June 2021

Adventure Fiction Book Review

 Tarzan and the Leopard Men

This is a perfunctory Tarzan story. Tarzan is rootless, just a roving jungle demigod.

Amnesia with no purpose
A falling tree knocks Tarzan on the head and gives him amnesia, but conveniently he still acts precisely as he would have had he not lost his memory. When he recovers his memory later, "he marvelled at the coincidence of later events that had guided his footsteps along the very paths that he had intended treading before accident had robbed him of the memory of his purpose." So there is no reason for the amnesia plot.

Dread society of Leopard Men
Tarzan's purpose in this part of the African jungle is to find and destroy the Leopard Men. This secret society terrorizes many villages and tribes through ritual murder and cannibalism. The members gather secretly, don disguises of real leopard skins, ritualistically murder their victims, and eat their flesh. Hidden deep in the jungle is their secret temple where they worship the Leopard God.

An aside: the real Leopard Men
It happens that the Leopard Men were a real phenomenon found across western Africa. They did dress like leopards and murder people. Details are scarce, but from what I can tell, the societies operated more like hired hit men who propped up local warlords than a secret religious society. The reports indicate there was some ritual cannibalism, but how true that was I am unable to ascertain. This wasn't deep in the jungle, either, it was in towns, mostly in west Africa. (I've heard Nigeria, Congo, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Liberia.) Many Leopard Men were arrested, tried, and hanged by the colonial governments. Dr. Vicky L. M. Van Bockhaven has written a thesis on the subject of the Leopard Men in Eastern Congo (which are distinct from the Leopard Men in other parts of Africa), which I found informative: The Leopard Men of the Eastern Congo (ca. 1890-1940): history and colonial representation. Given the dates, I suspect it was the reports of Leopard Men murder in Congo (around 1930) that prompted Edgar Rice Burroughs to feature them in this Tarzan story (published 1932-1933.)

Kali Bwana and the ivory poachers
Also wandering the jungle is a young while woman referred to only as Kali Bwana, who is hunting for someone named Jerry. Also there are two luckless ivory poachers, referred to as The Kid and Old Timer. Edgar Rice Burroughs keeps their names and true identities secret so he can spring a hoary old surprise at the end of the book, but it's not a stretch to guess that The Kid is the "Jerry" that Kali Bwana is searching for. Nor is it a big surprise that Kali Bwana is Jerry's sister, or that Old Timer and Kali fall in love.

The apes
Edgar Rice Burroughs writes himself into a tight spot, so he has Tarzan call for help from the mangani. It is not the laziest writing in the world, because ERB does set it up beforehand to be believable, but it's pretty transparent.

Colonialism and racism
It should go without saying, but I'll say it again: the Tarzan books are pretty racist and colonialist. Things get better when there are long-lost pocket civilizations like the Ant Men, or the lost Roman colony. But when it's just Tarzan, a few other white people, and various groups of African tribesmen roaming the jungle? Oh man, it gets rough. That's why I prefer to read his Barsoom books or the Pellucidar stories: they have all of the best creativity that Burroughs has to offer with less of the patronizing colonialist attitudes that permeate the Tarzan stories. In Tarzan and the Leopard Men we don't even get much of Edgar Rice Burroughs's creativity. It's a boring and perfunctory adventure.

I found it unsatisfying. It may be the blandest and most disappointing Tarzan adventure so far.

Fantasy Book Review

 The Fellowship of the Ring

It's a slower book than I remembered.

Science Fiction Book Review

 Children in the Night

"A Novel"
Novels that have to include the words "A Novel" on the cover usually are not good. In the case of Children in the Night, the author Harold Myra is better known as a writer of Christian non-fiction, so I guess "A Novel" is just truth in advertising.

Children in the Night is a novel. It is a science fiction novel. It is also a Christian allegory, which presumably is why Zondervan published it. As science fiction it is successful, particularly the worldbuilding. As an allegory I'm not satisfied with it. And for pure storytelling, the plot suffers due to the needs of the allegory (I think.)

Worldbuilding
The world of Aliare is a vast network of underground caverns, a land of eternal darkness. The only light comes from fireflies, occasional bioluminescent fish, and sparks from flint. The people who live in Aliare mark the passing of days by sierent, violent watery storms fed by tidal movement of waters into and out of their underground world. This knowledge is woven into their religious lore:

"In the beginning, the world above was bathed in light. But Eshtel brought judgment. A great sphere struck the planet, breaking apart continents, shattering civilizations.

"The world became void; a thick dust covered the surface.

"Eshtel moved again, creating a new world. Waters rushed into deep fissures in the planet's crust, gouging out canyons and peaks, shaping a new land in the hollows beneath the surface.

