Doc Savage - The Secret of Satan’s Spine

Bad Days With Black Rock

Doc Savage
The Secret of Satan’s Spine
by Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray)
Altus Press ISBN: 978-1618272164

So once again we have the amazing Will Murray taking on the mantle of the old Street and Smith pen name, Kenneth Robeson, to continue the good work of Doc Savage, long after original scribe Lester Dent’s death. I think it says a lot about Murray’s enthusiasm and attention to detail that this tome feels exactly like it’s been written in the period of Dent’s work when this particular story is set.

The Secret of Satan’s Spine is a Doc Savage adventure which takes place in the 1940s, during the Second World War. The back story of Doc Savage and the Amazing Five was that they met while serving in the First World War, although the full story was never divulged until many decades later when Philip Jose Farmer wrote a Doc ‘origin story’, Escape From Loki. Doc and what was left of his crew only managed to survive another four years in literary form after the Second World War before the pulp magazine in which the novels resided was cancelled. Obviously, over the years, and this has much to do with the Bantam reprints, the Doc stories have found a new lease of life and so, here we are with another of Murray’s incredibly well cobbled together tales... taken from an original Lester Dent idea which was rejected by the publishers at the time.

Something dark and strange happened to Doc Savage in the 1940s. He became much less reliant on the scientific gadgets that were always, until that point, a large part of his literary personae. The fashions of the time had presumably made it more popular for ‘science detectives’ to solve their problems with their brains (and possibly fists) rather than reach for, in Doc Savage’s case, a whole arsenal of curiously ‘ahead of their time’ gadgets which were, more often than not, easy to conceal on one’s person. Another strange thing which happened was that Doc’s five famous aides slowly found their roles diminishing until, by a certain point, Doc was only ever accompanied by the two who were, presumably, the most popular with the readers... Monk and Ham.

Something else which I seem to remember happening, although my memory may be playing tricks on me here and I’m unable to confirm this at present, is that Doc’s Crime College, where he operated on their brains to remove captured criminal’s memories of their past before teaching them how to become upstanding citizens, either slowly disappeared or may have just been consciously dropped by Doc at some point. By then, I suspect, Dent had maybe realised that the decision to change someone into a less criminal person without any choice in the matter, and in total secret, was a bit of a moral blind spot and so it was dropped, or at least pushed into the background significantly, during this time. It’s an interesting dilemma which various post-Dent comics and stories have used as a dramatic springboard in later years but I think it’s probably something Dent realised himself at some point. It’s definitely something Anthony Burgess must have figured out when he explored a less subtle variant of the same dilemma in A Clockwork Orange.

Anyway, all these little changes to the character means that, for me, the stories written and set in the 1940s, while still good, are not usually among my absolute favourite Doc Savage adventures.

Will Murray addresses these points and the style of the 1940s Doc head on and, in doing so, makes him much more readable and more interesting than I remembered him from being during that period. He talks about Doc consciously leaving his gadgets at home in order to not rely on them so much but... at the same time... it’s also true that for large chunks of the book, Doc is wearing what is the 1940s ‘science magic’ equivalent of Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibility. So Murray kind of straddles a line between ‘to gadget or not to gadget’ and does it pretty convincingly, it has to be said, without really examining too closely why Doc would ever want to make life harder on himself and do such a thing in the first place.

The story starts off with Monk and Ham arguing, as usual, before Monk gets pulled into a scheme by being duped by a pretty face... a plot which will soon involve Doc and Ham too, as they take passage aboard a military ship to try and figure out just what kind of deadly commotion is about to erupt. However, that’s as far as it goes in terms of regulars of the series... it’s just Doc, Monk and Ham in this one and that would certainly fit in with the time period Murray has chosen to write about here. To counter that somewhat, he brings in a group of four friends who appeared together in one original Doc adventure by Dent and reunites them with what’s left of Doc and his crew... although they don’t do a whole lot over the course of the narrative, if truth be told.

As for that Crime College? Well, at one point near the end, Monk informs one of the captured criminals that he can look forward to a spell in Leavenworth, which is a far cry from Doc taking him back to a secret location and performing a special kind of acupuncture surgery on his brain. No explanation is given as to this passing comment by Monk and I’m guessing that people who are only aware of the 1930s Doc Savage adventures might raise and eyebrow over this line in the book. It does, I’m sure, make sense though.

