Tanar of Pellucidar

Pellucidar #3

by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Paul Cook (Introduction)

Pellucidar - the hollow center of the Earth, a land of savage men and prehistoric beasts - is the scene of this exciting novel. In Pellucidar dwell the Buried People; here is the Land of Awful Sorrow; here the terrible Korsars terrorise the oceans, while dinosaurs and saber-tooth tigers terrorise the lands. This is the story of Tanar, a young chief, and the cave girl Stellara, and of their struggle for survival against a myriad dangers.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Fiction, Pulp, Classics, Science Fiction Fantasy

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great action packed fun read. But that is what I expect from a Burroughs book. I like the way this series has different main character's each time but retains all the old Characters as important plot backdrops. Recommended

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third volume in ERB's Pellucidar series, it's 15 years since the events in the previous novel. David Innes has to rescue Tanar of Sari who has been captured by the Korsairs, a pirate kingdom newly encountered, who originated from a pirate ship that had inadvertently entered Pellucidar through a polar opening and had never found their way out. And Tanar falls for the pirate king's daughter.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5
Slightly repetitive but still a very fun and easy read.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Tanar of Pellucidar" is the third of the seven Pellucidar novels by Burroughs. It was written many years (in fact decades) after the first two books and thus it is clear that Burroughs originally intended the Pellucidar series to only consist of two books. Pellucidar is Burroughs' inner-earth world, five hundred miles inside the earth's crust, where there is a perpetual noon-day sun and the land area is much greater than the outer earth's atmosphere. Men in the inner-earth are at the cavemen level except for those who David Innes and Perry enlightened with information they brought back in the prospector. The empire they constructed having rid themselves of the Mahars has progressed in relative peace for many years, but for the advent of someone else who has come from the outer crust and its no one you would suspect. Apparently, hundreds of years earlier, mighty pirates by accident sailed into the inner earth through a polar opening and never found their way out again. They set up a pirate or Korsair kingdom on a distant continent and loot and riot wherever they go.

In a raid upon the shoreline of the Empire, Ghak's son, Tanar, is seized among with many others and taken to Korsair City, where Tanar falls for the daughter of the Cid, the king of the pirates and must escape or rot in prison for life, knowing that the Korsairs are bent on taking on the Empire. It is yet another fabulous Burroughs adventure and written and plotted quite brilliantly. The advent of the Korsairs - a power to rival the Empire set up by Innes and Perry - is totally unexpected and simply brilliant on Burroughs' part. Who would have thought a pirate ship would be sailing upon the oceans of Pellucidar?
Highly recommended. Terrific adventure story.

[Chris Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tanar of Pellucidar is approximately 76,600 words in length, which is incredible when one considers that the entire missive is delivered to Jason Gridley and Edgar Rice Burroughs, as they sit in Jason Gridley's lab in Tarzana, CA, via "code" (I assume Morse Code) through the medium of Jason's newly invented "Gridley Wave." I converted the text to Morse code to see what this might look like. It's crazy. Here's what the first paragraph looks like:

.. - -- ..- ... - -... . ... --- -- . ..-. .. ..-. - . . -. -.-- . .- .-.... ... .. -. -.-. . -.. .- ...- .. -.. .. -. -. . ... .- -. -.. .. -... .-.--- -.- . - .... .-.--- ..- --. .... - .... . .. -. -. . .-. ... ..- .-...-. .- -.-. . --- ..-. - .... . . .- .-.- .... .----. ... -.-. .-...- ... - .- -. -.. . -- . .-.--. . -.. .. -. - --- ... .- ...- .- --. . .--. . .-.. .-.. ..- -.-. .. -.. .- .-. --..-- -... ..- - .-- .... . -. .- ... - .- - .. --- -. .- .-.-.-- ... ..- -. .... .- -. --. ... . - . .-.-. .- .-.. .-.. -.-- .- - .... .. --. .... -. --- --- -. .- -. -.. - .... . .-.. .. ... -. --- .-.. ... - .-.. . ... ... -- --- --- -. .- -. -.. - .... . .-.. .- .-.. -. --- ... - .- .-.... --..-- - .. -- . .. ... -- . .- ... ..- .-.. .-.. . ... ... .- -. -.. ... --- .. - -- .- -.-- .... .- ...- . -... . . -. .- .... ..- -. -.. .-.. -.. -.-- . .- .-.... .- --. --- --- .-. --- -. . ...... .-- .... --- -.- -. --- .-- ... ..--..