"This new world he called 'Aliare.'

"As the planet moved on its axis, torrents from the sea plummeted deep into the chasms. This he called 'ute.'

"As the planet turned, the waters reversed direction, exploding up and out. This he called 'kelerai.'

"The reversal of ute and kelerai caused violent storms to engulf all of Aliare. This he called 'sierent.'"

Yosha and Asel
The story follows two young people, Yosha and Asel, from the kingdom of Askirit in the land of Tarn in Aliare. The Askirit are a religious people, and their rituals and lore revolve chiefly around light. None have ever seen the light, save a few sparks, but they believe that there is light and that someday they will find it.

Allegory: light
And here is where we get our first allegorical symbol: light. The Askirit claim to seek the light. The light they seek is literal light. But it also seems to be a stand-in for goodness and an opposition to evil. They know that "light" comes from above, on the surface of their planet. Conversely, evil comes from below: they fear the pit, the abyss, the chasm--and the evil spirits they think come from the pit.

I'm not sure how realistic it is for a people who live in total darkness to seek the light, or to even understand what light is. But it makes for an intriguing story.

Deadly creatures: pectin, keitr, Kjotik, merret
Aliare is a tough world. The people must not only deal with the daily sierent storms, they must also watch out for all manner of deadly animals. A deadly insect called a pectin has a habit of burrowing into the flesh of anybody it meets. Venomous bats called keitr are deadly. The sea is filled with dangerous creatures, including Kjotik, the leviathan.

And it's not just wild animals. For a people who claim to be peaceful and who seek the light, the inhabitants of Aliare are surprisingly violent and cruel. All Askirit men are armed with pouches of keitr which they can launch at enemies. The people of Laij use savage rodents called merrets to rip out the throats of their enemies. It is a cruel world.

War
The Laij invade Askirit. King Rycal betrays the Askirit to the Laij, and the remaining faithful Askirit flee to the high rocky places. Yosha organizes a resistance. The religious leader Hrusc organizes another faction, but Hrusc would rather fight against what he thinks is apostasy and impurity among the Askirit than cooperate with Yosha to overthrow the Laij. After various schemes, successes, and failures (including Yosha being crowned as the new king of the Askirit, and cementing his position by a marriage to Asel--which has religious significance due to her role as the Varial), it eventually comes down to one final battle.

Yosha loses. Hrusc outsmarts Yosha and the Laij, and he takes Yosha and Asel prisoner. He has Asel and Yosha brought to a high place, The Skull, where he sentences them to death.

Allegory: The Skull
Here's another big symbol. The death sentence is at a place called The Skull. (Golgotha, anyone?) Hrusc sentences Yosha and Asel to walk The Bridge, a narrow bridge of rock that crosses over a great chasm. If he falls, he dies. If he makes it across, he lives and it proves his innocence. But the Bridge has a gap; nobody can cross it. All will fall.

Allegory: the DawnBreaker
Auret, a cripple whose name means DawnBreaker, volunteers to cross the Bridge first. Hrusc humors him. Auret walks the Bridge. Successfully. In a rage, Hrusc throws Auret into the pit. Immediately tremors rock Aliare. A crack in the vault of the ceiling lets down a beam of light. The earthquake throws Hrusc into the pit.

After a few minutes, the crack in the ceiling closes and Aliare is again in utter darkness.

This time, though, the people know. Before he fell to his death, the cripple Auret has told them how to find the light: through the pit. A small group of faithful climb down into the pit, then back up through a series of caverns, and emerge onto the surface. Auret is there.

How did he escape death? Auret explains: "The way was always through sacrifice. But death is not forever." Auret then lifts their eyes to the sky. Supernaturally, he gives them new eyes to see. They see and marvel at the stars. They revel in the light..

Then the dawn breaks. The sun comes up.

If that's not an allegory I don't know what is.

Does it all work?
Sort of. Not really. The worldbuilding is good, but the plot suffered from being bent to fit the needs of the allegory. Plus, it was never clear to me that anybody in Aliare had ever actually attempted to seek the light. They talked about the light all the time, but nobody ever looked for it. So the revelation at the end--that the path to the light was through the Pit--didn't work. After an entire book where the Askirit talk about light as a metaphor for moral goodness, suddenly the light is a literal thing again? Nope.

Adventure Fiction Book Review

 Jason of Pellucidar

Jason of Pellucidar is a long novelette, just under 17,000 words. It's a fan fiction story and is available online: Jason of Pellucidar, by Richard Senate.

