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Tarzan #24
Tarzan and the Castaways
Stranded on an uncharted Pacific island, Tarzan was forced to take command of an ill-sorted party—English aristocrats, a Dutch officer, a woman of doubtful reputation—to insure their safety from a band of mutineers led by a madman. A lost colony of Mayans, avid for potential victims for their barbarous human sacrifices, only added to the danger. But the Lord of the Jungle had unexpected allies...Cast away with his band was a shipment of African animals unknown to the island, striking terror in the hearts of Mayans and mutineers alike—but old friends and familiar antagonists to the man brought up among them...Tarzan of the Apes.
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
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994 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
2,915 books2,739 followersEdgar Rice Burroughs 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
June 11, 2020
"IT is sometimes difficult to know just where to begin a story."
The 24th and last book of Tarzan series. This one is a collection of two short stories and a little long third.
Tarzan and the Castaways was an okay read in my opinion, but, for someone who is familiar with the series up to this point, which I think almost everyone who reads this, will not find anything new. It felt like a collection of repeats, starting from the very beginning of the series and having numerous similarities with previous books. Only the Mayans are dropped in out of nowhere.
If ERB had the opportunity, he might've wrapped up the series in a much better way, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The readers will have to be content with what they had read, enjoying all those adventures, reliving the life of of the most famous fictional characters of all time.
I heard/ read that certain reviews mentioning this series reaches a continuous downfall after 6th or 7th book. But for me, it wasn't the case. I've come to love some of the later books as much as the first few.
"There's nothing that breeds discontent more surely than idleness,"
The 24th and last book of Tarzan series. This one is a collection of two short stories and a little long third.
Tarzan and the Castaways was an okay read in my opinion, but, for someone who is familiar with the series up to this point, which I think almost everyone who reads this, will not find anything new. It felt like a collection of repeats, starting from the very beginning of the series and having numerous similarities with previous books. Only the Mayans are dropped in out of nowhere.
If ERB had the opportunity, he might've wrapped up the series in a much better way, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The readers will have to be content with what they had read, enjoying all those adventures, reliving the life of of the most famous fictional characters of all time.
I heard/ read that certain reviews mentioning this series reaches a continuous downfall after 6th or 7th book. But for me, it wasn't the case. I've come to love some of the later books as much as the first few.
"There's nothing that breeds discontent more surely than idleness,"
September 21, 2017
This is a cracker of a read. The story pops along to one event after another, and the characters are vivid. It was written quite a while ago now, and it shows, however it is fast becoming an historical document, giving us a window into the recent past. Not perhaps one of the greatest Tarzan books, yet riveting and entertaining.
February 4, 2020
The very last book in the Tarzan series . It was a funny , quick read . I don’t know why but this series was amusing to read . ERB has quite the imagination.
July 22, 2016
This last of the published ERB Tarzan novels combines three short stories in one volume. Pretty enjoyable, and each one give a slightly different insight into Tarzan. Like all ERB's stories, he creates secondary characters that intrigue and capture the reader. In a page or less he successfully makes me interested in a brand new character, whether they are good or bad.
The first adventure, "Tarzan and the Castaways" has Tarzan kidnapped and locked in a cage on a ship that is bound for Europe at the onset of the European war. His trappers intend to display him for entertainment as a wild man captured from the jungles of Africa. Things get sour because the mutinous crew don't realize how formidable Tarzan is. Things get worse for the cast when they crash upon the rocks of an island inhabited by the offspring of an ancient Mayan civilization.
"Tarzan and the Champion" has Tarzan cross paths with a reckless hunter who came to Africa to collect trophies. The fact that he is the world's heavyweight champion in boxing doesn't impress Tarzan at all, as Tarzan resolves to stop the champ's murderous spree of killing for sport.
Finally, the third and final story in this book is "Tarzan and the Jungle Murders." It's a quickly unfolding tale told in partial flashbacks in different parts of the world, all culminating in the search for the survivors of two plane crashes in Tarzan's jungle. There is murder, mystery, and a bit of effortless Sherlockian deduction by our hero to solve resulting crimes.
What a great journey it has been reading the Tarzan series. I have a few more to read until I can account for all 24 novels, but my only regret is not reading them years ago.