Tanar (1929) is the first story in the Pellucidar series that is not told in First Person POV from the perspective of David Innes, who introduced us to ERB's inner world. Rather, Tanar is relayed to us, other than the prologue and conclusion, in the Third Person and tells us the tale of a Sarian named Tanar whose father is the king of Sari, who is captured by Moorish pirates ruled by The Cid who have, in the past, become stranded in Pellucidar. Now, how these pirates came to be so far from the Barbary Coast is anyone's guess; we're just glad that they did. Because Tanar's adventures in Korsar are fascinating, and so is ERB's take on how generations of crossbreeding with savage stone-aged cavemen might influence men from the 17th century.

It's a cool story, if sprawling at times (I'm guilty of that myself) where ERB flexes his creative muscle as he explores more territory in his inner world. We meet the aforementioned pirates, the Korsars, and various islanders of opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, and also the very interesting Coripies, corpse-like creatures which puffy bags covering their eyes which Tanar learns is a sensitive spot when he punches one there.

Tanar of Pellucidar becomes the setup for Tarzan at the Earth's Core, and we're very glad that it does so because that is also a fascinating tale that lies smack in the middle of both the Pellucidar and the Tarzan series. Personally, I prefer the stories that don't deal so much with the Korsars which I always felt kind of ruined the whole "back to the stone age" vibe. Still, it's a cool ERB tale, and one that I will read again and again.

[Leothefox · Rating 4 out of 5]

At long last, our Earth's Core universe continues, the good one, the one Burroughs did where the Earth is full of awesome monsters and cave men.

The Gridley Wave is back and so is inventor Jason Gridley, so we get a frame with him talking to Burroughs and expressing disbelief in Pellucidar when a message comes through from Abner Perry down in Pellucidar. David Innes is around, but our hero is Tanar, a cave dude who is a prisoner of the Korsars. The Korsars are straight up pirates, descendants of people from the surface who sailed through a hole at one of the poles.

We get corpse-like monster men who like below ground on the island of Amiocap, an island called Hime where everybody hates everybody else and it's nobody's business if you kill your sister, we get a totally sweet dungeon with hot and cold running snakes under the Korsar palace, ships, boats, menacing cows, a gaping frozen hole through the Earth's crust, romantic complications, cliff-dwellers, debates of parentage, inherited birthmarks, execution over debates of parentage, sweet tunnel escapes, jungle stuff, and a mysterious hot air balloon that may yet turn up in the sequels.

Much like the Barsoom series, we are given more from the Burroughs potboiler mill, and yet it goes together better than say “Thuvia, Maid of Mars” or “Escape on Venus”. These are stock romances and escapes, sure, but it's one of the books where he assembles them the right way, rather than just shrugging at them.

Oh! Total cliffhanger ending leading into “Tarzan at the Earth's Core”. I've only read the first two Tarzan books, and that is both the 4th Pellucidar book and the 13th Tarzan, so I may just ignore the order for Tarzan and get to it, so it's clear I've never been in a big hurry to digest that entire series.

[Rikard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage Burroughs. A hollow earth story with mammoths, sabertoothed tigers and strange semi-intelligent lifeforms. The hero (a prince of a kingdom in Pellucidar) is abducted by pirates. The usual ERB twists of escaping, recapturing and final escape.

Great reading if you are an ERB-fan.

Note to the non-fans, ERB is Edgar Rice Burroughs.

[Kris Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic adventure story

Fantastic adventure story. Full of excitement and terror. Well worth a read. Wonderful storytelling. Highly recommended. Buy a copy now.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

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Tanar gets two admirers, bound for disappointment. He stays loyal to blonde Stellara, different from black-haired Sari natives in homeland. Spanish corsairs somehow got through crust centuries ago? Chase follows across land, forest, caves, sea.

