The Great Tarzan Adventure #7: Tarzan the Untamed

There’s a lot to be excited about in ERB’s seventh Tarzan adventure.  Tarzan the Untamed begins as a tale of revenge for the murder of his beloved Jane.  By the end of the story, Tarzan has not only fought the Germans in WWI but has also stumbled upon another lost city. No spoilers there; it’s all on the back cover blurb.  After the disappointment of the last book, I was definitely ready for a change, and this book seemed to offer it.  As you may know, I loved the revenge story of Beasts, and I love me a good lost civilization story.  And how can any story go wrong by throwing in some pulpy war action into the mix.  When all was said and done, I wasn’t thrilled out of my socks, but I was ready to leap into the next volume. 

Without further aideu, here’s what I liked and what I didn’t.  Spoilers beyond this point.

Here’s what I liked:    

The Revenge Story:  I don’t know what it is, but Burroughs does revenge yarns well, with Tarzan anyway.  I suppose it’s because Tarzan doesn’t allow himself to be restrained by “civilized” conceits.  He does what he sees as fitting and just, no matter how bloody the outcome may be.  I think it’s here where we see Tarzan at his most primal.  It’s frightening at times.  I like it.

WWI Story:  Didn’t expect this one, but it was really cool seeing Tarzan fighting the Germans during the Great War.  Of course, this was tied into the revenge tale, but it was very different to me.  I mean, here’s the Lord of the Jungles running through the trenches.  I don’t ever recall trenches in Africa, so this historical elelment is suspect.  I liked it nonetheless.

The Lost City of Xuja:  I really liked this lost world tale.  When Tarzan finds the skeletal remains of what appears to be a Conquistador, I got chills.  And then the city itself was bizzarre and eerie.  When the maniac inhabitants begin wailing for no reason at random times – wow.  Creepy.  Very pulpy, and very much in the vein of the sword and sorcery tradition.  The lions the inhabitant used were cool, too.  The birds . . . not so much.  

Here’ s what I didn’t like so much:      

Lady Spy:  She sort of tied both stories together, and she sort of gave us the “civilized” perspective of watching Tarzan during the course of the novel.  So, I see why she’s there.  I think it was the her-wanting-Tarzan-to-love-her thing.  I knew she wasn’t a German, despite what Tarzan thought.  I guess you could call this the Burroughsian mistaken identity/love/hate relationship that most of his heroes indure in their first books.  Maybe I like her more than I thought . . .

Tarzan’s cruelty: Animals are verocious.  They track, they hunt, they kill.  But they are not cruel.  We’ve seen this streak in previous novels, but now it’s getting old.  He traps a lion and starves it.  You may say, well, it was because he was going to feed a German to it  Well, I say, he trapped the lion well before he thought of feeding it a German. And yeah, he had the lion as a companion – briefly – but it was only after he had beaten into submission. In fact, his cruelty really makes me not like him as a character at times.

Two Tales:  The novel really felt like two different stories.  It was a war story AND a lost world story.  Yes, he pulled them together with Lady Spy, but I think the revenge story could have been played out more along the lines of Beasts.  At least the Xuja story was better, in my opinion, than the previous the Opar story.  In fact, he spent more time in Xuja than he did in Opar in the entire Jewels of Opar novel.    

So there you go.  I liked Tarzan the Untamed.  It had potential, but two-book feel kept it from top honors for me.  That place is still held by The Beasts of Tarzan.  I must say, just looking at the cover of the next entry, Tarzan the Terrible, I am quite pumped.  The end of Untamed, even with the unsurprising revelation that Jane was alive, made me want to jump into the next one, but even more enticing than that - there’s a DINOSAUR on the cover!  Tarzan meets dinosaurs – I’m all in for that one. 

Hope to see you there!

The Great (Missing) Tarzan Adventure #3: The Beasts of Tarzan

I don't know what happened here, but this one did not or was not posted, which is a shame because this is still my favorite Tarzan book so far.   Anyway, here it is . . .

The Beasts of Tarzan is Edgar Rice Burroughs’s third Tarzan novel, and so far, probably my favorite.  The story picks up not long after the events of The Return of Tarzan.  This volume is much slimmer than the previous two, so I was initially worried I would be reading a throw away story.  Instead, I found the story to be much more focused (especially compared with Return), which made the scenes blur by most of the time.  The big surprise to me, however, was the emergence of Jane as a very strong, capable woman.

