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Pellucidar #5
Back to the Stone Age
The fifth installment of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar series, Back to the Stone Age recounts the strange adventures of Lieutenant von Horst, a member of the original crew that sailed to Pellucidar with Jason Gridley and Tarzan who is left behind in the inner world. Von Horst wanders friendless and alone from one danger to the next among the Stone Age peoples, mighty reptiles, and huge animals that have been extinct on the outer crust for thousands of years. But woven among the tales of savage cave men in the country of the Basti, the hideous Gorbuses in the caverns beneath the Forest of Death, and the terrible Gaz is the story of the love this cultured hero feels for a barbarian slave girl who has spurned and discouraged him, working instead toward her own mysterious goal.
Excerpt:
The eternal noonday sun of Pellucidar looked down upon such a scene as the outer crust of earth may not have witnessed for countless ages past, such a scene as only the inner world of the earth's core may produce today.
Excerpt:
The eternal noonday sun of Pellucidar looked down upon such a scene as the outer crust of earth may not have witnessed for countless ages past, such a scene as only the inner world of the earth's core may produce today.
336 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1937
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658 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
2,740 books2,726 followersEdgar 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
August 9, 2022
Great fast paced action and adventure from cover to cover but then what else do you expect when you start an ERB take. Always a fun read. Recommended
January 2, 2013
This book, originally called Seven Worlds to Conquer is a wonderful read. Burroughs introduces some stuff that he forgets to get back to, but it’s still a lot of fun. This takes place in Pellucidar, the center of the earth filled with prehistoric creatures, one of which is a pterodactyl-like critter that behaves like a giant tarantula hawk and paralyzes its prey for its hatchlings to eat as their first dinner. There’s a dash of romance in it, a noble mammoth, and a lot of great fights and caveman talk. The ending quote is as good as Sam's saying "Well, I'm back." in The Lord of the Rings."
May 27, 2024
Pellucidar is a fictional world inspired by a now discredited theory that the earth has a hollow center with a world inside of it. Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar stories are set in this inner world inhabited by extinct on surface creatures like the wooly mammoth on the cover and humans living in a traditional hunter and gather life among them. The world is not scientifically possible because no mammal would survive living with dinosaurs but it is fun to speculate on this. The hero Von Horst may not be making a hero's journey as Joseph Campbell elucidated in his books but the adventures are entertaining. This is a great pulp novel where the protagonist pursues not a spiritual trek but a quest to find a girl who has caught his eye. It was a page turner with some repetitive capture and escape scenarios but it still was a good read.
November 14, 2016
It still amazes me how Edgar Rice Burroughs was able to make the most fantastic plots and stories seem real while you read them. The stories absorb you. The high point in Edgar Rice Burroughs stories is his power of description. It is as if you are watching a movie while you read. BACK TO THE STONE AGE is no exception.
December 17, 2024
This was a fun pulpy adventure even though it was quite repetitive not just because the plot is nearly identical to previous books in the series but also because within the story itself, the plot points just repeated the same formula.
December 7, 2012
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!
July 12, 2021
It's summertime, so that means I take some time to chill with ERB.
I hadn't read this book in 30 years, so I had little in my mind when I went into it. I remembered the flying marsupial dinosaur, but that was it. (How could one forget a flying marsupial dinosaur, anyway?)
This is a wild, pulpy yarn where ERB throws his protagonist, von Horst, into one bonkers hollow earth scrape after another. The original title of the novel was "Seven Worlds to Conquer", which I think was because von Horst had seven different how-will-he-get-out-of-this-one? situations to beat. Granted, by the 6th situation, I was ready for him to be done with adventuring, but the ride there was pretty wild. Aside from the flying marsupial dinosaur, there's gobs of tribes of unfriendly cave people, stomping mammoths, a nasty juvenile T. rex, guys who are half-man/half-bison, and a feisty blond who simply will not return the protagonist's affection for reasons left unsaid until the last pages. In short, it's typical ERB.
