First published in February 1935, Red Snow is a good, solid Doc outing, distinguished chiefly by the truly hair-raising menace of the title. Author Lester Dent's descriptions of the effects of the "red snow," as it mysteriously appears in various locations, bringing with it agonizing, burning death, remain vivid and chilling today. Even Doc, with all his skills and forethought, quickly gains a healthy, fearful respect for the weapon. This novel marks the fairly rare case where Doc is actually on hand when the villains first start to deploy their evil scheme. Doc happens to be in Florida wrapping up some scientific research, accompanied by his perpetually-squabbling aides Monk and Ham, when the suspicious actions of a pair of fruit peddlers near his hotel draw him into the mystery. From there on out, it's one chase, fight, capture and near-death escape after another in this fast-paced adventure, as Doc races to prevent an attack on American soil by an unnamed foreign power. While the Florida locale isn't as exotic or memorable as is usually found in these early era tales, Red Snow remains diverting reading, thanks to a non-stop parade of action scenes and intrigue. Just one example from early in the novel, as Doc escapes from a sudden shotgun attack, which clearly demonstrates Dent's mastery at describing headlong, violent action: "Doc was hanging from the windowsill by his hands. There was not much room to swing back up. It would take a moment. Dropping to the ground would be even more foolish, for there was no shelter. But there was another window below, with a window box holding flowering plants on the sill. Doc dropped. The window box broke under his weight, fell free, spilling rich black dirt and plants. But it held the giant bronze man for an instant, long enough for him to bundle his arms about his face and dive through the glass panes into the hotel room. He landed ungracefully in a shower of glass. Shotgun slugs clouted at what remained of the window sill. With a loud ripping, lead came completely through the thin wall of the hotel. It was a frame building, lightly constructed, and the automatic shotguns seemed to be charged with two or three large lead slugs to the cartridge.The guns were making thunder in the street. Doc Savage came to his feet, ran to the door, found it locked, and rammed it with a shoulder. The cheap wood panel fell off its hinges and let him through to his right. Outside, the shotguns still whooped." Top class stuff. It's this kind of writing which made the best Doc Savage pulps so compulsively readable, even when the plots or villains are not so inspired, or the final revelation behind the mystery is a letdown - not the case here. While the man behind the menace in Red Snow, the "flutelike voiced" Ark, is only moderately interesting, the plot is nicely worked out and Doc, Monk, Ham and even Monk's pet pig, Habeus Corpus, are on good form here, doling out rough justice to some pretty nasty bad guys. My Rating: B
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Doc Savage and his five aides, in the wonderful James Bama illustration that graced the back of many Bantam reprints. (Clockwise from left, Ham the dapper lawyer, archaeologist Johnny, door-buster and engineer extraordinaire Renny, electrical wiz Long Tom and apish chemist Monk) Well, after reviewing three somewhat lesser Doc Savage adventures in a row, I thought it was high time I talked about some of the bonafide best books in the series, lest I give too negative of an impression. These 12 titles are what I consider to be the cream of the Doc Savage crop, all of them grade A, high-octane, page-turning pulp adventures. An observant reader might note that almost all of them date from the first two or three years (1933-1935) of the sixteen that the Doc Savage Magazine was published by Street & Smith. I'll admit a personal bias here - I'm far fonder of these early globetrotting, exotic supersagas, with their outlandish and colorful plots, than I am of the later, leaner WWII-era, espionage and "scientific detective" tales. Many of the later novels boast tighter writing overall (Lester Dent had really honed his craft by that point), but these later stories are also missing the hell-for-leather, grandiose thrills of the earliest books (for me an essential ingredient). The following dozen tales helped forge the powerful mystique of the Doc Savage character, who would go on to influence the men who created Superman, Batman and countless other principled superhero characters in popular fiction. Listed in chronological order, I highly recommend them all as fun popcorn reads of the first rank. The Man of Bronze "High above the skyscrapers of New York, Doc Savage engages in deadly combat with the red-fingered survivors of an ancient, lost civilization. Then, with his amazing crew, he journeys to the mysterious "lost valley" to search for a fabulous treasure and to destroy the mysterious Red Death." Published March 1933, this inaugural Doc Savage adventure is not the best or most outlandish, but is as good a place to start the series as any. Doc is in full-on revenge mode in this and the next