Tarzan: The Lost Adventures

by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale

Book Overview

For nearly half a century, Edgar Rice Burroughs' final work, an unfinished Tarzan novel, was locked in a vault where it became the stuff of legend. In 1995, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan: The Lost... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345412737
• ISBN13: 9780345412737
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 8 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 9

Customer Reviews

Very good read, and true to the spirit of the original . . .

I've noted that some other reviewers did not like this book. Actually, I was very satisfied with it. One of my favorite characters, little Nkima, the monkey, has a prominent place in this book. The book also has pretty women, savage tribes, and a very spooky and decadent lost city, which is a setting for much action.Some have criticized the new author's style. However, Burroughs himself writes a kind of very dense, 19th century style which makes it very hard for me to recommend Burroughs to teenagers. Unless they want to keep encountering unfamiliar five-syllable Latinate words, and 80-word complex sentences. Let's fact it, EGB wrote some pretty dense stuff. Lansdale's style is cleaner, and is more typified by short, direct sentences. The description is good, and the mood is well controlled by Lansdale.I did think this book is more bloody and graphic in its violence than the original EGB Tarzan books. Tarzan always killed to defend himself or rescue "drop dead" girls, but the graphic details added by Lansdale are a bit grim at times.I did feel the bad guys through the early book were not bad enough. They just seemed to be violent military deserters with no sinister or evil plans except to steal another safari's supplies. They are just foils, really.I like Tarzan's new personality. He has a times a biting wit, expressed in the laconic few words that we would expect of him. The writing surrounding the airplane crash and the "sparks" between the surviving passengers-- these seemed excellent writing.If Mr. Lansdale writes more Tarzan books, I will buy them for sure. Alas, this was originally published in '96, and apparently nothing more has come out. So perhaps there will be no more Tarzan left to read.By the way, another reviewer said he has read "everything Burroughs wrote." Well, I've read all the Tarzan, Barzoom, and Pellucidar novels at least twice, so I guess I'm well-informed also.Try it-- you'll (probably) like it!

Exciting and entertaining novel...what more can you ask for?

Joe Lansdale has written a fast-paced book filled with villainous villains, heroic heroes and heroines, and breathtaking jungle adventures. The engaging yarn pauses in just the right spots for humorous interludes, many of which are supplied by Tarzan's animal friends. Hey, I even learned some new information about the thought processes of lions and monkeys, and about the great apes who raised Tarzan. (Lansdale convinced me that he -- and Tarzan -- can talk to the animals!) Unlike too many books I've read lately, the ending to this novel was more than satisfying. (It does beg for a sequel, however, but that's great by me.) If you like Tarzan, you gotta love this story.

Just not Burroughs enough

There's just too much of Lansdale and not enough Burroughs. In Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker, you can not tell where Chandler ends and Parker picks up. In finishing a lost manuscript, the author finishing should attempt to stay as true to the original authors style as possible. Lansdale failed in this area. The book is good reading and a good adventure, but just like the movies, just not Burroughs Tarzan.

Tarzan: Stil lord of the jungle

Forget the monosyllabic "Me Tarzan, You Jane'' seen on the big screen: in completing the late, great Edgar Rice Burrough's manuscript, Joe R. Lansdale has recaptured the original spirit of Lord Greystroke. Lansdale's Tarzan is a wonderful melding of Burrough's vine-swinging adventurer and Lansdale's own slightly smart-mouthed characters. Hurling quips and spears with equal aplomb, this Tarzan takes the reader on an adrenalized adventure through primveal jungles and lost cities. The action scences are incredible,and given Lansdale's own background in the martial arts, highly believeable. The interaction among characters is also fantastic. And for long-time Burroughs fan's, there's even a reference to Pellucidar, the Land at the Earth's Core. I finished the book in one reading. What else could you ask for in a book (except maybe, just maye, Lansdale penning another Tarzan saga)