WORLDS OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS EDITED BY MIKE RESNICK AND ROBERT T. GARCIA

Copyright 2013 except The Forgotten Seas of Mars 1965.

TARZAN AND THE GREAT WAR by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Tarzan is in the Kasbah looking for leads to his wife Jane who was taken by Germans. After meeting a man who had no information he is contacted by French intelligence. They want to use him in exposing a group of traitors selling secrets to the Germans. Soon after the head of intelligence is murdered and Tarzan is battling the traitors with the help of an Englishman who had come to strip Tarzan of his title and fortune for the war effort.

THE FALLEN A TALE OF PELLUCIDAR by Mercedes Lackey

A story told by Mok who is an intelligent Sagoth in the service of David Innes. Mok was experimented on by the Mahars and is the only intelligent Sagoth. While visiting Kolk the king of Thuria in the Land of Awful Shadow a woman with wings falls from the sky. She is an inhabitant of the Dead World. Her people are under attack by the Mahars who have fled to the moon after being defeated. Mok is the only one who can communicate with her since she uses the same language as the Mahars. They have an adventure with a storm and hostile island natives. The woman falls in love with the kings son.

SCORPION MEN OF VENUS by Richard A. Lupoff

Carson and Duare are under attack by scorpion men and flying snakes when they are rescued by a mysterious flying ship. It takes them to a complex run by Dr. Bodog and his daughter and son. Bodog comes from Earth and the continent that sank in the Pacific ocean centuries ago. He is also insane and plans to take over the Earth. He goes back with Carson and his daughter who Carson has fallen in love with and land in Los Angeles during a football game.

THE FORGOTTEN SEA OF MARS by Mike Resnick

The writer is in an Arizona cabin that was used by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He meets John Carter and convinces him to tell the story after he defeated Hin Abtol. So Carter starts the search for Tan Hadron who disappeared when mutineers took him. From criminals in Zodanga he learns of another underground sea at the north pole. In the city of Ayathor he finds Hin Abtol continuing his plans of world conquest with another large army of men frozen. He finds Tan Hadron and with another rebel manage to overthrow him.

APACHE LAWMAN by Ralph Roberts

Shoz-Djiji the Apache Devil has settled down in the white man’s world. He manages the ranch of his love Wichita Billings. One day Marshal Fast Sam Dawson comes and offers Shoz a job as a deputy sheriff. Seems another renegade Apache has learned from the white-eyes and plans to take over the territorial government. He manages to stop his plans.

MOON MAID OVER MANHATTAN by Peter David

The story of Nah-ee-lah when she came to Earth. At first she is a celebrity and hounded by the press. Later the Kalkars those commie moon men invade. When her husband dies while killing Orthis she and her young son hide out in Canada. They are pursued by Orthis’s woman and her son for revenge.

TARZAN AND THE MARTIAN INVADERS by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt

Tarzan is at his English manor when he comes across writing from his ancestor who sailed with Drake. He finds out that Martians are coming to invade in Africa where he was born and raised. He goes back and gathers the apes and other animals to fight these tentacled invaders who can control the minds of men.

THE TWO BILLYS A MUCKER STORY by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens

Billy Byrne has made the ultimate sacrifice by leaving his love Barbara Harding. He soon after gets a message from her that her fiance was kidnapped. So Billy goes off into the Chicago underworld to get him back.

TO THE NEAREST PLANET as told to Todd McCaffrey

The author buys an old typewriter and Edgar Rice Burroughs used. It starts typing and tells the story of Tangor and his trip from Poloda to find another world free of Kapars. The first world they come to Tonos. This world was destroyed in a war and now run by a computer. The remaining people are dying off until he educates them on how to run the machines on the world.

THE DEAD WORLD as related by David Innes to F. Paul Wilson via Gridley wave

David Innes is visiting Thuria when a meteor strikes. It releases a deadly spore that soon takes over the Land of Awful Shadow and starts spewing poisonous gas. David with Perry and Koort the young son of the king of Thuria go by balloon to the Dead World. They find out that the moon is really an artificial ship created by ancient aliens that created Pellucidar. Now they are returning and terraforming Pellucidar. David and friend have to battle cleaning robots to stop the plan.

