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    The Land that Time Forgot: First Novel of the Caspak Series
    The Land that Time Forgot: First Novel of the Caspak Series
    The Land that Time Forgot: First Novel of the Caspak Series
    Ebook131 pages2 hours

    The Land that Time Forgot: First Novel of the Caspak Series

    By Edgar Rice Burroughs

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Adventure novel, first published in 1918. According to Wikipedia: "Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 – 1950) was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSeltzer Books
    Release dateMar 1, 2018
    ISBN9781455346929
    The Land that Time Forgot: First Novel of the Caspak Series
    Author

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 - 1950) worked many odd jobs before professionally writing. Burroughs did not start writing until he was in his late 30s while working at a pencil-sharpener wholesaler. But after following his call to writing, Burroughs created one of America's most enduring adventure heroes: Tarzan. Along with his novels about Tarzan, Burroughs wrote the notable Barsoom series, which follows the Mars adventurer John Carter.

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    Reviews for The Land that Time Forgot

    3.5/5

    179 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      It must have been pretty exciting to be a kid with 15c 100 years ago looking forward to the August 1918 Blue Book Magazine and the appearance of a new complete story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And that is how "The Land That Time Forgot" arrived. I read most of Burroughs novels in the late 60's and into the 70's and probably a few in the early 80's. I am fairly certain that I read this book in my teens, and I certainly saw the crazy Doug McClure movie. The book was better. This is told in an old fashioned Burroughs style, a little reminiscent of a Jules Verne novel. A manuscript is found on the shore in Greenland inside of a thermos bottle and thus begins this tale of a Lost World, neanderthals, wild creatures, dinosaurs and love. Oh, this is WWI - we mustn't forget the awful Germans and their submarines. The submarine is how we get to the land that time forgot. This was fun and a well written romantic fantasy adventure of the old days. Burroughs packs a lot of adventure into this short novel. I'm glad I reread this.
    • 3/5
      Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was an America author who lived just outside of LA who wrote over 60 fantasy novels. His most famous works are the "Tarzan" series and the "John Carter of Mars" series. He was heavily influenced by Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" and "The Land that Time Forgot" was a direct heir in the 'Lost World' genre. "The Land That Time Forgot" was also very influential in the invention of the screenplay "King Kong", as was Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" (1912).
    • 4/5
      One of the best novels written by ERB, the Amercian protagonist (whose name is finally given us in the last few pages) and his lofe-love go through many adventures before becoming Adam and Eve on an unknown continent completely cut off by high, almost impassable cliffs. Well, they ARE impassable. They must reach the interior of the continent by sailing UNDER the cliffs in a commandeered German U2 sub, which the American's family made for Germany, yet.
    • 4/5
      This is another early 20th century classic adventure yarn, and I do mean yarn. I would suggest putting off reading the introduction, by science fiction author Brian Aldiss, until after one has finished the book, in order to get the full flavor of Burroughs' plot. Reading Burroughs, once again, is like stepping into Dr. Who's Tardis -- one is transported back in time to a world where manly men fight for the right; German followers of Kaiser Wilhelm are cowardly and dishonorable; and modern women faintly cheer their men on, appropriately and demurely, from the sidelines. All that was to be expected -- but what was unexpected were the interestingly drawn characters of the "savage" women that a few of Burroughs' luckier adventurers encounter. These bronzed, lithe, warrior queens are no shrinking flowers of femininity. And though one stout-hearted explorer fights his own physical attraction to the sweet little "savage" who's attached herself to him, in the end he comes to realize that beneath the bronzed skin of his little jungle queen there beats a heart as delicate and as feminine as that of any modern, whiter woman.It was a fun read, made even more enjoyable by reading Aldiss' forward after I had finished the book. Aldiss is clearly a Burroughs fan, and though he dutifully points out the utter ridiculousness of Burrough's theories of evolutionary ascent, as depicted in the novel, he urges readers to set aside this outdated and invalid basic premise and to enjoy the book for what it is -- a swashbuckling adventure tale set in the mists of a lost world, where time and nature have taken a very different course from the outside world. The book is not as good as TARZAN OF THE APES, and doesn't hold a candle to Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD, but it was a fun and exciting trip into an alternate reality.