Here’s the point you’ll want to stop if you haven’t read it yet . . .  Okay, like I stated earlier, the events pick up relatively close to the end of the second book and involves that wiley Russian duo of Rokoff and Paulvitch.  They have escaped from prison and, not content with being free, seek revenge against Tarzan for spoiling their ventures in Return.  You’d think they would know they had been bested by the better man, but this being pulp fiction, you can’t keep a good villain (or two) down.   

Rokoff and Paulvitch kidnap Tarzan’s son but end up with Jane as well.  This lures Tarzan into a trap.  Instead of killing him, however, they want to punish him.  They strand him on an island and tell him they are going to give his son to a tribe to be raised as a cannible and hint at the dire fate his wife will suffer.  Of course, Tarzan isn’t one to succumb to despair.  Thus begins a rescue mission, the likes of which I’d never read or seen before.  Tarzan puts together a ragtag band to rescue/avenge his wife and child.  This army consist of several apes, a panther, and a brave African warrior.  They escape the island and tear into the interior of Africa.  You can probably guess how it all ends, I pretty much had – there’s twenty-one more books, you know – but not how gruesome it would be, nor how Tarzan, and especially Jane, would behave during their adventures.

This novel was relentless, but I mean that in a good way.  By the second page, stuff started happening – that’s when Tarzan finds out about the abduction of his son.  By the second chapter, Tarzan is marooned.  And it just keeps building up.  It was like reading a Liam Neeson movie – one thing after another, but nothing stops our hero.  The only time the narrative drug for me was at the end when some pirates are introduced and we get their entire piratical career.  One of the bigger surprises this time were Jane’s scenes.  When the story cuts to her, the pace doesn’t slow down one bit.  She’s first attempts to save her son, then becomes a victim and finally escapes.  She is not a passive character at all. In fact, she was one of my favorite things about this book.  She truly broke the sterotype.  We see her as a beautiful woman, but also as a motherly one (even when it’s not with her child).  She is also very capable, being brave and strong, especially while standing up to Rokoff and facing the jungle wilderness.  She shows herself to be truly worthy of the title “lady of the jungle.”

The thing I liked most, though, was Tarzan’s ragtag band of soldiers.  One is a warrior from a African tribe.  The others are the titular beasts.  Akut, his ape brothers, and the panther Sheeta tear across the ocean and into the jungle with a ferocity that is startling at times.  These parts of the book were most like the scenes you get in the comics and the cartoon, with the beasts doing Tarzan’s bidding.  While they work for him, he is not their master.  There are times when he knows he has to let them fulfill their animalistic urges – escpecially during the heat of battle.  Tarzan cannot stop Sheeta from killing Rokoff.  (And the only reason he wanted Sheeta to back off was so he could do it himself!) 

Of course, I think it was this book that really made me see that Tarzan is very much the beast here, too.  There is one scene in particular near the end when Tarzan and his crew have fought the pirates.  Jane asks him to spare the pirate leader.  He doesn’t hesistate with his response.  He says “no” and kills the guy.  While the scene made perfect sense, I didn’t expect it.  Gave me chills reading it,  and I had to read it a second time just to make sure what happened actually happened.

Besides the pace, I guess it’s safe to say, the characterization made this book.  Jane and Tarzan really came into their own.  Their actions never felt contrived they way they did sometimes in the earlier books.  I was even fooled by Burroughs with a character.  He was the typical thug in appearance, and even though he helped Jane escape, you’re led to believe it’s for his own purposes.  It’s not.  Good play Burroughs.  Good play. 

Very good book.

This book, as of now, will be the measure by which I judge the other books.  It wasn’t the Victorian Romance of the first book; it wasn’t the globe-trotting thriller of the second.  It was an exciting revenge story that allowed the characters to reveal their true natures – for better and for worse.  I do expect to see the other Russian, Paulvitch back – mainly because I’ve already read the back cover blurb for The Son of Tarzan.  I cannot wait to see if the book holds up to this one.  Hope you will joing me for the next outing.  Look for it toward the end of May. 

The Great Tarzan Adventure #6: Jungle Tales of Tarzan

Jungle Tales of Tarzan is the other book I mentioned in review number four that I did not look forward to reading.  I had read somewhere it was about Tarzan pre-Jane contact.  Maybe I’m just not fond of prequels.  (I know or can infer what happened before – so let’s move forward!)  I’m at that point where I want to read some things similar to what I’d seen in the movies or comics.  I want lost civilizations and strange goings-on.  Well, Edgar Rice Burroughs saw fit to do otherwise, and I can’t say that I can complain too much.  For those of you who want to read more about Tarzan’s adolescent years, this is definitely the book for you.  I would say that it would help to have read book one, but this is a good hopping on point if your just getting here.  And if this is your hopping on point, read no further – there be spoilers ahead! 

