Pellucidar (1923)

If you like Borroughs' adventures then this one is for you. Not quite as good as "At the Earth's Core" but a good sequel anyway. ( )

This is the sequel to the author's better known At the Earth's Core. This tells of the narrator's further adventures in the land inside the hollow Earth, battling against various races of hostile people, allying with others and forging his own subterranean empire along with his wife Dian the Beautiful whom he had rescued in the previous novel. Obviously of its time, but I wouldn't mind as long as there was a better plot, but this lacks the freshness of its predecessor. I did, though, download to my phone a map of Pellucidar from Wikipedia, which helped in following his perambulations. ( )

One of the marks of a great writer is that he can take an unbelievable situation and make it sound true and accurate and believable. “Pellucidar”is book two of the seven-volume Pellucidar series by Burroughs, which tells the story of the adventures in a hollow-earth world where intelligent reptiles were the dominant species and humans were stuck in stone age civilization. One of the remarkable things Burroughs created in this hollow-world are the fact that, without sunrise or sunset, there is simply an eternal mid-day sun and thus no real conception of time. Although he was not the first one to ever postulate the existence of an inner-earth world, no one either before or since has done it half as well. Above all, this book, like the others in this terrific series, is a wonderful adventure story of fighting and chivalry.

In the first book in the series (“At the Earth’s Core”), Innes and Perry tunneled into this inner-world in a mighty metal prospector, not having any idea that it ever existed. At the end of the first book, Innes returns to the outer crust to gather arms, tools, and books so that he and Perry can advance human civilization in the inner world and take on the Mahar (reptile) empire. This second book of the series details Innes return to the inner world and his adventures there and how with his tools, weapons, and technological know-how brought back from the outer world, he leads a federation of stone age kingdoms in battle against the Mahars, bringing to bear weapons that no one in the inner world could ever have dreamed of.

It is truly a great story and, once you expect the conceit that there is an inner world with an inner sun and intelligent creatures there of many kinds, you will enjoy this book immensely. It is simply a great adventure story and quite enjoyable to read. ( )

This is the first of Burroughs' stories that take place inside the hollow earth. Basically it has the same elements of adventure that make his other stories fun to read--primarily for male readers, probably. ( )

Not quite as good as the first in the series but still a highly enjoyable hollow earth romp. Great fun. ( )