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The Custer Siblings #1
The Eternal Savage
Ace Book #21802 cp.75. No Pub-date stated. Softcover illustrator Roy Krenkle, Jr. Book
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1914
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About the author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
2,811 books2,744 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 38 reviews
July 22, 2020
What a mess. This is a the story of a caveman who somehow comes forward in time then returns and the woman who somehow lives in both timelines, but without a clear memory of her life in either. The caveman's major success in the first part of the book somehow results in his death at the end. It makes no sense because Edgar Rice Burroughs could find no convincing way to have the man and woman from different timelines meet, so he created a lot of silly mumbo-jumbo in the hope that readers will not notice. I presume that many readers do not mind the mumbo or the jumbo for the book is still read more than a century after it was, what, I guess I'll call it written.
These are just the conceptual problems. Tarzan is a minor character in the book, but Burroughs violates everything revealed about the character up to that time. The caveman practices the jungle-craft that Tarzan does in the first couple of Tarzan books and Tarzan acts like any average white hunter. What's with that? The writing is awful. Burroughs was paid by the word, and it shows in unnecessary sentences, paragraphs, and repetition of story elements. He occasionally switches from past tense to present and back again. He can't keep the story straight. Early on, the caveman sees a lion for the first and muses that it is a puny creature compared to the hunting cats of his own era. Then he returns to his own era and there are lions.
One of Burroughs's worst traits as a writer is his tendency to repeat certain story motifs and character types. In most of the ERB books I have read, a nasty man abducts the woman loved by the protagonist in order to rape her. This happens in this book not once, but three times!
I could go on, but you get the point. In EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS: MASTER OF ADVENTURE, Richard Lupoff writes that this is one of ERB's best books. God help readers of his worst.
These are just the conceptual problems. Tarzan is a minor character in the book, but Burroughs violates everything revealed about the character up to that time. The caveman practices the jungle-craft that Tarzan does in the first couple of Tarzan books and Tarzan acts like any average white hunter. What's with that? The writing is awful. Burroughs was paid by the word, and it shows in unnecessary sentences, paragraphs, and repetition of story elements. He occasionally switches from past tense to present and back again. He can't keep the story straight. Early on, the caveman sees a lion for the first and muses that it is a puny creature compared to the hunting cats of his own era. Then he returns to his own era and there are lions.
One of Burroughs's worst traits as a writer is his tendency to repeat certain story motifs and character types. In most of the ERB books I have read, a nasty man abducts the woman loved by the protagonist in order to rape her. This happens in this book not once, but three times!
I could go on, but you get the point. In EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS: MASTER OF ADVENTURE, Richard Lupoff writes that this is one of ERB's best books. God help readers of his worst.
April 25, 2013
‘NU, THE son of Nu, his mighty muscles rolling beneath his smooth bronzed skin, moved silently through the jungle primeval. His handsome head with its shock of black hair, roughly cropped between sharpened stones, was high held, the delicate nostrils questioning each vagrant breeze for word of Oo, hunter of men.’
So begins ‘The Eternal Savage’ or as my older edition terms it ‘The Eternal Lover.’ The latter is the title I prefer. Just look at that for an illustration by one of the giants of the Arts, J. Allen St. John.
Burroughs was a master story teller and as prolific as they come. This one was written in 1925 after the ninth Tarzan novel (Tarzan and the Antmen) and the fifth Martian (The Chessmen of Mars) and is, as always with Burroughs, a flawed masterpiece. It would be easy to harp on about the plot coincidences and inconsistencies – Nu travels forwards (and back) in time and his girlfriend Victoria Custer travels back (and forward) so that they can consummate their eternal relationship. There are earthquakes occurring when you need them and extraordinary luck as heroes stumble on villains just before they ravish the maid. It would be easy but unfair; because Burroughs is not about literature or reason; he is about stories and escapism.