    • 3/5
      Standard Burroughs fare. Easy reading, somewhat engaging but ultimately little more than dime store science fiction. Hero battles nasty Prussians, ferocious creatures from a long lost era and saves damsel in distress.For those interested in 19th century science fiction, my opinion is that time is better spent on the likes of H.G. Wells or Jules Verne.
    • 4/5
      This book is split right down the centre:The first half is a WWI spy drama set partially on-board a German U-boat in the Pacific Ocean.After his ship is sunk in a torpedo attack, Bowen J. Tyler, Jr, (ironically son of the wealthy industrialist who built the killer sub. prior to the war) is temporarily rescued, along with the only other survivor Miss Lys La Rue, by a passing vessel which suffers a similar bombardment shortly after.In a daring assault this crew aided by Bowen's inside knowledge of the enemy vessel board the U-boat and manage to take it over only to have their efforts at getting home thwarted by constant sabotage attempts - not to mention the fact that with the radio dead they cannot hope to get to safe waters without becoming a target themselves!In the confusion, and with malfunctioning navigation, they come across a lost island, cut off from the rest of the world by an almost impregnable cliff wall, but manage to steer their vessel safely through a narrow underwater shaft only to emerge on the other side in a kingdom frozen in time - a time when dinosaurs ruled supreme!On the surface this classic adventure is really no more far fetched than many of the stories written today; but the world was a much bigger place a hundred years ago, and what with today's GPS and Google Earth on every home PC, it may take a little more effort to accept the storyline. The same adventure written today would likely have to take place on a distant planet in a far off galaxy, but the thrill of this was the possibility that somewhere in a remote region of our own planet such a place might just still exist?Like I said it is two very different stories joined together; and I for one couldn't wait for the prehistoric dino-rampage to begin, so it lost one star from my perspective. Do read the second instalment 'The people that time forgot' which for me ticked all the right boxes.Worthwhile reading - YES.
    • 3/5
      It's been said that the golden age of Burroughs is 12 or, sometimes, 14. Well, I tried to read Burroughs at both ages, and it didn't take. Way too many coincidences for me.Well, it's been more than 25 years since I've read Burroughs. Inspired by watching the latest movie version of this book and hearing the Caspak series praised as his best outside of the Tarzan and John Carter series, I decided to give ERB another try.The plot is pretty straightforward. Narrator Bowen Tyler has his ship torpedoed out from under him in 1916. He is picked up by a British tug - but not before meeting the instantaneously recognizable love of his life, Lys La Rue, another passenger, as they float around in the water. Said ship is then sunk - by the same German U-Boat that torpedoed Bowen's ship, and Bowen, Lys, and several of the tug's crewmen are taken prisoners aboard the sub. A struggle for control of the vessel ensues. Not to fear, though. Our narrator just happens to belong to a submarine manufacturing family out of Santa Monica, and they built the sub he's now on. Of course, the situation is a bit complicated by Lys being the U-Boat commander's fiancé.And the coincidences are just beginning. But, after about 50 pages into this slender, 126 page book, the real story begins after landfall on Caspak - a lost continent full of what should be extinct animals from Earth's distant past. Naturally, dinos are going to be fought, Prussians are going to be surly and treacherous, and Lys is going to get kidnapped. And Burroughs does do something genuinely novel with the primitive humans of this land.Burroughs, whatever his other faults as a writer, is a master of pacing. And, however melodramatic the scenes of Bowen and Lys acknowledging their love for each other are and their philosophical discussions, there are some moments of grandeur and poignancy as they face their solitary fate on Caspak - all related in the manuscript Bowen has put in a thermos and tossed into the sea.This is the first third of a serial originally published in 1918, and this is one Burroughs series I will be completing.
    • 4/5
      The Land That Time Forgot
      Written by: Edgar Rice Burroughs
      Narrated by: David Stifel
      Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
      Unabridged Audiobook
      Release Date:07-03-13
      Publisher: Audio Books by Mike Vendetti

      The Land That Time Forgot is a classic by Edgar Rice Burroughs (better known for his Tarzan series). I was familiar with it only through the 1975 movie (it's so bad it is a joy to watch). I recently had the opportunity to listen to the audio book narrated by David Stifel. I had previously heard a book narrated by him which is why I chose this particular version. His narration did not disappoint.