Not bad, needs editing
It's a decent work of fan fiction. I enjoyed it, but it could use another pass at editing. The text has misspellings, comma splices, awkwardly constructed sentences, mistakes in tense, capitalization, extraneous spaces and line breaks, and at least once it switched from first person to third person. These are easily fixable, but ultimately forgivable in a work of fan fiction.

The storytelling itself was OK, but it is begging to be rewritten and expanded. The Mahars in particular need a stronger and more central role. Once the Empire and the Mahars form an alliance, the Mahars are effectively written out of the story. It is Sarians and Sagoths who defend the city of Mahara, and the army of the Empire, lead by Ghak the Hairy One and Ja of Anoroc, who finally defeat the rebels. The Mahars do literally nothing in the final three chapters.

So it could also use a bit of a rewrite to include more about the Mahars. I'd also like to see a proper duel to dispose of the villain Gunt. (Having him die offstage didn't satisfy me.) Also, maybe play up the friendship between Jason and Slug the Sagoth. Oh, and the big deal made about the pistols that Perry made for Jason? I don't think that worked--either expand on it, or drop it entirely.

Abner Perry
I liked the parts with Abner Perry. He's easy to write scenes for and is a lot of fun. Maybe an extra scene or two for him.

---

Chapter One: Revolt!
Jason Innes is the son of David Innes, Emperor of Pellucidar. David Innes mounts an expedition to Zoram to retrieve the wreckage of the airplane brought to Pellucidar by Jason Gridley in the O-220 dirigible. Jason stays in Sari. Gunt of the Armaz Tribe starts a revolution against the Empire. He sacks Thuria and Kali. He claims David is dead and vows to "take Sari and make Dian the Beautiful his mate!"

Chapter Two: The Cry of Battle
Jason Innes leads a force of a few hundred veteran warriors, including loyal Sagoths, to attack Gunt, while Ghak the Hairy One stays to defend Sari and gather a larger army. Abner Perry gives Jason two revolvers. A deranged man named Fang claims he can lead Jason to the Armazite army. His Sagoth officers do not trust Fang, but Jason considers the Sagoths stupid and overly suspicious, so he overrules them. Fang leads them all into a trap.

Chapter Three: Weena
Jason orders a retreat. He flees into the jungle and evades Gunt's soldiers, who are seeking to capture him alive. He loses one of the revolvers. Jason wanders, lost, for many sleeps. He rescues a young woman from a tiger. Her name is Weena and she is from the Thali tribe and she is loyal to the Empire. The traitor Fang is her husband.

Chapter Four: Among the Mahars
Weena explains that her father promised her to Fang, but she escaped to the forest before she could be joined to him. From the forest she watched Gunt and the Armaz army attack her tribe and kill many, including her father. Weena believes Fang betrayed the Thali tribe to Gunt.

Jason and Weena are captured by a group of Sagoths, who take them to the Mahars in the hidden city of Mahara.

Chapter Five: Mahara
The Sagoths take Jason before the queen Mahar, Song-To-To. Jason knows Mahar sign language and converses with her. The Mahar knows of David Innes and the Empire, and respects him. She accepts Jason as a friend. The Mahars are enemies of Gunt, so Jason proposes they work together: Mahar brains and aerial surveillance will be a great help in defeating the rebellion. Another Mahar arrives with news: Gunt and his rebels have taken David Innes captive.

Chapter Six: The Caves of Thali
Gunt's army is camped by the caves of Thali. While the Mahars and Sagoths launch a diversionary attack, Weena guides Jason and a small force of Sagoths to rescue David Innes. The rescue is successful. Back at Mahara, David and Jason, the Mahars and the Sagoths prepare for an assault by the full force of Gunt's rebellion. Weena and Jason declare their love for each other.

Chapter Seven: The Battle of Mahara
Gunt's army attacks. The men of Sari and the Sagoths of Mahara beat back the first wave of attack.

Chapter Eight: Fang's Treachery
Fang comes to parley under a flag of truce, but it's a ruse: when he gets close enough, he lobs a hand bomb, destroying the 32 pound cannon defending Mahara. The attackers breach the walls. The battle descends into the chaos of hand-to-hand combat.

Chapter Nine: The Black Finger
The full army of the Empire arrives and defeats the rebels. Gunt is killed by artillery. Fang tries to shoot Jason. Weena jumps in the way and takes the bullet, saving Jason's life at the cost of her own. Jason kills Fang. The end.

---

Taking a Bullet--Twice
I happen to have read the sequel, Up From Pellucidar. In that book, like this one, Jason is saved from certain death when the heroine takes a bullet for him. Fortunately for the girl in that story, she lives. In this story, Weena is not so lucky: she dies saving Jason.