I think the thing that made this book all the more enjoyable was von Horst's sense of humor. Tarzan can be pretty cold—his humor tends to be bone dry—and John Carter is too infatuated with Dejah Thoris to make many jokes. But von Horst spent the whole book making sarcastic quips, all of which no one in Pellucidar understood because, apparently irony hadn't been invented yet. His snark really makes the book.
On a spoilerish note: anyone want to talk about the Gorbuses? ERB usually shied away from supernatural stuff, John Carter's trips to and from Mars and Carson Napier's Hindu telepathy aside, so the Gorbuses, morlock-like people cursed with unexplained memories of being murderers, seem out of place. Are they reincarnated folks punished for their previous life's misdeeds? Is their forest some form of hell or limbo? I had trouble matching them with the "logic"* that ERB tended to write by, finally deciding that they, like John Carter, simply bounced from one world to another. My explanation will have to do for now.
*I know, flying marsupial dinosaurs in a hollow earth do not need much logic, but albinos with thoughts of past lives just didn't seem to fit.
I hadn't read this book in 30 years, so I had little in my mind when I went into it. I remembered the flying marsupial dinosaur, but that was it. (How could one forget a flying marsupial dinosaur, anyway?)
This is a wild, pulpy yarn where ERB throws his protagonist, von Horst, into one bonkers hollow earth scrape after another. The original title of the novel was "Seven Worlds to Conquer", which I think was because von Horst had seven different how-will-he-get-out-of-this-one? situations to beat. Granted, by the 6th situation, I was ready for him to be done with adventuring, but the ride there was pretty wild. Aside from the flying marsupial dinosaur, there's gobs of tribes of unfriendly cave people, stomping mammoths, a nasty juvenile T. rex, guys who are half-man/half-bison, and a feisty blond who simply will not return the protagonist's affection for reasons left unsaid until the last pages. In short, it's typical ERB.
I think the thing that made this book all the more enjoyable was von Horst's sense of humor. Tarzan can be pretty cold—his humor tends to be bone dry—and John Carter is too infatuated with Dejah Thoris to make many jokes. But von Horst spent the whole book making sarcastic quips, all of which no one in Pellucidar understood because, apparently irony hadn't been invented yet. His snark really makes the book.
On a spoilerish note: anyone want to talk about the Gorbuses? ERB usually shied away from supernatural stuff, John Carter's trips to and from Mars and Carson Napier's Hindu telepathy aside, so the Gorbuses, morlock-like people cursed with unexplained memories of being murderers, seem out of place. Are they reincarnated folks punished for their previous life's misdeeds? Is their forest some form of hell or limbo? I had trouble matching them with the "logic"* that ERB tended to write by, finally deciding that they, like John Carter, simply bounced from one world to another. My explanation will have to do for now.
*I know, flying marsupial dinosaurs in a hollow earth do not need much logic, but albinos with thoughts of past lives just didn't seem to fit.
January 8, 2024
Any Burroughs book is a fun read, but this entry in the Pellucidar series ran for at least 30 pages too long. The story never slowed down, but our hero (Lt. Wilhelm von Horst of the dirigible O-220) and his love interest (La-ja) kept reuniting and then getting separated with von Horst somehow finding her again. It's a standard part of many ERB works, but it just repeated too often.
Burroughs' descriptions of Pellucidar and the creatures von Horst encounters are incredible. The author had a real gift for painting an entire scene with only a few paragraphs. Most writers today nearly use an entire chapter to describe one or two characters, leaving the world around them rather gray.
The ending is typical, with von Horst choosing Pellucidar over the 'Outer Crust' or what passes for civilization. As a bonus for fans of the series, David Innes makes an appearance at the end of the book to further link this work into the prior four books. There is one more book in the series, but it centers on Innes.
Highly recommended for ERB fans, and fans of the Inner Earth Sci-Fi sub-genre. It's also a great book for anyone to settle in with over a weekend.
Find it! Buy it! Read it!
Burroughs' descriptions of Pellucidar and the creatures von Horst encounters are incredible. The author had a real gift for painting an entire scene with only a few paragraphs. Most writers today nearly use an entire chapter to describe one or two characters, leaving the world around them rather gray.
