The first of his Pellucidar pastiches, it was first published by Ace Books in 1976 and reissued by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., in 2022.

[2] West is an associate of Dr. Kinsley, who has developed a teleportation beam that can also see events taking place 200 miles below the surface.

Due to his unusual weapon, West becomes known as Red Axe among the stone-age human beings of Pellucidar.

The story deals with West's efforts to free his new-found friends from the tyranny of the Mahars.

Therefore, West never runs into any of Burrough's human Pellucidarian characters, such as David Innes, Abner Perry, Dian the Beautiful, Ghak the Hairy One, or any of the others.