The Lost Continent
The Lost Continent is one of the least-known of Burroughs' thrilling science-fiction tales. In the year 2137, civilization has been in decline for nearly two centuries, and war-torn Europe is but a distant memory to the inhabitants of the isolated United States. But an American adventurer rediscovers the Old World, which has become a strange and savage land.
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Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
Edgar Rice Burroughs
This book is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fifth in his series of books about the title character Tarzan.In the previous novel Tarzan and Jane's son, Jack Clayton, a.k.a. Korak, had come into his own. In this novel Tarzan returns to Opar, the source of the gold where a lost colony of fabled Atlantis is located, in order to make good on some financial reverses he has recently suffered. While Atlantis itself sank beneath the waves thousands of years ago, the workers of Opar continued to mine all of the gold, which means there is a rather huge stockpile but which is now lost to the memory of the Oparians and only Tarzan knows its secret location.A greedy, outlawed Belgian army officer, Albert Werper, in the employ of a criminal Arab, secretly follows Tarzan to Opar. There, John Clayton loses his memory after being struck on the head by a falling rock in the treasure room during an earthquake. On encountering La, the high priestess who is the servant of the Flaming God of Opar, and who is also very beautiful, Tarzan once again rejects her love which enrages her and she tries to have Tarzan killed; she had fallen in love with the apeman during their first encounter and La and her high priests are not going to allow Tarzan to escape their sacrificial knives this time.In the meanwhile, Jane has been kidnapped by the Arab and wonders what is keeping her husband from once again coming to her rescue. A now amnesiac Tarzan and the Werper escape from Opar, bearing away the sacrificial knife of Opar which La and some retainers set out to recover. There is intrigue and counter intrigue the rest of the way.
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The Land That Time Forgot
Edgar Rice Burroughs
This is an Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy novel, the first of his Caspak trilogy. His working title for the story was "The Lost U-Boat." The sequence was first published in Blue Book Magazine as a three-part serial in the issues for September, October and November 1918. The complete trilogy was later combined for publication in book form under the title of the first part by A. C. McClurg in June 1924. Beginning with the Ace Books editions of the 1960s, the three segments have usually been issued as separate short novels. The first of these is treated in this article.The novel is set in World War I and opens with a framing story in which a manuscript relating the main story is recovered from a thermos off the coast of Greenland. It purports to be the narrative of Bowen J. Tyler, an American passenger with his Airedale terrier Nobs on a ship sunk in the English Channel by a German U-boat, U-33, in 1916. He is rescued by a British tugboat with another survivor, Lys La Rue. The tug is also sunk, but its crew manages to capture the submarine when it surfaces. Unfortunately, all other British craft continue to regard the sub as an enemy, and they are unable to bring it to port. Sabotage to the navigation equipment sends the U-33 astray into the South Atlantic. The imprisoned German crew retakes the sub and begins a raiding cruise, only to be overcome again by the British. A saboteur continues to guide the sub off course, and by the time he is found out it is in Antarctic waters.The U-33 is now low on fuel, with its provisions poisoned by the saboteur Benson. A large island ringed by cliffs is encountered, and identified as Caprona, a land mass first reported by the (fictitious) Italian explorer Caproni in 1721 whose location was subsequently lost. A freshwater current guides the sub to a stream issuing from a subterranean passage, which is entered on the hope of replenishing the water supply. The U-boat surfaces into a tropical river teeming with primitive creatures extinct elsewhere; attacked, it submerges again and travels upstream in search of a safe harbor. It enters a thermal inland sea, essentially a huge crater lake, whose heat sustains Caprona’s tropical climate. As the sub travels north along the island’s waterways the climate moderates and wildlife undergoes an apparent evolutionary progression.On the shore of the lake the crew builds a palisaded base, dubbed Fort Dinosaur for the area’s prehistoric fauna. The British and Germans agree to work together under Tyler, with Bradley, the mate from the tug, as second in command and Von Schoenvorts, the original sub commander, in control of the Germans. The castaways are attacked by a horde of beast men and take prisoner Ahm, a Neanderthal. They learn that the native name for the island is Caspak. Oil is discovered, which they hope to refine into fuel for the U-33. As they set up operations, Bradley undertakes various explorations. During his absence Lys disappears and the Germans mutiny again, absconding with the submarine.Tyler leaves the other survivors to seek and rescue Lys. A series of adventures ensues among various bands of near-human primitives, each representing a different stage of human advancement, as represented by their weaponry. Tyler rescues Lys from a group of Sto-lu (hatchet men), and later aids the escape of a woman of the Band-lu (spearmen) to the Kro-lu (bowmen). Lys is lost again, and chance discoveries of the graves of two men associated with Bradley’s expedition leaves Tyler in despair of that party’s fate. Unable to find his way back to Fort Dinosaur, he retreats to the barrier cliffs ringing Caspak in a vain hope of attracting rescue from some passing ship. Improbably reunited with Lys, he sets up house with her, completes the account of his adventures which he has been writing, and casts it out to sea in his thermos.