If you have seen A Million Years BC (and perhaps admired Raquel Welsh and a cohort of savage women) you will have seen a film largely stolen from Burroughs’ Eternal Lover. The Pterodactyl scene is a direct lift. The meeting of tribes, the generally wrong facts about the life of our ancestors. It’s more or less The Eternal Savage without the clever bits on reincarnation and time travel.
As a hopeless romantic I would recommend this book highly. It breathes a strange life of its own. The romance between the two lovers is vivid and touching (if you suspend all rational judgment and allow for some non PC moments) The characters are unforgettable and its simply a great tale.
So begins ‘The Eternal Savage’ or as my older edition terms it ‘The Eternal Lover.’ The latter is the title I prefer. Just look at that for an illustration by one of the giants of the Arts, J. Allen St. John.
Burroughs was a master story teller and as prolific as they come. This one was written in 1925 after the ninth Tarzan novel (Tarzan and the Antmen) and the fifth Martian (The Chessmen of Mars) and is, as always with Burroughs, a flawed masterpiece. It would be easy to harp on about the plot coincidences and inconsistencies – Nu travels forwards (and back) in time and his girlfriend Victoria Custer travels back (and forward) so that they can consummate their eternal relationship. There are earthquakes occurring when you need them and extraordinary luck as heroes stumble on villains just before they ravish the maid. It would be easy but unfair; because Burroughs is not about literature or reason; he is about stories and escapism.
If you have seen A Million Years BC (and perhaps admired Raquel Welsh and a cohort of savage women) you will have seen a film largely stolen from Burroughs’ Eternal Lover. The Pterodactyl scene is a direct lift. The meeting of tribes, the generally wrong facts about the life of our ancestors. It’s more or less The Eternal Savage without the clever bits on reincarnation and time travel.
As a hopeless romantic I would recommend this book highly. It breathes a strange life of its own. The romance between the two lovers is vivid and touching (if you suspend all rational judgment and allow for some non PC moments) The characters are unforgettable and its simply a great tale.
April 14, 2024
I enjoyed Nu's story, but didn't really see the point of the reincarnation plot. If that had been dropped, it would have been four stars for me. At some points there seemed to be some editing mistakes left in, but that might have been because I read the kindle version.
March 11, 2018
Have been reading a lot of Burroughs lately. Another one finished. After reading several more books I plan to read another one.
June 4, 2023
ocr:
p118: When Nat-ul regained consciousness she found herself lymg upon a shaggy aurochs skin beneath a rude shelter of thatch and hide.
?:
p147: Otherwise they would not have slowed up, as they did, nor spread out to right and left for the purpose of preventing a flank escape by the fugitives.
There is a pervading head-scratching aspect to this that leaves me dumbfounded.
p118: When Nat-ul regained consciousness she found herself lymg upon a shaggy aurochs skin beneath a rude shelter of thatch and hide.
?:
p147: Otherwise they would not have slowed up, as they did, nor spread out to right and left for the purpose of preventing a flank escape by the fugitives.
There is a pervading head-scratching aspect to this that leaves me dumbfounded.
June 11, 2025
3.5
Such a fine author from our past.
Such a fine author from our past.
August 8, 2016
No, this is not about my son, who has come home from college for the weekend. Rather it is the name of a stand-alone book by Edgar Rice Burroughs, most famous for his pulp-era science fiction series such as John Carter of Mars, Pelucidar, the Venus series, and, of course Tarzan. My database reveals that this is the 32nd book I've read by this author, making him my 5th most read author. Of course, most of those books (all of them?) are fairly thin paperbacks at around 175-225 pages each. I read most of these books when I was a teenager, helping to launch my interest in Science Fiction, even though there really is very little "science" in them.
