense, 19th century style which makes it very hard for me to recommend Burroughs to teenagers. Unless they want to keep encountering unfamiliar five-syllable Latinate words, and 80-word complex sentences. Let's fact it, EGB wrote some pretty dense stuff. Lansdale's style is cleaner, and is more typified by short, direct sentences. The description is good, and the mood is well controlled by Lansdale.

I did think this book is more bloody and graphic in its violence than the original EGB Tarzan books. Tarzan always killed to defend himself or rescue "drop dead" girls, but the graphic details added by Lansdale are a bit grim at times.

I did feel the bad guys through the early book were not bad enough. They just seemed to be violent military deserters with no sinister or evil plans except to steal another safari's supplies. They are just foils, really.

I like Tarzan's new personality. He has a times a biting wit, expressed in the laconic few words that we would expect of him.

The writing surrounding the airplane crash and the "sparks" between the surviving passengers-- these seemed excellent writing.

If Mr. Lansdale writes more Tarzan books, I will buy them for sure. Alas, this was originally published in '96, and apparently nothing more has come out. So perhaps there will be no more Tarzan left to read.

By the way, another reviewer said he has read "everything Burroughs wrote." Well, I've read all the Tarzan, Barzoom, and Pellucidar novels at least twice, so I guess I'm well-informed also.

Try it-- you'll (probably) like it!