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adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Still an enjoyable romp. Don't expect the behavior of any African animal to be accurate. Burroughs did not have the benefit of all the full colour and sound documentaries that have been made since he first wrote this in 1916.
The adventure and human interaction, and prose descriptions are still excellent quality and contain quite a few good vocabulary words for any younger readers.
The adventure and human interaction, and prose descriptions are still excellent quality and contain quite a few good vocabulary words for any younger readers.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not as good as the earlier novels. A series of ridiculous coincidences occur which deposit Tarzan’s son in the African jungle. I don’t think Burroughs has really thought it through. He just wants him there are quickly as possible so he can tell the story he wants to tell.
So the son takes to the jungle really well and soon enough we have a second Tarzan. It baffles me as to why Burroughs would think we need one, or why we would accept one. You have to be really good at suspending your disbelief when reading these novels. That this could happen twice is really pushing it. Anyway, there’s some suggestion that Korak or whatever his name is is well fitted to the jungle because of his exposure to the English public school system. But then we get this passage:
‘Much of this had Akut taught him, but far more was instinctive knowledge – a species of strange intuition inherited from his father.’
Perhaps this is something related to Burroughs’ white supremacist ideology, that worth can be passed down through blood, I don’t know, but it’s ridiculous. Has he also inherited a knowledge of how to put in a tampon from his mother? And if knowledge is passed down, how did Tarzan acquire his when his parents knew nothing of jungle life? It completely undermines Tarzan’s story where you have a naturally strong, intelligent person whose particular skills are imparted by upbringing.
Still, the book is readable and entertaining, though not always for the reasons Burroughs intends. It does pick up in the second half.
So the son takes to the jungle really well and soon enough we have a second Tarzan. It baffles me as to why Burroughs would think we need one, or why we would accept one. You have to be really good at suspending your disbelief when reading these novels. That this could happen twice is really pushing it. Anyway, there’s some suggestion that Korak or whatever his name is is well fitted to the jungle because of his exposure to the English public school system. But then we get this passage:
‘Much of this had Akut taught him, but far more was instinctive knowledge – a species of strange intuition inherited from his father.’
Perhaps this is something related to Burroughs’ white supremacist ideology, that worth can be passed down through blood, I don’t know, but it’s ridiculous. Has he also inherited a knowledge of how to put in a tampon from his mother? And if knowledge is passed down, how did Tarzan acquire his when his parents knew nothing of jungle life? It completely undermines Tarzan’s story where you have a naturally strong, intelligent person whose particular skills are imparted by upbringing.
Still, the book is readable and entertaining, though not always for the reasons Burroughs intends. It does pick up in the second half.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Tarzan’s son, Jack (later dubbed “Korak the Killer”), finds his way into the jungle in an attempt to return one of his father’s old friends, a bull ape named Akut, to his homeland.
Korak saves a little French girl, Meriem from the clutches of an abusive, Arab, ivory hunter named Amor ben Khatour, and they live in the jungle for some time.
Then Meriem is taken by men. She is captured and waits for rescue. Then she is taken by another set of men. She is captured and waits for rescue. Then yet another set of men- you get the point. That’s the whole second half of the book!
Calling this one “The Son of Tarzan” is misleading, because a good chunk in the middle of the story completely cuts him out while we focus on Meriem. A third of this is Korak wandering around sadly with a group of elephants while Meriem tries her best to escape from multiple groups before being found by an English couple and learning how to be refined. The contradictions and weird crap drove me so insane that I began to jot down every written sin that was committed.
I can’t say I really cared about any of the characters, because they all either fit the same archetypes that every character in these books seems to fall into, or because the potential they had to be incredibly interesting was dismantled by Edgar’s beliefs about how certain people should be. I personally feel that Meriem was the most wasted given how much time we follow her, and she should’ve been written as a lot more wild and untamed, due to her time growing up in the wilderness alongside Korak. To add to that, I think that Meriem’s part as Korak’s love interest and motivator hampers this book down tremendously, as it leads Korak to go wander in aimless brooding for a while after believing he’d lost her and sparks a whole troop of other men to bow down at her feet and fall instantly in love with her to add more romantic conflict— let’s be honest though, by “fall in love” I mean “lust after”. There are several times where she’s almost raped.
