Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers
Series: Tarzan fan fiction
Reviewed date: 2021 Jun 7
93 pages
This book was a limited edition published with permission from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and was intended as a bonus book for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF) 2020 gathering. Due to the covid pandemic the attendance at the ECOF 2020 gathering was minimal, meaning there were plenty of books left over. That's good news for me, because I managed to buy one of those leftover copies. Mine is #173 of 350. I enjoyed both stories, but I particularly liked Tarzan and the Secret of Katanga.
Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers
There are two stories in this book, and the first tells about how Tarzan and the Waziri moved from west Africa to east Africa. Astute readers of the Tarzan series will remember that in the first few books, Tarzan and the Waziri tribe are in the western part of Africa. In later books, Tarzan and the Waziri are in British East Africa. Edgar Rice Burroughs never explained this shift in locations.
Gary A. Buckingham has rectified that oversight. Tarzan: Untamed Frontiers details how Tarzan secured a land grant in British East Africa (modern Kenya), then moved the Waziri tribe out of their temporary homeland in Portuguese West Africa (modern Angola) to their new, permanent homeland. The story is meticulously researched. Buckingham does everything possible to fit the Tarzan story into the real world and make it fit. It's a bit intense for me, but I'm sure it's the perfect sort of story for its intended audience: the attendees of the ECOF 2020 gathering.
Well done.
Tarzan and the Secret of Katanga
The other story was previously printed as a bonus story in the hardcover edition of Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don by Will Murrary. I haven't bought Tarzan: Return to Pal-ul-don yet, and I generally buy paperbacks, so this is my first time reading it.
It's an exciting story. It's researched and set in historical context as well, but it's a much more accessible story that can be enjoyed by any Tarzan fan, not just superfans. It's set during World War II and features Tarzan and German Nazis fighting over uranium ore from the Shinkolobwe mine in the Katanga province of Belgian Congo.
Also, there is a Tyrannosaurus rex.