I acquired this book recently, spotting it at the used book store in the library where I frequently find older novels from "my" authors. It's been years since I've read an ERB and I was hoping it would stand the test of time, as in my own maturity. I've been afraid to re-read any of these books for fear they would fail that test. I'm sorry to report that The Eternal Savage didn't exactly relieve those fears for me. It had a hokey plot, in my opinion, about a caveman-era fellow named Nu, Son of Nu. He is in love and trying his darndest to win the hand of Nat-Ul as his mate. While hunting the most ferocious beast of the age, an earthquake strikes, causing a cave-in, trapping Nu inside. Cut to "present" day where an American girl, Victoria Custer, has gone to Africa to visit the Greystoke ranch (Tarzan, for the uninformed). It turns out that Nu has awoken in these modern times and spies Victoria, and thinking her to be his very own love, Nat-Ul. Another earthquake sends those two back to the Stone Age where Victoria turns out to be that same Nat-Ul. All of that just serves to set the stage for most of the book that follows. Much perilous adventure insues finally culminating in one final unexplained time-travel scene.
Of course, I don't expect great literature from these books but rather I expect pulp fiction which is what I got. It did remind me of lots of what I read in those teenage years but it didn't serve to keep me turning page after page. Rather it felt like a chore to plow through the predictable action sequences and jaw-dropping incredulity at the time-travel plot machinations. But still...there's enough nostalgia-related story telling here to make me plunk down my 75 cents if I see another ERB at the library book store.
I acquired this book recently, spotting it at the used book store in the library where I frequently find older novels from "my" authors. It's been years since I've read an ERB and I was hoping it would stand the test of time, as in my own maturity. I've been afraid to re-read any of these books for fear they would fail that test. I'm sorry to report that The Eternal Savage didn't exactly relieve those fears for me. It had a hokey plot, in my opinion, about a caveman-era fellow named Nu, Son of Nu. He is in love and trying his darndest to win the hand of Nat-Ul as his mate. While hunting the most ferocious beast of the age, an earthquake strikes, causing a cave-in, trapping Nu inside. Cut to "present" day where an American girl, Victoria Custer, has gone to Africa to visit the Greystoke ranch (Tarzan, for the uninformed). It turns out that Nu has awoken in these modern times and spies Victoria, and thinking her to be his very own love, Nat-Ul. Another earthquake sends those two back to the Stone Age where Victoria turns out to be that same Nat-Ul. All of that just serves to set the stage for most of the book that follows. Much perilous adventure insues finally culminating in one final unexplained time-travel scene.
Of course, I don't expect great literature from these books but rather I expect pulp fiction which is what I got. It did remind me of lots of what I read in those teenage years but it didn't serve to keep me turning page after page. Rather it felt like a chore to plow through the predictable action sequences and jaw-dropping incredulity at the time-travel plot machinations. But still...there's enough nostalgia-related story telling here to make me plunk down my 75 cents if I see another ERB at the library book store.
August 10, 2012
A time-traveling caveman meets Tarzan, finds the reincarnation of his long lost love, then goes back to the stone age (or maybe Pellucidar?) & has a ripping good yarn of a chase across the prehistoric landscape. They fight the last Pterodactyl in the world, encounter ape-men, boat builders, cave bears, jealous wives and every other sort of prehistoric monster imaginable.
It's as awesome as it sounds, despite some occasionally insensitive (to modern ears) language. It's also fairly typical for Burroughs - if you've already read a dozen or more of his books, it won't be anything revelatory.
It's as awesome as it sounds, despite some occasionally insensitive (to modern ears) language. It's also fairly typical for Burroughs - if you've already read a dozen or more of his books, it won't be anything revelatory.
July 27, 2008
I have a much older Ace edition. Good reading.
May 13, 2023
Nu is a cave man living 100,000 years ago. He goes out hunting a saber-tooth tiger to lay its head at the feet of the beautiful Nat-ul, to prove his love to her. This makes sense, since taking her out to a nice restaurant isn't a viable option.