Abner Perry narrates 15 years after first break through into Pellucidar. David brings Empire against Korsars, pirate invaders of Thuria, but loses favorite Tanar "like a son" p 164. David, Ja King of Anoroc "greatest sailor" p 164, and prisoner Fitt "more open and honest countenance than any of his companions" p 165, sail in pursuit with extra food and water. David orders best friend in Sari, King Ghak, father of Tanar, to build and man "fifty ships" p 165, then follow.

Tanar of Sari where every one has black hair, is brought from ship's dungeon, falls for golden-haired daughter of The Cid. The leader's second, Bohar the Bloody, has repulsive face scar and single fang, also wants Stellara. Thurian walks the plank bravely, dies. Sarian bargains, pretends to make better powder for "hatches off" p 168, "same rations" p 169 as Korsars. Storm batters ship.

Storm drowns Sarians. Cid and Bohar flee. Allara, Stellara's slave mother, was pregnant when stolen from Amiocap peaceful island where love is prominent. Derelict washes up on Amiocap. Stellara's father Fedol, "chief and great tandor [mammoth] hunter" p 177. Zural, chief of Allara's village Lar, doesn't believe them. Stellara doesn't show her birthmark till they end up with Fedol and his village.

Letari brings food to prisoners. Tanar flatters her. She admits to "wish that I could save you .. love Tanar" p 182. Stellara will be burnt. Tandors, mammoths, attack village, distract guards. Tanar carries Stellara, to "leave no trail" p 183 grabs branches for travel.

Coripies, blank faces "two rows of heavy fangs" on Buried People take prisoners underground. Tandor on three legs chases hunter. Tanar chokes Coripie dead, escapes. Of course hunter cries "Allara!" p 189 at Stellara, her father Fedol. In his village, Doval woos Stellara. She bets he "cannot make [Letari] her love you" p 193. If so, she would like Doval "very much better" p 193.

Bohar and Korsars invade while Tanar hunting, take Stellara. Doval and Letari thought Korsars took Tanar, are now together. Hidden by musket smoke, Tanar falls down well, caught again by Coripies. Mow, young Coripi from another grotto that hates these, knows an escape route.

Mow falls back into cave "lay motionless" p 202. Jude "sour" p 200 "enjoy being unhappy" p 203 of Hime isle, and Tanar climb free of cave. Tanar fights Bohar to death. After jealousies, now both agree "My mate" p 208.

Jude steals Stellara. Saber-tooth tarag attacks Tanar. Tanar follows Jude to Hime, chased and treed by thags, great horned cattle. Branch breaks, lands Tanar atop bull. After long ride, jumps off before forest. He hears growling codon wolf, smells human, saves boy Balal "son of Scurv, village chief" p 217 who promises good treatment.

Lad hops easily onto narrow ledges. Families "always quarrel" p 220, insult each other. Tanar stops little brother Dhung (tee hee 'dung') throwing stones at Gura. Gura and Blal are nicer, "mother is an Amiocapian .. we are young" p 221. She warns father "Scurv is going to kill you" p 222. She points to Carn "village of Jude", takes to trees "wherever you go I shall follow" p 223.

Stellara hears Gura, rejects Tanar "in Korsar, you would only be a naked barbarian" p 229. In Korsar dungeon, rats attack. Ja and David pull him into safe corridor. Tanar offers to "teach them [Korsars] how to make firearms and powder such as ours [Pellucidar]" p 232. Recaptured by Korsars, Bulf wants torture, but "cadaverous one" p 244 convinces Bulf solitary confinement is "infinitely worse" p 244.

Tanar breaks food bowl for sharp pointed scrap, digs out crevice where snakes enter. Luckily, he finds cutlass and old Korsar clothes in dusty store-rooms. He overhears Stellara resist Bulf, cleaves his "ugly skull" p 251. He and Stellara apply pitch to faces, then Bulf's whiskers for bushy beard and eyebrows, pad her shoulders to square off figure. They buy a boat with her gold from The Cid. Three boats chase.