This is not my favorite sort of story. I like heroes and princesses who act out their classic roles. The princess dying to save her man is not what I wanted. But I suppose we've had plenty of stories done in the classic way, so it's not so bad to have this one end with a twist.

Sword and Planet Story Review

 Mars: The Home Front

A crossover between Wells and Burroughs. The War of the Worlds meets A Princess of Mars. The story is excellent work and captures the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The only disappointment is that it's not a complete story. It's scarcely the beginning. This is the first chapter or two in what would be a worthy entry in the Barsoom series.

Alas, it ends just as it was getting good.

It's included in the collection War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, edited by Kevin J. Anderson. The collection includes a number of War of the Worlds stories written in the style of other famous authors.

Adventure Fiction Book Review

 Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers

This book was a limited edition published with permission from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and was intended as a bonus book for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) 2020 gathering. Due to the covid pandemic the attendance at the ECOF 2020 gathering was minimal, meaning there were plenty of books left over. That's good news for me, because I managed to buy one of those leftover copies. Mine is #173 of 350. I enjoyed both stories, but I particularly liked Tarzan and the Secret of Katanga.

Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers
There are two stories in this book, and the first tells about how Tarzan and the Waziri moved from west Africa to east Africa. Astute readers of the Tarzan series will remember that in the first few books, Tarzan and the Waziri tribe are in the western part of Africa. In later books, Tarzan and the Waziri are in British East Africa. Edgar Rice Burroughs never explained this shift in locations.

Gary A. Buckingham has rectified that oversight. Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers details how Tarzan secured a land grant in British East Africa (modern Kenya), then moved the Waziri tribe out of their temporary homeland in Portuguese West Africa (modern Angola) to their new, permanent homeland. The story is meticulously researched. Buckingham does everything possible to fit the Tarzan story into the real world and make it fit. It's a bit intense for me, but I'm sure it's the perfect sort of story for its intended audience: the attendees of the ECOF 2020 gathering.

Well done.

Tarzan and the Secret of Katanga
The other story was previously printed as a bonus story in the hardcover edition of Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don by Will Murrary. I haven't bought Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don yet, and I generally buy paperbacks, so this is my first time reading it.

It's an exciting story. It's researched and set in historical context as well, but it's a much more accessible story that can be enjoyed by any Tarzan fan, not just superfans. It's set during World War II and features Tarzan and German Nazis fighting over uranium ore from the Shinkolobwe mine in the Katanga province of Belgian Congo.

Also, there is a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Adventure Fiction Book Review

 Moon Maid at the Earth's Core

Read this book online at Tangor's Pastiche and Fan Fiction: Moon Maid at the Earth's Core, by Andy Nunez.

Moon Maid at the Earth's Core is the best little book I've read in ages. I'm a sucker for Pellucidar fiction, and I'm especially interested in anything that features the pendent moon of Pellucidar. So Moon Maid at the Earth's Core checks all the boxes. It's like Andy Nunez wrote it just for me.

It should be canon
I've read 57 books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and quite a few pastiches and fan fiction novels. Most of the fan fiction is written for the purpose of taking a new and fresh view of ERB's worlds. You know, parody, or maybe adding some gritty realism, or maybe turning the story on its head by portraying the hero as a bit of a jerk. That's fun, but it means they don't fit well into the established canon.

Not so with Moon Maid at the Earth's Core. I think this could be considered canonical. The only other non-ERB story that made me think it could be added right into the official series is The Forgotten Sea of Mars by Michael Resnick, which (in my mind anyway) should be added to Llana of Gathol in all future printings.

Moon Maid at the Earth's Core fits right into the ERB universe. It fits better than Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time by Philip José Farmer, which is a semi-official entry. If ERB, Inc. is including that book as official, well, then I'm including Moon Maid at the Earth's Core in my canon.

This is excellent work. I have noted a lot of minor quibbles below, but these quibbles are probably fewer than I have with actual ERB books. (I like his stuff, but man, some of it has problems.)

Plot summary (warning: spoilers)
The plot is perfectly Burroughsesque. Byron Jasper Wells is a P-38 pilot for the US Navy, on Arctic patrol duty during World War II. He gets lost, flies into Pellucidar via the north polar opening, and has a fantastic adventure. First he falls in with an Italian explorer, Giuseppe Rinaldo, who has also strayed into Pellucidar. Giuseppe is accompanied by a woman named Salome, who claims to be from the moon, and Salome's slave Ee-la-nah. Wells has read a little about Pellucidar from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, so he suggests they head towards Sari and contact Emperor David Innes. But first they need fuel for the P-38.

