Caroline Munro, and a pair of Pleistocene behemoths, in At the Earth’s Core

I’ve had a lifelong fascination with “hollow earth” stories, a style of fantasy fiction that presents ancient, lost societies of people (and/or humanoids) living deep under the earth, where Jurassic and Pleistocene behemoths — as well as uncategorized horrors — struggle to survive in the subterranean jungles of a sunless world.

My favorite of this genre is the Pellucidar series, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which began in 1914 when At the Earth’s Core was serialized in All-Story Weekly, before the novel was published in book format.

At the Earth’s Core (Doubleday/Science Fiction Book Club, November 1976). Cover by George Akimoto

The book pictured above, from my personal collection, was released in conjunction with the fantastic 1976 film, directed by Kevin Connor and starring Doug McClure, Peter Cushing, and Caroline Munro — the latter two of whom had worked together on the brilliant Hammer Horror film, Dracula A.D. 1972.

And if followers of this column and my Facebook posts have not deduced it by now, I think Munro is one of the most lovely ladies ever to have graced the silver screen.

The excitement began shortly after Dr. Abner Perry built “The Iron Mole,” a huge rocket-powered burrowing machine designed to pierce the earth’s crust and explore the secrets deep beneath the surface.

Along with David Innes, the handsome young backer of the project, Perry set the giant machine in motion for a test bore… only something went very wrong. Totally out of control and burrowing at incredible speed, the pair cut clear through to the center of the earth — breaking into Pellucidar, a hidden land more strange and terrifying than the certain death they’d expected.

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, dinosaurs were often a subject that stoked the imagination, and At the Earth’s Core excelled in capturing that sense of wonder, that sense of the impossible.

Just imagine riding inside the Iron Mole, drilling into the core of the earth to find a fabulous environment, populated by weird and terrible beasts and lost societies! It was often the struggle to survive, to persevere that attracted me as a young reader (and still to this day, if I am being candid).

But unlike, say, the fiction of Jack London, in which man vs. nature was a popular theme, with ERB it was often man vs. nature… and dinosaurs, monsters, and weird, intelligent, hostile humanoids who are rivals of mankind. This is the stuff of heroic adventure and derring-do!

And then there is the language employed by ERB. Yes, it could tend to be overly florid at times, but that was the style of his era, before economy of prose became more prevalent in the 20th century.

Regardless, I adore this storytelling and never tire of revisiting Pellucidar — especially when Tarzan visited in the subsequent stories.

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Jeffrey P. Talanian’s last article for Black Gate was a survey of New Gaming Releases. He is the creator and publisher of the Hyperborea sword-and-sorcery and weird science-fantasy RPG from North Wind Adventures. He was the co-author, with E. Gary Gygax, of the Castle Zagyg releases, including several Yggsburgh city supplements, Castle Zagyg: The East Mark Gazetteer, and Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works. Read Gabe Gybing’s interview with Jeffrey here, and follow his latest projects on Facebook and at www.hyperborea.tv.