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Pellucidar #8
Mahars of Pellucidar
Set in Edgar Rice Burroughs' imaginary interior world of Pellucidar, the book features a species of intelligent flying reptiles (Mahars) invented by Burroughs in his first Pellucidar novel, At the Earth's Core.
Holmes' human protagonist, Christopher West, has developed a teleportation beam that can also see events taking place 200 miles below the surface. When they see people about to sacrifice a beautiful woman, Christopher obtains a pocket knife and a red fire axe and has himself beamed down to rescue the woman. Due to his unusual weapon, West becomes known as Red Axe among the stone-age human beings of Pellucidar. The story deals with West's efforts to free his new-found friends from the tyranny of the Mahars.
The region visited by West is apparently an area of Pellucidar different from that in which Burroughs set his stories, from which the Mahars were driven at the end of the second book in the series, Pellucidar. Evidently there are other locales in which the reptiles are dominant. Therefore West never runs into any of Burrough's human Pellucidarian characters, such as David Innes, Abner Perry, Dian the Beautiful, Ghak the Hairy One, or any of the others.
Holmes' human protagonist, Christopher West, has developed a teleportation beam that can also see events taking place 200 miles below the surface. When they see people about to sacrifice a beautiful woman, Christopher obtains a pocket knife and a red fire axe and has himself beamed down to rescue the woman. Due to his unusual weapon, West becomes known as Red Axe among the stone-age human beings of Pellucidar. The story deals with West's efforts to free his new-found friends from the tyranny of the Mahars.
The region visited by West is apparently an area of Pellucidar different from that in which Burroughs set his stories, from which the Mahars were driven at the end of the second book in the series, Pellucidar. Evidently there are other locales in which the reptiles are dominant. Therefore West never runs into any of Burrough's human Pellucidarian characters, such as David Innes, Abner Perry, Dian the Beautiful, Ghak the Hairy One, or any of the others.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 12, 2022
Nice addition to the Pellucidar series. Good entertaining read. Recommended
February 12, 2018
The fast-paced pulp adventure is not improved by Holmes indulging his professional background and having the protagonist undergo Skinner box and other psychological/neurological testing by the Mahars. Tinkering with the Mahars at all was something of a doomed experiment: they are given just enough flesh to become understandable and familiar, but not enough to make them interesting. As is, they are neither an alien culture to grapple with, nor a menacing mystery. The whole thing started to fall apart once Chris West started having conversations with them.
The rest is jungle adventure, which gets old real fast.
The rest is jungle adventure, which gets old real fast.
March 16, 2016
The author here is John Eric Holmes, writing in ERB's universe. In other words, it's a pastiche. But it was authorized by the Burroughs estate. They apparently didn't authorize a sequel to it that Holmes also wrote.
This book is actually not bad. I enjoyed revisiting Pellucidar, ERB's land inside the earth. I'd read the Burroughs books years before, of course, so maybe it was partly nostalgia. But I thought it worked OK.
This book is actually not bad. I enjoyed revisiting Pellucidar, ERB's land inside the earth. I'd read the Burroughs books years before, of course, so maybe it was partly nostalgia. But I thought it worked OK.
August 9, 2018
Good, cheesey, fun.
February 18, 2019
It took me a while to get into Burrough's Pelucidar books, but when I did I went nuts for them. I did feel that the lack of the Mahars in later books was a mistake. This book adds a lot to the Mahars, though it seems to ignore the previous ERB material; so if you are only looking for David Innes chasing Dian the Beautiful around the Hollow Earth, this is not for you; but if you want some new adventures that take a slightly different tack from Burroughs, it is very enjoyable.
August 26, 2021
Gee whiz, this was a fun book!
A scientist named Christopher West (who also happens to be a 6-foot, 6-inch former Marine) is teleported to Pellucidar. Soon, he's in love with a beautiful cave girl, but the two of them are soon captured by the Mahars--the intelligent, telepathic pterodactyls that rule the world at the Earth's Core. Armed with a fireman's axe (it makes sense in context), he's soon given the name Red Axe by the denizans of Pellucidar.
The author replicates Edgar Rice Burroughs' world exactly, though Christopher doesn't encounter David Innes or Innes' empire. Pellucidar is a big place, so its easy to simply presume that he's ended up in a location far from that empire, where the Mahars have not been driven off.
