The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Professor Maxon takes his aide, Chinese sidekick, and daughter to an island off Borneo to continue with experiments that would be frowned upon in polite society. Namely, creating life. Which he does. Sort of. He creates horribly misshapen, “soulless” creatures with the eventual intent of creating a perfect one to marry his daughter (unbeknownst to her).
A nice adventure, and fairly short, it could be a screen play for any Saturday afternoon creature feature. It’s got jungle, savages, betrayal, damsels in distress, racial stereotypes, bogeymen, love, hatred, mad scientists: it’s got it all. That and Burroughs is such a good writer that the images are vivid and the story moves right along.
This particular edition (Canaveral Press, 1962) is one of the most poorly edited books I’ve ever seen. Typos, missing words, extra words, and lines repeated in their entirety. Weird. And really terrible illustrations as well.
Nowhere near as good as the John Carter books, but good for a rainy afternoon.
