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
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
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