The ending is typical, with von Horst choosing Pellucidar over the 'Outer Crust' or what passes for civilization. As a bonus for fans of the series, David Innes makes an appearance at the end of the book to further link this work into the prior four books. There is one more book in the series, but it centers on Innes.
Highly recommended for ERB fans, and fans of the Inner Earth Sci-Fi sub-genre. It's also a great book for anyone to settle in with over a weekend.
Find it! Buy it! Read it!
August 29, 2017
I think Lt. von Horst might be my favorite character in all of the Pellucidar books so far. He's a German Lieutentant from the airship that Jason Gridley brought down. He was separated from the rest at the start of the 4th book and this is his story.
Von (as he's called by his dream girl La Ja) is a smart ass and always quipping, which is a huge departure from the other stoic heroes of ERB. La Ja despairs his always "laughing with words" and can't tell when he's serious or not.
A very fun read.
Von (as he's called by his dream girl La Ja) is a smart ass and always quipping, which is a huge departure from the other stoic heroes of ERB. La Ja despairs his always "laughing with words" and can't tell when he's serious or not.
A very fun read.
February 2, 2009
An interesting adventure story. Burroughs does have a talent for creating interesting situations, even if his prose can seem rather awkward and repetitive at times. His earlier books about Pellucidar have seemed to focus more on conquering the natives, but in this one since his protagonist is entirely alone and without his gun it tends to focus more on building friendships and finding common ground.
November 18, 2021
I first encountered the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs as a young kid when I purchased the novel, Land of Terror, the next-to-last volume in the series, out of a grocery store spinner. Eventually, I tracked down all 7 titles and was able to read them in order, and Back to the Stone Age (1937) became my favorite and one that I would frequently reread.
Fast Forward >> two or three decades; I haven't read that old favorite for many years. I can tell you it was with great anticipation that I made my way thru the series recently until I hit book 5.
Back to the Stone Age is the story of Frederich Wilhelm Eric von Mendeldorf und von Horst, one of the crewmen of the famous dirigible, The O-220, who became lost in Tarzan at the Earth's Core. The story of von Horst is a romance/adventure story. I've read that ERB created the characters of both von Horst and the hero of Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928), Erich von Harben, to appease German wrath after he harangued them so terribly during/after the Great War. However that may be, both of these stalwart heroes are indeed German, and von Horst in particular is a veritable Tarzan.
I couldn't say precisely what it is about this particular story that I find so appealing; it has many of the same attributes that others of the members of the Pellucidar series share -- derring-do, romance, adventure, wild beasts, interesting tribes, monsters. Stone Age has a crazy, flying creature that uses its tongue to paralyze its victims which it then takes into a deep mounded burrow where it lays them in a circle from which its hatchlings feed upon them after breaking free of their shells.
The romance comes about after von Horst meets La-ja who nearly from the first repulses the man. Through a series of humorous encounters with the girl who believes von Horst (whom she calls simply "Von") is making fun of her when he is really simply bringing to bear a light-hearted sense of humor and the many modernisms which came with him to Pellucidar from the surface, the German gradually comes to a realization that he is in love with the girl, who in turn is fearful of his safety and attempts to desert him at every opportunity to prevent his being killed by one who wishes to mate with her and who is famous for killing anything that moves . . . the redoubtable Gaz.
There are many similarities between von Horst's character and Tarzan, not the least of which is his befriending a veritable behemoth of a mammoth called Old White. This aspect in particular greatly reminds one of the scenes with Tarzan and Tantor, especially when Old White rescues von Horst from the Mammoth Men, shades of Tantor's rescue of both Tarzan and Korak in various novels.
The novel is filled with a plentitude of odd races and beings . . . the bellowing Bison Men known as ganaks, the Gorbuses who possess fleeting memories of lives on the surface but who are now repulsive flesh-eaters in Pellucidar, etc.