novel (The Land of Terror), and kills his enemies with limb-wrenching, bone-crushing impunity. Dent quickly retooled the character and from the third novel on, Doc's moral code of never taking a life if at all possible would become strictly enforced (this did not drastically reduce the body count of each book, however). The Man of Bronze is also notable for explaining the source of Doc's vast wealth, which enables him to set up his crime-busting enterprise on the 86th floor of what many assume is the Empire State Building in New York City, and fund his exhaustive array of gadgets, fleets of vehicles, airplanes, dirigibles, submarines, etc. The Land of Terror "A vile greenish vapor was all that remained of the first victim of the monstrous Smoke of Eternity. There would be thousands more if Kar, master fiend, had his evil way. Only Doc Savage and his mighty five could stop him. But the corpse-laden trail led to mortal combat with the fiercest killing machines ever invented by nature." This second adventure still finds Doc in an atypically vengeful mood, and he dishes out much severe punishment during the course of this tale, which is noteworthy for not only its mysterious means of murder (the "Smoke of Eternity" that basically dissolves its victims), but especially for its riffing on King Kong, as Doc and crew battle not only the bad guys but a variety of deadly dinosaurs. Typical of this "island that time forgot" scenario, a series of volcanic eruptions consigns Thunder Island to the deep by the end of the book. The Polar Treasure "Menaced by "the strange clicking danger," Doc Savage and his fabulous five-man army take a desperate journey on a polar submarine in search of a missing ocean liner and a dazzling treasure. Their only clue is a map tattooed on the back of a blind violinist. Awaiting them at their destination is the most terrible killer the Arctic has ever known." The 4th Doc Savage yarn, The Polar Treasure, avoids the fantastical in lieu of wall-to-wall action, thrilling escapes, and nefarious skullduggery on the frozen arctic wastes. Unlike the colossal cheat of a cover illustration that mars Brand of the Werewolf, there is no false advertising here: Doc really does take on a towering polar bear in savage, hand-to-claw combat (only one of many inventive and highly entertaining sequences). The Lost Oasis "While seeking to solve the mystery of "the trained vampire murders," Doc Savage and his amazing crew suddenly find themselves prisoners of Sol Yuttal and Hadi-Mot aboard a hijacked Zeppelin. Their deadly destination is a fabulous lost diamond mine guarded by carnivorous plants and monstrous, bloodsucking bats." Another tale full of blood-and-thunder adventure (and way too many exclamation points), The Lost Oasis is fast-paced, occasionally gruesome fun. A kidnapped aviatrix, weird villains, a nasty way of killing people with "the fluttering death," a lost diamond mine in the middle of the African desert that seems a direct inspiration for Clive Cussler's Sahara, fights with knife wielding tribal warriors on a dirigible - this one is packed with excitement and color. The Phantom City "Arabian thieves led by the diabolically clever Mohallet set one fiendish trap after another for Doc Savage and his mighty five. Only Doc, with his superhuman mental and physical powers, could have withstood this incredible ordeal of endurance which led from the cavern of the crying rock through the pitiless desert of Rub' Al Khali and its Phantom City to a fight to the death against the last of a savage prehistoric race of white-haired beasts." For my money, this is the apex of the series. Lester Dent jumps right back into the realms of Burroughsian "Lost World" fantasy in The Phantom City. This is another novel that is a non-stop parade of terrific action sequences, all showing Doc at the top of his game, tangling with gangsters and giant ape men with equal skill and daring. If pulp adventure is your bag, it don't get no better than this, baby. Meteor Menace "Doc Savage and his fabulous crew journey to Tibet in pursuit of their most dangerous adversary, the evil genius Mo-Gwei. Battling against overwhelming odds, they try to stop him from conquering the world with a diabolical machine known as the Blue Meteor, a screaming blue visitor from space that turns men into raving animals!" The villains' world-conquering, murderous "Blue Meteor" device is one for the record books. Doc and his crew travel to not one, but two, exciting, exotic locales - Argentina and Tibet. They arrive at the latter destination accidentally, as they wake up in Tibet a month later with no memory of how they got there...and on top of that, Doc finds himself engaged to be married to the beautiful Rae Stanley. Doc Savage, so powerful and masterful in all other walks of life, is perennially nonplussed around women, and his companions have a rare chance to get in some good laughs at his expense. The Thousand-Headed Man "With a mysterious black Chinaman, Doc Savage and his amazing crew journey to the jungles of Indo-China in a desperate gamble to destroy the infamous Thousand-headed Man." Not much of a blurb to