What's interesting is that neither the protagonist nor the other scientists he was working with on the surface have heard of Pellucidar or had any hint of its existence. I wonder if that means that in this universe, everyone thought Burroughs was writing fiction and didn't consider Pellucidar a real place. Presumably, none of the scientists had ever read his novels.
That's the sort of thing I like to think about, but it really doesn't matter. The story itself is an almost non-stop adventure, with interesting supporting characters as well as a strong protagonist. The cave woman Varna is has a strong and vivid personality. Most remarkable, in terms of the characters, is that the author has created a sympathetic Mahar who befriends Christopher. The author does not change the inhuman and ruthless nature of the Mahar, but gives one of them a character arc making his friendship with a human believable.
The action scenes are great, especially the climax, which involves several successive encounters with a persistant T-Rex while battling an arch enemy and also being chased by a horde of Sagoths (the ape men who serve the Mahars). It is a true edge-of-your-seat set piece.
A scientist named Christopher West (who also happens to be a 6-foot, 6-inch former Marine) is teleported to Pellucidar. Soon, he's in love with a beautiful cave girl, but the two of them are soon captured by the Mahars--the intelligent, telepathic pterodactyls that rule the world at the Earth's Core. Armed with a fireman's axe (it makes sense in context), he's soon given the name Red Axe by the denizans of Pellucidar.
The author replicates Edgar Rice Burroughs' world exactly, though Christopher doesn't encounter David Innes or Innes' empire. Pellucidar is a big place, so its easy to simply presume that he's ended up in a location far from that empire, where the Mahars have not been driven off.
What's interesting is that neither the protagonist nor the other scientists he was working with on the surface have heard of Pellucidar or had any hint of its existence. I wonder if that means that in this universe, everyone thought Burroughs was writing fiction and didn't consider Pellucidar a real place. Presumably, none of the scientists had ever read his novels.
That's the sort of thing I like to think about, but it really doesn't matter. The story itself is an almost non-stop adventure, with interesting supporting characters as well as a strong protagonist. The cave woman Varna is has a strong and vivid personality. Most remarkable, in terms of the characters, is that the author has created a sympathetic Mahar who befriends Christopher. The author does not change the inhuman and ruthless nature of the Mahar, but gives one of them a character arc making his friendship with a human believable.
The action scenes are great, especially the climax, which involves several successive encounters with a persistant T-Rex while battling an arch enemy and also being chased by a horde of Sagoths (the ape men who serve the Mahars). It is a true edge-of-your-seat set piece.
August 13, 2023
Mahars of Pellucidar by John Eric Holmes
Christopher West is a student of medicine, now engaged in research into the brains of felines, when he is asked to visit a laboratory where two scientists have created a disintegration/integration machine—a teleporter, for all intents and purposes. Doctors “Tiny” Kinsley and “Doc” Moritz have been using their machines to study rocks from deep within the earth. And as a separate experiment, they have been trying to send living animals by teleport. Both have been successful.
Now they have found an opening more than two-hundred miles inside the earth. And to their surprise, they have seen something move on their TV viewfinder: a human being! Continuing to watch this and other humans that come in sight of the camera’s eye, they become witnesses to bloody human sacrifice. And Chris demands to be sent by teleport in hopes to save at least the girl they can see. He grabs a fire axe and is sent off to this inner world that he learns is called Pellucidar. And finds himself named Red Axe.
Later, he and his Pellucidarian girl are captured by the real lords of Pellucidar—the mysterious mind-controlling reptilian Mahars—a sort of highly intelligent pterodactyl. And the rest makes for a story such as Pellucidar has never known!
This book brings a new outsider into the inner world of Pellucidar and throws him directly into a fight for his life and the lives of those he cares about. The writer makes the story his own, yet pays homage to the original material delightfully, doing nothing that would mess up the timeline or history of the original series. He makes his hero fit right in by building him into the world that is already there, not trying to change the original material to fit a new character. I think Burroughs would approve.
I give the book five stars.
Quoth the Raven…
Christopher West is a student of medicine, now engaged in research into the brains of felines, when he is asked to visit a laboratory where two scientists have created a disintegration/integration machine—a teleporter, for all intents and purposes. Doctors “Tiny” Kinsley and “Doc” Moritz have been using their machines to study rocks from deep within the earth. And as a separate experiment, they have been trying to send living animals by teleport. Both have been successful.
