Book Review: KORAK AT THE EARTH'S CORE

TITLE: Korak at the Earth’s Core (Dead Moon Super-Arc #1)

AUTHOR: Win Scott Eckert

306 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462634 (hardcover, softcover, collector’s hardcover)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: Win Scott Eckert returns to the world of Pellucidar with his latest novel in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (ERBU) series, Korak at the Earth’s Core. This new installment is every bit as action-packed, immersive, and character oriented as Eckert’s Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, and while it picks up some subplot threads from that novel it is the start of a new storyline. It also begins to address a number of questions the Master, Edgar Rice Burroughs, left unanswered in the original Tarzan and Pellucidar novels, including the mystery of life on Pellucidar’s stationary pendant moon as well as what Philip Jose Farmer called “the Great Korak Time Discrepancy.”

The action takes place about twenty years after Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar. Tarzan’s granddaughter, Suzanne, has been living in Pellucidar since the events of that book, has taken a mate and had a child – and has gone missing in the Land of Awful Shadow underneath the pendant moon. Korak and Meriem, Suzanne’s parents, immediately (but separately) head to the Hollow Earth to search for her. Eckert wonderfully juggles chapters from both characters’ perspectives as their searches take them across the breadth of Pellucidar. They encounter a variety of familiar and new deadly Pellucidarian wildlife and equally dangerous new civilizations, and Eckert details the battles with his usual distinct action style. Quite a few pulse-pounding moments for both characters, as well as for the crew of the airship O-220.

But what I really appreciated about the book is Eckert’s focus on the two main characters, and how they are both similar to and different from their predecessors.

Korak may be the son of Tarzan and have his father’s survival skills and enhanced strength and love of wildlife – but he is NOT his father in terms of temperament and life experience. Eckert draws on Korak’s childhood abandonment issues and his adult experiences as a soldier in World Wars One and Two to create a complex exploration of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that so many of those who experienced childhood neglect and/or wartime service have suffered from. Korak’s PTSD, which has been under control for years, comes roaring back while he is in Pellucidar, and Eckert hints at complexities that I’m sure will be explored deeper in this book’s sequels.

Likewise, in some hands Korak’s wife Meriem could simply be portrayed as “Jane Porter redux.” But she is so much more than that. Both are strong-willed women who are the equals of the men they love, capable of taking charge of situations and surviving harsh environments. Neither woman is so in love with their men that they are blind to or forgiving of their spouses’ foibles; for instance, when they learn of Suzanne’s disappearance, Korak and Meriem are at separate places on the surface world and Korak charges off to Pellucidar without his wife. Meriem eventually forgives, but does not forget, his rash hotheadedness. Meriem’s survival skills are different from Jane’s, thanks to their different upbringings, and come well into play in Meriem’s chapters.

Ultimately, Korak and Meriem and the characters traveling with them (and oh, I could probably write an essay on those supporting characters and how they enhance the narrative; I will simply say it’s a joy to see Suzanne’s mate Lordan again, and to see ERB’s Betty Calwell playing an ongoing major supporting role across the new ERBU books) come together for the novel’s dramatic denouement. The final scenes of the book tie the subplots of the novel together but still leave some questions to be answered – which makes sense as this is the start of a new trilogy, the “Dead Moon Super-Arc.” I am excited to see where Eckert takes Korak, Meriem, Lordan, Akut, Betty, and the rest in the second installment.

The book also comes with a bonus novella written by ERB Inc. Vice President of Publishing Christopher Paul Carey, “Dawn of the Deathslayer.” This novella stars Janson Gridley, another second (or is it third?) generation character introduced in the previous ERBU series (the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc”) who I’ve been hoping to see more of. Janson explores another previously unexplored part of Pellucidar and meets a new character, Darva the Shadow, and her tribe. The novella does a wonderful job bringing in this new character and giving us insight into where Janson Gridley has been since his experiences in the novel Victory Harben: Fires of Halos. I’m looking forward to seeing both characters turn up in future ERBU novels. Maybe they’ll even get a book of their own at some point.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Korak at the Earth’s Core publishes in late March and can be pre-ordered on the publisher’s website.