      The story takes place during World War I. A ship crossing the ocean is sunk by a German U-boat. The survivors are rescued but the same fate falls on their rescuers by the same U-boat. Events happen that leave the survivors and the Germans fighting for control of the U-Boat. About half the book is devoted to the struggle of each group trying to maintain control of the U-Boat. This back and forth power struggle leaves the U-boat open to sabotage and the group ends up in the south Pacific. It is here that the adventure truly begins.

      Despite the compass and the best efforts at navigation, the U-boat is drawn south into freezing waters until they arrive at a land mass surrounded by massive cliffs. Seeking fresh water and food, the U-boat finds a way through the cliffs and discovers a land that is an evolutionary mess. There are life forms from every time period in the earth’s long history.

      David Stifel does a very good job of narrating the story. He has no problem with different accents, American, German, Irish, English. His paces of the narration works well with the action in the story. The production values are very good. The sound is clear and the volume is at an equal level throughout.

      The Land That Time Forgot is a wonderful adventure story. I enjoyed it enough that I am planning on finding the other two books in the series. If you are looking for a fun rollicking adventure, I recommend this audio book. I especially recommend David Stifel as a narrator as he is has shown himself to be an excellent one.

      "This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review
    • 4/5
      I hadn't realized this was the 1st in a trilagy. Very much the story I knew from the movie with a German U-boat. It took them quite a while to get to the land time forgot.
    • 3/5
      Early famous work by the man who introduced the world to Tarzan. Published in 1918 this SF classic is in the style of his predecessors, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. It's a fairly short romantic adventure which still works today.I prefer his John Carter of Mars books for SF adventure but this one was good.
    • 4/5
      Bowen Tyler, Jr., is on his way to the war in Europe when the ship he's on is torpedoed by a German U-boat. Through an odd series of events, he ends up on said U-boat with a motley crew of Germans, Americans, and one lady, only to wind up floating around the South Pacific and running into the legendary island of Caprona. Once on Caprona, the adventurers encounter creatures from the earth's prehistoric past as well as humans in varying stages of evolution. Separated by attacks and treason, Tyler, crew member Bradley, and would-be rescuer Billings forge three separate narratives of this strange new land.The first two parts of The Land That Time Forgot are excellent adventure tales, filled with action, mystery, and a little bit of romance. Unlike some older books, Burroughs' writing has not become antiquated with time, and the novel is as easy to read as any recent book. Other than most of the Germans being double-crossing sabotagers, the book does not carry many of its era's stereotypes, either. I was quite surprised when *spoiler alert* two of the main characters married Caspak natives after having said repeatedly that they do not love them, the girls being of other "castes" designed to be somewhat similar to Neanderthal people.The evolutionary aspect of Caspak is interesting, though I never figured out Burroughs' purpose in designing it as such. Individuals evolve from tadpoles to nearly-modern humans as they move from south to north on the island, a journey which takes an unknown (but very long) number of years. Very few people - and then only at the top of the evolutionary chain - are born as are regular humans. In some ways, the novel could be viewed as an outline of evolution contained in one individual rather than by species' changes over millennia, but Burroughs does not delve far enough into scientific details for that.The third part of the book is more bizarre, moving from science fiction into fantasy. It's almost as if Burroughs wrapped up the storyline at the end of the second part, then remembered there were a few loose ends and finished them in the final part. Here we meet the Wieroos, a skeletal-looking, murdering bunch with wings. Normally an ultimate show-down between the Wieroos and highest order of humans would be expected, but everyone from our world leaves before anything is resolved, with the Caspakian order remaining as before. It's a rather unsatisfying ending to an otherwise satisfying read.

