Reviews

The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs

papi's review against another edition

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3.0

A young teen classic...bet it (or others by Burroughs) aren't read much any more. Too bad.

kailey_luminouslibro's review against another edition

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4.0

The suspense keeps you reading on and on! Can't put it down. Burroughs is a master of keeping you hanging at the end of a chapter. The action is practically non-stop, and the characters are admirable. He really gets you cheering for the good guys, b/c they are so brave and righteous. The villains are horrid too. Fantastic writing without any wasted words or boring descriptions or endless analyzing of character's motives. He sets it out in a simple sentence, then moves on. I love his writing style! Can't wait to read the next one, Son of Tarzan.

birdmanseven's review against another edition

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4.0

After reading the dreary "Return of Tarzan" I was worried only the first book would be any good. Luckily, book 3 got us back on track. My problem with "Return" was that it got away from the things that make Tarzan cool. Tarzan as a secret agent = dumb. Tarzan as king of the jungle = awesome. "Beasts" brought Tarzan back to the jungle and back to his strengths. Very good.

We discussed this series in a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-247-lockdown-recommendations-books

livesinthetub's review against another edition

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3.0

books #12 of 2021: The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs (pub. 1914) the story, characters, and action were somewhat less compelling than the first two books, which I realize is an extremely common curse in almost any series. still enjoyable, but not driving me on to the subsequent book the way the first two did. 3/5. and now for something completely different....

mammalsitter's review against another edition

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4.0

If I'm not mistaken this was the book that the new movie was very loosely based on, only in the movie they kidnap just Jane, and there is no baby. It was an interesting read, but there was one part that I thought was pretty stupid. Jane escaped her captures and then comes across a wild white guy hanging out with a pack of gorillas, and instead of saying hey, that's probably my husband, she hides and they all go right by her. If this was the first book than sure, but this is the third, they're married and have a kid, and how many savage white guys who hang out with gorillas did she think there were in Africa?? Other than a couple of times like that, when the characters were being pretty stupid, the book was pretty good.

clauchoque's review against another edition

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4.0

Aventuras en todo el libro!!

Argghh estaba tan tensa todo el tiempo...hay momentos frustrantes, déjame decirte. Pero, lo disfrute completamente. Cada uno de los libros te da una visión mas sencilla y comprensible de la naturaleza, y la forma en la que congenia con un ser humano.

En cuanto a Tarzan, nunca puedo quejarme de el. Es el personaje menos frustrante de la historia. Sin embargo, me gusto ver la evolución de Jane. Al fin pude ver a la mujer patea traseros que todos los que hicieron las adaptaciones afirman que ella es, no lo creí hasta este libro. Fue lo mejor de todo.

Tal vez descanse un poco de la serie...muchas emociones...uff

markhodderauthor's review against another edition

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1.0

All the usual ERB cautions apply: this is racist and sexist, character motivations are cartoon-level basic, and the plot, which takes the form of a prolonged chase, is plain silly. Normally, with this sort of thing, I’m able to consider it in its historical context and thus get past the dated content to enjoy the pulp action. However, with this one, the repeated threats of rape levelled at Jane by the Russian villain, Rokoff, are so deeply unpalatable that I found the whole novel overshadowed by them, and I was glad to finish it, having not much enjoyed it at all.

annettewolf's review against another edition

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4.0

Old villains pop up again in this book, which takes place a couple years after The Return of Tarzan. Tarzan and Jane are married, they have a young son, and Rokoff and Paulvitch are back for revenge. Everyone gets kidnapped and separated, and has to fight for survival and escape.

Tarzan ends up on an island with no immediate way off. He takes to his jungle ways and befriends a panther named Sheeta, and an intelligent ape, ruler of his tribe, called Akut.

Man, this was my favorite so far, of the three Tarzan books I’ve read. The animals are clever and beautiful and the way they communicate with Tarzan and he with them is just—wild and awesome. Gives you respect for the animal kingdom, and for Nature. That’s what’s so fascinating about Tarzan anyway, right? How close he is to Nature, to wildness.

This is an excellent read for any fan of Tarzan and of adventure novels. I have to admit, I’ve tried a couple times since to read the next book, The Son of Tarzan. I can’t seem to get through it. I’ll probably give it another go later on, since I love Tarzan so much. But the book is, understandably, given the title, mostly about Tarzan’s son Jack, and therefore not as interesting. Oh well. The Beasts of Tarzan will remain my favorite Tarzan novel for a good long time.

eralon's review against another edition

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2.0

There are so many things wrong with this third book in the series. The racism everyone knows about. Though I continue to think that it's also generalized misanthropy because while the author's language is racist, the human characters are mostly all the same regardless of race. The animals are the noblest and most moral characters. Unfortunately, the animals might also be the most interesting characters as all the other characters appear to be extremely one-dimensional. Also, the story dragged on so much. It could have ended several chapters before it did, but instead, the author created additional one-dimensional bad guys to oppose.

So what did I like? I liked the crazy troupe of animals. This is probably the book in the series that most inspired the cartoon Disney version of Tarzan (along with book #1). I liked that Jane gets the opportunity to be kind of a bad ass in this one. I liked that there were additional good guys in this story, and I enjoyed their contributions. As for the action, it has everything- fighting, animals, ships, explosions.

tolkientalker's review against another edition

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3.0

Hmm...what to say? Well, I guess...meh? I think the only reason why I gave it three stars (instead of two) was because of the Panther (Sheeta) (I also like him because I love Bageera in the Jungle Book). It seemed like it was the only character with common sense and intellect. Tarzan was often clueless when it came to "suspicious" characters that would end up betraying him while Jane, though I'm glad she developed some backbone, had a bad case of ADD once she gained the upper hand against her captors/bad guy. Jane: "HAH! I have a gun! You are all at the mercy of my command!...*looks away* OMIGOSH! What's that noise?" (Baddies gain back the upper hand...even if temporarily) (Spoilers ahead, btw)



Also, I honestly don't know why the poor dear didn't shoot Rokoff at EITHER of those moments when she had the gun pointed to his head/chest...Seriously, the man was evil...abeit cowardly evil...but still fiendish nonetheless since he KIDNAPPED her child, marooned her husband, was going to rape her then hand her off as a wife to a cannibal chief...

Admittedly though, I did like the fact that Sheeta ate him. Which made me feel better. A lot. Go Sheeta.

Still all things considered, I liked it FAR better than it's predecessor The Return of Tarzan--I mean seriously, Tarzan the secret agent?

Regardless, however, all things considered Edgar Rice Burroughs still knows the art of entertaining the reader and still writes better than many current young adult/teen authors.

However, my favorite still remains and will always be, the Barsoom series. Regardless of the trademark camp and even the semi-repetitive themes (though not as bad as the ones in Tarzan), I still love it immensely and find it to be FAR more believable than any of the Tarzan books; because, when it comes to Science Fiction, it's easier to tantalize the imagination. Anything is possible.