TARZAN AND THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT by Joe R. Lansdale

Tarzan is coming back from Pellucidar in the O-220 when a story blows the ship to the southern hemisphere and crashes into the ocean. The only survivors are Tarzan, Captain Zuppner and a young Pellucidarian girl named Zamona. The make it to Caspak and battle cannibals that fly pterodactyls. Zuppner and Zamona decide to stay as Tarzan searches for a way home.

This was a cool idea for an anthology. Getting a bunch of writer together and put out stories from the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs. They manage to cover all the base with not only Tarzan and John Carter but Pellucidar and Venus. They also get stories from Burrough’s lesser know works like the Moon Men, Apache Devil the Mucker and Caspak. They even had the continuing story from Beyond the Farthest Star. Many of the writers did a good job of emulating Burroughs. Even using the various first person narratives. Some like the martian invaders or the second Pellucidar story did not feel like something Burroughs would have written but were still entertaining.

The only story I didn’t care for was Lupoff’s Carson story. It was very un-Burroughs like to have Carson and Duare so quickly fall out of love. The romance that Burroughs wrote was one of the strong points to his writing and he just casually has them switch partners. It also just ended like it was only halfway through the story. I suppose there might be a continuation but I found it a complete waste of time. In spite of this story the others made this book a worthy effort.

PLANET OF THE APES TALES FROM THE FORBIDDEN ZONE EDITED BY RICH HANDLEY AND JIM BEARD

Copyright 2017.

UNFIRED by Dan Abnett

A group of mutants is making a pilgrimage to the holy church in the east. They are lead by a mutant who is unfired i.e. surgically altered so he does not have his psychic power and can kill to protect the pilgrims. They deliver a recently discovered holy scripture the launch codes for the Alpha-Omega missile.

MORE THAN HUMAN, LESS THAN APE by Nancy A. Collins

A young Cornelius goes on an archaeological expedition. They are ambushed by a tribe of baboons. Cornelius befriends the leader and lives among them and learns their culture. An army of gorillas comes and massacres the tribe. Baboons are monkeys and not apes so there is no violation of the sacred scrolls.

BLOOD BROTHERS by Will Murray

From the TV series. Galen, Virdon and Burke are continuing their quest and come to the Napa valley. It is inhabited by Native Americans lead by a gorilla. The gorilla was raised by the tribe and is their chief. He is also the brother of General Urko. He defeats Urko and the fugitives continue on.

THE PACING PLACE by Bob Mayer

An alternate world in which Taylor and Nova are not captured by mutants. They found a settlement called Fort Wayne and teach the younger humans how to talk. The pacing place is the place that Taylor paced while waiting for the birth of his son. A tradition starts where all men pace when their women are giving birth. Taylor dies with a thriving human civilization started.

MURDERER’S ROW by John Jackson Miller

A TV producer for the Hexagon Broadcasting Network has a show that will make the network competitive. He will get the future apes Zira and Cornelius to do a variety show on Saturday also known as Murderer’s Row for the killer competition.

ENDANGERED SPECIES by Greg Cox

Years before the movie a young chimpanzee researcher named Janae is studying humans. She notices that they seem to suppress the ability to speak and decides to try and teach a human to speak. She is murdered by gorillas to stop this heresy.

DANGEROUS IMAGININGS by Paul Kupperberg

A brilliant chimpanzee in an alternate future where the Earth wasn’t destroyed finds the backpack of the astronauts. He uses what he finds to invent new and wondrous inventions. This causes Zaius and the science council to crack down because these inventions are inspired by human technology.

OF MONSTERS AND MEN by Kevin J. Anderson and Sam Knight

A young Zaius goes on a scientific expedition to the Forbidden Zone. It is attacked by lizard creatures and while taking shelter in an old museum learns the truth about humans.

THE UNKNOWN APE by Andrew E.C. Gaska

A story from the animated series. General Urko has taken control of the Alpha-Omega missile and plans to use it against his enemies. Then a mixed army of apes, humans and mutants are lead by the Unknown Ape. This ape is Caesar from the past. With his friends Virgil and MacDonald have traveled to the future to stop the destruction of the world. Caesar manages to destroy the missile by sacrificing his life. Peace ensues between humans, mutants and apes.