Fortunately the fuel problem is solved when they meet a solitary Mahar and make a deal: the Mahar will help them distill gasoline if they will take him to Phutra. Making a deal with a Mahar is risky, but they have no other choice. (As it happens, the Mahar keeps his end of the bargain. He seems a particularly progressive and humble individual, for a Mahar anyway.)

Wells picks up a pet tarag (saber-toothed tiger) that he names Lightning. They won't all fit in the P-38 so Giuseppe designs and builds a glider for the P-38 to tow. (I love that. It's a clever bit of writing. There's a problem, and the characters solve it with ingenuity and hard work. There's no cheating on the part of the author here.)

On their flight to Sari they meet trouble: an advance scouting party of aircraft from the Race. The Race live on the pendent moon of Pellucidar, and they are analogous to Nazis. They've filled up their world and now seek more land, so they've built a fleet of airplanes and airships to invade and conquer Pellucidar. The flimsy primitive aircraft of the Race are no match for a P-38, but Wells is one man with a single airplane. The Race have a whole army and a world at their disposal.

Wells shoots down several enemy aircraft before being forced down. The upshot: the Mahar grabs Ee-la-nah and strikes out for Phutra on his own, before the Race can capture them. The Race murder Salome out of hand (she lied about being from the pendent moon so they killed her), then follow the Mahar and Ee-la-nah to Phutra. Wells and Giuseppe escape and make their way to Sari, where they warn David Innes. While the Empire of Pellucidar prepares for war, Wells takes his P-38 and goes to rescue his true love Ee-la-nah, who, as it turns out, is actually from the pendent moon. She is the real moon maid.

Wells flies to Phutra, where he finds the Mahar, dying. The Mahar tells him that the Race took Ee-la-nah back to the pendent moon. Wells flies his P-38 all the way to the moon and lands right on one of their military airstrips. He's immediately captured, interrogated, thrown into prison, and assigned to hard labor. Conveniently, in the work gang he meets Ee-la-nah's brother Othniel. Together they stage an uprising and rescue Ee-la-nah. Wells takes her back to Sari.

Then, the war. The forces of the Race are formidable, and the hastily-devised anti-aircraft guns and rockets of Sari only slow them down. The Race lands an invasion force complete with armored tanks. Things are looking bleak when a regiment of lidi riders charge into the fray. Their diplodocus mounts knock the tanks around like toys. Then, an advance force from Sari bombs the pendent moon with incendiary balloons, causing widespread devastation. Faced with aerial bombardment and utter devastation, the citizens of the Race rise up and overthrow their warmongering government, and sue for peace.

The end.

Thoughts on style and storytelling
It's not ERB's style, it's quite a bit more casual. That's OK, ERB's style is hard to mimic, and it's nice to get a story told in a different voice.

Storytelling-wise, it worked well. There were a couple of spots where the action was unclear. In particular I'm thinking of when he flew toward Thuria and the pendent moon, I was unsure whether he landed in Thuria or flew directly to the moon. (It was Thuria, but I was unsure for a few paragraphs.)

The Pendent Moon
The moon of Pellucidar should have a name. Burroughs called it a pendent world. (Note, pendent, not pendant. Adjective vs. noun.) But that's a description, not a name. William Gilmour called it Orbitar in his story Back to the Earth's Core, a story I quite enjoyed. F. Paul Wilson calls it the Dead World in his story The Dead World, which I haven't yet read. In this story, I think the Race that lives on the moon should have a name for it.

Some quibbles about the pendent moon: In Pellucidar, Edgar Rice Burroughs states that it floats only a mile above the surface. That's a little over 5000 feet, and the P-38 routinely flies 10,000 or 20,000 feet. In Moon Maid at the Earth's Core the pendent moon is farther away, at least a few miles.

More moon quibbles: The moon "rotated slowly in an exact parallel to the surface below. With night and day, it was a question whether the inhabitants were constrained by time as on the outer surface." I would take rotating "in an exact parallel to the surface below" to indicate that the same side of the moon is always facing the surface of Pellucidar. But that's not what this means, because that would mean one side of the moon is perpetually in darkness and the other perpetually in the light. What this actually means is what Burroughs explained in Pellucidar: "I saw that it was revolving upon an axis that lay parallel to the surface of Pellucidar, so that during each revolution its entire surface was once exposed to the world below and once bathed in the heat of the great sun above."

If I stop to ponder it, I cannot quite grasp what "parallel" means in relation to the inside of a sphere. In any case, the moon of Pellucidar has day and night. Whether these are the same length as Earth's day and night is not mentioned. Perhaps these questions of impossible orbital mechanics are best left alone. I will just read the story and enjoy it.

