Vic: Time Doesn't Matter
by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jerry Gill

Description

Synopsis: About half the book was written in 2 parts by E. R. Burroughs in 1914 and 1917 as The Eternal Savage and The Eternal Lover. The character Victoria Custer was not used again by Burroughs. I thought about summarizing his work but decided the best way to understand Vic would be to read every detail in the original. Plus, I think ERB was the most fun to read author ever and the beginning he created should be part of the first Vic novel. The new writing, Part 3 (page 138), treats the first sections as having happened in 1919. It is now 1920 and it catches up with Vic in Nebraska and follows her to Mexico. In the first half Vic experiences what at first appears to be a very elaborate dream or vision. But she goes to a cavern which has been opened by an earthquake and finds something that makes it clear - it wasn't a dream, it was a memory. She keeps a reminder in her bedside table - a pair of 18 inch fangs. And now Vic is on a quest. She takes brother Barney along to Mexico where adventure in many guises ensues almost immediately and is virtually non stop. A sacrificial well, a mythical creature, army ants, jungle predators, an underground river, bad guys and an earthquake all take a shot at Vic. Vic is just your typical young lady. She loves to eat, especially candy and red meat. She’s into fashion, especially cloches, barrettes and willowy dresses. Her favorite color is pink. She cries about sad things and really happy things. But don’t confuse her being stylish and emotional for weakness. She is deadly with a stone knife and stone war ax, is a mortal enemy of anyone in the slave trade, renders mythical creatures extinct, battles jungle predators mano a mano, talks to monkeys and has a 100,000 year old avatar who pushes her hard. Vic remembers what it is like to live in a stupendously savage world that you or I in our wildest fantasies could not accurately comprehend. So when something needs done she just does it, even if it is so violently terrifying that brave men would cower and cry for their mother. To Vic it’s just living.