    Book preview

    The Land that Time Forgot - Edgar Rice Burroughs

    THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT BY EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

    published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

    established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books

    Caspak novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs available from us:

    The Land that Time Forgot

    The People that Time Forgot

    Out of Time's Abysss

    feedback welcome: info@samizdat.com

    visit us at samizdat.com

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 1

    It must have been a little after three o'clock in the afternoon that it happened--the afternoon of June 3rd, 1916.  It seems incredible that all that I have passed through--all those weird and terrifying experiences--should have been encompassed within so short a span as three brief months.  Rather might I have experienced a cosmic cycle, with all its changes and evolutions for that which I have seen with my own eyes in this brief interval of time--things that no other mortal eye had seen before, glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a world so long dead that even in the lowest Cambrian stratum no trace of it remains.  Fused with the melting inner crust, it has passed forever beyond the ken of man other than in that lost pocket of the earth whither fate has borne me and where my doom is sealed. I am here and here must remain.

     After reading this far, my interest, which already had been stimulated by the finding of the manuscript, was approaching the boiling-point.  I had come to Greenland for the summer, on the advice of my physician, and was slowly being bored to extinction, as I had thoughtlessly neglected to bring sufficient reading-matter. Being an indifferent fisherman, my enthusiasm for this form of sport soon waned; yet in the absence of other forms of recreation I was now risking my life in an entirely inadequate boat off Cape Farewell at the southernmost extremity of Greenland.

    Greenland!  As a descriptive appellation, it is a sorry joke--but my story has nothing to do with Greenland, nothing to do with me; so I shall get through with the one and the other as rapidly as possible.

    The inadequate boat finally arrived at a precarious landing, the natives, waist-deep in the surf, assisting.  I was carried ashore, and while the evening meal was being prepared, I wandered to and fro along the rocky, shattered shore.  Bits of surf-harried beach clove the worn granite, or whatever the rocks of Cape Farewell may be composed of, and as I followed the ebbing tide down one of these soft stretches, I saw the thing.  Were one to bump into a Bengal tiger in the ravine behind the Bimini Baths, one could be no more surprised than was I to see a perfectly good quart thermos bottle turning and twisting in the surf of Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland. I rescued it, but I was soaked above the knees doing it; and then I sat down in the sand and opened it, and in the long twilight read the manuscript, neatly written and tightly folded, which was its contents.

    You have read the opening paragraph, and if you are an imaginative idiot like myself, you will want to read the rest of it; so I shall give it to you here, omitting quotation marks--which are difficult of remembrance.  In two minutes you will forget me.

     My home is in Santa Monica.  I am, or was, junior member of my father's firm.  We are ship-builders.  Of recent years we have specialized on submarines, which we have built for Germany, England, France and the United States.  I know a sub as a mother knows her baby's face, and have commanded a score of them on their trial runs.  Yet my inclinations were all toward aviation. I graduated under Curtiss, and after a long siege with my father obtained his permission to try for the Lafayette Escadrille.  As a stepping-stone I obtained an appointment in the American ambulance service and was on my way to France when three shrill whistles altered, in as many seconds, my entire scheme of life.

    I was sitting on deck with some of the fellows who were going into the American ambulance service with me, my Airedale, Crown Prince Nobbler, asleep at my feet, when the first blast of the whistle shattered the peace and security of the ship.  Ever since entering the U-boat zone we had been on the lookout for periscopes, and children that we were, bemoaning the unkind fate that was to see us safely into France on the morrow without a glimpse of the dread marauders.  We were young; we craved thrills, and God knows we got them that day; yet by comparison with that through which I have since passed they were as tame as a Punch-and-Judy show.

    I shall never forget the ashy faces of the passengers as they stampeded for their life-belts, though there was no panic. Nobs rose with a low growl.  I rose, also, and over the ship's side, I saw not two hundred yards distant the periscope of a submarine, while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo was distinctly visible.  We were aboard an American ship--which, of course, was not armed.  We were entirely defenseless; yet without warning, we were being torpedoed.

    I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo. It struck us on the starboard side almost amidships.  The vessel rocked as though the sea beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano. We were thrown to the decks, bruised and stunned, and then above the ship, carrying with it fragments of steel and wood and dismembered human bodies, rose a column of water hundreds of feet into the air.