All of von Horst's many adventures all lead toward a culmination between himself and Gaz, the giant who wishes to take La-ja for his mate. Gaz is a killer, a fearsome one, and so it is fitting that, just like some caveman of old, von Horst must face off with a man whom the woman he loves believes to be an undefeatable brute, instilling in her breast love and respect for von Vorst who is not the type to back down from a challenge--especially when the woman he loves is involved.
The novel isn't perfect, granted. ERB frequently mined his own novels for ideas, IE nearly every Pellucidar novel has a girl fleeing from someone with which she doesn't wish to mate; he uses the "man befriending a mammoth" theme again later in Land of Terror, and every time the hero goes to sleep, he either wakes up and his belongings are missing, or the girl who fell asleep beside him is gone. I should ding it for that, but the long and short of it is that I love the novel despite those shortcomings. At the end of the day, I judge a novel for the enjoyment I get out of it, and Back to the Stone Age is a blast.
Fast Forward >> two or three decades; I haven't read that old favorite for many years. I can tell you it was with great anticipation that I made my way thru the series recently until I hit book 5.
Back to the Stone Age is the story of Frederich Wilhelm Eric von Mendeldorf und von Horst, one of the crewmen of the famous dirigible, The O-220, who became lost in Tarzan at the Earth's Core. The story of von Horst is a romance/adventure story. I've read that ERB created the characters of both von Horst and the hero of Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928), Erich von Harben, to appease German wrath after he harangued them so terribly during/after the Great War. However that may be, both of these stalwart heroes are indeed German, and von Horst in particular is a veritable Tarzan.
I couldn't say precisely what it is about this particular story that I find so appealing; it has many of the same attributes that others of the members of the Pellucidar series share -- derring-do, romance, adventure, wild beasts, interesting tribes, monsters. Stone Age has a crazy, flying creature that uses its tongue to paralyze its victims which it then takes into a deep mounded burrow where it lays them in a circle from which its hatchlings feed upon them after breaking free of their shells.
The romance comes about after von Horst meets La-ja who nearly from the first repulses the man. Through a series of humorous encounters with the girl who believes von Horst (whom she calls simply "Von") is making fun of her when he is really simply bringing to bear a light-hearted sense of humor and the many modernisms which came with him to Pellucidar from the surface, the German gradually comes to a realization that he is in love with the girl, who in turn is fearful of his safety and attempts to desert him at every opportunity to prevent his being killed by one who wishes to mate with her and who is famous for killing anything that moves . . . the redoubtable Gaz.
There are many similarities between von Horst's character and Tarzan, not the least of which is his befriending a veritable behemoth of a mammoth called Old White. This aspect in particular greatly reminds one of the scenes with Tarzan and Tantor, especially when Old White rescues von Horst from the Mammoth Men, shades of Tantor's rescue of both Tarzan and Korak in various novels.
The novel is filled with a plentitude of odd races and beings . . . the bellowing Bison Men known as ganaks, the Gorbuses who possess fleeting memories of lives on the surface but who are now repulsive flesh-eaters in Pellucidar, etc.
All of von Horst's many adventures all lead toward a culmination between himself and Gaz, the giant who wishes to take La-ja for his mate. Gaz is a killer, a fearsome one, and so it is fitting that, just like some caveman of old, von Horst must face off with a man whom the woman he loves believes to be an undefeatable brute, instilling in her breast love and respect for von Vorst who is not the type to back down from a challenge--especially when the woman he loves is involved.
The novel isn't perfect, granted. ERB frequently mined his own novels for ideas, IE nearly every Pellucidar novel has a girl fleeing from someone with which she doesn't wish to mate; he uses the "man befriending a mammoth" theme again later in Land of Terror, and every time the hero goes to sleep, he either wakes up and his belongings are missing, or the girl who fell asleep beside him is gone. I should ding it for that, but the long and short of it is that I love the novel despite those shortcomings. At the end of the day, I judge a novel for the enjoyment I get out of it, and Back to the Stone Age is a blast.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2025
OK that was way more fun than I expected. Formulaic, predictable and outdated, but nonetheless so much fun. Von Horst makes for a good old fashioned heroic character as he chases through stone age Pellucidar fighting cavemen, flying reptiles, T-Rexes, Sabretooth Cats and bison men; in the search for a woman he loves (who declares she hates him as all good Burrough's women seem to do to the hero). My favourite bit was his heart warming companionship with his mammoth steed who he saves and tames and adventures with, although I didn't tire of him fighting the beastly cave people or some of the creatures, no matter how repetitive it got.