describe this, one of the best of all Doc Savage novels (and one of only two stories adapted for audio). Doc goes native in this one, running around the jungle and its mysterious lost city like Tarzan, performing nearly superhuman feats of strength and agility on virtually every page. The only drawback is his five aides aren't given nearly enough to do, and are captive for a good part of the book. This doesn't slow Doc down at all, as he pretty much single-handedly takes on the weird tribe that haunts the ancient stone city. This one starts out in London but really kicks into gear when it gets to the jungle, and the action comes thick and fast until the very last page. The Mystic Mullah "It was an ageless thing that had existed since the beginning of time -- a monstrous green face that spoke sudden death. With its legions of ghostly, nebulous soul slaves, it had begun to terrorize the world. Even Doc Savage and his fantastic five were helpless against its awesome power, until...." Doc and crew travel to Asia to battle another weird menace. Do you sense a theme here? From this list, you might get the impression that all Doc Savage tales take place in far-away locales. Actually, at least half to two-thirds are set in New York City or a similar urban environment (and most of the ones that finish in someplace exotic, usually begin in NYC). I like those city mysteries just fine, but give me a story with Doc and his men running amok in foreign lands any day of the week. Main "Kenneth Robeson" author Lester Dent was a dab hand at investing his pulp efforts with lots of local color, little cultural tidbits and snippets of the local language, used sparingly but effectively to properly set the scene. Some plot elements of this novel were used in George Pal's overly campy film, The Man of Bronze. The Land of Always-Night "With the fate of America hanging in the balance, Doc Savage and his fearless crew battle a hideously white-faced man named Ool who kills merely with a touch of his finger. The only clue to his diabolical power is a mysterious pair of dark goggles which brings death to whomever possesses them. The trail leads to a fabulous lost super-civilization hidden deep in the bowels of the earth, where Doc Savage and his fabulous five face their supreme challenge." This is a ghost-written Doc Savage novel, written not by series regular Lest Dent but by Ryerson Johnson. Usually, I don't care for the ghosted Docs, much preferring Dent's clipped, muscular prose, but Johnson does a bang-up job here. Just look at that fantastic James Bama cover! The novel lives up to the promise of that great cover, with the final 50 or so pages chock-full of unbelievable and original "lost race" adventure, every page oozing atmosphere. And Ool emerges as one of the series' most memorable villains. Quest of Qui "It started when a Viking Dragon ship attacked a yacht in the waters outside New York. Next, "Ham" was stabbed with a 1,200 year-old Viking knife. Then Johnny was captured and frozen solid in a block of arctic ice. Finally, even the mighty man of bronze himself -- Doc Savage -- is kidnapped and enslaved by the chilling menace. What is his plan this time? Can he save himself and his friends from almost certain destruction?" Doc tales set in the cold, frozen north are usually good value and this one from 1935 is no exception. Archaeologist and long-word-loving Johnny gets a rare solo spotlight here, and it's his disappearance at the beginning of the story that gets Doc and his other four companions involved the mystery of yet another lost civilization, and some unscrupulous criminals trying to exploit it. The Majii "In New York, Rama Tura, chosen disciple of the Majii, leads Doc Savage into a sinister world of drugs and advanced hypnotism. Far away in Jondore, a revolt is brewing that will pit the Man of Bronze against his most devious opponent: the who cannot die." Some of the best prose to be found in the earlier Doc novels graces this splendid entry from September 1935. The Majii has a creepier feel than usual, thanks to the hair-raising antics of Rama Tura and his minions. The seemingly authentic supernatural manifestations puzzle even Doc for a longer than normal time, but as always, he eventually exposes the truth behind the villains' modus operandi. Includes lots of incredible, violent action and feats of near-superhuman prowess from Doc, a particular highlight being Doc and Monk's suspense-filled escape from a deep well, back-to-back and inching their slow and agonizing way up the stone walls. Fortress of Solitude "The deep mysteries of Doc Savage are finally revealed! John Sunlight, poetic genius of evil, gruesome master of a thousand elements of screaming terror, discovers the innermost secrets of The Man of Bronze. Doc Savage finds himself enmeshed in a diabolical web of dark horror as he valiantly battles the appalling machines of destruction he himself has invented!" This is a fun and crisply-written adventure, notably mainly for two reasons which make it an instant classic in the series: 1) for the first time, Dent brings we readers into Doc Savage's sanctum sanctorum, the top-secret