Tanar of Pellucidar

Tanar of Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs is a science-fiction adventure novel serialized in Blue Book Magazine (1929). The narrative frames itself through modern protagonists Jason Gridley, a radio enthusiast, and the author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who receive coded radio transmissions via the experimental "Gridley wave" from Abner Perry in the subterranean world of Pellucidar. Perry seeks assistance: David Innes, the Emperor of Pellucidar, has been captured in the north. The story employs flashback to recount how humanity's victory over the reptilian Mahars—the previous dominant race—inadvertently creates new catastrophe. Perry details Pellucidar's post-conquest state: a civilization emerging from the stone age where David abolished time measurement upon returning from the outer world. The novel's plot threads interweave Perry's exposition with the mysterious circumstances of Innes's capture, setting up rescue and adventure narratives set within Pellucidar's eternally noon-lit, timeless landscape populated by primitive humans, dinosaurs, and the vanquished Mahars.