The plot and pace in this one is not reminiscent of the globetrotting variety of adventures, even though a lot of the world, in terms of distance, is technically covered here. Unlike a lot of the Doc narratives, which can often be similar to a 1930s film serial in terms of people going here, there and everywhere, repeatedly, over a number of weeks... the structure of this one is fairly simple. We have a small part of the story at the start which is set in New York and a small part at the end on a small island which houses The Secret Of Satan’s Spine. Everything in between is set on the ship which has started its journey with a healthy number of disguised villains as well as the ultimate cure for all kinds of villainy everywhere... namely Doc, Monk and Ham.

The action isn’t choc-a-block and full-on in this one either, it has to be said. That doesn’t matter, though, because Murray has a way of grinding out his pulp prose in a fashion that moves the reader on at a fair lick without necessarily needing to constantly read about fist fights or other such matters... although there is still certainly enough action in here when called for... it’s just not one action set piece after another, which is not necessarily a bad thing and, especially I suspect, if you’re writing a specifically 1940s period Doc tale. Murray knows his stuff and he does his job well here.

I actually, despite the era of the Bronze Man’s adventures in which this fits, really enjoyed this one, after the initial set up was out of the way. The Secret Of Satan's Spine is a much better volume than Murray’s Doc book prior to this, The Sinister Shadow (reviewed here) and once I’d gotten over my disappointment at the 1940s setting, I really got into the swing of it. One slight criticism may be that the author seems less willing to spend time on a more believable pseudo-scientific explanation for some of the more fantastical things on display in this novel but I was happy to overlook this because of the sheer entertainment value that these inventions and archaeological artefacts bring to the story. Not nearly one of the best of Murray’s yarn spinners but certainly nowhere near the bottom end of the spectrum either. If you’re a Doc Savage fan then you should have no problem with this addition to your bronze library so... yeah... all in all, another big triumph for Will Murray writing as Kenneth Robeson. Looking forward to the next one.

Doc Savage: Phantom Lagoon

Savage Creatures

Doc Savage: 
Phantom Lagoon
by Will Murray writing as Kenneth Robeson
Altus Press
ISBN: 978-1618271341

You know, it must be really hard to, not only write a continuation of the exploits of an already famous literary character, but to write it in the style and spirit of the original author. It’s a neat trick if you can pull it off and, while I found a few of the latest batch of modern Doc Savage novels to be a little out of kilter with their 20th Century counterparts, I have to hand it to Murray and say that they are definitely more hit than miss and, even on the occasions when they do miss the mark a little in terms of authenticity of the characters and styles of situations in comparison to the original versions, they are nearly always entertaining.

One thing Murray definitely pulls off in his Doc Savage novels is the breakneck pacing which was often an obvious stylistic flourish of the pulps, especially within the work of Lester Dent (the original Kenneth Robeson) and his Doc Savage tales. However, I have to further congratulate Murray in that, with Phantom Lagoon, he also manages to not only get all the ingredients of a classic Doc Savage novel just about absolutely right, he also manages to push the edges a little bit in terms of some of the events which happen in this one (I don’t want to get too spoilery here) and you know that Dent would surely have approved of these exciting dramatic decisions. They are absolutely in the style of what Dent would have done... and he did sometimes stretch his own formula himself, on occasion, just to shake things up.

The events I am talking about in this particular volume are those kinds of incidents which threaten to somehow change the status quo of the tried and true formula of any future Doc Savage novels. They rarely do have any permanent after effects which last them for longer than the opening set up of the next novel, after the events have occurred in the previous story, but they are quite drastic alterations for the duration of the tale. Of course, with a character like Doc Savage, who has an unlimited reserve of money he can call on to fund his work at any time, it’s rare for anything really groundshaking to be irreparable, but certain “big things” often are written in such a way that they certainly seem like massive events at the time... again, without giving away spoilers here, it’s hard to go into.

Suffice it so say that there are some scenes of destruction and devastation which have an effect on the possible future of the narrative and also, of course, add to the dramatic impact and gravitas of the latest caper that Doc and his crew end up investigating. Now, it’s possible Murray may have decided to do what he’s done here to tie into a drop off in certain ingredients in the later World War 2 and post World War Doc Savage tales. I can’t quite remember (or find online now, either) specifics of just where Doc was at with various locations and equipment at certain stages of his crime fighting career, but I trust Murray enough to know that he wouldn’t be one to threaten the continuity of the chronological setting where this novel gets tucked into the original stories. And, like I said, the events portrayed in this novel are, as far as I’m concerned, things Lester Dent would have approved of himself.