Jungle Tales is actually a collection of twelve short stories that describe some important points in Tarzan’s maturation process.  Among other things, he learns about love, loss, justice and revenge, but, most signigicantly, he learns that he is different from the apes – not just physically.  I had initially expected the stories to focus on different points in his younger life, but they are really focused on a specific period, but it works because this appears to be a very formative period in his life.  Some of the stories address questions I’m sure everyone has considered.  For example, “Tarzan’s First Love” describes his love and battle for a female ape; “Tarzan and the Black Boy” describes a desperate attempt to alleviate the loneliness he experienced among the apes.  Other stories involved disputes and jokes played on the local tribe.  More memorable was “The End of Bukawai” where we see the true nature of man emerge in Tarzan in the form of revenge.  Two other memorable stories were “The Nightmare” and “Tarzan Rescues the Moon.”  The former details a nightmare, apparently his first, and how that leads Tarzan to distinguish himself from animals by power of imagination.  “Tarzan Rescues the Moon” offers some further insight into how he has begun to view the world differently from the apes. 

This collection was one of the biggest surprises for me so far in my Tarzan adventure and one of my biggest disappointments.  I absolutely loved the short story format with Tarzan.  He, like most pulp heroes, work best in this format because it’s more about what they do than who they are.  I wondered more than once if The Jewels of Opar wouldn’t have benefited from cutting it down to a novella.  Anyway, these are definitely heavy on action.  Actually, most tell of one thing Tarzan decides to do and that’s about it.  That’s not to say that there is no characterization.  Overall, this book may provide the most when the stories are considered as a whole.  We see him struggle with loneliness, especially once he loses the ape he loves to another, which leads to his kidnapping of a boy.  We also see him begin to understand that he thinks differently from the apes, he can imagine, he understands the passage of time.

Of course, as I stated earlier, I would have liked to have read from different periods in Tarzan’s life.  Right when I became excited about reading Tarzan in this form, the tales became less like stories and more like chapters.  When I go back to reread Conan or Kane, I pick and choose stories or read them in whatever order strikes my fancy.  That doesn’t mean you have to read these in any order, but they are definitely chronological in the book and, I would say, more enjoyable and easier to follow read when read in order.   They are definitely connected by time and space, unlike a lot of pulp stories.

Now to the bad.  Burroughs disappointed me majorly.  I’ve read arguments about his racism, but I always read his work for his stories and imaginations. The racism, what l saw anyway, I attributed to the time in which he lived, like with Howard, Lovecraft, or even Kipling.  Is that good or bad?  Well, that’s a good debate, and one I’d like to participate in some time, but I digress . . .  In Tarzan and the Black Boy, Burroughs presented me with a passage that really bothered, so much so, I had to put the book down and talk to chief Nerdblogger Dan. 

Here’s the passage: 

But Tibo, the little black boy, lacked the divine spark which had permitted Tarzan, the white boy, to benefit by his training in the ways of the fierce jungle. In imagination he was wanting, and imagination is but another name for super-intelligence.

Imagination it is which builds bridges, and cities, and empires. The beasts know it not, the blacks only a little, while to one in a hundred thousand of earth's dominant race it is given as a gift from heaven that man may not perish from the earth (Ballantine Books, 75).

When I read it, I wanted to think it was the narrator or speaker’s observations, but it’s difficult not to see Burroughs as narrator because of his many intrusions.  I even wanted it to be Tarzan’s thoughts because he had a definite grudge against Mbonga’s tribe, and he tended to generalize, especially at this period in his life.  But the observations seemed out of character for Tarzan.  He was starting to construct thoughts but . . . I guess I’m just rationalizing.  It’s there, it’s ugly.  There’s really not much more to say.  Your thoughts?   

Jungle Tales was an odd read for me.  I liked it more than I thought I would (but still not better than Beasts), but Burroughs let me down for the first time since I’ve been reading him from all the way back in high school.  I sincerely hope that this experience will not taint the rest of this great adventure for me.  I still read Howard and Lovecraft with no problems.  Anyway, time to move forward with Tarzan the Untamed, which I’ll get to in September.  Got to take a break to do some summer reading with my high school students.  So if you’ve been thinking about joining, here’s you a wonderful chance to catch up.  See you then!

