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Book #4 - Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
Mar. 9th, 2009 04:40 pmThis is the fifth in the Tarzan series, and there is conspicuously no mention of or even reference to his son with whom we spent the entirety of book 4. Odd. Maybe it's supposed to be, like, what happened to Tarzan and Jane _during_ those years that Jack and Meriem were tooling around the jungle. Maybe the sixth book will bring things together again and tell us just what is going on with this family.
Oh, but! I actually like Jane again. True, she's once again the damsel in distress, over whom everyone in the book _except_ Tarzan vies (he has amnesia). But she actually shows some backbone. She puts up a fight when Arab raiders come to kidnap her and destroy her home: "Upon the veranda Lady Greystoke stood, rifle in hand. More than a single raider had accounted to her steady nerves and cool aim for his outlawry; more than a single pony raced, riderless, in the wake of the charging horde." This is Jane. See Jane kick ass. Go Jane go! Of course, ultimately she fails in defending herself and her home and is whisked away (how else could Tarzan rescue her and prove his manly leet jungle-god skillz?), but she does manage to effect her own escape at one point, so I'm very proud of her.
The Evil European this time is Belgian, a murderer and deserter who masquerades as a Frenchman in order to cozy up to the Greystokes, initially to kidnap and ransom Jane, but subsequently to steal their fortune, which he learns comes from the treasure vaults of Opar.
Ooh, geeky sidenote: the gold of Opar is described as "oddly-shaped ingots" which reminded me of the wonky gold jewelry of the Deep Ones in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." Also the priests of Opar are rather inhuman-looking (ahem, the Innsmouth look...), and prone to human sacrifice. _And_ Opar was supposedly a colony of Atlantis (insert lost, exotic maritime civilization here). So. Deep Ones in the Congo?? Hmm... Actually, if there was any influence, it would have gone the other way, as "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" was written twenty years later. But still. Now I want to watch Dagon again.
Anyway, this book has given me back my love of the Tarzan series. The Son of Tarzan frustrated me because it was just so much like the first book. Everything that Tarzan did in his youth, his son was now doing, and with all the same results. But now we finally have a different story and that's lovely. Even if it does get confusing trying to follow who's in possession of the Jewels, like a big Shell Game or something.
Title:Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pages: 350
Oh, but! I actually like Jane again. True, she's once again the damsel in distress, over whom everyone in the book _except_ Tarzan vies (he has amnesia). But she actually shows some backbone. She puts up a fight when Arab raiders come to kidnap her and destroy her home: "Upon the veranda Lady Greystoke stood, rifle in hand. More than a single raider had accounted to her steady nerves and cool aim for his outlawry; more than a single pony raced, riderless, in the wake of the charging horde." This is Jane. See Jane kick ass. Go Jane go! Of course, ultimately she fails in defending herself and her home and is whisked away (how else could Tarzan rescue her and prove his manly leet jungle-god skillz?), but she does manage to effect her own escape at one point, so I'm very proud of her.
The Evil European this time is Belgian, a murderer and deserter who masquerades as a Frenchman in order to cozy up to the Greystokes, initially to kidnap and ransom Jane, but subsequently to steal their fortune, which he learns comes from the treasure vaults of Opar.
Ooh, geeky sidenote: the gold of Opar is described as "oddly-shaped ingots" which reminded me of the wonky gold jewelry of the Deep Ones in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." Also the priests of Opar are rather inhuman-looking (ahem, the Innsmouth look...), and prone to human sacrifice. _And_ Opar was supposedly a colony of Atlantis (insert lost, exotic maritime civilization here). So. Deep Ones in the Congo?? Hmm... Actually, if there was any influence, it would have gone the other way, as "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" was written twenty years later. But still. Now I want to watch Dagon again.
Anyway, this book has given me back my love of the Tarzan series. The Son of Tarzan frustrated me because it was just so much like the first book. Everything that Tarzan did in his youth, his son was now doing, and with all the same results. But now we finally have a different story and that's lovely. Even if it does get confusing trying to follow who's in possession of the Jewels, like a big Shell Game or something.
Title:Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pages: 350
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4 / 24 (16.7%) |
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