For instance, the original Doc Savage story Fortress Of Solitude tale features an outrageous attack on Doc’s arctic retreat which would seem to have long reaching effects on the series (Murray even picks up some threads from this story himself in at least one of his previous Doc novels) but, ultimately, equilibrium is restored. Similarly, when people break out from Doc’s famous Crime College or the Mayans are embroiled in a plot, or even when various devastating attacks on Doc’s skyscraper headquarters have taken place in the past, they are really examples of Dent just having his cake and eating it at the same time. Big, dramatic events that are a threat to the easy, continued lifestyle of Doc and his crew are ultimately reversed and swept under the carpet with a quick sleight of hand... and it always works and makes sense within the realms of the fictional character because, after all... money talks.

So no worries on some of the incidents in this particular novel that might seem a tad overcooked or sensational to some readers. As far as I’m concerned, these are all valid approaches to the drama. No complaints here.

As for the rest of the novel?

Well, it’s a real humdinger of a tale, for sure. Starting out by almost immediately putting Doc and his crew in a reactive stance rather than being in an investigation they have chosen to take part in from the outset. It deals with watery backdrops and sea creatures who won’t rub up any of the traditional Doc Savage fans the wrong way... this novel sticks to the formula of always having a hard, scientific reason for the initial hook of the weird phenomenom that Doc encounters in his adventures. As with all of the writing I’ve read by Will Murray, it moves at a mile a minute, is stupendously well written and, like the majority of his other efforts under the Kenneth Robeson “brand name”... hugely entertaining.

If i had one criticism to make on this one, it’s the transparency of the misdirection Murray uses in a certain scene. A character drops into the narrative about a third of the way into the novel and my initial thoughts were, since I know both Murray and Dent’s plotting fairly well, that a very specific character was adopting a disguise. Then, to muddy the waters, Murray has one of the villains of the piece already wise to these kinds of shenanigans and clearly naming one of The Amazing Five as the person adopting the disguise. This would have maybe thrown first time readers off the track a little but, pretty much any fan of the exploits of Clark Savage Jr would be pretty sure of the real identity of the character in question, I would imagine. It’s not really a problem though... just a personal reaction to what I see as an obvious red herring for the reader.

Doc Savage: Phantom Lagoon is a pretty solid entry into the series of additional “Wild Adventures Of Doc Savage” and the sophisticated degree to which Murray is able to effectively “do a Robeson” never ceases to amaze me. Added to this we have “the war in Europe” which sets up slightly different rules that Doc and his crew can operate under... also an interesting addition to the atmosphere on this one. This is a definite good read for all fans of The Man Of Bronze and I would definitely urge those who have been sitting on the fence with the latest batch of novels to go out and grab a couple... and you could certainly use this one as a jumping on point. Although two of Doc’s crew are missing, you have the counter balance of his cousin Pat added into the mix so that’s a good bonus and, if I remember rightly, Doc’s aides did start slowly disappearing as the novels progressed towards the end of the series, with characters being whittled down until it was just Monk and Ham in on the adventures as the characters came towards the end of their original run... so once again, Murray’s adds another shot of authenticity into his work, by making sure the ingredients he puts into his verbose concoction are more specific to where this one fits into the chronology of the original pulps. Looking forward to catching up to the next two in the series as soon as I can. Hopefully over Christmas if Santa brings the next new volume in his sack.

Doc Savage: The Miracle Menace

Bronzed Off

Doc Savage: The Miracle Menace
by Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray)
Altus Press 
ISBN: 978-1618271327

Warning: I’m sorry but, in order for me to talk about what I feel is a little “off” with this novel, it means I’m going to have to set loose some spoilers in here...

Hmmm. I’m going to level with you right from the start of this review and tell you straight up that, as far as Will Murray’s modern Doc Savage novels go, this one is so far the most distressing in terms of its departure from the tried and tested formula which has worked for the character since his inception.

Now I’ve always been a big fan of Murray, ever since he started writing new, additional stories in the 1990s which could be slotted in between various of the original 181 stories in The Man Of Bronze's long, initial 16 year career spanning the years from 1933 to 1949. I was sad when those new 1990s novels finished their run because, frankly, they were great Doc Savage stories and perfectly fit in with the originals written by Lester Dent (using the Street and Smith publications “house name” Kenneth Robeson).