Book Review: VICTORY HARBEN: FIRES OF HALOS

TITLE: Victory Harben: Fires of Halos

AUTHOR: Christopher Paul Carey

404 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., ISBN 9781945462498 (hardcover, paperback, collector’s edition hardcover)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

SHORT REVIEW: Victory Harben: Fires of Halos, written by Christopher Paul Carey, is classic Edgar Rice Burroughs interplanetary adventure from start to finish, a worthy continuation of the first true interconnected universe in fiction. Victory Harben is a new character in that universe, every bit as smart, sassy, resilient and strong as Burroughs’ own Jane Porter, Dejah Thoris and Duare, all of whom were easily a match for the men in whose books they appeared. The novel is non-stop action that takes our heroine from a setting most Burroughs fans are intimately familiar with, Pellucidar, to one fans may be less familiar with, the Omos star system of one of Burroughs’ final books, the short novel Beyond the Farthest Star. Carey’s facility with creating alien worlds, societies, and wildlife is wondrous and perfectly Burroughsian, as Victory navigates her way through as many near-death encounters as her forebears Carter and Carson. The interplanetary roller-coaster leads to a well-earned finale that wraps up the major threads of the novel nicely while leaving plenty of room for future Victory Harben novels. Burroughs fans both life-long and intermittent will not be disappointed.

LONGER REVIEW: Victory Harben: Fires of Halos is a landmark book in the history of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. for several reasons. First, it brings to a conclusion the first set of new officially canonical Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe books released since the Master of Adventure died in 1950 and the last of his original works was released (barring a Tarzan novel later completed by Joe Lansdale). Yes, there have been plenty of novels and comic books released in the decades since featuring Burroughs’ most well-known characters, many of them published in recent years by ERB Inc directly, but it is only in the past few years that the company has started declaring certain novels as official additions to the Canon, based on how closely those books hew not just to the timeline of Burroughs’ original works but also the style, pacing and intent. Tarzan novels by Fritz Lieber and Philip Jose Farmer released in the 1970s have been officially canonized, along with Pellucidar novels by John Eric Holmes – and of course the four novels that comprise the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc,” of which Fires of Halos is the final installment.

Victory Harben: Fires of Halos, written by Christopher Paul Carey, is classic Burroughs interplanetary adventure from start to finish. It opens with the author, at work in the ERB offices in Tarzana, California, receiving a message sent across space and time by Victory Harben, ready to relate her latest adventure for his transcription and fictionalization (to cover up details the world isn’t ready to know or believe yet) – just the way Burroughs received such messages from John Carter and Carson Napier among others. Told in first person narration by Victory Harben after that brief introduction, the novel is non-stop action that takes our heroine from a setting most Burroughs fans are intimately familiar with, Pellucidar, to one fans may be less familiar with, the Omos star system of one of Burroughs’ final books, the short novel Beyond the Farthest Star. There are stops in locales familiar (Barsoom!) and new (Kjarna! Zandar! Both of which I hope we’ll see more of in future novels). Carey’s facility with creating alien worlds, societies, and wildlife is wondrous and perfectly Burroughsian, as Victory navigates her way through as many near-death encounters with wild animals and angry aliens as her forebears Carter and Carson. The interplanetary roller-coaster leads to a well-earned finale that wraps up the major threads of the novel nicely while leaving plenty of room for future Victory Harben novels.

The second reason Victory Harben: Fires of Halos is a landmark novel in the publisher’s history is that it is the first new canonical novel to headline a character not created by Burroughs himself. Part of ERB Inc’s current efforts to revitalize the ERB Universe includes expanding it to include new characters with connections to the classic Burroughs creations. In her previous novella and comic book appearances, we’ve seen Victory study under Tarzan, Jason Gridley, David Innes and Abner Perry as well as encounter Caspak (The Land That Time Forgot) and Carson of Venus. And of course her mother, uncle, and grandfather are all characters who first appeared in supporting roles in various Tarzan novels. The three previous novels in the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” featured Carson of Venus, Tarzan, and John Carter, but here Victory gets the spotlight. And make no mistake: she is a character in the classic Burroughs mold – as smart, sassy, resilient and strong as Burroughs’ own Jane Porter, Dejah Thoris and Duare, all of whom were easily a match for the men in whose books they appeared. Victory Harben as a character is a terrific addition to the ERB Universe, a character I am sure we’ll see taking the lead in many more novels.

