15 November 2008

The people that time forgot - Edgar Rice Burroughs




Books 2 in Burroughs' Caspak trilogy. Here we go with the plot in 10 seconds: man receives bottle of story from first book; man goes to Caspak to rescue his friend; man takes hang glider to get into Caspak; man falls in love with native woman; we learn about evolution in Caspak; man fights with natives; man keeps woman and finally man finds friend. As a direct sequel to the first book, it is highly contiguous in both setting, plot and scope. The most interesting element that we learn in this follow up is how evolution occurs in this lost world. Rather than taking thousands of years and taking place through a population, individuals actually evolve from one level of human development to another - for instance, one man may be Cromagnon, Neanderthaal and ape man all in the same lifetime. Interesting if not undeveloped sotry line to say the least.

If you have never wandered about in broad daylight garbed in a bit of red-deer skin in inadequate length, you can have no conception of the sensation of futility that overwhelms one. Clothes, to a man accustomed to wearing clothes, impart a certain self-confidence; lack of them induces panic.

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