SILENCED by Jim Beard

A tale of a young woman who was Taylor’s girlfriend. She had his daughter who was a worker at Ape Management when Caesar takes over. Later a descendant is the queen of the last human city. Finally the last descendant is Nova who speaks just before she is killed.

WHO IS THIS MAN? WHAT SORT OF DEVIL IS HE? by Robert Greenberger

General Urko from the TV series is recovering from his injuries with his family. He tells them of a time year before when he killed other human astronauts that arrived.

STONE MONKEY by Greg Keys

In Asia a siamang is hunted by a gorilla warlord. The warlord wants to live forever and forces the siamang to lead him to the immortal stone monkey. Instead he lead him to a refuge for oppressed monkeys that kill him. It is revealed that the siamang is the immortal monkey from human experiments long ago.

MILO’S TALE by Ty Templeton

Milo is from an advanced chimpanzee society far to the south. He comes with an expedition to investigate the crash of an old human ship. While rebuilding it he meets Zira and Cornelius. While in the ship an army of gorillas arrives and forces them to launch. They witness the destruction of Earth.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE by Dayton Ward

Galen, Virdon and Burke from the TV series come on the ruins of an old missile silo. Inside they find a message from a group of humans located at Area 51. They invite the fugitive and they manage to flee before General Urko arrives.

THE KING IS DEAD-LONG LIVE THE KING by Rich Handley

Caesar twenty years later is ruling a prosperous settlement. He decides he wants to make peace with the mutants and sends his son. The mutant ruler Mendez comes but Caesar’s son then kills his mother while the wife of Mendez kills her husband. The mutants leave and it is revealed that a mutant with mind control staged the killing because he was opposed to the peace.

BANANA REPUBLIC by Jonathan Maberry

A temple being built on the fringes of ape civilization uncovers a secret. The New Orleans Naval Reserve armory. Inside are stacks of assault rifles and grenades. An orangutan and gorilla decide to use the weapons against the growing power of the heretical chimpanzees.

An anthology of short stories from the original Planet of the Apes universe. Not only all the movies but the TV series and Saturday morning cartoon. What a great idea. Every story was excellent and there wasn’t a dud in the whole book which is rare for a seventeen story anthology. Obviously the level of writers and their passion for the subject helped. Hopefully there will be many more of such anthologies. A true must read for any Planet of the Apes fan.

THE X-FILES TRUST NO ONE EDITED BY JONATHAN MABERRY

Copyright 2015.

A new anthology of X-files stories.

CATATONIA by Tim Lebbon.

1994 Lynott Sound, Massachusetts. Young teenagers are found in a catatonic state. The cause seems to be a mysterious blue light of possible alien origin. The US army also has an involvement. The first story was a fairly good one to start off the book.

THE BEAST OF LITTLE HILL By Peter Clines.

1995 Little Hill, Missouri. Mulder decides to stop over after an assignment to the town of Little Hill the sight of an alleged UFO crash back in 1969. Two farmers have tourist trap exhibits of captured aliens that look very fake. A feud between the two farmers results in one of the exhibits actually coming to life an terrorizing the town. This was a good story that captured the characters and feel of the series.

OVERSIGHT by Aaron Rosenburg.

1994 Washington, D.C. Assistant director Walter Skinner is faced with the X-files being closed by an agency bean counter for being a waste of money. This accountant is later attacked at home by a mysterious attacker who can cause total darkness. Now Skinner is confronted with his own X-file to solve if he wants to save both the accountant’s life and the X-files. An interesting story featuring Skinner as the main character.

DUSK By Paul Crilley.

2015 Castle Bluff, New Hampshire. Young girls are disappearing by what is reported as a vampire character from a popular book series. The author of the series lives in the town and has a connection to his father who was a Nazi that was conducting experiments on a real vampire. This is a really good story that is obviously satirizing the Twilight Series and our modern pop culture in general.

LOVING THE ALIEN By Stefan Petrucha.