An earthquake traps him in a cave and puts him in suspended animation. He wakes up in modern times, where he soon meets Victoria Custer--the apparent reincarnation of Nat-ul. Victoria is visiting the Greystoke estate in Africa, so we get a Tarzan cameo.
There's some shenanigans involving Victoria being kidnapped by Arab slave traders. Nu rescues her, but then another earthquake somehow sends Nu back to his own time, where he dismisses his time-travel adventure as a dream.
Oddly, Nat-ul, though miles away, had the same dream. But before the two can re-unite, she gets kidnapped by a rejected suitor. This leads to a whole series of adventures, with Nat-ul and Nu stumbling into one adventure after another as they try to find one another.
At the end, the book switches back to Victoria, with Nu's original visit and his prehistoric adventures being part of a dream she had. Before leaving Africa, though, she finds skeletons that indicate Nu and Nat-ul did really exist.
This last part may sound contrived, but Burroughs structures the plot well and generates the right emotions to make it satisfying. And the action set pieces are superb. Burroughs was always a master of pacing and he tosses Nu and Nat-ul from one danger to another in just the right doses to keep up a high level of excitement.
I especially like a roller-coaster sequence in which Nat-ul is snatched up by a pterodactyl, flown to an island, dropped into a nest with three hungry baby pterodactyls, escapes from this, gets chased by a half-dozen hairy "man apes," gets captured by one of them, escapes when they start fighting over her, then gets captured by a villain who had been chasing her when the pterodactyl first caught her. It's fun stuff.
An earthquake traps him in a cave and puts him in suspended animation. He wakes up in modern times, where he soon meets Victoria Custer--the apparent reincarnation of Nat-ul. Victoria is visiting the Greystoke estate in Africa, so we get a Tarzan cameo.
There's some shenanigans involving Victoria being kidnapped by Arab slave traders. Nu rescues her, but then another earthquake somehow sends Nu back to his own time, where he dismisses his time-travel adventure as a dream.
Oddly, Nat-ul, though miles away, had the same dream. But before the two can re-unite, she gets kidnapped by a rejected suitor. This leads to a whole series of adventures, with Nat-ul and Nu stumbling into one adventure after another as they try to find one another.
At the end, the book switches back to Victoria, with Nu's original visit and his prehistoric adventures being part of a dream she had. Before leaving Africa, though, she finds skeletons that indicate Nu and Nat-ul did really exist.
This last part may sound contrived, but Burroughs structures the plot well and generates the right emotions to make it satisfying. And the action set pieces are superb. Burroughs was always a master of pacing and he tosses Nu and Nat-ul from one danger to another in just the right doses to keep up a high level of excitement.
I especially like a roller-coaster sequence in which Nat-ul is snatched up by a pterodactyl, flown to an island, dropped into a nest with three hungry baby pterodactyls, escapes from this, gets chased by a half-dozen hairy "man apes," gets captured by one of them, escapes when they start fighting over her, then gets captured by a villain who had been chasing her when the pterodactyl first caught her. It's fun stuff.
December 27, 2017
This is one weird mixed bag from Burroughs! In a sense, it's basically a prehistoric cave-man adventure/romance with a modern day wrap-around reincarnation plot. Certain turns of the story set this apart from the general run of Burroughs work.
Our handsome troglodyte hero, Nu son of Nu, gets trapped in a cave by an earthquake and emerges in the 20th century, only to meet the reincarnation of his mate, who has dreamed she was destined to meet him. Love triangles, abductions, chases, and the usual ERB fanfare go from there.
In many senses this is business as usual for the prolific Burroughs, but there are a few things that work in its favor. “The Eternal Savage/Lover” was written in the mid-1910s, the same time when he was writing the best Barsoom and Tarzan works. He still had the energy and heightened sense of romance that made his name and he seemed to actually be invested in the endless series of escapes and twists of fate that keep the reader reading. The book has a couple of darker elements to it and doesn't turn out entirely as expected, even though this predates the bitterness that started to taint his work during the early red scares.