Now they have found an opening more than two-hundred miles inside the earth. And to their surprise, they have seen something move on their TV viewfinder: a human being! Continuing to watch this and other humans that come in sight of the camera’s eye, they become witnesses to bloody human sacrifice. And Chris demands to be sent by teleport in hopes to save at least the girl they can see. He grabs a fire axe and is sent off to this inner world that he learns is called Pellucidar. And finds himself named Red Axe.
Later, he and his Pellucidarian girl are captured by the real lords of Pellucidar—the mysterious mind-controlling reptilian Mahars—a sort of highly intelligent pterodactyl. And the rest makes for a story such as Pellucidar has never known!
This book brings a new outsider into the inner world of Pellucidar and throws him directly into a fight for his life and the lives of those he cares about. The writer makes the story his own, yet pays homage to the original material delightfully, doing nothing that would mess up the timeline or history of the original series. He makes his hero fit right in by building him into the world that is already there, not trying to change the original material to fit a new character. I think Burroughs would approve.
I give the book five stars.
Quoth the Raven…
November 10, 2023
A very exciting addition to the inner earth series of Pellucidar. Being written by someone other than Edgar Rice Burroughs, this doesn't visit the characters of his stories. Instead we haver a whole slew of new ones , each as engaging as those of ERB.
Red Ax is amen's man, extremely confident, and able to defend himself and the beautiful Stone Age girl Varna. Varna is immediately likable, and one feels sure that their lives together will be rewarding as exciting.
If you enjoy the Pelllucidar series by ERB, you will definitely like this!
Red Ax is amen's man, extremely confident, and able to defend himself and the beautiful Stone Age girl Varna. Varna is immediately likable, and one feels sure that their lives together will be rewarding as exciting.
If you enjoy the Pelllucidar series by ERB, you will definitely like this!
December 30, 2023
A solid adventure story. I like this one a lot more than Holmes's Buck Rodgers continuation. I can't evaluate it as it relates to Burroughs's Pellucidar series, but the style is updated to a 70s style, and I do appreciate the focus on the linguistic details since that's a frequently ignored aspect of this type of story.
December 2, 2025
This was an interesting book in which it is obvious that the author was a true fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his works. The only complaint is that the book has a lot of action with very little substance.
October 8, 2017
Good followup to Burroughs Pellucidar series.
March 4, 2021
Dr. Holmes really caught the essence and feel of ERB and pulp fiction writing. Really enjoyable read.
August 28, 2022
A lucky find at a thrift store, this and a few Edgar Rice Burroughs books. Decent enough and enough swashbuckling and exploring of savage Pellucidar to me to me reading :)
February 19, 2025
Very much in the spirit of ERB.
August 30, 2025
It was fun to take another trip into Pellucidar. John Eric Holmes writes some decent pulp.
March 27, 2013
This was authorized by the Burroughs estate and is a more modern take on the Pellucidar tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Christopher West has developed a transportation beam that takes him to the Earth's core where he encounters the deadly Mahars. It is set in another part of Pellucidar so he never encounters Burroughs characters like David Innes and I think that works very well. It is almost like this is a modern retelling of the Pellucidar tales. Homels had written a sequel but the Burroughs estate never allowed it to be published.
January 6, 2017
My one phrase rundown: It's ERB written some other than ERB.
I'm an unabashed fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pellucidar included. I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped, even though I admit that all the ERB tropes and situations were front and center. My nostalgia just wasn't enough to get me through. I guess if I had a choice between Holmes' tromp through the Center of the Earth and ERB's original, I'd go with the latter.
I'm an unabashed fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pellucidar included. I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped, even though I admit that all the ERB tropes and situations were front and center. My nostalgia just wasn't enough to get me through. I guess if I had a choice between Holmes' tromp through the Center of the Earth and ERB's original, I'd go with the latter.
June 8, 2016
It wasn't quite like reading a lost ERB novel, but I still enjoyed it greatly. All of the tropes and style of Burroughs was there, including the girl getting kidnapped at the most inconvenient moment. Still, it was a nice flashback to childhood for me.
Even if you're an ERB purist, pick up this book anyway. You'll enjoy it despite yourself.
Even if you're an ERB purist, pick up this book anyway. You'll enjoy it despite yourself.
November 5, 2013
I can say J. E. Holmes story telling is significantly different from his predecessors, (Howard, Carter, Vance, Tubb, etc.) but the tale didn't feel buried in the pile of Post Pulp Fiction.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews