The Land That Time Forgot (Commemorative Edition) (Paperback)

~ Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author), Mike Resnick (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was a prodigiously productive writer of pulp fictions--literary entertainments, that is, published in inexpensive, easily obtained periodicals. His style was simple and instantly accessible, his stories riveting if often implausible tales of adventure, and of good overcoming evil. Burroughs wasn't much of an artist. But, as Mike Resnick writes in his introduction to this commemorative edition of Burroughs's immensely popular trilogy The Land That Time Forgot, first published in 1924, almost every book Burroughs wrote remains in print, and countless readers turn to his Mars and Tarzan novels every day.

In Land, Burroughs concocts a fabulous microworld, located somewhere in the South Pacific, called Caspak. On this mountainous island live winged, humanlike creatures, dinosaurs, ferocious beasts of prey, Neanderthals, "wild ape-men," and monstrous reptiles; they terrorize each other, to say nothing of the mixed crew of World War I-era adventurers who inadvertently land on a Caspakian beach and fight their way across the island, dining on Plesiosaurus steaks and having a grand old time in the company of a jungle princess. The story streaks onward like a bullet toward its surprise ending, and it's pure fun all the way. --Gregory McNamee

Review

?We may have liked Verne and Wells and Kipling, but we loved, we adored, we went quite mad with Mr. Burroughs.??Ray Bradbury


From the Trade Paperback edition. -- Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 434 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books; Cmv edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803261543
• ISBN-13: 978-0803261549
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,124,970 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now in one volume, the greatest "Lost World" tale of all!, September 22, 2000

By	Ryan Harvey "Wolf Shadow" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I first read "The Land That Time Forgot" five years ago, when it was still published in three separate short volumes: "The Land That Time Forgot", "The People That Time Forgot", and "Out of Time's Abyss" (all originally published in Blue Book in 1918). I enjoyed the story immensely, but I mistakenly treated it as a trilogy, or a series of novels like Burroughs's own Barsoom series, and read them separately, interspersed with other books. With the publication of this single volume "Commemorative Edition", I finally realized that Burroughs meant for the work to be published as one novel (which it was until the 1960s), and sat down to read it as such.

What a difference this makes. I now believe that "The Land That Time Forgot" is Burroughs's best work, and the definitive "lost world" tale. The three sections are semi-independent, but work as a whole in unexpected ways. In Part I, we are introduced to the Island of Caprona and the bizarre prehistoric land of Caspak hidden inside it, but only after a long submarine journey. Before the hero can solve the mystery of the strange evolutionary system of Caspak, we cut to Part II, which immediately launches us into an adventure on the other side of the Island with a new narrator. Many plot strands come to an end at the conclusion of this second section, but there are still some questions left, still some mysteries, and Part III brings it all to a great conclusion, when we finally see behind the curtains and learn the enigma of Caspak.

Burroughs's writing is simple, tough, and exciting, and Caspak provides endless excitement from all corners of pre-history and fantasy: dinosaurs, sea monsters, cavemen, giant mammals, and winged humanoids! And there are airplanes and German subs as well. But what really sets this novel apart from other, similar stories, is the evolutionary concept that rules Caspak. I will say no more...the riddle of Caspak is the best of many reasons to read this wonderful novel, presented complete for the first time in nearly half a century.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still holds up well after all these years..., March 8, 2002

By A Customer

While Burroughs was denigrated as being a "pulp" novelist for most of his literary career, he was clearly a better writer than the vast majority of genre writers who publish today, and he was also a better story teller than most. The complaint of a reviewer that Burroughs was an obsessive racist would be hilarious if it weren't so ignorantly misguided. Similarly the complaint that Burroughs had no ear for dialogue is drenched in ignorance. The dialogue of early 20th century America is not the dialogue of late 20th century England, a fact that should not need explaining, but unfortunately explication is needed for those who who lack the most rudimentary of analytical faculties. I find Hemingway to have a tin ear for dialogue because the people I grew up with didn't speak like Hemingway characters at all, but I don't criticize Hemingway for that and suspect that he accurately recorded the cadence of his fellows. Burroughs had a good feel for the common man of the early 20th century, which is one reason his books still sell.

The Land That Time Forgot is a great adventure by a very good fantasy writer. Check it out while it's still in print.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How can this classic be out of print!?!?, February 6, 1998

By	J. Schuetz "solomonkane" (Minnetonka, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Land That Time Forgot (Mass Market Paperback)

Having just read Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD, I perused the other books waiting for me on my father's bookshelves. I saw that he had a lot of books penned by a author whose name was familiar to me, but whose works I had never read. The first of his books that I decided to read was The Land that Time Forgot, which was collected with two other books in the same series. It took me no more than a day's time to read this wonderful book. I am rather busy during most of the day, so I merely gave up sleep in order to read this book as quickly as possible. It was similar in many ways to Conan Doyles LOST WORLD, but it differed in the aspect that it was more of a romantic adventure novel. In the lost world, the main character sets of to impress a lady friend of his, by accomplishing a heroic act, and by doing so hoping to convince her of his marriageable worth. In the Land that Time Forgot and the subsequent stories, the hero endeavors to impress his marriageable upon his love by saving her life many times over from the likes of ferocious dinosaurs, lecherous ape-like men, and of course the traitorous germans. Being written sometime between 1910 and 1920 (the date eludes me) this book is well ahead of it's time. The tale is timeless, and is not discredited in the least by advancing technology or changing philosophies. I highly recommend this book to any who enjoy Science Fiction, Fantasy, Greek Myths or any sort of adventure that challenges the courage of the human race. If you read The Land that Time Forgot and liked it, then I also recommend The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle), The Lost World (Michael Crichton), and the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.