At the Earth's Core

At the Earth's Core, published in 1914, is the first of a series of science fiction novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs set inside a hollow earth with a central "sun," a land called Pellucidar. However unlikely this scenario, it allowed Burroughs free play to create heroic adventures in yet another alien environment in addition to his fantastic version of Mars in his Martian series. The story's hero, David Innes, is recruited by an old man, Perry, to help fund his invention, a "mechanical subterranean prospector," and then to test it out. Unfortunately once the powerful burrowing machine is set going, it cannot be steered, and the pair find themselves burrowing deeper and deeper into the Earth's crust. To their astonishment, rather than dying from suffocation or increasing heat, they emerge inside a hollow shell inside the Earth. This world is populated by prehistoric creatures as well as primitive humans, intelligent gorillas, and supremely intelligent pterosaurs, the masters of this land. David and Perry are captured by these creatures and many adventures ensue. Perfect for readers who crave classic pulp adventure and imaginative world-building, this groundbreaking novel delivers non-stop thrills in the most exotic setting imaginable-a prehistoric world hidden beneath our feet. Burroughs' masterful storytelling and vivid descriptions of Pellucidar's savage beauty will transport you to an unforgettable realm where danger lurks around every corner and heroes are forged in the fires of adventure. The source for this public-domain ebook is Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org). Ebooks from other sources often have typos, inconsistent spelling, missing accent marks, and missing punctuation. Ebooks from Standard Ebooks are proofread line by line against a scan of the original printed pages, then proofread again from cover to cover. They are also formatted and typeset following a professional-grade style manual, resulting in new editions supporting state-of-the-art ereader technology: automatic hyphenation, popup footnotes, complete and consistent metadata, high-resolution and scalable vector graphics, and ereader-compatible tables of contents. All of this makes the finished ebooks accurate, functional, and beautiful, a pleasure to read. (Waking Lion Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by Standard Ebooks.)