Names
The names are odd. Why do the men of the Race have Bible names? Jehoida and Othniel are straight from the Old Testament. But then Ee-la-nah is a totally different naming style. If you're going to have the men and women of a race named with completely different styles, that needs to be addressed and explained.

The problem of Salome
Then there is the problem of Salome. Again, a Bible name--but this time, a Greek name from the New Testament instead of an Israelite name from the Old Testament. Further, we never learn who Salome is, where she came from, or what her story is. But worst, she's killed off casually and brutally. Murdered by the Race. I know this isn't an Edgar Rice Burroughs story, and we want to show how evil the Race is, but I had a visceral and negative reaction to her callous demise. The proper fate for a selfish and disloyal woman in a story like this is to pair her off with a pompous and cowardly dilettante.

Framing device
I appreciated the framing device in the Prologue. It makes the story feel authentic.

First person
The story is written in first person. That's fine. Edgar Rice Burroughs does that sometimes. I gather that it's frowned upon, and most books are written in the third person. The third person viewpoint allows for the author to show different characters and different parts of the action, and can sometimes be better for the overall plot. A strict first person story is only going to show a single point of view, unless we have internal narrators who tell their own stories.

Humor
I found the parts that poke fun at Edgar Rice Burroughs to be genuinely funny. I laughed. For example:

Jehoida rushed to me and I gave him a boot in a place no self-respecting Edgar Rice Burroughs hero would strike.

---

"I will help you because I wish Ee-la-nah to escape also. My name is Othniel."

I was immediately suspicious. "Why do you wish this?"

"She is my sister, you big ugly below-worlder," he stated. I was at once relieved. Had this been an actual Burroughs tale, I might have gone for a long time thinking he was a rival lover."

However, that humor may not work unless it is consistent. Either the whole book is a parody, or the whole book plays it straight. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, truly. But a mostly-serious book with a few gags slipped in is OK for intense fans like me, but not for the general reader.

The Title is a Problem
The title Moon Maid at the Earth's Core makes me think this story is related to Edgar Rice Burroughs's Moon Maid books. It's not. There's nothing about it except that Ee-la-nah's name is suspiciously similar to Nah-ee-lah from the Moon Maid book, but that is apparently just a coincidence. I'm going to suggest changing Ee-la-nah's name so that it doesn't feel like a link to the Moon Maid series, and pick a title with less potential for confusion.

Perhaps A Princess of Pellucidar (and then make sure the heroine is a princess.) Or, A Pilot of Pellucidar, or A Flying Man of Pellucidar. Or World War at the Earth's Core.

Just cut out the Moon Maid references.

Missed opportunities: Salome
I was disappointed not to learn more about Salome's backstory, and how she and Ee-la-nah met.

Missed opportunities: New creatures
One of my favorite parts of an ERB story is the variety of fantastic creatures that he invents. Thoats, calots, banths, zitidars. Tandor, tarag, trodon, thipdar. I'd like to encounter some new ones in this story. Surely the moon of Pellucidar would have unique wild animals.

Missed opportunities: the pendent moon
Another favorite part of an ERB story is the curious little civilizations he invents. They are little science fiction experiments, and it's fun to see the hero thrown into a new society and be taught the strange and arcane customs. In Moon Maid at the Earth's Core the hero doesn't get to spend nearly enough time on the pendent moon. That section could be expanded greatly, giving time to fully explore different aspects of the Race and their society.

Missed opportunities: Mahars
There appear to be some clues left regarding the Mahars, perhaps setting up a sequel to this story. I am intrigued. Could this be incorporated as a side-adventure before Byron travels to the moon? Or maybe after? Perhaps he seeks out some Mahars, or some long-lost Mahar ruins, to gather technology or material to be used in the defense of Sari. Hey, maybe the Mahars would make good allies against the Race.

I'm just very interested in a more fully developed Mahar subplot. The one Mahar in the book really caught my imagination, in a good way.

Nitpick: the altimeter
The story says "My altimeter suddenly changed radically. It shot from 10,000 to 20,000 feet and kept climbing. The air pressure didn't differ, however." I'm not certain, but I suspect that the altimeter on the P-38 operated on air pressure. It couldn't show a different altitude but the same air pressure. Now, a radio altimeter would show altitude calculated via radar, so that wouldn't depend on air pressure, but was the P-38J equipped with one? And would it be used at this altitude? I could be wrong on this one, but it bothered me enough that I had to stop reading and search for answers.

Nitpick: the P-38J
I'm going to take it on faith that the P-38J was used for Arctic patrols. The J model seems like a pretty late model, probably introduced late in the war, so would a pilot who enlisted right after Pearl Harbor get to fly it? Wouldn't he end up flying an earlier model? When exactly is this set, anyway?