    The silence which followed the detonation of the exploding torpedo was almost equally horrifying.  It lasted for perhaps two seconds, to be followed by the screams and moans of the wounded, the cursing of the men and the hoarse commands of the ship's officers.  They were splendid--they and their crew.  Never before had I been so proud of my nationality as I was that moment.  In all the chaos which followed the torpedoing of the liner no officer or member of the crew lost his head or showed in the slightest any degree of panic or fear.

    While we were attempting to lower boats, the submarine emerged and trained guns on us.  The officer in command ordered us to lower our flag, but this the captain of the liner refused to do. The ship was listing frightfully to starboard, rendering the port boats useless, while half the starboard boats had been demolished by the explosion.  Even while the passengers were crowding the starboard rail and scrambling into the few boats left to us, the submarine commenced shelling the ship.  I saw one shell burst in a group of women and children, and then I turned my head and covered my eyes.

    When I looked again to horror was added chagrin, for with the emerging of the U-boat I had recognized her as a product of our own shipyard.  I knew her to a rivet.  I had superintended her construction.  I had sat in that very conning-tower and directed the efforts of the sweating crew below when first her prow clove the sunny summer waters of the Pacific; and now this creature of my brain and hand had turned Frankenstein, bent upon pursuing me to my death.

    A second shell exploded upon the deck.  One of the lifeboats, frightfully overcrowded, swung at a dangerous angle from its davits. A fragment of the shell shattered the bow tackle, and I saw the women and children and the men vomited into the sea beneath, while the boat dangled stern up for a moment from its single davit, and at last with increasing momentum dived into the midst of the struggling victims screaming upon the face of the waters.

    Now I saw men spring to the rail and leap into the ocean.  The deck was tilting to an impossible angle.  Nobs braced himself with all four feet to keep from slipping into the scuppers and looked up into my face with a questioning whine.  I stooped and stroked his head.

    Come on, boy! I cried, and running to the side of the ship, dived headforemost over the rail.  When I came up, the first thing I saw was Nobs swimming about in a bewildered sort of way a few yards from me.  At sight of me his ears went flat, and his lips parted in a characteristic grin.

    The submarine was withdrawing toward the north, but all the time it was shelling the open boats, three of them, loaded to the gunwales with survivors.  Fortunately the small boats presented a rather poor target, which, combined with the bad marksmanship of the Germans preserved their occupants from harm; and after a few minutes a blotch of smoke appeared upon the eastern horizon and the U-boat submerged and disappeared.

    All the time the lifeboats has been pulling away from the danger of the sinking liner, and now, though I yelled at the top of my lungs, they either did not hear my appeals for help or else did not dare return to succor me.  Nobs and I had gained some little distance from the ship when it rolled completely over and sank. We were caught in the suction only enough to be drawn backward a few yards, neither of us being carried beneath the surface. I glanced hurriedly about for something to which to cling. My eyes were directed toward the point at which the liner had disappeared when there came from the depths of the ocean the muffled reverberation of an explosion, and almost simultaneously a geyser of water in which were shattered lifeboats, human bodies, steam, coal, oil, and the flotsam of a liner's deck leaped high above the surface of the sea--a watery column momentarily marking the grave of another ship in this greatest cemetery of the seas.

    When the turbulent waters had somewhat subsided and the sea had ceased to spew up wreckage, I ventured to swim back in search of something substantial enough to support my weight and that of Nobs as well.  I had gotten well over the area of the wreck when not a half-dozen yards ahead of me a lifeboat shot bow foremost out of the ocean almost its entire length to flop down upon its keel with a mighty splash.  It must have been carried far below, held to its mother ship by a single rope which finally parted to the enormous strain put upon it.  In no other way can I account for its having leaped so far out of the water--a beneficent circumstance to which I doubtless owe my life, and that of another far dearer to me than my own.  I say beneficent circumstance even in the face of the fact that a fate far more hideous confronts us than that which we escaped that day; for because of that circumstance I have met her

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