The first adventure, "Tarzan and the Castaways" has Tarzan kidnapped and locked in a cage on a ship that is bound for Europe at the onset of the European war. His trappers intend to display him for entertainment as a wild man captured from the jungles of Africa. Things get sour because the mutinous crew don't realize how formidable Tarzan is. Things get worse for the cast when they crash upon the rocks of an island inhabited by the offspring of an ancient Mayan civilization.
"Tarzan and the Champion" has Tarzan cross paths with a reckless hunter who came to Africa to collect trophies. The fact that he is the world's heavyweight champion in boxing doesn't impress Tarzan at all, as Tarzan resolves to stop the champ's murderous spree of killing for sport.
Finally, the third and final story in this book is "Tarzan and the Jungle Murders." It's a quickly unfolding tale told in partial flashbacks in different parts of the world, all culminating in the search for the survivors of two plane crashes in Tarzan's jungle. There is murder, mystery, and a bit of effortless Sherlockian deduction by our hero to solve resulting crimes.
What a great journey it has been reading the Tarzan series. I have a few more to read until I can account for all 24 novels, but my only regret is not reading them years ago.
April 27, 2022
This is a big change from the previous novels:
-Tarzan has responsibility for a much larger group of people.
-It doesn't take place in Africa.
-The villains are a motley crew of pirates, kidnappers, criminals, and communist agitators.
-The nature of the lost civilization is clearly explained.
-These antagonists behave in an entirely reasonable manner for their culture.
One thing bothered me: Tarzan is insistent on rescuing caged animals from a sinking ship, but has no compunction about killing the ones that later attack him and the castaways. Most of the latter are big cats. What does Burroughs have against cats?
-Tarzan has responsibility for a much larger group of people.
-It doesn't take place in Africa.
-The villains are a motley crew of pirates, kidnappers, criminals, and communist agitators.
-The nature of the lost civilization is clearly explained.
-These antagonists behave in an entirely reasonable manner for their culture.
One thing bothered me: Tarzan is insistent on rescuing caged animals from a sinking ship, but has no compunction about killing the ones that later attack him and the castaways. Most of the latter are big cats. What does Burroughs have against cats?
December 31, 2024
In which the Tarzan series comes to a close by way of 3 short stories.
Now that I’ve finished the series, I can say that I genuinely enjoyed the first few books in the series, but the series became incredibly repetitive by the end.
This is also my last book of the year, 212 books read all told.
Now that I’ve finished the series, I can say that I genuinely enjoyed the first few books in the series, but the series became incredibly repetitive by the end.
This is also my last book of the year, 212 books read all told.
October 10, 2013
After many, many years, I have finally finished all of the Tarzan books written by Burroughs. This final volume is a posthumous fix-up of three novelettes first published in the 1940s. It is not close to the best Tarzan book, but is better than many of the latter novels. It starts with a trope Burroughs used several times: Tarzan is hit on the head rendering him unable to speak or understand anything more than his ape language. He is kidnapped with the intention of being put on exhibition, but things go terribly awry onboard the cargo ship that is transporting him and a zoofull of wild animals across the Pacific Ocean. The action is fast and furious, with a number of truly unsavory characters for Tarzan to conquer; not least of whom is a vile old society woman whose constant complaints and nagging do more harm than the uncouth villains who captured Tarzan. The ending of the book is rushed and somewhat anticlimactic, but we could’ve done worse than end the tales of Tarzan here.
July 27, 2008
A posthumous publication edited and altered by a later writer.
September 29, 2018
This is trio of a novella and two short pulp magazine stories compiled after Burroughs death. The very last book of the Tarzan series. While some of the series was enjoyable and I’m glad I read it, I’m also glad to finally finish. The three stories are as follows.
1) Tarzan and the Champion. 3 stars. One chapter. Mullargan, the heavyweight Champion of the World decides to go hunting in Africa with a machine gun and no way is he going to let Tarzan stop him. Until they get captured by cannibals. Fave scene: Melton finding the overturned truck.
2) Tarzan and the Jungle Murders. 4 stars. A murder mystery for Tarzan to solve. Two planes: one shot down, the other landed with a dead pilot. Three men survive: the passengers of the landed plane and the other pilot. Then after the three find and join a passing safari, there is two more murders and Tarzan is the convenient suspect. Fave scenes: playing catch with the monkeys, Burton’s safari reception and Tarzan at the campfire.