1997 Florence, South Carolina. Mulder has gone missing while investigating sightings of UFOs and an alien. The investigation leads to a disgruntled former CIA employee involved in mind control experiments that lost his job because of Mulder. This was a fascinating story that had a totally unexpected ending.

NON GRATUM ANUS RODENTUM By Brian Keene.

1994 Washington, D.C. Walter Skinner comes across a local news story that Mulder is investigating on the side. He notices in the picture an old buddy from the Vietnam War. This buddy was a tunnel rat in the war and Skinner saved him from what looked like a human rat. Now that rat type creature is back in the sewers of Washington. Another Skinner story and a very interesting one. One we get a glimpse of him as a young man back in Vietnam.

BACK IN EL PASO MY LIFE WILL BE WORTHLESS By Keith R.A. DeCandido.

1994 El Paso, Texas. Special agent Jack Colt has been investigating a serial killer. Each time he thinks he catches the killer a new suspect appears. Now Mulder and Scully are assigned to help and Mulder of course suspects a shapeshifter. This was a good story.

PARANORMAL QUEST By Ray Garton.

1997 Redding, California. A woman’s heart explodes from her chest. This woman was part of a family whose haunted house is being filmed for the popular reality series Paranormal Quest. The investigation leads to a nondescript female production assistant that has telekinetic powers. She was being used by the show’s producer and now her powers are out of control. A good story that satirized those paranormal reality series.

KING OF THE WATERY DEEP By Tim Deal.

2000 Saudi Arabia. A consulate worker disappears with a friend on a boating trip. While the local authorities suspect Somali pirates there are reports of a fish-man that is involved which is why Mulder and Scully are assigned the case. The investigation leads to an ancient Sumarian cult that worships the fish man and demands human sacrifice. An interesting story that takes place in an a new setting.

SEWERS by Gini Koch.

1990 Buena Vista, California. Reports of an alligator man that is kidnapping young boys. It leads to a similar X-file case from the 1950’s. A story before Mulder met Scully and was on the X-files.

CLAIR DE LUNE By David Benton and W.D. Gagliani.

1994 Ottawa, Canada. Mulder and Scully are escorting a mob witness back to the states to testify and must stop at an isolated motel in a snowstorm. The prisoners goes on about the danger from a werewolf which turns out to be true. The authors dedicate this story to the memory of Charles Grant. Sad to hear he pasted away. I know I was hard on him and but I do have fond memories of reading his books. I suppose its ironic that this is my least favorite story in the anthology.

IT’S ALL IN THE EYES By Heather Graham.

2009 Purgatory Pass, Massachusetts. Workers at a Halloween novelty shop are killed by life size dolls of the popular Caitlin Corpse. The investigation leads to aliens that crash landed and are looking for bodies to inhabit to survive. A creepy story that has the feel of an X-files episode.

THE HOUSE ON HICKORY HILL By Max Allan Collins.

1997 Banewich, Massachusetts. A popular author moves his family into a haunted house to write a book about it. Years ago a murder occurred there and now strange sightings and blood from the walls occur. The older daughter is kidnapped and clues point to the deceased murderer. This was a fascinating story with a twist ending that I never saw coming.

TIME AND TIDE By Gayle Linds and John C. Sheldon.

2000 Portland, Maine. On a small tourist island three teenagers go missing. A man calls Mulder that is monitoring a passage to another dimension. Now Mulder and Scully go to this other dimension to rescue the teens from the creature that lives there. This was an interesting story but it was out of character. Mulder is actually actively covering up this phenomenon which just doesn’t fit the character.

STATUES By Kevin J. Anderson.

1995 Death Valley, California. A prospector arrives at a hospital and quickly turns to stone. The trail leads to an artist who found a cave with water that turns organic tissue to stone. He has been turning people to stone and selling it as works of art. They saved the best for last. It was great to read another Kevin Anderson story.

Wow actually reading something fairly new. Anthologies are usually hit or miss with stories and I suppose that is the case with this book. The stories even the weakest ones were entertaining and it was great to read some new stories. There was aliens, UFOs, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, monsters, government cover ups, Cigarette Smoking Man, Krychek(remember him?), CIA mind control, Nazis, and general weirdness. Definitely for any fan of the series.

