The three novellas of The Land That Time Forgot have three different main characters. In "The Land That Time Forgot," the main character is Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., son of a California ship builder. In "The People That Time Forgot," the main character is Thomas Billings, who as a former cowboy who became the secretary to Tyler's father, seems to resemble Burroughs himself.

In "Out of Time's Abyss," the main character is the tersely spoken sailor Lieutenant Bradley. Typical of Burroughs's characterizations, none of these men is fleshed out much beyond the details necessary for explaining why they end up in Caspak.

Burroughs unabashedly presents incredible coincidences in his fiction, and Tyler is an example of this. He is the son of a shipbuilding magnate.

Eager to fight for the Allies in World War I, he is on his way to try out for the Lafayette Escadrille (an...