Customer Reviews

Tarzan: The Lost Adventures

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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

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!

Joe Lansdale has written a fast-paced book filled with villainous villains, heroic heroes and heroines, and breathtaking jungle adventures. The engaging yarn pauses in just the right spots for humorous interludes, many of which are supplied by Tarzan's animal friends. Hey, I even learned some new information about the thought processes of lions and monkeys, and about the great apes who raised Tarzan. (Lansdale convinced me that he -- and Tarzan -- can talk to the animals!) Unlike too many books I've read lately, the ending to this novel was more than satisfying. (It does beg for a sequel, however, but that's great by me.) If you like Tarzan, you gotta love this story.

A note to real Tarzan fans: DO NOT bother reading the last Tarzan book, the missing manuscript finalized by Joe Lansdale. The book is really awful, it has totally lost the Burroughs original touch and feel. I was SOOO disappointed after reading the book that I was really furious. It was hard to recognize this Tarzan as the same person Burroughs was writing about. You have been warned!