3) Tarzan and the Castaways. 4 stars. If you like Robinson Caruso or Swiss Family Robinson you’ll like this. Tarzan is marooned: again, like in the third book ‘Beasts of Tarzan”. This time though the island’s not deserted but inhabited by a lost race (sound familiar?) of Mayans. And what a journey for the Mayans. To have traveled all the way from the Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic, all the way down south to the tip of South America to get to the Pacific Ocean only to crash on a tiny coral island in the middle of nowhere South Pacific. It was either that or across the Andes to the Pacific carrying boats and everything else.
I did really like this last story though. Other than the unbelievable logistics, (and another one of Tarzan’s famous headaches) it was pretty interesting.
Fave scenes: evacuating the ship and Tarzan swimming in the cenote.
1) Tarzan and the Champion. 3 stars. One chapter. Mullargan, the heavyweight Champion of the World decides to go hunting in Africa with a machine gun and no way is he going to let Tarzan stop him. Until they get captured by cannibals. Fave scene: Melton finding the overturned truck.
2) Tarzan and the Jungle Murders. 4 stars. A murder mystery for Tarzan to solve. Two planes: one shot down, the other landed with a dead pilot. Three men survive: the passengers of the landed plane and the other pilot. Then after the three find and join a passing safari, there is two more murders and Tarzan is the convenient suspect. Fave scenes: playing catch with the monkeys, Burton’s safari reception and Tarzan at the campfire.
3) Tarzan and the Castaways. 4 stars. If you like Robinson Caruso or Swiss Family Robinson you’ll like this. Tarzan is marooned: again, like in the third book ‘Beasts of Tarzan”. This time though the island’s not deserted but inhabited by a lost race (sound familiar?) of Mayans. And what a journey for the Mayans. To have traveled all the way from the Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic, all the way down south to the tip of South America to get to the Pacific Ocean only to crash on a tiny coral island in the middle of nowhere South Pacific. It was either that or across the Andes to the Pacific carrying boats and everything else.
I did really like this last story though. Other than the unbelievable logistics, (and another one of Tarzan’s famous headaches) it was pretty interesting.
Fave scenes: evacuating the ship and Tarzan swimming in the cenote.
April 5, 2020
This book includes three stories. The first is “Tarzan and the Castaways”. The second “Tarzan and the Champion”. The third “Tarzan and the Jungle Murders”.
The first story has a huge set up and seems like Burroughs was perhaps planning a multi-book arc. Tarzan and his fellow castaways wash up on the shore of an uncharted isle where multiple societies exist, including one descended from Maya. Additionally the castaways themselves are at each others' throats.
None of these ideas are explored much if at all. Just when it starts to get interesting and Tarzan heads off to explore he gets called back. Perhaps Burroughs lost interest in the story, because he quickly wraps it up.
The other two stories are short. Tarzan faces off against a heavyweight boxing champ and some brutal cannibals in one. In the other Tarzan takes a turn as Sherlock Holmes. It’s okay, but murder mysteries aren’t Burroughs strength.
This book was bittersweet reading. It’s the last Tarzan novel. ERB has been dead for more than half a century, so there will be no more. Feels kind of like saying goodbye to a friend.
The first story has a huge set up and seems like Burroughs was perhaps planning a multi-book arc. Tarzan and his fellow castaways wash up on the shore of an uncharted isle where multiple societies exist, including one descended from Maya. Additionally the castaways themselves are at each others' throats.
None of these ideas are explored much if at all. Just when it starts to get interesting and Tarzan heads off to explore he gets called back. Perhaps Burroughs lost interest in the story, because he quickly wraps it up.
The other two stories are short. Tarzan faces off against a heavyweight boxing champ and some brutal cannibals in one. In the other Tarzan takes a turn as Sherlock Holmes. It’s okay, but murder mysteries aren’t Burroughs strength.
This book was bittersweet reading. It’s the last Tarzan novel. ERB has been dead for more than half a century, so there will be no more. Feels kind of like saying goodbye to a friend.
July 10, 2021
The last installation of the Tarzan Series. Within the copy I downloaded were a set of three short stories, all fun, great length and far more enjoyable than the longer works.
For now, I’ll comment on the book of the same title. The start of the story we see Tarzan captured, in a cage being shipped around the world to use used as a curiosity in America. In the process, other animals and a boat of Westerners were also captured. A storm struck and the boat broke up on an Island off the coast of Mexico, where they all have to survive in the hope of being captured.