They land, flee into "primeval forest" p 256. They arrive in Sari "shortly before Ja and Gura" p 256. Stellara is kind to Gura, who "repulsed" suitors p 256. Transmission fades. David still in dungeon.

[Rafeeq O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1929 Tanar of Pellucidar, third in his hollow-Earth "Pellucidar" series, remains an entertaining read nearly a century after its first appearance, so long as we evaluate it by the pulp-fiction standards--and the social standards--of its day. Can the plotting be corny and predictable?--yes. Can the language grow a tad florid?--yes. Can the science be iffy?--mm hmm. Can the outlook be racist and sexist?--of course. These, however, would be silly criteria by which to evaluate a "lost world" adventure written when my own grandfather was still in elementary school, and when many other readers' grandparents had not yet even been born.

As usual for a tale in this series, the books begins with a narrative frame that sets up a truthful-claiming "found manuscript" type of situation. In this one the fictionalized Burroughs has a friend named Jason Gridley, "twenty-three and scandalously good looking," who, expert "in a great many things"--"aeronautics, for example, and golf, and tennis, and polo"--also happens to be "a radio bug" (Early 1960s Ace paperback, page 5). Now, disregarding our much more recent notions of examining both the sources and effects of "privilege" and whatnot, let us instead simply shrug and move on. For Jason in his experimenting has discovered what the pair has come to call "the Gridley wave," which "operat[ing] according to no previously known scientific laws," can be transmitted and received by his equipment "through some strange, ethereal medium that seems to pass through all other waves and all other stations, unsuspected and entirely harmless" (page 6).

Gridley, however, from his set occasionally has heard unexpected "voices, very faintly, but, unmistakably, human voices. They are speaking a language unknown to man. It is maddening" (pages 6-7). "'Mars, perhaps,' [Burroughs] suggest[s], 'or Venus,'" making the the younger man flash "one of his quick smiles" and add, "'Or Pellucidar.'" Gridley then chuckles about how "when [he] was a kid [he] used to believe every word of those crazy stories of [Burroughs] about Mars and Pellucidar" (page 7), whereas now of course he wouldn't believe such guff. So you know what happens in a few more pages, right? After some good-natured joshing back and forth about the author's supposed crazy stories, Morse code starts coming in. "And this is the message that Abner Perry sent from the bowels of the Earth; [sic] from the Empire of Pellucidar" (page 10), ends the Prologue.

The tale of Tanar, son of David Innes's friend and ally, King Ghak of Sari, then is told in third person, unlike the first-person narratives of Innes in the first two books. And a very unhurried and writerly third person it is, too. That is, this is no urgent missive dashed off in excited haste or created on the spot in the telling. No, Perry seems to have had an entire book already written, and as soon as he makes contact with the surface, well, here it comes!

In any event, to the edge of the Empire of Pellucidar have come strangers sailing large ships and equipped with firearms--two things that had seemed unknown before the coming of Innes and Perry--and they are "bloodthirsty," "killing for the pure sport of slaughter" (page 14). Following a hellacious battle against "their savage foes" (page 15), strong young "Tanar ha[s] been retained as a hostage" along with other prisoners (page 16), and then Innes equips a boat with food and water that "might have been adequate for a year's voyage" and gives chase with one trusted friend plus a prisoner to guide them (page 19).

The story is mainly Tanar's--I mean, the book has his name in the title, after all--until Innes reappears much later. There are the "rough and quarrelsome Korsars" (page 22) "with their bushy whiskers and fierce faces," seafaring raiders "bizarre and colorful, wearing gay cloths about their heads, wide sashes of bright colors[,] and huge boot with flapping tops," and carrying "their harquebuses," plus "huge pistols and knives stuck in their belts and at their hips...cutlasses" (page 16). There is Stellara, apparently daughter of the Korsars' leader, she with eyes "brave, and intelligent and beautiful," who in "the quiet courage of her demeanor" protests against mistreatment of the prisoners, and who...well, happens to be a blonde, which "impresses" Tanar greatly (page 25). There are terrible storms, islands of savagery and strange cultures, instances of friendship and of treachery, escapes and recaptures, coincidences and misunderstandings.

