By Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline was a literary agent and author back in the heyday of the pulps. Although well known to readers and writers of the era, today he is little remembered.
One of the few volumes of his work that can be found on library shelves is Jan in India. The novel is a sequel to Jan of the Jungle, a feral child tale set in South America. This sequel finds Jan caught up in skullduggery among Kali worshippers in India. Jan tackles just about every dangerous jungle creature one can find in the sub-continent before he saves the day.
This is decent action-hero stuff, although there’s not a whole lot going on besides cobra strangling. Chandra Kumar is the one character that really stands out and OAK uses him for comic relief. Jan in India is an easygoing sort of jungle-boy tale that’s good for whiling away the afternoon. Get it through interlibrary loan, but unless you are serious collector of pulp authors don’t spend a lot of money on it.
Originally run as a serial in Argosy, it was re-released as a novel by Fictioneer Books in 1974. The text is accompanied by good black and white line drawings by Steven Leialoha and a “glossary of characters”.
Otis Adelbert Kline was a literary agent and author back in the heyday of the pulps. Although well known to readers and writers of the era, today he is little remembered.
One of the few volumes of his work that can be found on library shelves is Jan in India. The novel is a sequel to Jan of the Jungle, a feral child tale set in South America. This sequel finds Jan caught up in skullduggery among Kali worshippers in India. Jan tackles just about every dangerous jungle creature one can find in the sub-continent before he saves the day.
This is decent action-hero stuff, although there’s not a whole lot going on besides cobra strangling. Chandra Kumar is the one character that really stands out and OAK uses him for comic relief. Jan in India is an easygoing sort of jungle-boy tale that’s good for whiling away the afternoon. Get it through interlibrary loan, but unless you are serious collector of pulp authors don’t spend a lot of money on it.
Originally run as a serial in Argosy, it was re-released as a novel by Fictioneer Books in 1974. The text is accompanied by good black and white line drawings by Steven Leialoha and a “glossary of characters”.
-Dave Hardy
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