If I had to compare it to other Burroughs adventures, this one basically falls nearer “The Monster Men” and “Tarzan” sequels, lots of jungle and chasing. Apparently characters in this book tie in with those in “The Mad King”, so I'll see what that's all about at some point.
Our handsome troglodyte hero, Nu son of Nu, gets trapped in a cave by an earthquake and emerges in the 20th century, only to meet the reincarnation of his mate, who has dreamed she was destined to meet him. Love triangles, abductions, chases, and the usual ERB fanfare go from there.
In many senses this is business as usual for the prolific Burroughs, but there are a few things that work in its favor. “The Eternal Savage/Lover” was written in the mid-1910s, the same time when he was writing the best Barsoom and Tarzan works. He still had the energy and heightened sense of romance that made his name and he seemed to actually be invested in the endless series of escapes and twists of fate that keep the reader reading. The book has a couple of darker elements to it and doesn't turn out entirely as expected, even though this predates the bitterness that started to taint his work during the early red scares.
If I had to compare it to other Burroughs adventures, this one basically falls nearer “The Monster Men” and “Tarzan” sequels, lots of jungle and chasing. Apparently characters in this book tie in with those in “The Mad King”, so I'll see what that's all about at some point.
Read
May 23, 2024Mis parata, kui see autor tänu lapsele soetatud Tarzani lugudele koduses raamatukogus esikohal on. See raamat otseselt Tarzanist pole, küll aga vilksatavad seal nii mõnedki nendest lugudest tuttavad tegelased. Iseenesest on idee üsna huvitav, sest mulle sellised ajas rändamise lood meeldivad, hingede rändamine võib-olla nii väga. Teisalt kisub vahepeal ikka seebikaks ka ja muidugi juhtub tegelastega uskumatult palju ja muidugi laseb saatus neil üksteist pingeliselt otsivatel isikutel teineteisest paari sammu kauguselt mööda kõndida, teadmata, et otsitav just seal on... Lisaks kirjeldused ideaalsest üllast musklisest kiviaja mehest, kellele 19. sajandi äbarikud kuidagi vastu ei saa, ja imekaunist, õilsast ja vaprast neiust.
Süžee: Aafrikasse jahti pidama ja seiklusi otsima läinud noor neiu Victoria Caster elab üle maavärina, mis viib ta kiviaega, kus ta elab noore neiu Nat-ulina ürginimese koopaelu. Siis väriseb maa taas ja ühtaegu on kiviaja ideaalmees tänapäeva maailma sattunud. Vahepeal hakkas ausalt öeldes järg ära kaduma ka, mis aeg siis parajasti oli ja kes kellena kus oli.
Kokkuvõttes täiesti kõlbulik ajaviitelugemine, toob ehk ürgmaailmagi natuke lähemale.
Süžee: Aafrikasse jahti pidama ja seiklusi otsima läinud noor neiu Victoria Caster elab üle maavärina, mis viib ta kiviaega, kus ta elab noore neiu Nat-ulina ürginimese koopaelu. Siis väriseb maa taas ja ühtaegu on kiviaja ideaalmees tänapäeva maailma sattunud. Vahepeal hakkas ausalt öeldes järg ära kaduma ka, mis aeg siis parajasti oli ja kes kellena kus oli.
Kokkuvõttes täiesti kõlbulik ajaviitelugemine, toob ehk ürgmaailmagi natuke lähemale.
May 18, 2024
What do you do when Tarzan just isn't savage and primal enough? apparently you go back to the Stone Age, where, we find Nu, son of Nu.
The entire book feels very much like someone bet Burroughs he couldn't make a more 'noble savage'... and here he definitely tries to do just that... and even has the man himself in the story just for comparison.
All the typical bits of a Burroughs book are here.. just bigger. It's pretty good for what it is, and of course it has an awesome cover.