All the while, of course, Tanar and Stellara revolve about one another, with Tanar, as the classic Burroughs hero, for the longest time completely oblivious of what it all means. Will Tanar ever free himself from the brutal Korsars intent on this death? Will he and the striking blonde, who in the Roy Krenkel, Jr., cover art of the early 1960s Ace paperback poses with one hip thrust out so that half a buttock is bared from a garment of animal skins, ever understand their true relationship? And what in the world has happened to David Innes on his quest across the sea, he whom Perry first suggests--before tacking artfully away into the adventure--has experienced "disaster" and hence requires "succor...from the outer crust" (page 12)?

Well, as I say, a whole bunch of excitement occurs, and it's quite decent for what it is. And as occasionally happens in Burroughs, by the way, there also occurs a stray piece of cultural or sociological speculation of note. Whereas the people of Tanar's native Sari, for example, are not given to casual displays of emotion, "[t]he tribal life and all the customs" of the island of Amiocap, upon which he and Stellara land after a great storm, are "based primarily upon love and kindness," with "[h]arsh words, bickering and scorn...practically unknown" (page 78). Indeed, Burroughs then gives us this intriguing paragraph:

"The Amiocapians considered love the most sacred of the gifts of the gods, and the greatest power for good[,] and they practiced liberty without license. So that while they were not held in slavery by senseless man-made laws that denied the laws of God and nature, yet they were pure and virtuous to a degree beyond that which [Tanar] had known in any other people." (page 79)

Wow. That ain't what yer maiden Great Aunt Sadie, circa 1929, would have considered "pure and virtuous," but perhaps we can see the first tentative seeds of such thoughts in the "[S]ave for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure" description of Dejah Thoris in the 1912 A Princess of Mars (1981 Del Rey paperback, page 46). And perhaps the fuller flowering is what we finally see in the "nest" of Valentine Michael Smith in Burroughs fan Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land, ya grok?

In any event, high literature Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tanar of Pellucidar ain't, but for simple pulp adventure of a century ago it's just fine. The piece also seems a noticeably better read than Pellucidar, the second and predecessor in the series. For its genre the book is a 4 to 4.5 stars, so rounding up will make it 5.

[Douglas Boren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A non-stop adventure of epic proportions! A heart pounding adventure saturated with violence, hope, despair, danger, and love.

The fantastic prehistoric world of Pellucidar has never been more dangerous. And the stakes never higher!
This is a runaway tale that refuses to Let you down. A must read for all who loved this series.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pelliucidar series is my favorite series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I used to walk to Grand Central and gather bottles along the side of the road. I would be able to collect enough bottles and turn them in for the deposit for the next book in this (and all of his series)series of books!

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the Ace edition so I don't know if the Bison has extra material in it, but I certainly enjoyed this entry into ERB's Pellucidar series.

[David Peck · Rating 5 out of 5]

exciting

The book was very exciting. Edgar Rice Burroughs style is pretty much the same in every one of his books, but the plots are interesting and he never fails to entertain

[Zachary Naylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

After nearly 15 years apart, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Pellucidar reunite to deliver a decidedly mediocre story.

There's really not much to say about "Tanar." The world of Pellucidar, though retaining some of the promising nuggets of pseudoscience-fiction that made the first entry so memorable, seems to lack a certain je-ne-sais-quoi. Burroughs barks up the wrong tree repeatedly, producing a cyclical, flat, and tedious book. One that smells rather strongly of burned rubber, owing to spinning wheels.

After quite some time in Barsoom, employing third-person narrative, "Tanar" makes the curious choice of maintaining this new precedent and simultaneously bringing back a (belaboured, pretentious) middleman segment. I suspect that the time gap between installments and the astonishingly dull proceedings made such chaff feel essential to Burroughs, but it adds little (save for one thing--more on that in a bit).

