Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge Steve Servello, another fan of Zanthodon, whose thoughts and writings were helpful to me in developing this essay.   I freely admit to borrowing here and there at points from Steve, and to using some of his ideas, either on their own or as starting points.  Steve has done a map of Zanthodon, which I hope we’ll see accompanying these essays.   But, on to business...

In 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, drawing on both Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Conan Doyle’s Lost World, and making free use of Marshall Gardner’s wacky theories of a hollow world, created Pellucidar.   A strange world on the inside of our hollow world, peopled by dinosaurs and cavemen.   Starting with At the Earth’s Core Burroughs published seven Pellucidar novels over a twenty-two year period, ending in 19444

Lin Carter, an occasionally fictional character (see Lankar of Callisto), chronicled the adventures of Eric Carstairs in a series of five books, published between  set in an underground lost world called Zanthodon between 1979 and 1982.

 Zanthodon has a more than passing resemblance to Edgar Rice Burroughs creation of Pellucidar.

Did I say ‘passing resemblance’? 

Zanthodon is pretty much a straight lift of Pellucidar, in just about every way conceivable short of calling the place Radicullep.   In this essay, we’re going to explore both the literary and the literal relationship of Zanthodon to Pellucidar.

Why should we bother?   Well, partly I suppose because its fun.  Partly because if you’re a fan of the Pellucidar books you should really go out and collect the Zanthodon books.   The Zanthodon books are a perfect replica of the Pellucidar series, they capture the feel and style perfectly.  More than that, they Zanthodon books fit neatly together, amounting to a much larger and more unified work.  Zanthodon is essentially Pellucidar’s version of War and Peace.

Well first, we have to acknowledge that Carter was well aware of Burroughs Pellucidar when he created his own underground world.   The first step is always to establish some connection.  Obviously, Zanthodon can’t derive from Pellucidar if Carter never heard of the place.

So its comforting to note Burroughs underground world is actually referenced by the characters themselves.   In the first chapters, Carter’s character refers to Burroughs, Verne and Doyle.

It is also remarkable how closely and in how many ways the Zanthodon series resembles Pellucidar.

Of course, both books feature a pair of intrepid explorers who make their way into a vast underground world peopled by dinosaurs and cavemen, so resemblances are inevitable.

But when we look at Zanthodon, we see the same characters.   Eric Carstairs is a young heroic, adventurous man, much like David Innes.   Of course, that’s pretty generic.  We’ve got a standard young hero here.

On the other hand, Professor Potter of Zanthodon is pretty much a clone of Abner Perry of Pellucidar.  Both of these are ‘out of touch’ geniuses.  Both men are elderly but brilliant polymaths, well versed in a number of esoteric unrelated fields.  Both, for instance, invent firearms in their underground world.  Both are frail old guys with surprising resilience.  Both are essentially comic relief characters, whose antics occasionally move the plot, but who also betray reserves of moral strength and physical resourcefulness.

Now arguably, the befuddled elderly super scientist is a stock character these days.  Perhaps not so much so in the early days of Burroughs Pellucidar.  But still, the resemblances between Perry and Potter, extending even to their names, seems more than coincidental.  One person is clearly patterned on the other.  And the Carstairs/Potter dynamic is just as clearly modeled on the Innes/Perrry relationship.

Then there are the various cavemen personas, Chiefs, Princesses and heroic warriors, who loosely correspond to similar persons in the Pellucidar stories.   Like Burroughs in Pellucidar, Carter in Zanthodon takes the unusual step of allowing his cavemen to be heroes and adventurers in their own right.  This is a remarkable step, because, of course, initially we have to tie the audience identification to western European/Americans like ourselves.  In both cases, there’s a certain confidence involved in showing protagonists who are non-American primitives.

There are parallel situations and events.   Most notably, there are the Sluaghs and Gorpoks.  In Zanthodon, the Sluaghs are gigantic five foot long slugs or leeches with six eyes and hypnotic abilities.  Carter states that they’re intelligent, but there’s no specific evidence of this.  Rather, the Sluaghs rule a cave city, where their henchmen, the semi-human Gorpoks rule and abuse a population of human slaves, some of whom are fed to their masters. 

The Sluaghs are clear parallels to the Mahars, intelligent inhuman pterodactyls with their own hypnotic abilities.   Like the Sluaghs, the Mahars rule their own city, where their henchmen, the apelike Sagoths rule and abuse a population of human slaves, some of whom are fed to their masters.  Basically, both series have a repellent non-human race with hypnotic powers, and semi-human henchmen, praying on humans.

There are also the Corsairs of Pellucidar, westernized pirates who have relocated to the underground world, maintaining an anomalously advanced, but still archaic culture.   Zanthodon answers with its Barbary Pirates.

There is nothing quite like the Empire of Zar in Pellucidar, but Tarzan and other pulp writers have a multitude of lost cities.  Meanwhile, Zar has its domesticated dinosaurs and dinosaur worship, as do some among Tarzan’s Pal-Ul-Don, and the sauropod riding Lidi.

Pellucidar gives us the German, Von Horst as a protagonist.  Meanwhile, Zanthodon provides us with a lost troop of friendly WWII Germans.   And there appear to be deliberately borrowed traits, such as the distortions of time, the ‘homing sense.’  In short, the Zanthodon series is full of little bits and pieces, odds and ends, scenes and notions which appear quite close to Pellucidar.