The story covers life, survival, factions, wild animals and dealing with local tribes.
The story in itself was very different, and, as such really enjoyable. Alas, there are some bad, BAD errors in this book. The story states they are on “an island”, alas, Uxmal and Chichen Itza are on the Yutucan Peninsuala, NOT, an island. Als, the Castaways are dealing with the Mayan Civilisation and fully functioning cities, something which died out 300 or so years before this story occurred, so, highly implausible.
For now, I’ll comment on the book of the same title. The start of the story we see Tarzan captured, in a cage being shipped around the world to use used as a curiosity in America. In the process, other animals and a boat of Westerners were also captured. A storm struck and the boat broke up on an Island off the coast of Mexico, where they all have to survive in the hope of being captured.
The story covers life, survival, factions, wild animals and dealing with local tribes.
The story in itself was very different, and, as such really enjoyable. Alas, there are some bad, BAD errors in this book. The story states they are on “an island”, alas, Uxmal and Chichen Itza are on the Yutucan Peninsuala, NOT, an island. Als, the Castaways are dealing with the Mayan Civilisation and fully functioning cities, something which died out 300 or so years before this story occurred, so, highly implausible.
January 13, 2021
The Tarzan series of books culminates in this, a book with two short stories and a novella (the book's title). In one short story Tarzan confronts boxing's Heavyweight Champion of the World who is poaching animals with a machine gun! A fight ensues. Down goes Mullargan! Down goes Mullargan! Short story #2 is a jungle murder mystery where Tarzan gets to play Sherlock Holmes. In The novella you will find elements of every plot from all the proceeding Tarzan novels. Tarzan is captured and escapes. Not once, but twice. Tarzan kills a lion with his knife. Tarzan rescues damsels in distress. Tarzan encounters a lost civilization. Etc., etc, etc. I'm sad to see this series end. Even sadder that misogynist Burroughs left Jane out once again.
November 30, 2025
It seems to me that in Burroughs' latter years, he experienced a creative resurgence with his Tarzan stories. This is reflected in the previous Tarzan and the Foriegn Legion and in Tarzan and the Castaways, where Tarzan and a crew of unsavory sorts find themselves marooned on a tropical island with a load of jungle animals, and discover that the island is inhabited by a lost colony of Mayans who still practice human sacrifice.
The secondary story of Tarzan and the Champion is a short story, but very good. The third story, Tarzan and the Jungle Murders, shows Tarzan in detective mode. It's an entertaining story and interesting experiment, but it's probably a good thing that Burroughs didn't do more of these Tarzan detective yarns, since they tend to put him in a more passive role.
The secondary story of Tarzan and the Champion is a short story, but very good. The third story, Tarzan and the Jungle Murders, shows Tarzan in detective mode. It's an entertaining story and interesting experiment, but it's probably a good thing that Burroughs didn't do more of these Tarzan detective yarns, since they tend to put him in a more passive role.
May 29, 2020
The Last adventure of Tarzan is more of a collection of short stories. ERB put three stories in this book and they are fine, but they are not the best. I was saddened after reading this book since it is the last book of the published series. A few years later, there was found an unfinished adventure that was published. I read that also! I collected these editions over the years in used book shops. (Before Amazon!) and always was excited when I found one. I read them all and enjoyed the adventures of the Ape man. Would recommend reading them!
August 16, 2025
One reads a Tarzan story as a good yarn while sitting beside the fire on a winter evening. To burden the narrative with contemporary criticism would be to miss a merry entertainment, but sadly this is a censorious, judgmental age. I can add nothing to the many perceptive and appreciative reviews here in Goodreads. I suggest that this late work would not be the best example to begin with Tarzan. The reader can begin with the first book, published in 1912, but this is not necessary. ERB provides adequate exposition in all of his books and they can be read without reference to the others.
March 31, 2024
Tarzan is captured along with lots of African animals to be put on display in America. After the ship is taken over by a German crewmember, it is caught in a storm and wrecked on a Pacific island inhabited by a Mayan culture that arrived there hundreds of years before.
Lots of fun with Tarzan in some place other than Africa.
Lots of fun with Tarzan in some place other than Africa.
