Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Author:Edgar Rice Burroughs

"Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar" is the fifth book in the Tarzan series and is generally considered one of the better of Edgar Rice Burrough's tales of the Lord of the Jungle. Tarzan once again returns to Opar, the source of the gold for lost colony of fabled Atlantis. Ever since Atlantis sank beneath the waves, the workers of Opar have continued to mine the gold. Tarzan follows a greedy Belgian and Arab into the jungle, where the evil pair manage to stumble upon the lost city, at which point our hero loses his memory after a fight. This is good news for La, the beautiful high priestess who serves the Flaming God, because she has had that big crush on the apeman since their first encounter. However, while his amnesia opens the door for her amorous advances, her high priests are vowing that Tarzan will not escape their sacrificial knives a second time. Meanwhile, Jane is in trouble back at their African homestead. As you read "Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar," you will pick up on the fact that Burroughs liked the character of La a lot more than he did that of Jane Clayton Greystoke (who he would attempt to kill off in a few books). Of course, this second visit to the land of Opar is not as exciting as the first and the amnesia bit is pretty old hat, even for Burroughs. This is definitely one of the author's pot-boilers and for the pulp fiction era it is pretty solid stuff. Things get a bit predictable, but the tension between Tarzan and La gives the book a bit of bite. You just need to make sure you go through the first four Tarzan books before you read this one, or you are going to be a bit lost.