Previously, I've mentioned how lifeless the Pellucidar setting feels compared to Barsoom, and that holds true here. In terms of plot and characters, "Tanar" is content to limp along. I am outrageously forgiving of Burroughs' stock, repeated, archetypical pulp characters, and it was here where I've finally reached my limits. The eponymous Tanar, love interest Stellara, et al. are--in accordance with the primal world itself--undercooked. The insidious Mahars receive no mention (damn!), and though some memorable beasties do appear they can't salvage anything.

This is particularly disappointing in light of how Barsoom's novels finally made respectable swings at character development, personality, and sci-fi rhetoric. I had hoped this improvement in Burroughs' craft would elevate the bland, basic, brutally dulled Pellucidarians. Alas.

On the positive side, David Innes is sidelined into a kidnapped victim, and with it the grating connotations with his "empire" are downplayed. But this adversely affects the plot, which seems to cavort randomly in focus. It's only when the romantic misunderstandings die down and the action ramps up that things become--unsurprisingly--more akin to Barsoom. Ergo, more streamlined, better in quality and distinctly less Pellucidarian.

The finale is an incredibly mixed bag. I doubt anyone reading this minds the spoilers, but in short: there is a detailed, memorable prison scene whose slow place betrays its nature as a stealth climax. The escape scene which follows is punctuated by the most outrageous cop-out of a sentence I've read in a book, and the ending so sharply careens down the "declining action" slope I would certainly believe if Burroughs himself grew fed up and abandoned all hope for "Tanar!" The ending is, bluntly, an insult.

There is some promise, admittedly; newcomer Jason Gridley, based on my recent reading of "A Fighting Man of Mars" and the ending of "Tanar," is shaping up to be a major supporting character. This interconnected set of narratives is far ahead of its time, and was a fun detail to discover.
But it really doesn't make "Tanar" a good read. I wouldn't call it outright offensive, since saying it left it bad taste in my mouth implies it had flavour. Do yourself a favour and reread "The Gods of Mars" instead.

[Mbuye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in book form in 1930, ‘Tanar of Pellucidar’ is the third book in the Pellucidar series by ER Burroughs. Hair-raising escapes from prehistoric, carnivorous monsters and grazing animals such the giant aurochs or bulls, life in an underground world, capture and escape from hostile tribes and wild beasts, a love interest in which supermen fight to the death for their mate, a city the inhabitants of whom are descended from the pirates of Old Spain and who are named after them, all meet in this adventure designed for eleven year old boys who played no baseball or knew about computers or video games, but who possessed boundless energy and a fertile imagination.

Vintage Burroughs; the first two Pellucidar books were better, as they introduced the underground world of Pellucidar and its weird geography, tribes and animals by the two Americans who are experimenting with a drilling machine. In this book, since we already know the background, the incredible adventures of Tanar seem ho-hum. However, the interest lies in the introduction of new characters and new dangers, including new methods of torture and more and more ingenious enemies as well as new means of escape.

I felt a little shocked at the end when Tanar, a prisoner in an even more underground dungeon (we are already in an underground world relative to ours, remember?) escapes with his girlfriend, leaving another prisoner behind in a dungeon that crawls with venomous snakes. But I need not have worried. For it forms the basis of a rescue mission, with none other than Lord Greystoke (that's Tarzan to you) leading the expedition in the sequel entitled ‘Tarzan at the Earth's Core’.