May 15, 2018
Based on other reviews I've read of this book, part of it may have been dropped from the Kindle version I own. I will review what I read and check the print copy later to see if I did, indeed, miss something. I can't miss any Tarzan, that's not happening.
I went back to the print copy and found the two missing stories. Their reviews have been added at the end of this one.
I have already established in other reviews that Tarzan has suffered too many blows to the head for anyone's mental health. This kind of injury takes its toll as many boxers and football players can tell you. It isn't clear what happened this time, but Tarzan hasn't lost his memories for a change. This time around he has aphasia and has lost the ability to produce or understand language. An evil Arab convinces Krause, a German, to buy him and take him to America where he can exhibit him as a wild man. Just as we know that a blow to the head will induce temporary amnesia (or aphasia) or that half the men in Europe look exactly like Tarzan, we know that a ship traveling to or from Africa will eventually be taken over by pirates or mutineers. In this case it's both as mutineers take over the ship and then turn pirate.
This was written around the beginning of World War II so the Germans are firmly in place as the villains once more and they capture a English pleasure yacht. This introduces one of the worst and funniest characters of all Edgar Rice Burroughs books, Aunt Penelope. She is a snobbish American who takes umbrage at Tarzan's nudity and takes every opportunity to denigrate him. It's partially his fault because he and another captive, a young girl who has been thrust into his cage hoping he would ravish and/or eat her, convince her that he's eating human remains. Still, the woman is over-the-top and ridiculous and deliciously stupid and I loved it. I spent half the book waiting for her to find out that Tarzan is also John Clayton, Lord Greystoke. I should mention that Tarzan spontaneously regains his use of language without the need for another blow to the head so he could have defended himself, but he can't be bothered and that just makes it all that much more fun.
The entire crew - good, bad, and Tarzan - all end up castaway on an uncharted island. The previous occupants, a lost Mayan civilization, take exception to this intrusion and Tarzan gets involved with a woman who was meant to be sacrificed. Some of the Mayans think he is Che, the forest god, and others think he has profaned against Che and needs to be killed - not the best start for new neighbors. Mutineers, Mayans, and a bunch of captive carnivores that Tarzan insisted on letting loose on the island make for a lot of conflict and adventure.
As I mentioned in the review of Tarzan and the Forbidden City, Tarzan keeps running into women who fall for him and he doesn't do nearly enough to discourage him. I find myself indignant on Jane's behalf and wonder what was happening in ERB's life while he was writing these later books. I know he got divorced in 1935 and married his best friend and business partner's wife and then divorced her 9 years later, so I can't imagine his relationship with women was very healthy. Maybe that's why we keep seeing this kind of not-so-honorable behavior in Tarzan. I don't remember noticing this when I was a young teen, but as an adult I just want him to wear a wedding ring or something.
Three stars - one extra for the harpy, she really did make me laugh.
Tarzan and the Champion
In this short story, found in Tarzan and The Castaways, Tarzan encounters a Sylvester-Stallone-style boxer who is arrogant, mouthy, and ridiculous. The champion decides to head to Africa and kill a bunch of animals with a machine gun. Naturally enough, Tarzan objects and tells him to get out of his country. Before he can enforce his dictum, the champion and he are both captured by cannibals and Tarzan has to rise to the occasion and rescue the champion and his manager. It's a very short story but it's also quite funny and I enjoyed it. Maybe ERB should have written more short stories because this forced him to focus on small moments and not have long drawn-out rescues, recaptures, and more rescues. It made for a nice, tight plot.
Four stars - I thought moments of this were laugh-aloud funny and the story was tight and never lagged.
Tarzan and the Jungle Murders
The third of three stories in Tarzan and the Castaways, this one is more of a mystery than an adventure. Tarzan stumbles across a couple of downed airplanes and we are shown in flashback the events leading up to the crashes. I was shocked by one of the deaths in the story - it was very much out of character for ERB to kill this person off. It served to focus the story on mystery rather than adventure, so it probably worked as intended, but it still felt wrong. It should come as no surprise that Tarzan is an excellent detective, he's good at everything, but the story is not one of my favorites. There are too many flashbacks and not enough focus on the present. I think it's a good thing that ERB stuck to adventure instead of mystery, this is not his forte.
Three stars - Tarzan should stick to jungle swinging and leave detective work to Sherlock Holmes.
I went back to the print copy and found the two missing stories. Their reviews have been added at the end of this one.
