I just read "Tarzan of the Apes"

[Desdichado]

Hey, John Q.--send me an email at gmail.com. My username there is joshudyal. I want to take you up on that Almuric offer; let's hash out the details. How did you like that book, by the way? I've heard good things about it. I've heard it's kinda like Conan goes to Barsoom, in a way. Which I guess isn't really surprising if true.

 

[David Howery]

Almuric is hard to find? There were a couple of different editions of it floating around not all that many years ago... surely, you should be able to find it in some place that sells used paperbacks.
Anyway, Almuric is OK, but kind of disjointed... as one reviewer noted, it's obviously a first draft. Some of the names are damn near identical or just plain silly. I wouldn't say it's a bad story (I still have my copy of it), it just needed some polish...

 

[Desdichado]

Almuric is hard to find?

No, it's not.

I wouldn't say it's a bad story (I still have my copy of it), it just needed some polish...

True of much of Robert E. Howard's writing, IMO.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Last thread hijack for me:

Joshua, sent along some thoughts on your first chapter to your gmail address. Thanks for posting your work!

Warrior Poet

 

[David Howery]

True of much of Robert E. Howard's writing, IMO.

well, one problem is that a lot of REH's stuff that has appeared in print was, like Almuric, first drafts of stories never sold or submitted, things that were found in his files after his death. When Howard actually did polish up his stories, they're great. Even so, a lot of his first-draft stories can be pretty good (Almuric really isn't a bad story, but a rewrite would have done it good)...

 

[Desdichado]

There's a rumor that his agent, Otis Adelbert Kline, who wrote a number of ERB knock-off's himself (a three book Venus series: Planet of Peril, Prince of Peril, Port of Peril, a two book Mars series: Swordsman of Mars, Outlaw of Mars and a few Tarzan knockoffs as well: Tam, Son of Tiger, Jan of the Jungle) actually wrote the ending to Almuric. Don't know if that's true or not. His own planetary romance stories are supposed to be pretty good. I haven't read any yet, but I just got the Mars series in the mail from a used book store; they were all republished in the 60s as cheap paperbacks.

Warrior Poet: I got your email; thanks for the feedback! Great stuff, and very useful to me. You pointed out mostly a lot of minor writing idiosynchrocies of mine, and I will probably update the story at some point with almost all of your advice integrated.

But I want to move forward before I spend too much time revising and rewriting what's already there. I hope to have a chapter 3 posted this week or early next week.

 

[JoeGKushner]

So if one wanted to start Tarzan these days, what options are open? I only saw a few of ERB books at the store and one of 'em was an oversized Tarzan book but no sequels. Is this a used book store hunt?

 

[David Howery]

So if one wanted to start Tarzan these days, what options are open? I only saw a few of ERB books at the store and one of 'em was an oversized Tarzan book but no sequels. Is this a used book store hunt?

Probably, if you want all of them. You should be able to find the old Ballantine ones with the Adams/Vallejo covers... they printed lots of them back in the 70's...

 

[Warrior Poet]

I got your email; thanks for the feedback!

Cool, I'm glad it was useful!

But I want to move forward before I spend too much time revising and rewriting what's already there. I hope to have a chapter 3 posted this week or early next week.

Look forward to seeing chapter 3. Yeah, it's always been helpful to me in my writing to plow through and keep the momentum, THEN go back and revise. Good luck!

Warrior Poet

 

[Desdichado]

So if one wanted to start Tarzan these days, what options are open? I only saw a few of ERB books at the store and one of 'em was an oversized Tarzan book but no sequels. Is this a used book store hunt?

Best option is to go to Project Gutenberg, IMO. They have the first nine or ten of the Tarzan books available as free eTexts. After that, if you still want more, you can pick up several more at the Australian Project Gutenberg.

After that, you've already read a good 2/3 of the Tarzan books, and it shouldn't be hard to find used paperback copies of the old Ballantine books that make up the remainder of the series. They'd be pretty cheap on Abebooks or through Amazon stores, if you can't find them locally.