At a few points of the story I was thinking it was going to go all mystical, but in the end everything had a plausible explanation... even if it was confusing at the time. Certainly not Burroughs best, but perhaps the most extreme of the the type.
The entire book feels very much like someone bet Burroughs he couldn't make a more 'noble savage'... and here he definitely tries to do just that... and even has the man himself in the story just for comparison.
All the typical bits of a Burroughs book are here.. just bigger. It's pretty good for what it is, and of course it has an awesome cover.
At a few points of the story I was thinking it was going to go all mystical, but in the end everything had a plausible explanation... even if it was confusing at the time. Certainly not Burroughs best, but perhaps the most extreme of the the type.
April 4, 2020
Historical romance from 1914 that shows morality and chivalry without the sex of today's books. This is a book to read aloud to children and help explain good and lawlessness in the actions of humans. There's some bias toward race and gender, as was common during the war. Still a wonderful book relaying how different people are in there teaching as they grow up. This is as classic as Aesop's Fable with the very message that should be heard today. Lies,greed and deceit are abundant in the cyber world with no accountability to stop it. Make a stand and teach right from wrong and recreate a "tribe" that pushes towards to benifet of all - not the cruel path of vengeance and greed.
June 2, 2020
Haven’t read a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs in quite a few years so I decided to revisit the author with an Ace paperback edition kicking around for nearly as long. The Eternal Savage, originally titled The Eternal Lover. The science fiction aspect of this one is time travel, the necessary element that allows a prehistoric man to visit the jungles of Lord Greystoke. But Tarzan is mentioned only in passing, the caveman, Nu is the hero. He shares the spotlight with Nat-ul, the impossibly beautiful female lead. The plot and romance are serviceable, it’s the adventure and action where Burroughs excels and The Eternal Savage was quite satisfying, if not the best of others I’ve read long ago.
Read
March 11, 2022This book takes you to the world of the early 1900's in time, geography and science. It travels back and forth thru time and space, however, it is time and space as envisioned in that part of the 20th century. Read this book for the action, adventure and romance of the early Pulp period. Cavemen, prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs co-exsisting all the the same time? They thought so then!
January 15, 2020
Amazing tale bringing us full circle back to the Greystoke family; told in the familiar way Burroughs tells his stories.
October 28, 2025
Weird, Horror, adventure...strange time travel or soul traveling, weird , strange!
June 27, 2022
Having thought that I'd finished with the ERB Tarzan books, I was pleasantly surprised to find Tarzan and Jane making a cameo in this one. However, beyond that, this book was a mess and I don't think even ERB knew where he was going with this. I do not think it was ERB's finest hour, but if you think annulling season 9 of Dallas as Pam's Dream was creative genius, then this is a book for you.
September 8, 2021
In a Burroughs novel, it's not usual for beautiful women to be in need of rescuing. His heroes spent an inordinate amount of time rescuing their lady loves from a succession of deadly dangers and a lot of those heroes can be pretty savage when the situation requires it of them. But Eternal Savage has an unusual structure that gives it a unique feel.
Nu is a cave man living 100,000 years ago. He goes out hunting a saber-tooth tiger to lay its head at the feet of the beautiful Nat-ul, to prove his love to her. This makes sense, since taking her out to a nice restaurant isn't a viable option.
An earthquake traps him in a cave and puts him in suspended animation. He wakes up in modern times, where he soon meets Victoria Custer--the apparent reincarnation of Nat-ul. Victoria is visiting the Greystoke estate in Africa, so we get a Tarzan cameo.
There's some shenanigans involving Victoria being kidnapped by Arab slave traders. Nu rescues her, but then another earthquake somehow sends Nu back to his own time, where he dismisses his time-travel adventure as a dream.
Oddly, Nat-ul, though miles away, had the same dream. But before the two can re-unite, she gets kidnapped by a rejected suitor. This leads to a whole series of adventures, with Nat-ul and Nu stumbling into one adventure after another as they try to find one another.