I have already established in other reviews that Tarzan has suffered too many blows to the head for anyone's mental health. This kind of injury takes its toll as many boxers and football players can tell you. It isn't clear what happened this time, but Tarzan hasn't lost his memories for a change. This time around he has aphasia and has lost the ability to produce or understand language. An evil Arab convinces Krause, a German, to buy him and take him to America where he can exhibit him as a wild man. Just as we know that a blow to the head will induce temporary amnesia (or aphasia) or that half the men in Europe look exactly like Tarzan, we know that a ship traveling to or from Africa will eventually be taken over by pirates or mutineers. In this case it's both as mutineers take over the ship and then turn pirate.
This was written around the beginning of World War II so the Germans are firmly in place as the villains once more and they capture a English pleasure yacht. This introduces one of the worst and funniest characters of all Edgar Rice Burroughs books, Aunt Penelope. She is a snobbish American who takes umbrage at Tarzan's nudity and takes every opportunity to denigrate him. It's partially his fault because he and another captive, a young girl who has been thrust into his cage hoping he would ravish and/or eat her, convince her that he's eating human remains. Still, the woman is over-the-top and ridiculous and deliciously stupid and I loved it. I spent half the book waiting for her to find out that Tarzan is also John Clayton, Lord Greystoke. I should mention that Tarzan spontaneously regains his use of language without the need for another blow to the head so he could have defended himself, but he can't be bothered and that just makes it all that much more fun.
The entire crew - good, bad, and Tarzan - all end up castaway on an uncharted island. The previous occupants, a lost Mayan civilization, take exception to this intrusion and Tarzan gets involved with a woman who was meant to be sacrificed. Some of the Mayans think he is Che, the forest god, and others think he has profaned against Che and needs to be killed - not the best start for new neighbors. Mutineers, Mayans, and a bunch of captive carnivores that Tarzan insisted on letting loose on the island make for a lot of conflict and adventure.
As I mentioned in the review of Tarzan and the Forbidden City, Tarzan keeps running into women who fall for him and he doesn't do nearly enough to discourage him. I find myself indignant on Jane's behalf and wonder what was happening in ERB's life while he was writing these later books. I know he got divorced in 1935 and married his best friend and business partner's wife and then divorced her 9 years later, so I can't imagine his relationship with women was very healthy. Maybe that's why we keep seeing this kind of not-so-honorable behavior in Tarzan. I don't remember noticing this when I was a young teen, but as an adult I just want him to wear a wedding ring or something.
Three stars - one extra for the harpy, she really did make me laugh.
Tarzan and the Champion
In this short story, found in Tarzan and The Castaways, Tarzan encounters a Sylvester-Stallone-style boxer who is arrogant, mouthy, and ridiculous. The champion decides to head to Africa and kill a bunch of animals with a machine gun. Naturally enough, Tarzan objects and tells him to get out of his country. Before he can enforce his dictum, the champion and he are both captured by cannibals and Tarzan has to rise to the occasion and rescue the champion and his manager. It's a very short story but it's also quite funny and I enjoyed it. Maybe ERB should have written more short stories because this forced him to focus on small moments and not have long drawn-out rescues, recaptures, and more rescues. It made for a nice, tight plot.
Four stars - I thought moments of this were laugh-aloud funny and the story was tight and never lagged.
Tarzan and the Jungle Murders
The third of three stories in Tarzan and the Castaways, this one is more of a mystery than an adventure. Tarzan stumbles across a couple of downed airplanes and we are shown in flashback the events leading up to the crashes. I was shocked by one of the deaths in the story - it was very much out of character for ERB to kill this person off. It served to focus the story on mystery rather than adventure, so it probably worked as intended, but it still felt wrong. It should come as no surprise that Tarzan is an excellent detective, he's good at everything, but the story is not one of my favorites. There are too many flashbacks and not enough focus on the present. I think it's a good thing that ERB stuck to adventure instead of mystery, this is not his forte.
Three stars - Tarzan should stick to jungle swinging and leave detective work to Sherlock Holmes.
December 20, 2025
Well, I'm sad that this series has come to end after reading through all of these books over the last several months. The short format of these stories left me wanting more, but despite that, they were great! Reading this series has been a lot of fun and made me a big Tarzan fan!