The book is rounded out with “Rescue on Zandar,” a novella by Mike Wolfer that further expands the ERB Universe by giving us the back story of Tii-Laa, a native of Zandar who first appeared in the recent ERB comic mini-series Beyond the Farthest Star: Warriors of Zandar alongside Victory Harben. In the novella, we get a Tii-Laa who is only just starting to realize how different she is from the rest of her race. Her confusion about being different and not fitting in, her defiance of constrictive societal norms, and her self-acceptance infuse the story with a modern feel without detracting from the classic Burroughs pulp-adventure pace. (And again, the pace is rapid-fire, with several interesting new creatures to survive encounters with.)

I have tried to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible while still hopefully getting across the sheer fun, excitement, and yes, importance, of the book. Burroughs fans both life-long and intermittent will not be disappointed in Victory Harben: Fires of Halos.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Victory Harben: Fires of Halos is due out in November, and can be pre-ordered in hardcover, collector’s edition hardcover, or trade paperback editions directly from the Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc website.)

Book Review: TARZAN AND THE FOREST OF STONE

TITLE: Tarzan and the Forest of Stone

Author: Jeffrey J. Mariotte

178 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., (collectors edition hardcover, standard hardcover, trade paperback)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Part of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe series.
After Tarzan departs Southern California following a visit with a dear friend, bandits mysteriously dressed as cowboys straight out of the Old West waylay his train and make off with a precious Native American artifact—taking the daughter of relic’s owner hostage in the process. Now Tarzan must set off on foot from the wrecked and twisted ruins of the train in pursuit of the criminals, making his way across the American Southwest, a land as different from his beloved jungle homeland as can be imagined. But even as Tarzan closes in on his prey, a ruthless killer follows close at his heels, intent on bringing an end to the legendary Lord of the Jungle once and for all.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Jeffrey J. Mariotte’s new novella Tarzan and the Forest of Stone puts the famous Lord of the Jungle into a decidedly different environment – the Arizona desert near the Petrified Forest – testing his vaunted brains and brawn in a tale that is part western, part gangster novel, and all classic Burroughs.

Mariotte clearly understand what makes Tarzan such a compelling character. He utilizes the “ape-man’s” respect for all life (human and animal), discomfort with the trappings of “civilization,” and willingness to accept the seemingly impossible as reality to propel the action as much as Tarzan’s physical prowess and analytical skills. Which is not to say there aren’t action sequences: there are, and they are as exciting and dynamic as a Burroughs fan would expect. But they are perfectly counter-pointed by chapters of Tarzan tracking his prey and reveling in the natural world around him – including his interactions with a puma and a wild stallion.

Of course, Tarzan isn’t the only character in the book. Mariotte adds another strong female character to the canon in Alexandra Concannon, who is no damsel in distress or love-sick unrequited love interest. She’s a smart and capable woman who faces each new crisis with an “I’ll find a way out of this” attitude. Mariotte also gives considerable depth to the main villain of the piece, about whom I will say no more because I think he’s a character that needs to be met and experienced without preconceptions. There are several interesting/intriguing secondary characters to round things out, including Alexandra’s grandfather, a mysterious Native American, and of course the “old friend” living north of Hollywood who Tarzan visits at the start of the novella.

Mariotte obviously loves the western/weird western genre and blends it well with the classic Burroughs structure, and the story he sets out to tell works very well at novella length. The pace is fast without glossing over any part of the characters’ journeys, detailed enough to keep the setting firmly in mind without slowing the book down. My only complaint, and it’s a minor one, is that one question about the bad guy’s motivations seems to me to go unanswered: who hired him. His patron’s identity is hinted at, but if the clues are supposed to lead to a particular known character, I didn’t pick up on it.

Tarzan and the Valley of Stone will be available in hardcover, paperback, and collectors edition hardcover sometime in June.

