The Return of Jongor

Robert Moore Williams The Return of Jongor (1946)
Admittedly I've read only one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' four million Tarzan books, and so assuming Tarzan of 1912 to be reasonably representative, I continue to be impressed at the Robert Moore Williams knock off doing more than simply replicate the formula; although the difference may be down to the additional influence of possibly Robert E. Howard and certainly Abraham Merritt. That said, the second book isn't quite so memorable as the first, Jongor of Lost Land, although is notable for adding yet another ancient race to the catalogue - in this case a species of centaur, survivors of Arklan which was once the greatest, most advanced city on earth - and so on and so forth. More interesting still are understated intrusions from Williams' personal cosmology, the screwy yet ponderous stuff which renders his later novels so weirdly absorbing.

'Because this was the dream the Arklans set for themselves when they and the world was young. The sadness comes because we turned aside to little things and in turning aside failed to reach our dreams—and also failed to reach the potential greatness that was in us.'

There was great sadness in Nesca's voice as she stood in front of the centaur statue.

'But you can still achieve this greatness—' Anne began.

'Thank you, my dear, again,' Nesca said. 'No, I think not. There is an appointed time for greatness. If you miss the tide of greatness when it flows for you, you miss it until the great river of life brings it back again. When will this happen? I do not know. No one knows. How old is time, how old will it become?'

I realise it's probably not of significantly greater philosophical depth than the concluding speech from an average episode of Thundercats, but the crucial point is that Robert Moore Williams absolutely believed this stuff as part of his evolving vision of a distinctly psychedelic cosmos wherein love is the missing matter of the universe, or something like that; and this belief, whatever it was, informs his writing with qualities beyond what you might anticipate in places so far removed from the world of proper books. It's also nice that he keeps it short and snappy.