It's not going to win any awards for political correctness in today's society and I'm certainly not in tune with most of the values here, but sometimes I crave a good old fashioned adventure tale. And this rips along at pace and never lets up. It's fun and that's all that matters to me here.
It's not going to win any awards for political correctness in today's society and I'm certainly not in tune with most of the values here, but sometimes I crave a good old fashioned adventure tale. And this rips along at pace and never lets up. It's fun and that's all that matters to me here.
June 8, 2022
Mirek Dusin v Pleciocenu.
Autor slavneho Tarzana mene znama serie dobrodruznych pribehu, odehravajici se v jakesi v podstate blyze nijak zvlast popsane stredozemi ( nezamenovat prosim s tou zemi Hobbitu z Pana Prstenu ) Kde je vecny den a vecny pravek.
Hrdina bez bazne a hany sdluhyn nemeckym primenim ??! Se shodou okolnosti ztratil v tomhle svete a jenucen se Sam o sebe postarat, ale jelikoz je to nejenom chlapik ciperny ale navic uzasny dobrak dari se mu svoji dobrotou, intelligenci i duvtipem ziskavat jednoho kamarada za druhym a i na zviratka dojde ....samozrejme i na krasnou tajemnou protivnou Blondynku ...ach Ti Nemci. Ende gut alles Gut :-))
Autor slavneho Tarzana mene znama serie dobrodruznych pribehu, odehravajici se v jakesi v podstate blyze nijak zvlast popsane stredozemi ( nezamenovat prosim s tou zemi Hobbitu z Pana Prstenu ) Kde je vecny den a vecny pravek.
Hrdina bez bazne a hany sdluhyn nemeckym primenim ??! Se shodou okolnosti ztratil v tomhle svete a jenucen se Sam o sebe postarat, ale jelikoz je to nejenom chlapik ciperny ale navic uzasny dobrak dari se mu svoji dobrotou, intelligenci i duvtipem ziskavat jednoho kamarada za druhym a i na zviratka dojde ....samozrejme i na krasnou tajemnou protivnou Blondynku ...ach Ti Nemci. Ende gut alles Gut :-))
November 27, 2015
Basically a side novel to resolve the fate of one of the characters who was on the dirigible O-220. Frederich Wilhelm Eric von Mendeldorf und von Horst (thankfully shortened to 'von Horst' or just 'von' for most of the book) was lost during the previous book and this is his tale.
It's a typical pulp area story in that it's broken down into a number of short adventures with a cliff hanger at the end of each section. Von Horst pursues the native girl La-Ja and in the process is captured several time by various tribes. Of course he always escapes and lives to reach the happy end of the book.
The title comes from the way von Horsts character changes through the book. He starts out as a civilized 19th Century man but learns the ways and habits of the cave men of Pellucidar.
Not the best in the series and that might explain why it's been out of print for a long time.
It's a typical pulp area story in that it's broken down into a number of short adventures with a cliff hanger at the end of each section. Von Horst pursues the native girl La-Ja and in the process is captured several time by various tribes. Of course he always escapes and lives to reach the happy end of the book.
The title comes from the way von Horsts character changes through the book. He starts out as a civilized 19th Century man but learns the ways and habits of the cave men of Pellucidar.
Not the best in the series and that might explain why it's been out of print for a long time.
June 25, 2010
Not at all bad. The story of Von Horst the German who went missing from the expedition in "Tarzan at the earth's core." The plot is typical Burrough's wandering around a savage world, fighting, remarkable creatures and even more remarkable coincidences.