I received an uncorrected proof pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

SERIES SATURDAY: Warriors of Zandar

This is a blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics.

Beyond The Farthest Star: Warriors of Zandar

Publisher: American Mythology

Publication Date(s): 2022

Writer/Editor: Mike Wolfer

Pencils and Inks: Allesandro Ranaldi

Colors: Arthur Hesli

Letters: Natalie Jane

Last week on Series Saturday, I reviewed American Mythology’s recent four-issue mini-series Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas featuring Gretchen Von Harben, the first of two comic book series officially considered canonical Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe entries. Beyond The Farthest Star: Warriors of Zandar is the second of those series, and stars Gretchen Von Harben’s daughter Victory Harben.

Over the past two years, readers of the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” series from Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. (Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds by Matt Betts; Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar by Win Scott Eckert; and John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten by Geary Gravel) have been introduced to Victory, learned a bit about her childhood, and bore witness to a few of her many adventures bouncing through space and time thanks to an accident involving the Gridley Wave that allows those in Pellucidar to communicate with the surface world. Beyond the Farthest Star: Warriors of Zandar is another of those space-and-time-bouncing adventures, in which Victory finds herself on the far-off titular planet and smack in the middle of a battle between two races: the peaceful Ki-Vaas and the brutal Keelars. As usual, the out-going and gregarious Victory makes a new friend almost immediately, which pulls her further into the local conflict: the Keelars are harvesting the Ki-Vaas and subjecting them to a device that extracts and saves the life-force of anyone placed in it.

Writer Mike Wolfer paces the main story – Victory and her friend’s attempts to rescue the captive Ki-Vaa and stop the Keelars – pretty perfectly across the four issues, once again easily matching Edgar Rice Burroughs’ prose style in comic book form. Complications abound before Victory and her compatriots solve the problem at hand, but there is a resolution to the main story. We also get a nice look into Victory’s character: her sense of social justice, her willingness to do the right thing even at great personal peril, her open-hearted nature. In Wolfer’s hands, Victory Harben continues to be a character I want to know more about and want to see in adventure after adventure.

There are some unresolved secondary plots, but as this is definitely not Victory’s final adventure I’m not concerned that they will remain unresolved for long. I am intrigued by references to the Keelar’s unseen master “The One from Above,” a figure who remains mysterious and unseen even in the final issue of the mini-series. I’m also wondering just how long Victory will remain on Zandar and whether this world will also be the setting for Christopher Paul Carey’s upcoming novel Victory Harben: Fires of Helos, which is the final installment in the “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc mentioned above.

Wolfer also does a wonderful job, mostly via dialogue that doesn’t feel like an info-dump and never feels out of character, conveying the differences between the Ki-Vaa and Keelar societies. Burroughs, in his Mars and Venus books especially, was known for making sure his alien planets were populated with a diversity of physical and societal types where so much science fiction of the time (and even in the more recent past) took the short-cut of having homogenous planet-wide societies. The latter may make for easier storytelling, but it also feels a bit unrealistic.

Allesandro Ranaldi’s artwork is highly expressive and really conveys the alien nature of the planet Victory has found herself on. Wolfer conveys via dialogue the differences between the two societies, and Rinaldi shows us the very large difference in physicality. The Ki-Vaa are humanoid but distinctly not human, while the Keelar are blockier, for lack of a better term. (It’s probably not intentional on the part of the artist, but the Keelar remind me of shorter, hairless versions of Looney Tunes character Gossamer.) Arthur Hesli’s colors make this new world pop.

Victory Harben is not the only connection between this series and the greater canonical Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe: the planet Zandar is in the same solar system as Poloda, the planet introduced in the novel Beyond the Farthest Star (hence the lengthy title of the mini-series). Farthest Star is one of my favorite Burroughs novels. We’ll never know what Burroughs intended for Tangor, the hero of the novel, or Poloda or the solar system as a whole – but ERB Inc. clearly has plans for them. Victory Harben is, I think, the ideal character to bridge the gap between Farthest Star and the rest of the canonical ERBU.