At the end, the book switches back to Victoria, with Nu's original visit and his prehistoric adventures being part of a dream she had. Before leaving Africa, though, she finds skeletons that indicate Nu and Nat-ul did really exist.
This last part may sound contrived, but Burroughs structures the plot well and generates the right emotions to make it satisfying. And the action set pieces are superb. Burroughs was always a master of pacing and he tosses Nu and Nat-ul from one danger to another in just the right doses to keep up a high level of excitement.
I especially like a roller-coaster sequence in which Nat-ul is snatched up by a pterodactyl, flown to an island, dropped into a nest with three hungry baby pterodactyls, escapes from this, gets chased by a half-dozen hairy "man apes," gets captured by one of them, escapes when they start fighting over her, then gets captured by a villain who had been chasing her when the pterodactyl first caught her. It's fun stuff.
Nu is a cave man living 100,000 years ago. He goes out hunting a saber-tooth tiger to lay its head at the feet of the beautiful Nat-ul, to prove his love to her. This makes sense, since taking her out to a nice restaurant isn't a viable option.
An earthquake traps him in a cave and puts him in suspended animation. He wakes up in modern times, where he soon meets Victoria Custer--the apparent reincarnation of Nat-ul. Victoria is visiting the Greystoke estate in Africa, so we get a Tarzan cameo.
There's some shenanigans involving Victoria being kidnapped by Arab slave traders. Nu rescues her, but then another earthquake somehow sends Nu back to his own time, where he dismisses his time-travel adventure as a dream.
Oddly, Nat-ul, though miles away, had the same dream. But before the two can re-unite, she gets kidnapped by a rejected suitor. This leads to a whole series of adventures, with Nat-ul and Nu stumbling into one adventure after another as they try to find one another.
At the end, the book switches back to Victoria, with Nu's original visit and his prehistoric adventures being part of a dream she had. Before leaving Africa, though, she finds skeletons that indicate Nu and Nat-ul did really exist.
This last part may sound contrived, but Burroughs structures the plot well and generates the right emotions to make it satisfying. And the action set pieces are superb. Burroughs was always a master of pacing and he tosses Nu and Nat-ul from one danger to another in just the right doses to keep up a high level of excitement.
I especially like a roller-coaster sequence in which Nat-ul is snatched up by a pterodactyl, flown to an island, dropped into a nest with three hungry baby pterodactyls, escapes from this, gets chased by a half-dozen hairy "man apes," gets captured by one of them, escapes when they start fighting over her, then gets captured by a villain who had been chasing her when the pterodactyl first caught her. It's fun stuff.
May 8, 2020
Nu, a butch warrior from prehistoric times, is transported to the early 20th Century by a freak earthquake. At the ranch of Lord Greystoke (Tarzan himself, no less!) Nu encounters Victoria who just happens to be the spitting image/reincarnation of his stone age love, Na-Tul. Victoria ends up travelling back to Nu's time and gets in no end of trouble as Na-Tul, involving hairy tree men, pterodactyls and all sorts of treachery. As ever with an Edgar Rice Burroughs, the writing, especially of the action, is vivid and sensational. Our world has moved on, thank goodness, since the book first appeared in 1925, and decent people no longer rate big game hunting as something to be admired. Times have changed - perhaps not as sharply as Nu finds! but Burroughs still has plenty to offer in terms of thrills and imagination in this story of adventure and eternal love.
May 6, 2014
The Eternal Savage is about Nu, a cave-man who sets out to kill a Smilodon (or Saber-tooth cat) so he can bring the head back and claim Na-Tul, the love of his life, as his mate. However things go wrong and Nu finds himself in the twentieth-century Africa where he meets up with Tarzan and has some adventures before returning back to his time period where he continues to work for Na-Tul.