Although Von Horst certainly isn't as great a character as Tarzan or John Carter he's a pleasant enough hero and La-Ja makes a more than adequate heroine.
Some interesting new flora and fauna I particularly liked the Gorbuses.
Well up to the earlier books in the Pellucidar series, although I understand the next one "Land Of Terror" is especially poor, I'll have to wait and see...
Although Von Horst certainly isn't as great a character as Tarzan or John Carter he's a pleasant enough hero and La-Ja makes a more than adequate heroine.
Some interesting new flora and fauna I particularly liked the Gorbuses.
Well up to the earlier books in the Pellucidar series, although I understand the next one "Land Of Terror" is especially poor, I'll have to wait and see...
November 11, 2014
Lite lit at its adolescent best. The epitome of pulp fiction. Man out of his element encounters danger, befriends native, allies with native to confront danger, rinse, repeat.
Don't expect much in the way of characterization or back story beyond what was needed to tie it to other books in the series. That being said, if you don't get at least a small kick out of it, you probably don't need to be reading ERB or his pulp contemporaries to begin with.
Don't expect much in the way of characterization or back story beyond what was needed to tie it to other books in the series. That being said, if you don't get at least a small kick out of it, you probably don't need to be reading ERB or his pulp contemporaries to begin with.
October 5, 2014
A solitary adventure of a heroic figure who is lost on pellucidar, and follows his love through many adventures.
This is the 1st Pellucidar I read. It was so good, and I liked the character so much, that I was really disappointed in the 1st two Pellucidar books.
This is the 1st Pellucidar I read. It was so good, and I liked the character so much, that I was really disappointed in the 1st two Pellucidar books.
July 8, 2017
Back to the Stone Age
Having read some of the Pellucidar adventures previously, I knew some of the content. This was a excellent adventure story with a significant love interest thrown in. Definitely recommend it.
Having read some of the Pellucidar adventures previously, I knew some of the content. This was a excellent adventure story with a significant love interest thrown in. Definitely recommend it.
March 4, 2024
Edgar Rice Burroughs was in many ways a visionary writer. "Back to the Stone Age" is the fifth installment of the Pellucidar franchise of novels. Actually, it is a sister or brother novel to "Tarzan at the Earth's Core." German protagonist Wilhelm von Horst arrived in Pellucidar during the previous installment of the franchise in "Tarzan at the Earth's Core." During the great animal slaughter, von Horst is separated from not only the dirigible that Jason Gridley and Tarzan built to gain access to the Inner World but also both Tarzan and Gidley. This novel chronicles the trials and tribulations that von Horst faces as he struggles to survive in the prehistoric setting of Pellucidar with its exotic beasts. Reading this exhilarating fantasy was a treat. For example, all the human tribes of Pellucidar rely on abducting maidens from other tribes. If a member of one tribe encounters a member from another tribe, then they are compelled to fight one another to the death. This is standard operating procedure in these sprawling yarns. Consequently, von Horst runs into several different tribes as he struggles to find his way back to the airship. Interestingly enough, von Horst falls in love with a sexy babe from one of the tribes and she displays nothing but contempt for his amorous advances. After you read enough of Burroughs, you can figure out where his adventurous sagas are going. He loves cliffhanger predicaments but sometimes you have to wonder what his characters were thinking when they got caught because their either let down their guard or lost their weapons. Our protagonist refuses to leave the primitive world of Pellucidar and prefers to live with the tribe of the woman he loves.
August 21, 2017
"500 miles beneath the earth's crust lies a world of eternal day in which cavemen and dinosaurs roam, and terrors forgotten in the modern world still survive". Back to the stone age is set in a land called Pellucidar, where Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Horst finds himself stuck with a tribe of black warriors who don’t even speak English. Back to the stone was written in the 1940s so the language used in it is more diverse than most books but it is still very good.
Von Horst, the protagonist, is a German soldier who somehow gets lost in Pellucidar. He gets separated from his tribesmen, and tries to find them, failing miserably. He makes friends with a Sarian called Dangar in a Trodon pit, and sets off on a journey with him to get to Sari. Finding it was easy, as all Pellucidarians have a homing instinct, just like pigeons, the hard part is getting there.