THE X FILES ANTIBODIES BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON

Copyright 1997.

A security guard at the Dymar research facility is found dead from a fatal disease. The Dymar was recently destroyed by arson from animal rights activists killing the head researcher and his assistant. The strange nature of the death qualifies it as a X-file and so Mulder and Scully go to Oregon to investigate. Their investigation soon points that animal rights activists were a cover for the shadow elements of the government who were really responsible for the fire. They wanted to suppress a new nanotechnology that could be the key to immortality. Now the lab assistant has survived and is infected with defective nanobots that are killing him and infecting anyone he comes into contact. The key to the cure is the researcher’s son who was cured of his terminal cancer and hiding out in a cabin in the Oregon wilderness.

The third and final Kevin Anderson book in the series is another solid story. He managed to cover a different X-files theme in each of his books. The first dealt with the paranormal. The second with aliens and this one with science gone horribly wrong. Sort of all the major themes from the TV series. Once again there was well researched information on nanotechnology showing he puts a lot of effort in this stories. His books were all unique and kept within the mythology that the series established. This books were a great improvement from the Charles Grant ones.

THE X FILES RUINS BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON

Copyright 1996.

An archeological expedition to the Yucatan has discovered a Mayan city deep in the jungle. The city of Xitaclan has been undisturbed for centuries. While exploring the team lead by Cassandra Rubicon disappears. The father of Cassandra convinces the FBI to investigate and naturally the FBI chooses Mulder and Scully. Mulder being the more imaginative one thinks that there is an extraterrestrial connection with ancient astronauts. Scully tends to believe in a more mundane explanation.

When they arrive in the lost city they run into a whole boatload of conflict. A shady guide who deals on the side in stolen artifacts. Superstitious natives that still believe in blood sacrifice. A police chief secretly in charge of a Yucatan secessionist terrorist movement. Sightings of mythical feathered serpents in the jungle. A strange alien spacecraft inside the pyramid. After finding the team murdered and dumped in a sacrificial pool all hell breaks loose when a covert U.S. military commando group shows up to blow up the city to stop a mysterious radio signal emanating from the pyramid. It ends in a battle between the commandos and the secessionist with a visit by the mysterious aliens.

The second book by Anderson is even better than the first. I think this is my favorite X-files book. The exotic location of the Yucatan was an excellent setting. Throw in aliens and government conspiracy and you have a classic X-files story. The history and culture of the Yucatan was well researched and informative. Lots of fast paced action and an interesting story that keeps the mystery going makes this a worthy book in the X-files series.

THE X FILES GROUND ZERO BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON

Copyright 1995.

Dr. Emil Gregory a renowned nuclear physicist is found dead in his laboratory at the Teller Nuclear Research facility in California. The nature of his death is very peculiar. He is found burned to a radioactive cinder almost like he was caught in a nuclear explosion. A nuclear explosion that was confined to a single room. Naturally anything weird and unexplained gets forwarded to the X-files. Mulder and Scully head out to California and immediately run into a wall of bureaucratic dead ends and national security. Soon after this other mysterious deaths occur under the same circumstances. A rancher whose family sold the land for the Trinity test, two Air Force officers in a nuclear silo, a Department of Energy bureaucrat. Soon the trail leads to a mysterious project code named Bright Anvil a new nuclear explosion with no fallout. It all comes to a climax on a small Atoll in the Pacific during a hurricane. An atoll where back in the fifties a whole tribe was accidentally wiped out in one of the atomic tests. Now the ghosts of that tribe strike out in vengeance.

Finally a X-files book that that gets it right. The Charles Grant books were commercial successes and lets face it back then anything with X-files on it would make money. But they were not critically well received so they went with Kevin Anderson. This is what an X-files book should be, government cover ups and mysterious clandestine tests, a mysterious paranormal threat. Anderson is a writer that really understands the characters and the TV series. He clearly did a lot of research and you learn a lot about the nuclear tests back in the fifties. They were finally on the right track in novelizing the series.