November 3, 2020
#24 in the Tarzan series. Stranded on a Pacific island, Tarzan and his fellow survivors battle a band of misplaced Mayans.
May 28, 2023
Every now and then, it's convenient to have a book that fits in your back pocket. This book fulfilled that purpose perfectly.
February 20, 2025
I like it. It is fun and cutr.
September 17, 2025
Shipwrecked on an uncharted Pacific island. Oh Jesus. Tarzan does an episode of Gilligan. This is terrible.
October 29, 2025
Данный сборник мне понравился. Хотя тут тоже полно штампов из предыдущих проиведений, но есть и кое-что новое: приключения на море, а также пусть и примитивный, но все же детективный сюжет.
November 20, 2016
sad, only 2 more to go (
December 26, 2016
I had hopes for this book at the beginning, but it didn't offer anything new in the end. The same old story of a lost civilization !. But it was good to see few tigers for a change. For that, I give one extra star !. We can see how Edgar Rice Burroughs struggled in this last Tarzan adventure with lack of imaginations. This series should have ended from the 9th book in my opinion.
February 14, 2015
Three late Tarzan stories all of which saw publication in the pulp magazines of the day, but weren't collected in book form until long after Burroughs' death. The stories are unremarkable but just about bearable, the first and longest, the title piece would have been better without the introduction of the almost mandatory outpost of a vanished civilization, in this case the Mayans. The second a fairly snappy short story "Tarzan and the champion" is probably the best and certainly shortest (this may be a contributing factor) piece in the collection, it features an uncouth champion boxer on a big game hunt who gets his comeuppance. The final story Tarzan and jungle murders has the apeman as an amateur detective and might have been fun if Burroughs had any skill in this line as it is the story relies on coincidence and lacks any clues that the reader might spot.
October 20, 2023
"Fate is a thread that connects one event with another and one human being with another."
A collection of three "stories."
Tarzan and the Castaways is basically a short book. It starts with an amnesiac Tarzan being tossed onto a ship with a menagerie of animals to be sold as a "wild man." His memory miraculously returns, he gets a glancing blow by a bullet, survives this ship sinking, and becomes a god to Mayans. (Makes me wonder with all the civilizations Burroughs has done why he never did Egyptians, but whatev.)
Tarzan and the Champion is a super short story and honestly is my favorite one here. It's short, it's too the point. Tarzan teaches a lesson to some poachers, always good.
Tarzan and the Jungle Murders is short, too and is a jungle murder mystery, which sounds cool, but in actuality is really dry and boring. So this one was my least favorite.
A collection of three "stories."
Tarzan and the Castaways is basically a short book. It starts with an amnesiac Tarzan being tossed onto a ship with a menagerie of animals to be sold as a "wild man." His memory miraculously returns, he gets a glancing blow by a bullet, survives this ship sinking, and becomes a god to Mayans. (Makes me wonder with all the civilizations Burroughs has done why he never did Egyptians, but whatev.)
Tarzan and the Champion is a super short story and honestly is my favorite one here. It's short, it's too the point. Tarzan teaches a lesson to some poachers, always good.
Tarzan and the Jungle Murders is short, too and is a jungle murder mystery, which sounds cool, but in actuality is really dry and boring. So this one was my least favorite.
October 21, 2014
Tarzan and the Castaways (Tarzan #25) by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Ballantine 1941) (Fiction). This is three short stories combined into one volume. In the first story, Tarzan stumbles onto a lost Mayan civilization deep in the jungle. In the second story, Tarzan confronts an American prizefighter who has come to Africa to hunt. Finally, in the third tale Tarzan uses his knowledge of jungle lore to solve a murder mystery. My rating; 7/10, finished 1973.
August 1, 2015
I have read all 24 of the Tarzan books. Read dates are from the mid 1970s through 1982. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the Tarzan books. They made a great escape from high school and college. I still have all 24 books and they are at the top of my book shelf. I thought it was pretty neat to find the actual covers listed on Goodreads and there are no barcodes on the books, plus the cover price ranged from $1.50-1.95 for each book.
May 22, 2020
A collection of three stories first published in the 1940's, and first published together by Canaveral Press in 1965, this is the last of ERB's Tarzan series that he completed in his lifetime. Two are more-or-less typical Tarzan tales but in Tarzan and the Jungle Murders, Tarzan gets to play detective.
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