
Edgar Rice Burroughs, man of mystery, who created fiction to reveal his passion for the truth about lost civilizations, Atlantis, hollow earth, and more. Though most may not consider Tarzan stories as science fiction, this one truly is, since Burroughs plants the seeds of forgotten civilizations in the context of his novel.
Excerpt:
It had been this difference of opinion between the
chief and the witch doctor that had kept Esteban
Miranda from the fleshpots of the village, for Obebe
had wanted to eat him, thinking him his old enemy
the ape-man; but the witch doctor had aroused the
superstitious fears of the villagers by half convincing
them that their prisoner was the river devil masquerading
as Tarzan, and, as such, dire disaster would
descend upon the village were he harmed.
The result
of this difference between Obebe and the witch
doctor had been to preserve the life of the Spaniard
until the truth of one claim or the other was proved--
if Esteban died a natural death he was Tarzan, the
mortal, and Obebe the chief was vindicated; if he
lived on forever, or mysteriously disappeared, the
claim of the witch doctor would be accepted as gospel.
After he had learned their language and thus come
to a realization of the accident of fate that had guided
his destiny by so narrow a margin from the cooking
pots of the cannibals he was less eager to proclaim
himself Tarzan of the Apes. Instead he let drop mysterious
suggestions that he was, indeed, none other
than the river devil.
The witch doctor was delighted,
and everyone was fooled except Obebe, who was old
and wise and did not believe in river devils, and the
witch doctor who was old and wise and did not believe
in them either, but realized that they were excellent
things for his parishioners to believe in.
Softcover, 5¼" x 8¾", 288+ pages
Perfect-Bound