SERIES SATURDAY: Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas

This is a blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics. It’s been on hiatus for a while, but returns this week with the first of two posts about new content from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas,

Publisher: American Mythology, 2022 (in conjunction with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.)

Story: Christopher Paul Carey

Writer/Editor: Mike Wolfer

Pencils and Inks: Miriana Puglia

Colors: Periya Pillai

Letters: Natalie Jane

In Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas, Gretchen von Harben (all grown up her from last appearance as a twelve-year-old girl in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins) narrates to an unseen audience her first visit to Pellucidar, the hidden world at the Earth’s core. Accompanying adventurer Jason Gridley on the airship Favonia as a college student, Gretchen is knocked loose when the Favonia is attacked by a flock of pterosaurs. She parachutes to a remote, uncharted island with only a pistol and limited ammo. There she encounters beings fans of the Pellucidar books will recognize (human Gilaks and ape-like Sagoths) as well as entirely new races that this series adds to the official Burroughs canon (Kratalaks and Azlaks). Gretchen faces a lot of peril over the course of four issues, and in the tradition of the strong female Burroughs characters who have preceded her (Jane Porter-Clayton, Dejah Thoris, Duare, and more), she more than rises to the occasion. This may be Gretchen’s first recorded adventure as an adult, but I certainly hope it’s not the last. She’s an engaging and dynamic character who deserves to be featured (along with the supporting cast that’s been built around her) in many more stories.

Christopher Paul Carey crafted the general story of Gretchen’s first adventure in Pellucidar, originally intending it to be a novel. Writer Mike Wolfer did a wonderful job converting the story to comic book form, pacing the story perfectly across four issues. Fewer issues would have rushed the story too much, and I think five or six issues would have padded the story out too much. Reading the series as it was issued in monthly (or as close to monthly as the publisher could get given various supply chain issues plaguing small independent publishers these days), I was very satisfied with where each issue left off – cliffhangers, of course, as befits a story that could easily have been told as a classic 1940s movie serial – and never felt like the drama of the end of a chapter was unearned. Carey is a Burroughsian scholar of the highest level, and Wolfer matches him well in creating a story that Burroughs would be proud of. For instance, I have no idea how much of the dialogue was in Carey’s original plot, how much the writers crafted together, and how much is purely Wolfer – but regardless, each character’s voice is distinctive and clear while still being perfectly Burroughsian in style.

Complimenting the writing, Miriana Puglia’s artwork is wonderful. Her clean lines and fluid body language convey action and emotion with equal clarity. Fight scenes have a flow and symmetry that makes them easy to follow, and upon multiple reads tiny details stand out. And when it’s time to go creepy (as one almost inevitably must when adventuring in Pellucidar), Puglia absolutely rises to the occasion. There’s one particular page in issue 4, for example, which made me a bit nauseous (trust me, this is a compliment.). Colorist Periya Pillai keeps the action well-lit with a mix of bold and quiet colors as appropriate to the scene; even moments in dark caves or underwater are easy to follow because Pillai’s colors don’t go so dark that they subsume Puglia’s art.

In recent years, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. has made a concerted effort to expand the official canon of the ERB Universe with new novels and comics series like this one, that bear the “Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe” banner across the top of the cover as well as an “Official ERB Universe Canon” stamp and hew as closely to Burroughs’ original interconnectedness universe as possible. In the novels of the current “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, readers have been introduced to an intrepid young woman traversing time and space named Victory Harben. Yes, there’s a direct connection between the Gretchen von Harben of Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas and the Victory Harben who has been appearing in those novels: it’s not a spoiler to reveal here that Victory is Gretchen’s daughter and is the person to whom Gretchen is narrating this story. Along with appearing in the novels/novellas already released, Victory will take center stage in her own novel later this year – but before that, she’s also been the star of another American Mythology / ERB Universe comic book mini-series: Beyond the Farthest Star: Warriors of Zandar, which will be the subject of next week’s Series Saturday post.