Ah, I'm probably overthinking this. I have no real expertise in World War II aircraft beyond once owning a set of spotter cards.

Nitpick: a tiger cub has a mother and a father
Nuclear family groups in prehistoric tigers seems unlikely. Today's tigers are solitary. That doesn't mean prehistoric tigers were, but it should at least be commented on. (What does ERB say about tarag social structures?)

OK, now I'm way out in the weeds. I'm second-guessing the author's choice of social structures for prehistoric tigers living on the inside of a hollow earth.

Nitpick: some typos
Occasionally Ee-la-nah is referred to as Ee-lah-na or Ee-na-lah. Salome is spelled Solame nearly half the time. (Maybe it is supposed to be Solame?) There were a few other typos too, I think, but I didn't make note of them.

Adventure Fiction Book Review

 Hawk of the Wilderness

Kioga! When you want a jungle hero story but can't afford name-brand Tarzan: Kioga!

A white man raised by American Indians and bears on a long-lost continent of Nato'wa. He is Kioga, the Snow Hawk. He does the basic Tarzan stuff, learning to live in the forest, leaping from branch to branch through the leafy canopy, becoming the greatest denizen of the forest. He grows beyond his Shoni Indian upbringing, falls in love with a white girl--Beth--who coincidentally arrives on Nato'wa just as Kioga is coming into adulthood but before he can take young Heladi as his Shoni wife.

Chester is a good writer, a decent storyteller, but not great at weaving a compelling book-length plot. The action meanders here and there, leaving loose threads and unexplored paths. I don’t think Chester wrote this with a plan in mind. It’s just events that happen, not a plot moving toward a resolution. The story tightens up a little over halfway through when Kioga's love interest, Beth, shows up.

It's not a bad book overall. The biggest missed opportunity is the villain, or rather the lack of one. Every time Chester sets up a good compelling villain, he kills him off immediately. It's hard to build tension when the bad guy immediately gets offed. This happens first with Yellow Weasel, the leader of the Long Knife Society. He's a great character and Chester builds him up as a master villain, and then in the next chapter he's summarily killed.

Chester does it again later with the pirate. He sets up Salerno as a villain and makes sure we know he has designs on Beth. Then four pages later—boom, he’s dead. Killed by his compatriot Mendez. It's a mistake to build up a villain, then casually kill him off like some mere sidekick.

I also think it was a mistake for Chester to have the Shoni acclaim Kioga as chief rather than have Kioga fight for the position and earn it. I recall Tarzan fighting for his right to be chief, not having it bestowed on him because it was convenient to the author.

A nitpick: I found it amusing and a bit jarring for Chester to mention an "inactive" volcano that rumbles, belches sulphur, with "bubbling ejecta" that runs slowly down as "liquid lava." That sounds like an active volcano to me. It's not a big deal, but that should have been caught by an editor.

Speaking of editors, in chapter XI, Kioga boards a wrecked ship and is confounded by a simple doorknob. He's never seen one before, and he bashes the door down. Later, in chapter XXIV, he has no trouble operating a doorknob. That discrepancy bothered me. It would be easy to explain or rewrite, but both Chester and his editors missed it. (Or, conceivably, I missed the explanation.)

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Chapter-by-chapter plot summary

I. Ooh. There's a framing device, and it's one of those found-manuscript stories. Not terribly original, but the conceit was--is--common in this genre.

II. Lincoln Rand, his wife Helena, and his Indian friend Mokuyi (aka Woodman Running-Wolf) are shipwrecked on an unknown island in the Arctic.

III. Kidnapped by Indians! But they turn out to be friendly. They are Shoni and are a lost tribe who have no knowledge of the wider world, of Canada or America or of white Europeans.

IV. Baby Kioga is born, his name mean Snow Hawk. Enemy warriors overrun Hopeka and kill his parents before being driven off. Mokuyi and his native wife take in the boy.

V. Mokuyi teaches Kioga to be a warrior. The other children hate him. He befriends a bear cub named Aki, then later runs away into the jungle with Aki.

VI. Kioga spends a year with the bears, learning to climb and leap from tree to tree and to swim and fight. He becomes a real jungle man. Then he returns to Hopeka.

VII. Kioga hones his jungle skills: tracking, hunting, recognizing smells.

VIII. Kioga visits the plains and watches the Wa-Kanek tribe. He learns about horses, and he steals several ropes and teaches himself to throw a lasso. His bear family is remarkably patient with him.

IX. He makes a grappling hook and learns to swing and climb. He raises a puma from a cub, and makes pets of a hawk, a wolf, a moose, a skunk, and a crow.