The Great Tarzan Adventure #5: Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

Burroughs’s fifth Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Jewels of Opar, is the first, to me anyhow, that read like a stand-alone adventure.  There were references to earlier volumes, we meet an old friend, the Waziri, and, of course, La and the lost city of Opar.  Still, there is no narrative carry over the way there was with the Russian storyline.  This would be a good place for the casual reader to jump in.  There’s a sense of continuity but not a necessity to know it.  For the dedicated reader, however, there’s little to be learned of the character or history of Tarzan.   

Be warned – spoilers ahead!

Tarzan has gone broke from some venture at the beginning of this tale.  No big deal for him, since his fortune came from the lost colony of Atlantis, Opar.  He simply has to go get more.  Until, that is, he takes a blow to the head and awakens with amnesia.  I don’t know how clichéd the plot device was during Burroughs’s time, but it just didn’t work for me.  I could be biased; these types of stories tend to frustrate me.  For one, I don’t like seeing the protagonist acting the opposite of the way he typically does.  And for another, it just seems like a lazy, too simple way to make conflict.  It happens, however, and bad stuff happens.  Jane is kidnapped by a band of Arabs with plans for ransom.  There’s the story of a Belgian who has murdered his officers and fled into the jungle and who gets wrapped up with the Arabs, and therefore Tarzan. 

Yeah, my thoughts exactly – where’s Opar in all of this?  I mean, he goes there, gets amnesia, and leaves.  La does pursue him to win back a sacred knife and because she’s totally, madly in love with him, but that’s pretty much it.  Everything, of course, works out in the end, but I was expecting a bit more from this one. 

So, yes, I was disappointed.  I rated it three on Goodreads, so I didn’t hate it.  I didn’t not like it. I was just disappointed.  Here’s my major complaints:

1. Lack of information about Opar.  Burroughs spends about a page or so info-dumping about the history of Opar, for which I’m eternally grateful . . . I just wanted more.  I was expecting Tarzan to delve into the deep, dark recesses of Opar and uncover hidden truths, etc.  Didn’t happen.
2. La made me cringe.  She made a brief but memorable appearance in Return, so I was expecting something earth-shattering here.  I mean, she’s pretty ingrained in the mythology outside the novels.  I wanted to know more about her, see her as a powerful woman.  Didn’t happen.
3. Where’s Tarzan?  Was it just me, or did it seem like Tarzan was only in about half the book?  I wanted him exploring a lost world, battling strange beasts . . . Didn’t happen.
4. Where’s Korak and Meriem?  They were introduced as a great power couple in the last book.  No, I didn’t expect them to reside at the Tarzan mansion, but I did expect them to at least be mentioned once.  Didn’t happen.
5. An uncomfortable number of lions died in the course of the story.

If I could point to one thing that saved the book from total disillusion, it was Mugambi and the Waziri.   I was especially glad to see the return of Tarzan’s companion from Beasts, and his and the Waziri’s defense of Jane ranks as one of my favorite Edgar Rice Burroughs scenes.  Probably in my top twenty of reading period.  When the Arabs are attacking the Greystoke estate, the Warzir, lead by Mugambi, are gradually pushed into the house, then into the very room where Jane has sought refuge.  They fight and die, not giving an inch freely.  It was like a scene from Cy Endfield’s Zulu.  When Mugambi fell, I was genuinely saddened.  What a way to go though – very memorable.  And then when Burroughs brought him back, I can honestly say I wasn’t totally surprised.  I usually hate tricks like this one because they make the powerful death scene seem cheapened; it feels like a cheat.  Not this time.  I hope to see Mugambi later.  (Of course, I wrote the same thing about Korak and Meriem last time, and look where that got me.)   

The Jewels of Opar, by far, has been the biggest disappointment for me so far on this journey.  I probably sound a bit more bitter than I actually am, but I was so looking forward to this one, more than many of the others just based on titles.  Oh well, I’ve still got nineteen to go.  I expect there will be lots of ups and downs along the way.  Next on the list is The Jungle Tales of Tarzan.  It’s a collection of short stories from Tarzan’s youth.  If you’ve been thinking about joining the Adventure, here’s probably a very good chance to climb on board.

See you next time!

The Great Tarzan Adventure #4: The Son of Tarzan

I remember buying the Gold Key Korak comics when I was a kid.  I especially loved the dinosaur and lost world painted covers, and even though it stated clearly on the front of each issue “Son of Tarzan” and “Edgar Rice Burroughs,” I somehow never put two and two together until I began reading The Son of Tarzan.  Oh, well.  Live and learn.  And that’s essentially what this book is all about: Tarzan’s son lives in and learns the ways of the jungle in a strikingly similar manner in which his father did.  If you’ve read the first three, you’ll probably want to read this one simply because it ties up everything with the Russians. 