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The Monster Men
Edgar Rice Burroughs
This book is a science fiction novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1913 under the working title "Number Thirteen."Cornell University professor Arthur Maxon, who has been experimenting in the creation of artificial life, travels with his daughter Virginia to one of the remote Pamarung Islands in the East Indies to pursue his project. Their departure is noted with interest by a young man, Townsend J. Harper, Jr., who is quite taken with Virginia and determines to find out where they are going. In Singapore Maxon commissions Dr. Carl von Horn to take them the remainder of the way to their destination in his yacht the Ithaca, and then to assist him in his experiments. On the island the group fights off a pirate attack and builds a fort.Maxon and von Horn begin their experiments, growing several living creatures in chemical vats, humanoid but mindless and ugly. Maxon hopes Experiment Number Thirteen will result in a perfect human being, and in his fanatic obsession plans to wed Virginia to this ultimate creation. Von Horn retains a more realistic viewpoint and hopes to marry her himself, leading to friction. Meanwhile, locals including Budadreen, one of von Horn’s crewmen, and Muda Saffir, leader of the pirates, conspire against the scientists, who they believe are hiding treasure. They are watched closely by Chinese cook Sing Lee, who recognizes the pirate.Experiment Number Thirteen indeed appears to result in a physically perfect man, but as soon as the scientists discover this an emergency distracts them. Experiment Number One has escaped and abducted Virginia. Maxon, von Horn and Sing Lee pursue the monster, only to find it dead at the hands of Number Thirteen, also escaped from the lab in the wake of the scientists’ departure. Thinking Virginia still in danger, von Horn attacks the creature and is nearly killed himself, but is spared by Thirteen when Virginia pleads for his life. Ignorant of the handsome stranger’s origin, the girl finds herself attracted to him.Maxon and von Horn return Thirteen to the lab and begin educating him. Von Horn privately discloses to Virginia Maxon's plan to wed her to one of his creatures, while concealing it is her rescuer to whom she is to be wed. Separately, he informs Thirteen of his artificial origin. Both recipients of his confidences are horrified. Thirteen, or Jack, as he is now called, is convinced that he is a soulless monster and that Maxon must be stopped.Von Horn absconds with Virginia while Jack goes to confront Maxon, while Budadreen and six crewmen steal a chest they believe holds Maxon’s wealth. Muda Saffir’s pirates attack the compound and appropriate the chest. Jack, reconsidering his rage, defends Maxon and Sing Lee against the pirates. Virginia rebuff’s von Horn’s advances and falls in with Budadreen, who takes her captive and sails off in von Horn’s yacht. Von Horn, since his effort to turn Jack against Maxon has failed, releases the other eleven monsters against them. Jack overawes the creatures and gains control of them, but Maxon, apparently regaining his sanity, turns on him and drives him away.The Ithaca is wrecked in a gale, and Budadreen and his men swept overboard; later the drifting hulk is boarded by headhunters. Jack and the eleven monsters search for Virginia and find the yacht in the harbor, when it is boarded by Muda Saffir's pirates, the monsters attack them. Saffir takes Virginia and flees the battle in his prahu; the monsters, capturing another prahu, pursue them.Having witnessed these events from hiding, von Horn returns to Maxon, who offers him his fortune and Virginia if he can save her. Jack and his monsters overtake and fight the pirates in Borneo, resulting in six monsters and many of the pirates killed, but Saffir, still holding Virginia, escapes up river in his boat. The monsters join with Barunda and a crew of captive Dyaks and resume pursuit. Meanwhile Saffir has bungled a rape attempt against Virginia and been shoved overboard by her; his lieutenant Ninaka assumes command. He stops at a native village, hides the chest and Virginia, and when Jack arrives conspires with Barunda to have the natives lead him astray. He then recovers his contraband and continues up river; Virginia ultimately escapes by diving off the boat.Meanwhile Von Horn, Maxon and Sing Lee sail to Borneo, encounter the Ithaca, and enlist the Dyaks to take them to Muda Saffir. The latter, having survived his dip in the drink, flags them down. He and von Horn make a secret deal and continue up river without Maxon, who is stricken with fever. Jack's band, lost, encounters an orangutan band after fighting off more Dyaks. Finding one of them has captured Virginia, they fight the apes. Von Horn, Muda Saffir and a group of native warriors happen on the battle and spirit off the unconscious Virginia; Sing Lee, following, sees all. Von Horn's group and Sing Lee go back to Maxon, who is recovering. Von Horn presses his suit with Virginia.Ninaka and Barunda fall out; Barunda is murdered, but this drives Ninaka ashore. Ninaka buries the chest lest it encumber his escape. Von Horn and a couple Dyaks, returned from delivering Virginia to her father, witness this. Afterwards von Horn kills his companions