In Pellucidar, if someone is not of your tribe they're your enemy so you kill them. Von Horst doesn't get why they have to be like this and Dangar understood, but everyone else didn't know why you would be friends or allies with people outside your tribe. Sarian's, like Dangar, did seem to understand and he is accepted as a member of their tribe. Everyone is amazed by his pistol and wants a go with it but when one man, Skruf, ends up shooting himself in the face, they don't want to use it.
Back to the stone age is one of the best books I've ever read because it is thrilling and always full of action.
Von Horst, the protagonist, is a German soldier who somehow gets lost in Pellucidar. He gets separated from his tribesmen, and tries to find them, failing miserably. He makes friends with a Sarian called Dangar in a Trodon pit, and sets off on a journey with him to get to Sari. Finding it was easy, as all Pellucidarians have a homing instinct, just like pigeons, the hard part is getting there.
In Pellucidar, if someone is not of your tribe they're your enemy so you kill them. Von Horst doesn't get why they have to be like this and Dangar understood, but everyone else didn't know why you would be friends or allies with people outside your tribe. Sarian's, like Dangar, did seem to understand and he is accepted as a member of their tribe. Everyone is amazed by his pistol and wants a go with it but when one man, Skruf, ends up shooting himself in the face, they don't want to use it.
Back to the stone age is one of the best books I've ever read because it is thrilling and always full of action.
August 14, 2025
In the previous book Jason Gridley and Tarzan led a group to journey to Pellucidar to rescue David Innes. In this one, Gridley, his friend von Horst and a group of Waziri have become separated from main group. Shortly thereafter the three become separated from each other. This is von Horst’s story.
Von Horst is captured by a flying reptile and makes a native friend named Dangar of Sari. After an amazing escape from the nest, they travel a dangerously complicated, and often interrupted, route to Sari. But he never makes it. Instead he finds his happily ever after.
I like Von Horst. He is a good man but stick up for others and knows how to handle people. But I think Pellucidar is bad luck for all above worlders since they end up all lost and/or captured. Over and over again.
Fave scenes: escaping the inner cave, the idea of marking the trail, helping the tantor and finding Daj & the bear.
Von Horst is captured by a flying reptile and makes a native friend named Dangar of Sari. After an amazing escape from the nest, they travel a dangerously complicated, and often interrupted, route to Sari. But he never makes it. Instead he finds his happily ever after.
I like Von Horst. He is a good man but stick up for others and knows how to handle people. But I think Pellucidar is bad luck for all above worlders since they end up all lost and/or captured. Over and over again.
Fave scenes: escaping the inner cave, the idea of marking the trail, helping the tantor and finding Daj & the bear.
April 14, 2023
The Pellucidar series has become a favorite of mine, while at the same time being such frustrating reads that I wish ERB was still around, so I could smack him.
They are full to the brim with imaginative world building that Burroughs than ignores so he can go back to the same formulaic 'the damsel is going to get kidnapped four times' stories.
So much gets introduced and, then rushed through, so the hero can run around saving the girl, while not getting she is in love with him.
The cast is likable, in fact Von Horst's sense of humor gives this book almost a 'Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court' vibe, which saves the book, but even at less than 170 pages, the last quarter drags.
Did like the stuff with the mammoth, as well.
Good, not great book, in a series that should be better than it is.
They are full to the brim with imaginative world building that Burroughs than ignores so he can go back to the same formulaic 'the damsel is going to get kidnapped four times' stories.
So much gets introduced and, then rushed through, so the hero can run around saving the girl, while not getting she is in love with him.
The cast is likable, in fact Von Horst's sense of humor gives this book almost a 'Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court' vibe, which saves the book, but even at less than 170 pages, the last quarter drags.
Did like the stuff with the mammoth, as well.
Good, not great book, in a series that should be better than it is.
