Tarzan At Earth Core [Paperback]

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1985

Continuing the saga of Pellucidar, the empire located in the Earth's hollow center, Tarzan at the Earth's Core is the fourth work in this classic series. The American explorer and emperor of Pellucidar, David Innes, has been captured by the deadly Korsar pirates. Picking up on the desperate cries for help emanating from Pellucidar, Jason Gridley of Tarzana brings the message to the only person who can help, Tarzan of the Apes. Together young Gridley and Lord Greystoke travel to the exotic and strange realm within the Earth to save the imprisoned ruler. Unaccustomed to the difficulties of Pellucidar, the two struggle in its savage environment, with its eternal noon and bizarre monsters, in their quest to save Innes and the precarious rule he has established. Sean McMullen provides an introduction for this Bison Books edition.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Before Jurassic Park there were Burroughs's jungles; before Princess Leia there was Jana, the Red Flower of Zoram; before the Dyson sphere there was Pellucidar; and before the Terminator there was Tarzan."--From Sean McMullen's introduction "[Burroughs's] stories are still as solid and imaginative as anything being published today. Perhaps, dare we say it, even more so."--Statesman Journal --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) is the legendary author of dozens of novels, including Tarzan of the Apes and The Land That Time Forgot, available in a Bison Books edition. Sean McMullen is one of Australia's leading science fiction and fantasy authors, with more than a dozen books and four dozen stories published. He is the coauthor of Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction and is finishing a PhD in medieval fantasy literature.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ace (April 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441798586
• ISBN-13: 978-0441798582
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,597,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Pellucidar Stories, August 13, 2001

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tarzan at the Earth's Core (Tarzan Series #13) (Mass Market Paperback)

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a number of series. Some series consisted of as few as two or three novellas. The Tarzan series stretched to 24 volumes. Almost all of the series were interrelated in some way or another. Clark A. Brady maps out the complex interrelationships in Appendix C to his "Burroughs Cyclopaedia" (available from Amazon.com). "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" makes the clearest connection between two Burroughs series. It is the 13th Tarzan novel and the 4th Pellucidar novel.

The Tarzan stories represent some of Burroughs' best work. The Pellucidar stories do not. Burroughs stretches credulity in all his stories, but he takes it to the limit in the Pellucidar stories. In the Pellucidar seriest Burroughs employs a preposterous concept (a hollow Earth with an inner world where time stands still) and adds insult to injury with highly improbable plot twists. This makes the quality of "Tarzan at the Earth's Core" all the more surprising. It stands as the absolute best Pellucidar story and one of the best Tarzan stories. Ironically it stands near the middle of both series.

David Innes, the hero of the Pellucidar stories, is in trouble. Jason Gridley, inventor of the Gridley Wave, hears the radio distress signal from the center of the Earth, and organizes a rescue party. Many stalwart adventurers, including Tarzan of the Apes, enlist in the expedition. Where Innes got to the Earth's core in a mechanical mole, Gridley's party travels there in an airship. Read the book to find out how they fly an airship to the center of the Earth and confront the many perils of the savage world they find.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read it as a teen, read it again at forty., March 14, 2007

By 

Sailor Barsoom - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tarzan at the Earth's Core (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

I found myself less tolerant of the Red Flower of Zoram this time around, perhaps because by forty I had myself been in relationships where you never know if she loves you or thinks you are a jalok. And there seems little reason for it. When David Innes insulted Dian or John Carter insulted Dejah Thoris, those were some heavy insults, for all that the heroes didn't intend them. Jason's crime seems rather minor. I actually found myself wishing she'd just get over herself.

OK, now that that's out of the way...

This is a wonderful adventure story. Pellucidar is it's old horizonless, timeless self, and we see new areas and new peoples. Tarzan is in fine form, and has to deal with a problem he's never had before: he gets lost in the jungle! There are savages, pirates, reptile-men, pterodactyls, and ape-men whom the Lord of the Jungle finds strangely familiar. There are a few many coincidences near the end, but all in all, you can do worse, but might not do better.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good but no At the Earth's Core, February 9, 2007

By 

Jay "SarahsJay" (Douglasville, GA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tarzan at the Earth's Core (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

In this book, Burroughs had an interesting conceit of crossing his most famous creation into one of his other worlds, thus establishing a patchwork universe where Mars, Venus, Pellucidar, Caspak, Tarzan, and almost all ERB's other stories take place. This book is exciting and colorful but suffers from a single glaring flaw. While in almost every ERB books there is a love interest, in this one, it seems merely perfunctory. Jana and Jason never establish any chemistry during their brief time together, and Jana is a resourceful and blandly attractive if also vapid and petulant heroine. Given the fact that the love story does little but weigh the story down--Jana at one point reflects Jason would not have abandoned her as Tarzan seemed to, though there is no reason she should think this--it probably would have been best to remove it altogether. Probably her uninteresting presentation is why Jana is never mentioned again after this book. In At the Earth's Core, Pellucidar, Tanar of Pellucidar, Back to the Stone Age, and Savage Pellucidar, ERB has his Inner World heroes romance and succeed through sheer determination with their love interests. Here the love story is just dead weight that gets in the way of an otherwise enjoyable adventure story. That said, though, the book is engaging and at least partially makes up for an otherwise unsatisfying romance at its core.