Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don (The Wild Adventures of Tarzan)

We are GIGANTIC fans of Tarzan, and pretty much anything ERB wrote.This latest Tarzan, seemingly the first once since the 90's, was pretty good.But it had a lot of problems, unfortunately.We have never read anything from this Will Murray. But, from what we could glean from his 1st Tarzan book, he shows some good potential.It seems some reviewers have already told you all about this particular new Tarzan adventure, so we will tell you what we liked, and what we didn't care for. (Of course, this is strictly just our personal take. Nothing more, nothing less.)Will Murray begins his first Tarzan novel well. In fact, it is probably the strongest part of the entire book, despite his too wordy prose and over-usage of certain titles and names. Once you establish someones name and title, you don't have to repeat it over and over. We get it!Murray picks a place and time in which we believe 'ol ERB reached his peak in his Tarzan series - Tarzan the Untamed and Tarzan the Terrible, where German forces destroy the Greystoke jungle estate and capture Jane and take her away, making Tarzan think she is dead, burned, along with their friends and home. But Jane ends up in yet another lost civilization that ERB did so greatly, a place called Pal-ul-don. A land filled with fierce beasts and fiercer men. But these races of lost man have tails, and have two or three distinct races, the Waz-don and Ho-don, who fight amongst one another. (A race war in fantasy, since one was white and one was black.)And this is the time and place in which author Murray picked to begin his new Tarzan adventure. Good! Great! Let's see what another author can do with a time and place that hasn't been written about for over 80 years. (Unless you count comic books, in which author/artist Russ Manning did it better, in our humble opinion.)So Murray has Tarzan fighting for the war in the RAF once again. (If we remember correctly, ERB did this in Tarzan and the Foreign Legion) Murray quickly places the ape-man in a classic P-40 fighter plane, which is fairly quickly downed by prehistoric birds, but ERB never mentioned this particular lost world having these. Pellucidar and Caspak? - yes. Pal-ul-don? No. (But hey, we'll go along with it. We are trying to play nice and love this newly-emerged Tarzan book.)So, after Tarzan rescues Tantor from a giant croc, and is quickly brought down by a trio of flying pteranodons, he continues his mission - to find the downed aircrew and this mysterious agent known as Ilex. OK, so far, so pretty good.It is shortly after this that we kinda get bored with the story a bit. A few reviewers said this book was too long. We don't mind long books. As long as they are good, from beginning to end. The more Tarzan, the better. Right?Unfortunately, for us, anyways, this book feels too long because it gets bogged down with mini-adventures. But, even mini-adventures can be cool and fun and exciting, if they are handled well. These were sometimes dull and redundant, we're afraid. The meeting of the turtel-men, which, in our minds was like the meeting up of Tarzan with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. OK, we are seeing now that this latest author for Tarzan is trying to invent his own Pal-ul-don creations. Which, we suppose, is fine, as long as the story is ERB-like, fun and fast. (But this is where it bogs down a bit, and gets a little worse after the spider people are introduced.Although we felt that all these new creations of this latest author were fine and kinda interesting, we felt the the problem was it quickly become mundane. A bit too much. We got this feeling that author Murray would have been better off having Tarzan meet and do battle with these new creations - but then move on. The spider people seem to take over the story.Now, during all this fighting off spider people and stuff, you still have a sub-plot going on: the finding of this mysterious Ilex? Remember that mission?Without ruining the plot, suffice it to say, we thought when the author got back on track with that part of the book, the mysterious Ilex wasn't so mysterious...or interesting, really. Ilex really does nothing for the plot. Just a person for Tarzan to save. Then, when Ilex is revealed, it didn't really add anything to the overall plot. There was no 'aha!' moment. This mysterious person didn't do anything in Pal-ul-don to shake things up.We are not here to beat-up Will Murray. Tarzan is one - if not the biggest - iconic figure in the history of books, comics, and movies. Any one writing a Tarzan novel is going to be scrutinized by hardcore fans like us. Overall, Will Murray seems to be a pretty solid pulp writer. He seems to get Tarzan, overall. There is certainly room for improvement. And if you continues to write Tarzan novels, hopefully he'll improve with each novel. Return to Pal-ul-don is not a bad book. A little above average. Murray's numerous action sequences were not nearly as good as ERB's, or many other authors we read, but he shows major potential. We read TONS of action/adventure books, so we are very picky about how someone writes action sequences. After you read the best ones in the business, it is hard to accept mediocre.If you are expecting ERB's Pal-ul-don here, you will only get some small slivers of it. mainly you get Will Murray's new creations of the denizens of lost Pal-ul-don. We really wished that author Murray would have chosen what was tried and true, and further explore the world that ERB and classic author/artist Russ Manning did in the 60's and 70's, sticking true to ERB's creations, and enhancing them further.But, overall, Murray shows promise here. He seems to get the character of Tarzan. But there is most def room for improvement.

