A review by triscuit807
Land of Terror by Edgar Rice Burroughs

3.0

2.5-3 stars. I remember reading one/some of the Pellucidar books when I was a teen; Burroughs was one of my dad's favorite authors so we had some of them. I found them exciting reading. Well, I've grown up a lot since then. FWIW I still find them very imaginative; the different peoples/cultures and animals of Pellucidar are fantastically varied. But and it's a big BUT: these books have not aged well especially for this SJW. Pellucidar's humans are Stone Age (or less in some cases) peoples. The protagonist David Innes is a man born to the 20th century and, not only is he modern, but he knows all about The White Man's Burden. Of course the Suvi and Sari peoples are the most heroic (after Innes himself), others fair less well. All groups seem to keep slaves; notably the Ruvans who are black/colored and have some white slaves (from the mainland) will not mate with them (ew, ick) - which fits the time period of Burroughs' writing. There are some good parts: the rescue of the mastodon calf and friendship with its family, the description of the giant ants, and the description of the Floating Islands. What I can take away from the writing style: Burroughs is a storyteller and he tells stories well, but they may be stories that make you uncomfortable. I read this for my 2020 Reading Challenge (Lit Life "guilty pleasure") and the 2020 Hugo nominations (Retro Best Novel 1944).