If you haven’t read this one yet, you will be hitting some spoilers very soon.  You’ve been warned.  Here’s one already – Paulvitch, having run into the jungle at the end of Beasts, is rescued.  He’s aged drastically, scarred from torture, and completely unrecognizable.  And of course, he blames everything on Tarzan.  It is he who acts as the motivating force for the book.  He will serparate Jack, Tarzan and Jane’s son, from his family, which will lead to his being stranded in the jungles of Africa.  The book explores his growing up and learning to survive in the jungle.  Oddly, however, the book is just as much as about the struggles of Meriem, Jack’s – soon to be named Korak – love interest.  

From the opening of the first chapter, I thought this was going to be more or less about Paulvitch’s revenge against Tarzan via his son.   Well, I’ve been wrong before.  Paulvitch doesn’t survive the first handful of chapters.  He gets things started then – bam – he’s dead.  I was surprised but was really ready to have the Russians out of the picture once and for all.  So, no complaints there.  I was glad to see Akut return – he actually plays a bigger role in this volume than the previous.  It is he who gives Jack the name Korak, the Killer, and becomes his mentor.  I would have loved to have seen Sheeta, but you can’t always get what you want.  Sadly, however, I am left wondering if the sheeta that was killed at the beginning of the story was ours from Beasts.  I hope not, but it’s the law of the jungle and all that. 

The biggest surprise for me was Meriem’s story.  I expected to have the typical Burroughs’ romance plot, but I’d venture a guess to say that she takes up nearly half the book.  We not only learn her background, but we see her growing up and suffering at the hands of an evil Arab long before being rescued and falling in love with Korak.  And as expected, once Korak finds Meriem, and learns that he loves her, we know the two are doomed to be separated by distance and social circumstances, just as we expect every thing to work out in the end.  Which it does – almost too perfectly.

I can honestly say that I was not looking forward to this novel.  (There’s one more that I do not look forward to, but we’ll get there when we get there.)  I was reading Tarzan, daggonit, and I didn’t want to read a book about his son.  I wanted a hero, not someone like “Boy” from the Weismuller films, who only serves as a plot device or side-kick.  When it became evident that Burroughs was going to focus on Korak instead of Tarzan, I felt somewhat relieved.  I still wanted Tarzan, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt at this point.  When Korak grew to manhood, I was even more relieved, and I never felt like I was reading Tarzan of the Apes retold, though the stories are very similar.  At first I was frustrated when that story was interrupted with Meriem.  When it became evident she was more than the standard love-interest material, I was fairly comfortable with the story.  By the time the story ended, she was much more interesting than Jane in all the previous books combined. 

One thing I absolutely did not care for this time around was the heavy reliance upon coincidence.  Things definitely progressed at the speed of plot convenience here.  First there was Paulvitch being taken to the jungle ilse home of Akut, who happens to take the ape to London, where he almost immediately reconnects with Tarzan.  There were lots more, especially involving Meriem’s ordeals.  As soon as it was shown her being kidnapped as a child,  I automatically knew she would be reunited with her family by the end of the book.  Making her an actual princess in the end was pushing it a bit for me, though.

I did like much of the book and was surprised on occasion.  Korak was more mistrustful and bloodthirsty than his father had ever been.  And there were more Wiesmuller moments – good ones – in this book than the previous.  Akut and Korak have many conversations, but I was more excited to see his relationship with Tantor, which lead to some shocking and bloody moments.  And then Burroughs pulled one on me.  When we meet Bwana and My Darling, I assumed they would be Meriem’s parents.  At one point, I even wondered why My Darling would be teaching her English instead of French.  Of course, as soon as Bwana started stripping when he went into the jungle to find Korak, I knew he was Tarzan.  Like I said, I’ve been wrong before.   By that point, however, I realized I was enjoying the novel much more than I had anticipated. 

Of the first four books, I’d place The Son of Tarzan above Retun and below Beasts.  The first novel was different enough, to me, to be in its own category.  Korak proved to be a very likeable protagonist, the action was there, the fantastical elements, too, with talking to the apes and all.  The big surprise was Meriem who proved to be as interesting as Korak.  I would definitely not mind seeing these two again. 

It’s been fast and furious run so far.  Hope you stay along for the ride!