The author constantly breaks his own rules and defies his own logic to progress the story. This kind of writing may have been overshadowed by the fun and ridiculous action in the previous books, but this one is so dry that it shows itself in broad daylight.
To give just one example in a sea of many (spoilers), there is a point where Meriem is led by the husband of the English couple back to his camp. He has to trick her into following him since she’s keen on trying to return to Korak in the jungle, and he doesn’t believe her story about this “ape man”. He very subtly keeps pushing eastward until they “stumble” across his camp and she relents to joining him and his wife. But then, a chapter or two later, it says she practically knew the jungle like the back of her hand. She knows all the watering holes, the lairs of lions, everything along the riverside and anything within its radius.
……how was she tricked, then? Wouldn’t she have recognized they were going the wrong way? This kind of stuff happens over and over and over again, and mainly with her, and I think the simple answer as to why has to do with Burroughs’ need to move the plot forward, or in other cases, as he is vocal about it as well as his other personal biases, he believes in the total superiority of white, English men. It’s just annoying. It’s easier to write it off in the other books as a product of its era, but it’s harder to write off any of his prejudices here. This story is a load of nothing. I am thankfully more hopeful for the next book, but good gosh. I am SO GLAD this one’s over. Sorry to the loads of Tarzan fans— I am frankly amazed at how many good reviews this one got. But to each their own.
Korak saves a little French girl, Meriem from the clutches of an abusive, Arab, ivory hunter named Amor ben Khatour, and they live in the jungle for some time.
Then Meriem is taken by men. She is captured and waits for rescue. Then she is taken by another set of men. She is captured and waits for rescue. Then yet another set of men- you get the point. That’s the whole second half of the book!
Calling this one “The Son of Tarzan” is misleading, because a good chunk in the middle of the story completely cuts him out while we focus on Meriem. A third of this is Korak wandering around sadly with a group of elephants while Meriem tries her best to escape from multiple groups before being found by an English couple and learning how to be refined. The contradictions and weird crap drove me so insane that I began to jot down every written sin that was committed.
I can’t say I really cared about any of the characters, because they all either fit the same archetypes that every character in these books seems to fall into, or because the potential they had to be incredibly interesting was dismantled by Edgar’s beliefs about how certain people should be. I personally feel that Meriem was the most wasted given how much time we follow her, and she should’ve been written as a lot more wild and untamed, due to her time growing up in the wilderness alongside Korak. To add to that, I think that Meriem’s part as Korak’s love interest and motivator hampers this book down tremendously, as it leads Korak to go wander in aimless brooding for a while after believing he’d lost her and sparks a whole troop of other men to bow down at her feet and fall instantly in love with her to add more romantic conflict— let’s be honest though, by “fall in love” I mean “lust after”. There are several times where she’s almost raped.
The author constantly breaks his own rules and defies his own logic to progress the story. This kind of writing may have been overshadowed by the fun and ridiculous action in the previous books, but this one is so dry that it shows itself in broad daylight.
To give just one example in a sea of many (spoilers), there is a point where Meriem is led by the husband of the English couple back to his camp. He has to trick her into following him since she’s keen on trying to return to Korak in the jungle, and he doesn’t believe her story about this “ape man”. He very subtly keeps pushing eastward until they “stumble” across his camp and she relents to joining him and his wife. But then, a chapter or two later, it says she practically knew the jungle like the back of her hand. She knows all the watering holes, the lairs of lions, everything along the riverside and anything within its radius.
……how was she tricked, then? Wouldn’t she have recognized they were going the wrong way? This kind of stuff happens over and over and over again, and mainly with her, and I think the simple answer as to why has to do with Burroughs’ need to move the plot forward, or in other cases, as he is vocal about it as well as his other personal biases, he believes in the total superiority of white, English men. It’s just annoying. It’s easier to write it off in the other books as a product of its era, but it’s harder to write off any of his prejudices here. This story is a load of nothing. I am thankfully more hopeful for the next book, but good gosh. I am SO GLAD this one’s over. Sorry to the loads of Tarzan fans— I am frankly amazed at how many good reviews this one got. But to each their own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence
Moderate: Sexism, Kidnapping, Murder