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glowingskeleton's review against another edition
4.0
Burrough's work has a surreal, nightmarish quality that I feel is underappreciated.
momc's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
ghostmeat47's review against another edition
3.0
... or "An Imperialist white supremacist travels to the world within our world and constantly worries about what time it is".
Certainly a product of it's time. Enjoyed it, for the most part, but humorous and jarring with now 100 year plus themes. Mostly a fun romp of dinosaurs and titanic mammals always trying to eat you.
Certainly a product of it's time. Enjoyed it, for the most part, but humorous and jarring with now 100 year plus themes. Mostly a fun romp of dinosaurs and titanic mammals always trying to eat you.
dotorsojak's review against another edition
3.0
This a book I read as a boy. The star rating is not to compare with serious fiction (with for example OLD FILTH, which I recently completed), but with other books of its kind. In many ways a ridiculous bit of fluff, but I still enjoyed even all these years later. I read an Ace Books edition published in 1962, but of course the original novel was one of the first ERB wrote after he decided to become an author. This novel came out in 1914 and ERB's first publications were TARZAN and A PRINCESS OF MARS, both 1912. Burroughs has lots to say about race, some of it what you'd expect and some of it not. There's a lot of silly talk about protecting women. The climax of the love story happens when the clean, upstanding David Innes from the "outer crust" of earth forcibly takes Dian the cave girl in his arms, kisses her, and tells her that he loves her. Her reaction is to smile, disengage his pinioning arms, and to kiss him back. Oh, brother. The book ends on a cliff hanger and you have to read the next book in the series to find out what happens. That book is called PELLUCIDAR and I'm debating whether to pick it up and read it too...
krep___'s review against another edition
2.75
Similar to other Burroughs adventure stories of discovered worlds. This one is the inside-out-world inside the Earth which, it turns out is hollow. A pretty cool idea. The action is pretty standard Burroughs.
jordandeanbaker's review against another edition
2.0
Edgar Rice Burroughs was the master of pulpy adventure tales. His Tarzan and John Carter of Mars stories are dated but still a lot of fun. This one? Not so much. It read more like a bad travelogue than an adventure tale. The author often spends pages describing the plants and animals of this strange new world, only to quickly skip over the action once it arrives. The entire climax of the story gets about one page. The epilogue hints at an exciting sequel, but I’m not sure I’m willing to give this world a second chance.
The protagonist, David, is so bland that I had trouble even remembering his name. Compared to Tarzan and John Carter he has very little personality. It kind of feels like ERB phoned this one in. I can’t believe this generated enough interest to lead to six sequels!
The protagonist, David, is so bland that I had trouble even remembering his name. Compared to Tarzan and John Carter he has very little personality. It kind of feels like ERB phoned this one in. I can’t believe this generated enough interest to lead to six sequels!
hstapp's review against another edition
2.0
This story was okay, a bit old fashioned in style, as is understandable. The story was also pretty plain and common. Of course it may have been the first of its kind. the science is a bit wonky, and in an overyourhead fashion so that you won't see that it is so wonky. The primitive natives are just as intelligent as modern man, but slightly less knowledgeable. The characters pick up languages with extraordinary rapidity, even considering the 10 year time span. There are 4 groups of sentient creatures which seems rather strange. Especially since three of them are primates. Still, there is some good content there, and if I were more into adventure Stories I'm sure I would have gotten past some of these small flaws and quite enjoyed the story.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
4.0
I originally picked up At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs out of my older brother’s book collection. As a kid, I was intrigued by the racy Frank Frazetta cover and thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. Burroughs was the creator of Tarzan and the Princess of Mars series, but I liked Pellucidar/At the Earth’s Core series best followed by The Land that Time Forgot. Both were made into truly terrible but entertaining films starring Doug McClure (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKH14HKweKE). The premise is that the Earth is hollow and below us is another world filled with prehistoric monsters and primitive people. I recently picked up this one and Tanar of Pellucidar at a used book shop for old time’s sake. Re-reading this 1914 novel with 21st Century awareness and wondering what the hell. I give it five stars for being a quick read and adventure, but negative stars for being uncomfortably unwoke.
My kid saw the paperback lying around and asked if she could read it when I was done. I did give her a warning, but I’m curious to see her reaction.
My kid saw the paperback lying around and asked if she could read it when I was done. I did give her a warning, but I’m curious to see her reaction.