to keep the secret of the treasure to himself and flees back down river, narrowly missing Muda Saffir heading the other way with two war prahus; Saffir has again abducted Virginia. She escapes again and falls in with Jack and his surviving monsters; spotted by the pirates, they flee, one of the monsters dying to cover the retreat while Jack carries Virginia to safety. Making his stand in a small canyon, he casts boulders down on their pursuers until they retreat. He promises the girl he will take her back to her father, but soon after is stricken with a fever. She tends him in his delirium.Maxon, von Horn, and Sing Lee search for Virginia, and come across the two just as Jack's fever breaks. Von Horn shoots Jack, but Sing Lee disarms him, stopping him from finishing him off. Von Horn finally reveals to Virginia that Jack is Number Thirteen, but she decides she loves Jack regardless. Then Sing Lee declares Jack is not a monster after all, but an amnesiac he had found drifting in a lifeboat and substituted for Maxon's failed experiment. He then exposes the crimes of von Horn, who flees into the jungle. An American naval vessel arrives; it turns out to be seeking von Horn, a deserter, to arrest him. The pursuit finally ends at the site of the buried "treasure," which von Horn has dug up; his headless body is found next to the opened chest. It had contained books, not treasure, and von Horn's native accomplices were evidently upset.The Maxons and Jack leave Borneo on the navy ship, and Jack's memory returns. He is conveniently revealed as Townsend Harper, the wealthy (and single) young man who took an interest in Virginia at the beginning of the book. Wedding bells are plainly not far off.
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Out of Time's Abyss
Edgar Rice Burroughs
This book is an Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy-science fiction novel, the third of his Caspak trilogy. The book begins with Bradley, who had left Fort Dinosaur on an expedition in the first novel and never returned. Bradley and his party are attempting to return to Fort Dinosaur. Along the way, they encounter a creature which appears to be a flying dead man. Some of the members of the party consider it to be a ghost or banshee. Tippet is convinced that he is soon to die, and the next day he is killed by a Tyrannosaurus. The ghost-like creature is seen again, and James is killed by a saber-toothed cat. Bradley disappears during the night, and the remaining members of the party make it safely to Fort Dinosaur. Bradley had been captured by the ghost-like creature, which is soon revealed to be a naturally winged human being, belonging to a subgroup of humanity known as the Wieroo. The Wieroo takes Bradley to the island of Oo-oh, set in Caspak's inland sea. It attempts to keep Bradley in a prison, but he escapes through a secret passage. He meets Co-Tan, a member of the highest human race of mainland Caspak, the Galu, fully human and of a neolithic cultural level. They enter the chamber of the Wieroo king, a huge member of the race, and Bradley kills the creature with its own sword. Co-Tan and Bradley escape the city of the Wieroo and live for several months on the forested coast of Oo-oh. Finally, though, they are discovered by Wieroo. They succeed in capturing two of the Wieroo and forcing them to fly to the mainland, one bearing each of the humans. On the Caspakian mainland, Co-Tan and Bradley meet the party from the outside world from the previous two books, and they return home to America, where Bradley will marry Co-Tan.
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Pellucidar
Edgar Rice Burroughs
This book is a 1915 fantasy novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the second in his series about the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar.David Innes and his captive, a member of the reptilian Mahar master race of the interior world of Pellucidar, return from the surface world in the Iron Mole invented by his friend and companion in adventure Abner Perry.Emerging in Pellucidar at an unknown location, David frees his captive. He names the place Greenwich and uses the technology he has brought to begin the systematic exploration and mapping of the unknown land while searching for his lost companions, Abner, Ghak, and Dian the Beautiful. He soon encounters and befriends a new ally, Ja the Mezop of the island country of Anoroc; later he finds Abner, from whom he learns that in his absence the human revolt against the Mahars has not been going well.In a parlay with the Mahars David bargains for information of his love Dian and his enemy Hooja the Sly One, which his foes agree to supply in return for the book containing the Great Secret of Mahar reproduction that David stole and hid in the previous novel. David undertakes to recover it, only to find that Hooja has been there before him and claimed Dian as his own reward of the Mahars!Now he has to track down and defeat the sly one before resuming the human war of independence. Ultimately this is accomplished, and with the aid of the resources David has brought from the surface world he and Abner succeed in building a confederacy of human tribes into an "Empire of Pellucidar" that wipes out the Mahar cities and establishes a new human civilization in their place.