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third book in this series uses the author as a character, an idea he used in other tales as well. The framing narrative is that Burroughs is visiting the inventor Jason Gridley, who has discovered a new radio wave, and receives a transmission from Abner Perry, describing a new threat to the empire created by him and David Innes. The Korsars are descended from Moorish pirates who somehow found themselves inside the Earth, and are led by a guy they call the Cid. Tanar, a native allied with Innes and Perry, finds himself in conflict with the Korsars, who want to learn how to build advanced weaponry. He also falls for Stellara, a woman who's being raised by the Cid, but was actually kidnapped from the island of Amiocap. When the two of them visit that island, however, they're accused of being Korsar spies. It's also the home to subterranean (well, even farther subterranean, I guess) cannibals. Tanar escapes from a snake pit and gets away from the Korsars to tell his story, but Innes remains a prisoner of theirs. Gridley, who was skeptical about the existence of Pellucidar before receiving this transmission, plans to lead an expedition to rescue Innes, and I understand the book describing this also crosses over with Tarzan. This isn't one of my favorites by Burroughs, but it has some interesting ideas.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burroughs is sitting with his young friend and radio bug Jason Gridley in California listening on Jason’s new invention: a Gridley wave radio. Suddenly, they hear a voice claiming to be Abner Perry at the Imperial Observatory at Greenwich, Pellucidar and he wants to speak with Burroughs.

It’s fifteen, or maybe forty years since David and Perry discovered Pellucidar. Time has no meaning.
A new enemy called Kosars has appeared from the far reaches of Pellucidar, with its own well-equipped navy, attacking and destroying Empire towns along the way. When David brings his army against them, King Ghak’s son Tanar is captured and taken back to the enemy’ homeland. This is the story of Tanar’s adventures.

Both David and Tanar have had a hard time hanging onto their mates through these stories. The back and forth captures, rescues and escapes are very complicated and confusing and fortuitous. It basically reads as method to explore another area of Pellucidar.

Footnote: 1) In the Open Road eBook version of this there are two chapter 16s. The first is between chapters 13 & 14 and is a strange conversation amongst a group of lazy rich people who’ve divorced and are discussing what to do with their children. Obviously a misprint from another book.

Fave scenes: surviving the storm, Tanar fighting Bohar, Tanar escaping the bulls and finding the balloon

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it comes to Edgar Rice Burroughs novels, it's often easy to think, "If you've read one, you've read them all." So it is with TANAR OF PELLUCIDAR, which is a total mishmash-rehash of the standard Burroughs cliches, only this time the setting is Pellucidar rather than Mars or the jungles of Africa. Tanar is basically a half-civilized version of Tarzan, and the plot consists of him rescuing beautiful maidens, escaping from dungeons, and traversing strange landscapes filled with savage human tribes and prehistoric beasties. As a serious sci-fi novel, it's an utter failure, but as a boy's adventure story it's entertaining and congenial enough to be a success. TANAR OF PELLUCIDAR somehow manages to be clever but dumb, well-written but sloppy, action-packed but unexciting, cartoonish but adult, naively romantic but championing of divorce. It does a good job of setting up the next PELLUCIDAR adventure, but I don't think even the most hardcore Burroughs fan would consider it a "must-read."

[Alton Motobu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great start and finish, but middle part is awful - filled with Burroughs' Victorian morality about love, jealousy and sex (there is none) - and the ending is a prelude to the next book in the series as all plot lines are not resolved. Handsome warrior prince Tanar is captured by brutal Korsar pirates and meets beautiful Stellara. They fall in love only to be captured by a tribe who only know how to love others (and a beautiful girl falls in love with Tanar); then they are captured by a tribe which only knows how to hate each other (and a beautiful girl falls in love with Tanar); they escape only to be captured by cannibal mole people who live underground (luckily no mole girl falls in love with Tanar). Finally they are recaptured by the Korsars, and Tanar is placed in solitary in a dungeon underground, but he digs himself out and saves Stellar! You must read the next book to find out what happens next.

Big blooper: story takes place in the hollow earth where there is a perpetual sun and it is always noon, but on page 215 there is a reference to "cool nights" - what???

[mabuse cast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book for the month of September 2025 in honor of the 1st of September being the 150th birthday of its author Edgar Rice Burroughs!

I kinda wish I had picked one of his better done books then this particular entry in the "Pellucidar"/"at the earth's core" series but I didn't hate this by any means! I just found it to be a bit more of a middle of the road entry in the series compared to the first two books!

If I had to say why this one felt a bit more middle of the road I would say that the real "secret sauce" the Pellucidar series had going for it were it's main villains, the pterodactyl like creatures called "the Mahars"! The main villains of this book, the Korsars, who are basically human pirate raiders feels like a bit of a step down honestly!

