Tarzan: Return To Pal-ul-don

With the African continent engulfed by World War II, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, abandons his role as Lord of the Jungle in order to combat the spreading Nazi menace.

Flying a P-40 Tomahawk warplane, Clayton is sent on his first mission: to rescue the missing British Military Intelligence officer code-named Ilex. But the daring task plunges him into his savage past after he’s forced down in a lost land that seems hauntingly familiar.

When Tarzan of the Apes returns to the prehistoric realm called Pal-ul-don, he must revert to his most savage persona, that of Tarzan-jad-guru––Tarzan the Terrible!

Tarzan: Return To Pal-ul-don (SF/Adventure)

By Will Murray

Altus Press www.altuspress.com

ISBN #978-1618272098

Price $22.46

380 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Back To Pal-ul-don!”

With Nazis in Africa, Tarzan joins the RAF, and as Flight Officer John Clayton, he is given an assignment to fly from England to the African continent to locate a missing British agent code-named Ilex, whose plane has crashed somewhere on the Dark Continent. Given the coordinates of the downed plane, Clayton’s P-40 Tomahawk is knocked out of the sky by a huge pteranodon when he reaches the area. On the ground he discovers an elephant he names Torn Ear, who becomes his companion is this wild valley of prehistoric creatures. Tarzan soon discovers he is in Pal-ul-don (Land of man). First coming across a tribe of turtle men, he stays with them awhile, then sets out again on his mission to find the missing secret agent, and is soon joined by Mu-bu-tan, a hairy man with tail. From this point on they are beset by a race of spider-men who carry poison darts with spider venom, and go through several captures and escapes, eventually finding Ilex also in the spider-men’s lair.  Tarzan once again becomes Tarzan the Terrible, and goes to war with the spider-men.

This was certainly an action-filled adventure, which Will Murray handles quite well. Perhaps it was about 100 pages too long, as there are a lot of repeats that weren’t needed, but the author is just satisfying the current trend for lengthy novels. I did get a kick out of Mu-bu-tan’s perfect diction, and use of words 8 and 9 letters long for a prehistoric man-thing that should have a limited vocabulary. You’d have thought he went to Harvard with Ham Brooks. There are no Nazis, which is also a shame, after all this is WWII. I thought I knew who Ilex was by page 148, but I was wrong. I will leave it at that. Whatever faults this novel may have you can contribute to it being Will Murray’s first Tarzan novel. After all, Burroughs originally put tigers in Africa. I hope the author continues writing the series. This is the first good one since Fritz Leiber’s TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

ECHOES MAGZINE