domed lab in the remote arctic to which he periodically retreats to conduct scientific research and invent technology for the betterment of mankind (that's right, the Superman creators ripped the "Fortress of Solitude" concept off from Doc Savage..."The Man of Steel?" Doc Savage was "The Man of Bronze" several years before Clark Kent). And 2) the book introduces, in John Sunlight, a villain almost the equal of Doc, and the only one to survive the finale to fight again another day. Sunlight manages to infiltrate the Fortress and steal a host of Doc's inventions which he begins to sell to the highest bidder - and those machines are soon put to horrendous, deadly use. An alarmed Doc is behind the curve for a goodly portion of this novel, which makes a refreshing change of pace. On a lighter note, Dent has some fun pitting Ham and Monk against Sunlight's Amazonian henchwomen, Giantia and Titania. There you have it. If you pick up any one of these slender volumes and can't find anything to enjoy, then clearly, this series is not for you. Which is perfectly OK; after all, this series is just about tailor-made for 11-15 year old boys (or those who are still in touch with their 11-15 year-old-selves). If you have a taste for pulp adventure fiction, though, you'll likely still get a legitimate kick out of these inventive thrillers. We're not talking great literature by any stretch, but for escapist bedtime reading, you could do a darn sight worse. Note: All plot synopses taken from the back cover blurbs of the Bantam editions, published by Conde-Nast.
I used to be a big fan of the pulp hero Doc Savage, and collected many of the Bantam paperback reprints when I was a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s. Discovering other fans of the series online over the past several years (check out the wonderful website The Hidalgo Trading Company) has rekindled my interest and ever since, periodically, I find myself in the mood to run through a half-dozen or so of these short novels. Generally speaking, I've been able to enjoy them even through my more jaded and critical adult eyes, as examples of high-octane period adventure with often vividly-described action and spectacle. The best of them (usually by Lester Dent, who wrote the lion's share of 181 novels) are first-rate pulp thrillers that stand with the top work of the era. However, the recent batch of "supersagas" (as entries in the series are fondly called by fans, a phrase that likely originated from famed SF writer and fan Phillip Jose Farmer, whose Doc Savage: An Apocalyptic Life is a very entertaining "bible" to the series) that I've been reading have been a decidedly average lot compared to last year's list. The first in this year's Doc Savage binge was The Derrick Devil, originally published in Feb. 1937. Bantam's paperback cover blurb reads: A mysterious jellylike creature is terrorizing the Indian Dome Oil Field! The Man of Bronze and his five fantastic aides descend upon Oklahoma to do battle with dastardly Tomahawk Tant -- and uncover the infernal secret of the weird monster from the depths of the earth. Despite a strong premise, this novel is pretty weak tea by writer Lester Dent's usual standards, with mundane villains, routine chases and escapes, and a less-effective performance by Doc this time out. There is one great segment, though (pages 112-115), where some of the bad guys tie up the gaunt, big-word-spouting Johnny (one of Doc Savage's five pals that accompany him on his adventures) to a tank full of the weird, blob-like things that have apparently turned their many victims to piles of dissolved goo. Dent's writing comes alive here, describing Johnny's disgust and fear in atmospheric detail: Johnny's hair stood on end. His eyes popped. Squirming, writhing hideously, translucent and ocherous in the light, was one of the fantastic monsters which had first been observed around the Sands-Carlaw-Hill wildcat oil well. It's only a brief vignette, however, and the novel's resolution and explanation of the true nature of the creatures proves anti-climactic and somewhat lame, if in keeping with the series' rationalistic bent. Overall, a lesser Doc Savage novel, but not without a few points of interest. My Rating: C- |
Welcome to the Armchair...
Look out the window. It’s a dark, cold, rainy day. Too nasty to go outside.
Better stay inside, read a good book. There’s a bookcase over to your left. Run your fingers over the spines. Books of all shapes, sizes and genres; hardbacks, paperbacks. Take your time browsing through the titles. No rush. Find something that feels just right. Now turn around. Over in the corner is a beat-up, black leather armchair. The leather is faded and cracked in places, the cushions battered. This chair has seen better days. But boy, does it look inviting... Next to the chair is a standing lamp and a small table. Plenty of room for a nice cup of tea, a plate of cookies, whatever’s your poison. So switch on the light, settle down with your book, open to page one, put your feet up, and let the author whisk you away to another world. Hey!
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