X. Kioga explores a shipwreck and salvages books, newspapers, gold coins, and a knife.

XI.

XII. The jealous medicine man Yellow Weasel and his Long-Knife Society murder Mokuyi and Awena, and try to frame Kioga. They also plan to kill the chief, Sawamic. Kioga finds out, escapes into the jungle, and swears revenge on them.

XIII. Yellow Weasel attacks Kioga and loses his life. The Long-Knives hunt Kioga in the wilderness but he escapes.

XIV. Kioga lives with the bears again. He fights. He hunts. He grows and learns. He sees a gigantic elephant. Three years pass. Still he wants revenge.

XV. Kioga avenges himself on the Long Knife Society. He becomes a legend among the Shoni. He kills a tiger, and he renews his childhood friendship with Kias the Deaf, who is deaf no more.

XVI. Kioga explores more shipwrecks and retrieves a chest of jewels and gold.

XVII. The bears all meet for a great concourse. Kioga asserts his authority and leads the bears to richer hunting grounds. He is the king of the bears, but only because he works himself like a slave to secure food for them. Bit of a chump, this Kioga.

XVIII. Loyal Shoni warriors pursue the traitorous Long-Knives into the forest domain of the bears. The bears attack them. The bears win. The Shoni retreat, taking the surviving Long-Knives captive.

XIX. Sawamic is dead. The bickering seven Shoni tribes proclaim Kioga as their chief, and literally bury the hatchet. Kioga announces that the United Seven Tribes of Shoni will make war on the Wa-Kanek.

XX. The United Seven Tribes of the Shoni defeat the Wa-Kanek. Kioga turns his attentions to the beautiful young Heladi, but declines to take her as a wife. They are of two different races, he tells her, and Kioga intends one day to leave and seek the Land-Where-the-Sun-Goes, the homeland of his parents.

XXI. The ship Alberta arrives. On board are pirates, who are fighting with the crew. Captain Allen Kendle, his fiancée Beth La Salle, and her brother Daniel. Kioga watches from shore as the pirates’ leader Manuel Salerno parleys with Kendle.

XXII. The pirates kidnap Beth. Mendez kills Salerno. Kioga rescues Beth and takes her to a safe place deep in the forest.

XXIII. Kendle and Dan lead an expedition ashore to rescue Beth. Kioga guards and cares for Beth in his forest hideout. She tells him of America. He begins to fall in love.

XXIV. Kioga boards Alberta secretly, looks around, avoids the crew and slips away back into the forest.

I’m not sure what his plan was, nor do I know where Chester is taking this story. Truly I don’t think Chester knows either. This episode is an excuse to show off how stealthy and clever Kioga is.

XXV. Kioga learns that the Shoni have captured Kendle and taken them to Hopeka. He promises Beth that he will rescue Kendle and return them both to the ship.

XXVI. Kioga rescues Kendle, bids Heladi farewell, eludes the Shoni by navigating dangerous river rapids, and returns Kendle and Beth to the ship.

XXVII. Kioga carries a chest of gold, jewels, and the Cherokee’s logbook to the Alberta. Kioga hunts. He kills a tiger. Kendle agrees to take Kioga to America. Kioga guides the ship Alberta past the rocks and away from Nato’wa.

XXVIII. Alberta get stuck in the ice. The crew abandon ship and make their way across the ice. Kioga antagonizes Kendle, who needles Beth about him. Kendle is jealous and feels threatened by Kioga. Food runs out, starvation is imminent. Kioga spears a walrus.

XXIX. The whaler Bearcat rescues the survivors of the Alberta. Kioga never returned from hunting and is left behind. (Kendle lied about having seen him.) Beth is heartbroken. Munro hears the news and goes to find and rescue Kioga, that is, Lincoln Rand, Jr.

XXX. Kioga makes a canoe of wood and walrus hide. He travels the ice floes. He fight a polar bear.

XXXI. Munro rescues Kioga, who explains his origins and gives Munro the Cherokee’s logbook and the film negatives.

XXXII. Munro introduces Kioga to modern society. He blends in well, until he is accosted by robbers. His warrior instincts kick in, and he savagely beats the assailants and finds himself arrested by the police and locked in a cell.

XXXIII. Kendle is ill and dying, and lost his money in the 1929 crash. He sees a newspaper article about Kioga’s arrest but conceals it from Beth. Dan sees the same article and gets Kioga released. However, Kioga, sure that Beth will choose Kendle, leaves to return to Nato’wa. Beth, betrayed by Kendle, is now fully committed to Kioga. She will follow after him. The end.