Review of TARZAN: BATTLE FOR PELLUCIDAR

TITLE: Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar (Swords of Eternity Super-Arc #2, Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe)

AUTHOR: Win Scott Eckert

312 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., ISBN 978194562269 (paperback, hardcover, limited hardcover, ebook)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): Tarzan of the Apes, Jason Gridley, and the crew of the airship O-220 return to Pellucidar, the world at the Earth’s core, on a wartime mission to stop the Nazis from obtaining a powerful superweapon. But when the Lord of the Jungle’s murderous adversaries partner with the Mahars—Pellucidar’s routed reptilian overlords—and his adventurous granddaughter Suzanne goes missing on a reconnaissance mission, can Tarzan prevent the conquest and enslavement of all humanity in both the inner and outer worlds? 

Bonus Novelette: “Victory Harben: Clash on Caspak” by Mike Wolfer: Hurled through time and space from her homeworld of Pellucidar, Victory Harben plummets into peril when she finds herself on the island continent of Caspak, the Land That Time Forgot. Using skills learned from her friend Tarzan and the Stone Age land of her birth, Victory fights for her very survival against savage beasts and uncanny Wieroos, the winged humanoid terrors of Caspak. But that is only the beginning of her trials, as a strange visitor arrives with an omen of Victory’s role in the machinations of the Swords of Eternity super-arc!

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS:

Note: I reviewed this book via an electronic Advance Review Copy. The book will be published in October by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 24 Tarzan novels (25 if we include Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins, which would now be considered a “middle grade” novel, I think, or 26 if we include Tarzan: The Lost Adventure, which Joe Lansdale completed from a manuscript started by Burroughs), and six Pellucidar novels. Burroughs virtually created the idea of fictional universes, linking his various series in ever-inventive ways to create a consistent whole. (See for instance the novel Tarzan at the Earth’s Core, in which the Jungle Lord visits the Hollow Earth for the first time.) Over the years since Burroughs’ passing, the Burroughs Estate has “authorized” quite a lot of novels featuring Tarzan, John Carter, Carson Napier, and other Burroughs creations. But only recently has the estate, through Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., decided to issue new works tied intimately enough to the detailed chronology and characterizations of the original books to be considered “canonical” (as compared to merely “authorized.”)

So how does one approach reading a new canonical novel that once again ties two of Burroughs’ most well-known series together, especially if that book is also the second title in a new “super-arc” connecting even more of Burroughs’ original creations? Must one read all of the Tarzan and Pellucidar novels before opening the cover of Win Scott Eckert’s Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar?

I am happy to report the answer to that question is “no.” I have read only a small handful of the original Tarzan novels and none of the Pellucidar series. Tarzan at the Earth’s Core is not one of the handful of Tarzan novels I have read. Despite these holes in my Burroughsian reading history, I loved this book and was fully engaged with the characters and plot throughout.

Win Scott Eckert has not only crafted a novel that is true to the character of Tarzan as detailed by Burroughs in the original novels (versus what we see in most movie/television versions), he’s given us a novel that is an excellent jumping-on point for readers who are new to Tarzan, to Pellucidar, or to both. There was not a moment in this book where I felt like I was missing out on vital information by not having read the originals. And even though this is the second book in the new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe “Swords of Eternity super-arc,” one does not have to have read the preceding release (Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds, written by Matt Betts) to jump into this one. Like Burroughs himself, the new ERBU writers are working hard to make every book accessible on its own. Eckert does this by having characters reminisce about previous exploits in just enough detail to fill new readers in without derailing the momentum of the current story, supplemented by footnotes letting the reader know where to go to read the original stories.

Eckert gives us the Tarzan I remember from the few novels I’ve read and from the DC and Marvel comics of the late 70s: imposing, multi-lingual, a strategist when called for and a brute force when appropriate, a man who loves his family and will do anything to protect them, a man who can fit with “polite society” but who always has “the beast” simmering under the surface. Here, he is the focal point around whom everything else orbits, the most compelling character in a cast of compelling characters. The best Tarzan writers understand how to use the Jungle Lord’s personal dichotomies to propel a story, and Eckert proves here that he is among the best.