This similarity also appears in the titling.   Here are the titles of the two respective series:

Notice both series first books refer to the underworld by description.  Both of the second books refer to the underworld by its name.   The third and fourth books refer to savage or ‘primitive’ individuals, Tanar and Tarzan, and Hurok and Darya, respectively.  Back to the Stone Age is also paralleled by Hurok of the Stone Age, while Tarzan at the Earth’s Core is also paralleled by Eric Carstairs of Zanthodon, both referring to outsiders to the underworld.   The final books in each series Savage Pellucidar and Eric Carstairs of Zanthodon again repeat the name of the Underworlds.   So the similarities in titles and sequence of titles seems to be deliberate.

At the bottom of it all, the style of both series is literally identical.   Burroughs' Pellucidar series was probably the lightest and the loosest of his novels.   Perhaps this was because the premise was so inherently ridiculous, or perhaps because in some ways, it was pitched to an arguably younger audience more attuned to the fantastic.

Whatever the case, there’s something lighthearted to the Pellucidar series, a tendency to wink at the audience.  The series often plays as satire, full of role reversals and over the top characters.  Up is down, back is forth, nudity is not shocking but clothing can be obscene.

The plots are loose, at times, almost nonexistent.  The trajectories of the characters resemble a pinball machine’s lights and bells.   People just seem to bounce chaotically from one dangerous or ridiculous situation to another, constantly joined or separated by circumstances until, somehow at the end, it all works out well in a happy reunion.   Pellucidar is just one damned thing after another, and you never know what’s around the next corner.

In terms of style and plot, the Zanthodon series is a perfect clone for Pellucidar.   We’ve got the same lighthearted free wheeling, almost winking approach.   Carter’s humour, while never slapstick, veers through the series. 

The sequence of events has that exact same ‘one damned thing after another’ feel to it.   Indeed, I’ll confess that at one point, I envisioned doing synopsis of each book, or of the series as a whole, as I’ve done with the Callisto series or Otis Adelbert Kline’s books.  But I had to give it up.  It’s just too chaotic, the actions to convoluted, everything perpetually going in every direction in unpredictable ways.   Like Pellucidar, its simply a wild ride.   Jump on, hang on, and don’t worry too much.

In short, put them both up on the net, do search and replaces to mix up a few names, and literally, you couldn’t tell one from another, or distinguish the two series.

That said, there are some differences.   One is that Carter in Zanthodon is more willing to indulge nudity and more overt, even fetishistic descriptions of sexuality. 

There are frequent references to Darya being casual and unconcerned with her nudity, or seeing male nudity, or even Darya attending to bodily functions which fall just short of graphic.   In other scenes, a Gorpok again falls just short of graphic description in his rape of a slave, while the villain Khairadine whips a naked Darya with lascivious relish.   Burroughs Pellucidar pushed the mores of its time, obviously, cave men had a different view of nudity, skimpy wardrobes and matrimony, but there was a limit to how far he could go.   Carter takes things a little bit further, but not so far that he loses sight.

Indeed, it works quire well, Carter’s descriptions of Zar and Zarya, have an exotic, even erotic quality that makes the words shimmer.  In these scenes, you know you’re in the presence of a compelling strangeness.   Zarya is a barbaric Princess on the level of La or Ayesha.   It’s a quality that Carter never quite managed to bring to Callisto, and its shame, because I think it could have pushed that series to a more enduring greatness.   Ah well...

But the big difference between Zanthodon and Pellucidar is in its scope.   The Pellucidar books are largely standalone works, one emerging directly or indirectly out of the previous, but each largely operating on its own.   The Zanthodon books, while each eminently readable on its own actually amount to a continuing story as such, a story that seems to expand with each book.

The result is that the five Zanthodon books effectively amount to a single, massive, sprawling story with an immense and rowdy cast of characters.   If Zanthodon is to be compared to Pellucidar, then we have to acknowledge it is simply a classic Pellucidar story, no more and no less.  But what a story.   Zanthodon is literally the Pellucidar epic. 

Eric and the Professor go to Zanthodon, where they are enslaved by Neandertals.  There Eric falls in love with Darya and makes friends with the Neandertal Hurok.   The outworlders are menaces by the Neandertals, until they come to the attention of a disgraced Minoan living among the cavemen.  From there, they escape, but are separated.  Eric winds up with the cro-magnons, while Darya, the Professor and a cro-magnon named Thandar set about.   Darya winds up kidnapped by the pirate, Khairadine Redbeard, the Professor winds up among hypnotic slugs, Thandar encounters his own jungle Princess and Eric eventually winds up in the Minoan empire of Zar, where he meets the exotic Zarya.   There’s treachery and heroism, daring escapes, improbable coincidences, and mighty armies, dinosaurs roar, the earth quakes, volcanoes blow up and cliff hangers populate every other page.   And just as its all chock full, Carter throws in more characters and more plot twists.   Even the villains are deftly drawn, sometimes likeable, sometimes sympathetic.   It’s just a great story.

It’s the "War and Peace" of Pellucidar.   What else can I say, but that if you liked Pellucidar, you’ll like Zanthodon.  Take this as a recommendation for Pellucidar fans, and go out and read them.