That being said this was still overall a pleasant and breezy enough read for what it was and I am going to at least give the next entry in this series, "Tarzan at the earth's core", a go because it sounds really fun!

[PulpMonkey (Chompa) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never cared as much for the Barsoom books that didn't feature John Carter. This book features Tanar, the son of Ghak, instead of David Innes and wasn't as enjoyable. A part of that might be that he and/or his love interest are captured and break free a ridiculous number of times in this book. Add in the "romantic misunderstanding" elements and I became somewhat fed up with those tropes.

All that said, it was still an interesting look at a different part of Pellucidar, descendants of Spanish pirates and the discovery of an arctic opening to the hollow world. Action and heroism were still fun to read.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took Burroughs 15 years after Pellucidar to write another sequel (I'm guessing it didn't sell like Tarzan and Barsoom). I'm glad he did because it's a fun story.
Tanar is a loyal caveman fighter in David Innes' empire. When the Korsar pirates wage war upon them, Tanar goes to negotiate, winds up captured and adventures follow. Plus love.
I particularly like the Pellucidarian natives' reactions to the unnatural (to them) conditions near the polar opening into their world, and Tanar's horror of absolute darkness (in Pellucidar, the hollow earth's sun is a constant).
Next up: Tarzan at the Earth's Core!

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of implausible adventure. Never mind the impossible geology and cosmology, it's tiresome that extraordinary coincidences are always needed to keep the plot going. At least Burroughs sometimes makes the good fortune appear in the guise of bad, for example as when a smilodon attack got Tanar where he needed to be to find a boat.

Burrough's writings are full of different races which can (some of them) interbreed, but have very distinct moral characters, which in the books Burroughs attributes to genetics. I wonder if his books helped fuel eugenics ideas that were circulating at the time of their writing.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was terrible. Burroughs' writing is convoluted, sexist, and racist. The basic "plot-line" is:
1. Stellara gets kidnapped, because she is "so feminine" she can't help it.
2. Tanar goes of to find Stellara, in the process saving a chief's son, jumping off a cliff, and finding another girl who loves him.
3. Tanar and Stellara reunite.
4. Stellara gets kidnapped, because she is "so feminine" AGAIN.....
From there, the "plot" repeats itself several more times, until Burroughs has a manuscript thick enough to pass as a book.

[Norman Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is apparently intended to bridge the gap between the Pellucidar novels and the crossover novel Tarzan at the Earth's Core. In fact, the protagonist spends some time swinging through the trees, which is a bit suspicious.

Burroughs seemed to lose interest in writing it, as it ends by saying, in effect, that the protagonists experienced many other adventures before arriving safely home.

He also breaks the fourth wall in the preface by having the author meet with someone who will be the protagonist of the next book and who lives in Tarzana, California.

[Deniz Ata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pelucidarlı Tanar'ın sahalara girişi ile yolculuğumuz nefes alıyor ve aşk üçgeni beşgeni derken hafif yeşilçam havasına bürünüyor.

Yine vahşi doğa kanunları ensemizde zaten bir medeni forma giremediler .

Bazı kavramların bu evrene bilinçlii sokulmaması ( tanımlanmış birimler) ve sonrasında zihnimde açan tomurcuklar serinin kayda değer unsurlarını öne çıkarıyor .

Hala beklediğim atak gelmediği için zamanının belkide popstarı olan bu seriye tam puan veremiyorum .

[J Byars · Rating 3 out of 5]

Missing most of the magic found in the first two Pellucidar books. This book has us mainly following the POV of Tanar which changes the tone of the story. While there is still a non-stop, rollicking adventure, it lacks the bravado and humor that previous narrative voice, David Innes, brought to the prose. Good not Great.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty difficult to read. How many times does Tanar need to be separated from the girl and then reunited with her to just get separated again. This one was pretty plain to me and somewhat disappointing.

[Eric N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another winner in the hollow earth series. No need to be a Tarzan or John Carter of Mars fan to enjoy these adventures which hold up well after all the decades.