Eckert also does a wonderful job incorporating the setting of Pellucidar into the novel almost as another character. I’m intrigued by the way time does/doesn’t move in the “hollow Earth,” and how the landscape and stationary sun and moon influence the way characters think and react. I really cannot wait to go back and read the Burroughs originals as well as the soon-to-be-rereleased (by ERB, Inc.) authorized sequels by John Eric Holmes, and all credit for that goes to Win Eckert. (Okay, perhaps a little bit of credit should also go to Mike Grell, whose hidden world of Skartaris in DC Comics’ The Warlord was my first and most beloved exposure to the “hollow Earth” concept and which was clearly inspired by Pellucidar.)

Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar is also as fast-paced as one would expect from a Burroughs novel. There’s a bit of slow set-up in the first few chapters as Eckert moves all of his chess pieces into place, but after that the action is pretty much non-stop. As with Burroughs, Eckert expresses characterization as much through action as through internal monologue. I read the second half of the book in one sitting. Burroughs wrote several books in which Tarzan and Korak fight in World War One, so it’s a natural extension of the brand that a still fighting-fit Lord John Clayton and his family members would be tapped to help protect England from the Nazi menace of the Second World War. Especially when the Nazis are on the verge of discovering Pellucidar and the mind-controlling abilities of the native Mahars.

Much has been made of the “Swords of Eternity” super-arc introducing a new lead character, Victory Harben, into the ERBU. In Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, we get to see Victory at a much younger age and see the experience that transforms her life and brings her under the care of Tarzan and Jane in England. But Victory isn’t the only “next generation” character being added to Burroughs’ family trees. In Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, Eckert introduces us to Suzanne Clayton (Tarzan’s grand-daughter, the second child of Tarzan’s son Korak and daughter-in-law Meriem) and to Janson Gridley (son of Jason Gridley and Pellucidarian native Jana). Suzanne follows closely in her father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, plunging into adventure without so much as a backwards glance, equally at home in the jungle as in a city. Janson doesn’t see much action but I loved the almost-sibling interplay between him and Victory (who is Jason Gridley’s god-daughter). I hope that as the new ERBU progresses, we’ll see more of both of these younger characters alongside Victory and Korak and Meriem’s son Jackie Clayton. While it has been well-established by Burroughs himself that Tarzan and his immediate family are very long-lived and essentially immortal (something the Jungle Lord ruminates about a lot in this book, which takes place during World War II), injecting new characters into the ERBU also follows Burroughs’ own tradition.

The main novel is followed by a bonus novelette, “Clash on Caspak,” which connects the current super-arc to yet another of Burroughs’ original on-going series: “The Land That Time Forgot.” I’ve never read the Caspak books, although I remember the movies based on them. Mike Wolfer does a great job relaying what makes Caspak similar to and yet unique from Pellucidar through Victory Harben’s eyes. The novelette advances Victory’s storyline that started in Christopher Paul Carey’s novelette “Dark Heart of the Sun,” giving us more hints about why Victory is being bounced through time and space and what role her mysterious tattoo might play. As I may have mentioned, I find Victory an intriguing character and can’t wait for her to star in her own novel (titled Fires of Halos and due out sometime in 2021, I believe).

Review of CARSON OF VENUS THE EDGE OF ALL WORLDS

TITLE: Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds (ERB Universe #1, Swords of Eternity Super-Arc #1)

AUTHOR: Matt Betts

278 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462238 (hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Stranded on an alien world for nearly two decades, Earthman Carson Napier finds his own past haunting him in strange and terrifying ways when he’s confronted by a sinister madman bent on ruling Amtor. To stop his opponent and his insidious weapon, Carson must gather an alliance of friends and former enemies alike in an epic struggle for control of the planet. A stand-alone novel, this book also launches ERB, Inc.’s new canonical line of stories and the “Swords of Eternity” four-book super-arc. The book also includes a new Pellucidar-related short story by Christopher Paul Carey.

MY RATING: Five out of five stars

MY THOUGHTS: If I didn't know better, I would think I had just read a long-lost Edgar Rice Burroughs manuscript discovered somewhere in the depths of the offices of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. in Tarzana, CA. Matt Betts does a truly wonderful job of matching the tone and pacing of Burroughs' five original Carson of Venus books, and that includes a pitch-perfect prologue in which Betts, visiting the Burroughs offices to pitch a different project, meets Carson Napier himself – or at least Carson’s astral projection, reaching someone on Earth for the first time since the death of Burroughs himself back in 1950. Burroughs often inserted himself in his pulp adventures as the man asked by the characters in question (Tarzan, John Carter, Carson, etc.) to turn their true-life adventures into novels for the masses.