With all the discoveries made in science we now know that such a story is impossible. Dinosaurs and man didn't live in the same time period, and several of the prehistoric mammals were in the wrong area. Still I enjoyed Nu's loyalty towards Na-Tul and the lengths he went to save her from harm. The ending might surprise you. However if you enjoy the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs you won't want to miss this.
With all the discoveries made in science we now know that such a story is impossible. Dinosaurs and man didn't live in the same time period, and several of the prehistoric mammals were in the wrong area. Still I enjoyed Nu's loyalty towards Na-Tul and the lengths he went to save her from harm. The ending might surprise you. However if you enjoy the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs you won't want to miss this.
January 13, 2015
After finishing An Independent People...I wanted a lighter book for nighttime. And this was definitely lighter. I would probably have rated it a bit higher if it stopped halfway through at it's first finishing point.
It's an absurd, time-traveling action/romance story (the original title was the Eternal Lover)...which is fine. For about 100 pages. Burroughs can write, and while it's somewhat interesting to reflect on how he could have the caveman thrust into "modern" time feel hurt how the white men looked down on him like he was one of the blacks when he was their equal in every way without even kinda realizing that the blacks might feel the same way about the way the whites treat them...when it become just another page of Nu, Son of Nu beating up another wild animal or the current abductor of his love (there were 5?)...well, I made it through to the end.
It's an absurd, time-traveling action/romance story (the original title was the Eternal Lover)...which is fine. For about 100 pages. Burroughs can write, and while it's somewhat interesting to reflect on how he could have the caveman thrust into "modern" time feel hurt how the white men looked down on him like he was one of the blacks when he was their equal in every way without even kinda realizing that the blacks might feel the same way about the way the whites treat them...when it become just another page of Nu, Son of Nu beating up another wild animal or the current abductor of his love (there were 5?)...well, I made it through to the end.
August 10, 2012
One of Burroughs' "one-off" novels about Africa and the stone age. A fun read that might make a decent film. Great premise: an earthquake entombs and preserves a stone age warrior for 100,000 years. His almost-mate is killed in the earthquake but is "reborn" down the generations in a contemporary woman who dreams of her lost mate and the world they inhabited - until another earthquake frees him, and her dream comes alive!
August 27, 2014
Nu, Son of Nu exhibits much swag as he tears through the prehistoric jungles beating the living tar out of any creature foolish enough to challenge him to a rap-battle, which in those days was settled with spear and stone axe.
Chivalry is not yet extinct in this bygone age as Nu brutally slaughters enormous ancient beasts that threaten his beloved Nat-ul, who was herself a badass cave warrior chick.
Together, Nu and Nat-ul are solid literary role models for boys AND girls.
Chivalry is not yet extinct in this bygone age as Nu brutally slaughters enormous ancient beasts that threaten his beloved Nat-ul, who was herself a badass cave warrior chick.
Together, Nu and Nat-ul are solid literary role models for boys AND girls.
February 18, 2011
From my 1966 diary record: " I think I have finally outgrown his style of writing. I may still be able to stomach the Tarzan books and possibly the Martian series but they no longer thrill me like they did [when I was 12 or so]. His themes are all the same, his heroines too pure and his heroes too heroic and noble. I begin to agree with a critic I read that ERB is a very prejudiced writer..."
May 18, 2018
Kuna mu isa oli väga suur Edgar Rice Burroughs'i raamatute lugeja, siis muidugi ma lugesin selle läbi ja kuigi ma alustasin pidevalt uuesti, jäi see ikkagi pooleli, nii et ma loen seda varsti uuuesti. Lihtsalt üks aegumatu raamat minu jaoks, sest ma pidin seda koos oma isaga jagama. Ma armastan sind, isa!
December 6, 2013
This one-off novel (or is it a Tarzan spin-off?) is a little all over the place, but it does have some excellent action sequences and a classic Burroughs structure. Cringe-worthy sections give plenty of fodder for a dissertation on gender roles and race, but that comes with the territory when you are a Burroughs fan.
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