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Title: At the Earth's Core (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, James Allen St. John ISBN: 0-8032-6174-8 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Enter David Innes
Comment: Having already created two highly memorable science fiction heroes in Tarzan and John Carter, Edgar Rice Burroughs begins his third major series with David Innes. With friend Abner Perry, they dive their "mole", or burroughing machine, straight through the earth's surface where they discover the savage land of Pellucidar. Here, where dinosaurs still exist and mankind is enslaved by the reptilian Mahars, David and his friend are forced to face unknown perils and survive in a hostile environment (and of course, win the beautiful lady).
"At the Earth's Core" is another highly entertaining science fiction novel from ERB. Even though his format is formulaic, you're always assured of fast paced adventure in his novels. Not as groundbreaking as Tarzan or as strong as John Carter, The Pellucidar series is still a worthy addition to Burroughs body of work, and it gets an extra star for the nostalgia of being a personal childhood favorite.
Rating: 4
Summary: New Series New Hero But Still Enjoyable
Comment: For Edgar Rice Burroughs, life was relatively simple. Men fell into one of three categories: muscular heroes, ordinary types, and evil, greasy villains. Women existed primarily to act as universal lighting rods that attracted either the first or third category. Regardless of the universe that ERB wrote of, these constants held with predictable regularity. With the publication of AT THE EARTH'S CORE, he began yet another series that put the hero at odds with nature, evil doers, and beautiful, virtuous women. David Innes, the handsome hero, drills down to the center of the earth in a manner that brings to mind Jules Verne's tale, both of which posit a habitable, temperate core that supports a variety of lush, prehistoric life. Despite knowing that the earth's core was held to be molten, ERB did not hesitate to bend science for the sake of a good tale. ATEC possesses both the plusses of ERB at his best and the negatives at his worst. Like Tarzan, Innes is a likable, manly sort who feels at home regardless of whether home is a jungle or a tea room. The logic of how ERB gets his hero placed in an exotic locale is irrelevant and often purely unscientific. For his Martian (Barsoom) series, he merely had his hero, John Carter, gaze at the Red Planet to effect his transport there. For his inner world series (Pellucidar), Innes used a drill machine, a device that at least tries to be scientific. Once there, Innes has the necessary adventures with beasts, villains, and beautiful women, in this case Dian the Beautiful. The workings of the plot about how he finds her, loses her, and then finds her again are almost not to the point. Where ERB excels in his ability to place the reader, who is usually a 15 year old boy, in a realm that allows imagination to run riot. Events flow so smoothly that the youthful reader will probably overlook the negatives of ERB's prose style. In the world of ERB's muscular heroes, both hero and villain speak in the artificial, courtly dialogue that rings true only to the ears of the young. Coincidence runs rife to the point of ridicule. Beautiful women are haughty at first, but lusty later, and then only to the clean-limbed hero. His plots are often mirror images of one another. You can substitute the center of the earth for Mars, Venus, Africa, or wherever, and hero, villain, and lovely lady are interchangeable. Yet, despite all this, AT THE EARTH'S CORE is the kind of read that ought to be part of any kid's early mental universe. Reading Burroughs as a thirty year old requires a strong ability to suspend one's disbelief, but once having done so, the ride is usually worth the effort.
Rating: 5
Summary: Pulp Mini-Epic...
Comment: ...so one day independently wealthy David Ennis is confronted by his scientist buddy Abner Peery who has just invented a vehicle that essentially drills through the earth. (If the reader is into descriptives it looks like the device Dr Evil of Austin Powers fame has devised to take over the world.) They decide, "Well, let's try it out." and the reader is then treated to a journey to middle earth which is similar to Jules Verne's, but not as serious. I would say that Burroughs brings us satire similar to Voltaire's "Candide" or Swift's "Gulliver's Travel". The inner world, Pellicidar, is one where if you are not careful, you can be awake for days because the sun never sets or rises--that sun being the molten earth core rather than the sun we all know of. In Pellucidar, the various dragons, apes, and reptiles and mutations of such, are heads of gangs, tribes and kingdoms in the middle earth. And the royalty has beautiful sorcery princesses like Dian the Beautiful, who David falls for and who leads him into an innerworld adventure taking the reader to an unforgettable serial-pulp style reading enjoyment. If you dig Robert E. Howard or Jules Verne or Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series you will definitely love this. My opinion is that this is one of those series that could stand some revamping and the reader will feel that this is somewhat dated but, I feel that it is still well-worth the investment of time and $.
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Title: Pellucidar (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, J. Allen St. John, Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0803262043 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Land That Time Forgot, Commemorative Edition by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mike Resnick, James Allen St. John ISBN: 0803261543 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Pirates of Venus (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thomas Floyd, Phillip R. Burger ISBN: 0803261837 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs ISBN: 1576466221 Publisher: Quiet Vision Pub Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: Under the Moons of Mars (Bison Frontiers of Imagination Series) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Scott Beachler, James P. Hogan ISBN: 0803262086 Publisher: Bison Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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