Just finished reading "Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don" (The Wild Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan) by Will Murray. Written with the permission of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and in the style ERB would have used, this book was very good. I really liked it.

I had to reread to the first time Tarzan went to Pal-u-don in "Tarzan the Terrible" before I read this one. Fun read by a new author.

I have been waiting decades for The Burroughs Estate to authorize a new Tarzan Novel. It is my belief that they have selected the perfect author. Will Murray's continuation of Doc Savage has been a ton of fun.This new novel brings us back to one of my favorite Lost World Civilizations Pal-ul-don. We meet both old friends and new ones in this delightful romp.The creation of the Turtle People is great addition to the Burroughs Universe. The same with the majestic elephant Torn Ear.I was both upset and discouraged to see a couple "haters" who gave this book a bad review then appear to be then give reviewers "unhelpful " votes. Don't listen to these few negative individuals and spend some time immersed in world of your favorite jungle Lord.Just a reminder the Hardcover can be ordered from LuLu and I will be ordering a second copy because the Hardcover contains the expanded wrap around cover from Joe Devito and an additional short story.Highly Recommended

I actually never finished reading this yet. The story , though typical of original Tarzan stories seemed to take too long to get get started.

The author, Will Murray, has made a lifetime out of studying old pulps and similar novels. So when he writes a Tarzan novel, it's the Lord of the Jungle at his best. I enjoyed this more than the originals by Burroughs.Sent on a secret military mission to an unknown portion of Africa, his job is to recover an intelligence asset code-named Ilex. He is not told who or what Ilex might be -- that's for him to learn. His plane brought down by a pteranodon, Tarzan quickly reverts to his old ways of the jungle. And in this story he meets a truly difficult foe, one that presents an unparalleled challenge to the beast lord.

WELL DONE-- LIKE- ADVENTURE erb style

Very enjoyable Tarzan pastiche. If Edgar Rice Burroughs name was on it I would have believed he wrote it.

If you love Tarzan, then this novel is for you! At long last a new Tarzan book, set in the classic Tarzan era where our hero returns to a hidden land he visited once before on the trail of a British agent whose plane has crashed in the inhospitable jungle. Tarzan encounters a race of foul Spider people who prove to be one of his most relentless foes yet! Written in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs this is hopefully the first in a brand new series authorised by ERB Inc and about time too! A superb start and well worth reading... Tarzan of the Apes as he should be presented!

Even the most flawed of ERB's Tarzan novels - e. g. The Son of Tarzan or Tarzan and the Leopard Men - is ten times better than this utterly derivative drivel.For those readers who want to enjoy a thoroughly brilliant Tarzan -pastiche, I advise them to read Tarzan and the Valley of Gold by Fritz Leiber.Perhaps ERB Inc can ask Anthony Horowitz to continue the series. After all, he's done a great job on Sherlock Holmes and James Bond.

Will Murray findet sich sehr gut in Burroughs' Erzählweise hinein, ohne dass die Sprche dabei einen altmodischen Touch mitbekommt. Er lässt Tarzan, wie so oft bei Burroughs, auf unbekannte Rassen und Zivisilationen treffen, denen Tarzan unvoreingenommen und voller Neugierde begegnet. Die Geschichte spielt im 2. Weltkrieg, und Tarzan tut - als britischer Staatsbürger, der ja auch ist - Dienst als Pilot bei der Royal Air Force. Bei einem Flug stürzt er in Pal-ul-Don ab, eine fremdartige, von der Außenwelt abgeschottete Welt voller Urzeit-Wesen. Tarzan kennt dieses Land von einem früheren Besuch. Aber das ist Jahrzehnte her. Ganz allmählich lässt Murray Tarzan sich an die Eigenarten und Topografie dieses Landes erinnern - und der Leser, der die alten Geschichten kennt, erinnert sich mit ihm. Das gelingt Murray ganz bezaubernd. Und bei dieser Gelegenheit macht er Tarzan und die Leser mit einer unheimlichen Bevölkerungsgruppe von Pal-ul-Don bekannt, von der wir bisher noch nie gehört hatten. Das alles macht Appetit auf mehr. Hoffentlich belässt es der Autor nicht bei diesem einen neuen Tarzan-Roman.

Slowwwww and takes forever to read, unlike ERBs fast paced books