Our ongoing series reviewing audio adaptations of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror works. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
By John J. Joex
Book Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Audio Book Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
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Edgar Rice Burroughs is best known for creating the Tarzan and John Carter of Mars books, but he wrote plenty more beyond those two series and a particular favorite of mine is the Caspak trilogy which begins with The Land That Time Forgot. This book takes place during the World War I years and follows a group of travelers whose ship is sunk by a German U-Boat but who eventually managed to commandeer that submarine and direct it to what they believe are safe waters (the book’s lead character, Bowen Tyler, just happens to work in an American U-Boat factory and is therefore very familiar with the vessels). However, sabotage puts them off-course to Antarctic waters where they stumble upon a strange continent surrounded by cliffs. They discover an underwater river that gives them access to the interior and there they find a world that has never advanced beyond the Stone Age. It is populated with dinosaurs, early mammals such as sabre-tooth tigers and mammoths, and primitive men. Once here, the Americans, British, and Germans agree to set aside their differences and find a way to survive in this amazing yet treacherous land.
The Land That Time Forgot is very much a pulp adventure that throws a few scientific facts at us based on what was known in those days about prehistoric times. But this is in no way an attempt at hard science fiction, even though Burroughs gives Caspak its own interesting if improbable twist on evolution. If you think too much about the science around it all (i.e., dinosaurs, sabre-tooths, and cavemen co-exisitng), it falls apart pretty quickly. But then you are also missing the point. This book gives us just good, fun pulp adventure (with the requisite love story thrown in as well). The first third of the book is really a naval adventure story as we follow the U-Boat on its misguided course that takes it to the edge of Caspak (also known as Caprona, named by an Italian explorer who originally discovered the land but could find no way to access it). The rest of the book delivers an excellent lost world style story that also sets the stage for the two sequels that would follow: The People That Time Forgot and Out of Time’s Abyss. All three deliver an excellent read and are highly recommended if you have not explored Burroughs beyond his more well-known works or just happen to like these sort of throw-back stories. The Land That Time Forgot received a fairly decent big screen adaptation back in 1975, though its rather crude dinosaur effects have not dated well.
The audio version of this book comes from Audio Realms, a company that I have previously recognized in this column and which offers quite a number of excellent adaptations of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror books. It is read by Brian Holsopple who does a very capable job of bringing the story to life. He also provides the narration for Audio Realms’ versions of the other two Caspak books as well as their adaptation of A Princess of Mars. Audio Realms offers these on CD and as MP3 CDs. They also offer these as MP3 downloads through The Audio Book Shop at a very reasonable price of around $10 per book. And right now, you can download for free The Land That Time Forgot as a sampling of what they have available (they also have The Statement of Randolph Carter by H.P. Lovecraft available for free download). I don’t know how long this offer will last, so I suggest clicking over there as soon as possible to download your copy and start exploring the fascinating world of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Caspak.
Download This Book for Free from The Audio Book Shop
