Review: An Excellent Edgar Rice Burroughs collection for the Kindle
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2013
I've read many of Burrough's novels in my youth, and since beginning to use the Kindle I've sought out inexpensive collections of classic novels, both to fill my Kindle with reading material as well as give me the opportunity to re-discover stories that provided me with so much enjoyment many years ago.This Edgar Rice Burroughs collection is as fine as any I've come across for the Kindle - very nicely produced, with a very generous collection of works, full tables of contents, and with no problems that I've discovered. It includes all of the Burroughs works presently available in the US under Public Domain (the remaining works continue to be protected under Copyright laws - see dates of publication of each work in the listing below).The 24 novels included in this collection are drawn mostly from Burroughs most well-known series, but there are a few that I had not heard of previously, so another feature of this collection is that it gives the reader who knows Burroughs from the Tarzan or Mars novels the opportunity to sample some of his other work. I'm looking forward to reading these myself.Although the novels contained in this collection are listed on the Amazon page already, I thought that I'd elaborate further since the stories included in this collection belong to several series written by Burroughs over the course of his life, and with the exception of the Caspak Series they have included only the first few books in each of Burroughs major series (again presumably due to Copyright protection, which is why none from the Venus series were able to be included).What I would still like to see is a collection of the later Burroughs stories made available for the Kindle in a nice package as we have here, or complete collections for each of his series. Those collections will need to be sold for a higher price in order to cover the cost for licensing fees but I'm sure that fans of Burroughs would gladly pay a reasonable amount in order to get complete collections that are nicely put together for the Kindle. (This has apparently been done for the Tarzan books - see link below - and the selling price is very inexpensive. So perhaps one of the Kindle publishers will eventually offer the Mars, Venus, and Pellucidar series in complete editions. One can only hope!).So, with the hope that it is helpful to understand what is provided, here is a detailed listing of the various series of books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, showing which volumes are included with this collection and which are not (dates of original publication taken from Wikipedia):--- The Mars (Barsoom) Series: ---INCLUDED in this collection:...1) A Princess of Mars (1912)...2) The Gods of Mars (1914)...3) The Warlord of Mars (1918)...4) Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)...5) The Chessmen of Mars (1922)Not included in this collection:...6) The Master Mind of Mars (1928)...7) A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)...8) Swords of Mars (1936)...9) Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)...10) Llana of Gathol (1948)...11) John Carter of Mars (1964)--- The Tarzan Series: ---INCLUDED in this collection:...1) Tarzan of the Apes (1912)...2) The Return of Tarzan (1913)...3) The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)...4) The Son of Tarzan (1914)...6) Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1916, 1917)...7) Tarzan the Untamed (1919, 1921)...8) Tarzan the Terrible (1921)Not included in this collection:...5) Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)...9) Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922, 1923)...10) Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)...11) Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927, 1928)...12) Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928)...13) Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929)...14) Tarzan the Invincible (1930-1931.)...15) Tarzan Triumphant (1931)...16) Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)...17) Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933, 1934)...18) Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935)...19) Tarzan's Quest (1935, 1936)...20) Tarzan the Magnificent (1936, 1937)...21) Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)...22) Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)...23) Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963, for younger readers)...24) Tarzan and the Madman (1964)...25) Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)...26) Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (with Joe R. Lansdale) (1995)Alternative Kindle books for the Tarzan series:-Tarzan: The Complete Adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs-- this is the only "complete" collection I have found so far for the Kindle. I note that other Amazon reviewers have pointed out that it is missing one of the Tarzan storied (#24 above), and there are criticisms regarding the formatting and possible scanning issues, so I recommend reading the Amazon reviews for this product carefully before purchasing.--- The Pellucidar Series: ---INCLUDED in this collection:...1) At the Earth's Core (1914)...2) Pellucidar (1923)Not included in this collection:...3) Tanar of Pellucidar (1928)...4) Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929)...5) Back to the Stone Age (1937)...6) Land of Terror (1944)...7) Savage Pellucidar (1963)--- The Venus Series: ---Not included in this collection:...1) Pirates of Venus (1934)...2) Lost on Venus (1935)...3) Carson of Venus (1939)...4) Escape on Venus (1946)...5) The Wizard of Venus (1970)--- The Mucker Series: ---INCLUDED in this collection:...1) The Mucker (1914)...3) The Oakdale Affair (1917) (partial sequel to The Mucker)Not included in this collection:...2) The Return of the Mucker (1916)--- The Caspak Series: ---INCLUDED in this collection:...1) The Land That Time Forgot (1918)...2) The People That Time Forgot (1918)...3) Out of Time's Abyss (1918)--- Other science fiction: ---INCLUDED in this collection:...1) The Lost Continent (1916)...2) The Monster Men (1929)--- Other novels (this is not a complete listing): ---INCLUDED in this collection:...1) The Efficiency Expert (1921)...2) The Mad King (1926)...3) The Outlaw of Torn (1927) (historical novel)