November 18, 2023
In the previous Pellucidar book, Lt. Von Horst, part of the expedition into Pellucidar, wound up lost. Here he becomes involved with a cavewoman (who finds him the most obnoxious, most irritating man she's ever met — yes, we know how that works out), undergoes the usual hair-raising adventures and does the "Androcles and the Lion" bit with a mammoth — I must admit I loved that part.
The book starts with a creepy flying predator that paralyzes "Von" as food when its eggs hatch. It's a cool peril but after that the story becomes more routine and less focused as Von wanders back and forth across the landscape. Still, it's fun and Von has an atypical sense of hum for a Burroughs hero.
One very strange bit is where Von encounters a tribe of cannibals whom it's strongly implied are damned to Pellucidar for crimes on the surface. That kind of mysticism isn't at all Burroughs usual thing.
The book starts with a creepy flying predator that paralyzes "Von" as food when its eggs hatch. It's a cool peril but after that the story becomes more routine and less focused as Von wanders back and forth across the landscape. Still, it's fun and Von has an atypical sense of hum for a Burroughs hero.
One very strange bit is where Von encounters a tribe of cannibals whom it's strongly implied are damned to Pellucidar for crimes on the surface. That kind of mysticism isn't at all Burroughs usual thing.
May 12, 2019
First read this in my early teens and as I recall, it was one of my favorites in the Pellucidar series. I liked the fact that Burroughs was following up with secondary characters (von Horst) rather than sticking with the initial heroes of the series (David Innes, Perry, and the Tarzan cameo). I've always loved airship stories and I think ERB missed an opportunity by not doing more with the zeppelin. The more I re-read these classics the more ERB's standard formulas jump out at me--the romance, the wandering encounters with 'lost' cities and civilizations, multiple captures and escapes, etc. To my modern sensibilities, they seem more like YA novels or boys' adventure books. But that's just the nature of writing from these early years.
August 24, 2023
This is the fifth in the famous Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This book is typical of ERB's writing. The main character Von Horst is trapped in the Earth's core and is trying to find his way out or at least somewhere where the dinosaurs won't be attempting to kill him on a daily basis. Like most of ERB's stories, Von horst becomes infatuated with a cave girl though she seems to want nothing to do with him. It is a wonderful adventure at the Earth's core filled with Burrough's wonderful and vivid writing.
January 30, 2024
Von Horst has become lost in Pellucidar - the world within our Earth - and faces terrible danger at every step. He meets La-ja when both are held captive by a warring tribe, and determines to return her to her own people. Needless to say, he falls in love with her on the long journey, but she constantly rejects his advances.
As with most of Burrough's books, the plot is far-fetched and filled with contrivances - but you actually don't really care, because it's packed with action and wild imagination. A fun read.
As with most of Burrough's books, the plot is far-fetched and filled with contrivances - but you actually don't really care, because it's packed with action and wild imagination. A fun read.
October 30, 2023
This is a fanciful trip to the life and times of living in the Stone Age. Brutality, violence, death and more are the norms for living here. Our hero, Lt. Von Horst applies himself to this hard reality. The and time again he must fight not only for his life, but for those he cares about.
This is the fifth installment of the Pellucidar series and the excitement, and tension does not falter. This is seriously god reading for anyone who wants to escape into a fantasy life.
This is the fifth installment of the Pellucidar series and the excitement, and tension does not falter. This is seriously god reading for anyone who wants to escape into a fantasy life.
August 6, 2018
In the previous Pellucidar novel by ERB, Lieutenant von Horst had been lost when the rest of his party left this land inside the hollow earth to return to the outside. This is his story and how he survived, in the best pulp story style. And he wins the love of La-ja, a girl from Sari.
July 18, 2020
3.5 - This series is hilariously formulaic, and yet something about the world it has created keeps bringing me back to it. This entry was no different, but was bolstered by a strong protagonist and good supporting characters that made for a fun read.
November 20, 2022
He leído la edición de "Barsoom/Costas de Carcosa" con ilustraciones, una maravilla de libro que, como muchos títulos de esta editorial, no figura ni puedo añadir al listado de contenidos de Goodreads.
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