In typical Carson Napier fashion, once the action starts it doesn't stop: Carson and his team (the love of his life, Duare, and his best friends Ero Shan and Nalte) manage to turn a simple scouting mission into a combination of search-and-rescue, espionage, and a bit of social influencing as they come across other characters, despite orders from their jong ("king") to simply scout and return with information. It's not that Carson and his friends intentionally disobey orders -- it's that they just keep stumbling on things that take them further from home and closer to the source of their (and their kingdom's) latest problem. The action ranges across locations on Amtor (the native name for Venus) both familiar to long-time readers and newly-revealed in this adventure. The action scenes contain all the derring-do one expects of a Burroughs novel and all of the near-fatal-misses one expects of a Carson book. Unlike a number of Burroughs’ more well-known characters, Carson is not a capital-H Hero or a superhuman. He’s a man who made a mistake in his calculations (aimed his rocket-ship for Mars but ended up on Venus instead, inspiring some readers to call him “Wrong-Way Carson”) and just keeps finding himself in one dangerous situation after another with no choice but to survive or die.

I've always felt that as much as Burroughs interconnected his series in his original novels (Tarzan has traveled to Pellucidar; Jason Gridley's "Gridley Wave" allows communication between Barsoom, surface Earth, and Pellucidar), Carson always seemed the odd man out: he communicated his adventures to Burroughs via astral projection, but otherwise seemed to have little or no connection to the others Burroughs wrote about. Betts reveals a previously-unknown friendship between Carson and Gridley from before Carson left Earth, and (this is not really a spoiler) an appearance by Gridley in this novel not only deepens the connective tissue but also sets up the "Swords of Eternity Super-Arc" of which this is the first book. For those concerned: this IS a Carson of Venus novel first and foremost. The nods at the Super-Arc help propel this story rather than sidetrack or derail the action (the way most tie-ins to DC or Marvel Comics "Events" often derail the action of the ongoing series they appear in), and the story Betts starts in chapter one concludes in this book. No cliffhangers, no "to be continued in the pages of...". Betts follows Burroughs in telling a complete-in-one adventure yarn that still feels like a part of something larger.

But Betts isn't simply a Burroughs imitator. The author's sly sense of humor and ability to craft exciting action sequences carries through and enhances the story in ways mere imitation would not, especially in the creation of three new characters that I hope we'll see more of in any future Carson of Venus novels. I sincerely hope ERB Inc. will continue to tap Betts to write further Carson novels. He's clearly able to bring a modern sensibility to standard Burroughs fare, integrating it cleanly without denigrating or over-writing the original Master.

The book also comes with a bonus short story written by Christopher Paul Carey, which fills us in on just how Jason Gridley came to appear in front of his old friend Carson on Venus. This is the true start of the "Swords of Eternity Super-Arc," and it's a tightly-told tale that takes place in Pellucidar, is narrated by Jason Gridley, and introduces new ERB character Victory Harben. It’s not a spoiler to mention that while Victory is a new character, her personal history comes from material Burroughs actually wrote; her family can be traced back to several different Tarzan novels. We get to see just enough of her that I can confidently say she is absolutely a Burroughs heroine: as smart, tenacious, and strong as Jane Porter-Clayton, Dejah Thoris, and Duare. I'm excited to see where the Super-Arc takes her between here and the fourth book in the “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, Victory Harben: The Fires of Halos, which will also be written by Carey. She is sure to  join the pantheon of Burroughs characters people want to know more about.

Oh, and speaking of Victory: to steal a movie phrase, be sure to stick around for the “after-credits scene.” If you’re the type of reader who skips the acknowledgements, etc., at the end of a book, you might miss out on an interesting little teaser.

**NOTE: This review was written after reading an Advance Review Copy provided by the publishers in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.**