As the new “Kenneth Robeson”, Murray started yet another batch of a projected eight further novels a few years ago and I’ve been reading them as soon as I’ve discovered each one has been released. However, the first of this new batch of releases, The Desert Demons, has kind of a crimp in it for me because the extraterrestrial origin of one of the elements of the story kinda knocked one of the guiding principals of the Doc Savage series... that everything could be explained away by science. Speculative science, perhaps, but Dent was very much a gadget man so when he talked about stuff ahead of his time (like microwaves) then he was pretty sure that it would come into being.

In other words... apart from the very last of Dent’s original stories, and I believe there were good reasons for that particular exception at the time... the endings of the Doc Savage stories always had what I would nowadays call a Scooby Doo ending. The real villain would be unmasked, that is to say, discovered and revealed, and the frankly often outrageous plot mechanisms would all be explained away by Doc, quite rationally and convincingly, with the aid of known scientific knowledge. There were no arguments because Dent rarely strayed too far from the realms of the possible or “almost possible” of his time.

And that’s the big problem with this new Doc Savage adventure too.

The plot deals with a house which perpetually vanishes in one plot line, a plot line which follows Doc and his crew, and with a group of murderous mind readers in another story, with a different bunch of characters... the action cross cutting from one set of characters to another in alternate chapters. This in itself is quite rare in the writing style of the Doc Savage novels. Rarely would an entire half of a story be following a group of previously unknown characters and, although the inevitable happens and the two groups of characters come to together as the two stories interpenetrate and mesh for the finale... it’s not really what I believe Lester Dent would have done structurally with this tale. I’m not knocking it in terms of entertaining and riveting writing... this is another great read by Murray... but I do think it’s lacking in terms of following the formula.

So, as I was saying, we have a vanishing house and a bunch of mind reading criminals posing as a bunch of religious workers. The house, it turns out, can go back in time and then return to the present day of the novel (sometime in the mid to late 30s) and that would explain why the murderous crew of mind reading antagonists are after the original Christopher Columbus. And that’s the set up...

Now, I was kinda worried as I was reading this one because, frankly, Murray was spinning the yarn with seemingly no room for the intervention of the kind of scientific invention needed to explain what was really going on here and, as it turns out, I was right to be worried.

The problem with this story, narrative structure aside, is that the house “really can” go back in time and the crew of murderous thugs “really can” read people’s minds... with the aid of their powers of extra sensory perception. Frankly, this sucks.

It’s not what I expect, or want, from a Doc Savage adventure. He was, after all, a “science detective”. Now I know there was some trepidation on the part of the author, or at least the publishers, on how Murray’s portrayal of the Doc Savage character would be perceived in the previous published adventure, the King Kong VS Doc Savage story Skull Island (reviewed here) but, frankly, I had no problem with that one. In the terms of the chronology of the development of the character, the things Doc did in that particular story made a lot of sense. The Miracle Menace, however, unsettled me far more and got me kinda outraged at the liberties which had been taken with the character. But, if that’s what the writer wants to do then that’s his call. I’ll moan about it once, here, and move on.

Asides from those two sticking points, though, being the scientific impossibility and the narrative structure, I have to say that Murray has done it again in delivering to us a full blooded, entertaining as heck, Doc Savage adventure... with Doc and his aides, asides from being in a scientifically confounding situation, all staying true to their characters and Murray’s even laid on some nice surprise guest appearances for people who are familiar with certain of the original stories. Fast paced, vivid action laced with colourful metaphors and pulse pounding suspense which will have you turning the pages faster than your fingers thought they knew how. If you’re a lover of this kind of pulp entertainment, and you don’t mind the odd liberty or two being taken with the tried and true Doc Savage formula, then The Miracle Menace would be a good one to put on your reading list. If you’re an absolute “Doc purist” however, you might be better off abstaining from this particular entry in the series.

Doc Savage: Death's Dark Domain

The Eyes Have It

Doc Savage: Death's Dark Domain
by Will Murray 
writing as Kenneth Robeson
Altus Press 
ISBN: 978-1618270825

Death’s Dark Domain is the fourth of Wil Murray’s second wave of writing further Doc Savage adventures as the new Kenneth Robeson - the pen name traditionally used for Doc Savage stories, most of which were written by Lester Dent - whose style Murray emulates perfectly.

This is not, of course, to say Murray’s mimicking of Dent’s style is not a creative endeavour. The trick is to come up with your own twists and spin on the Doc Savage legend while utilising that base style to ensure your own “yarn spinning” has some credibility within that particular universe and Murray is a master craftsman at this kind of work.

This Doc Savage adventure has a lot of tension and weight to it, since it’s set right after the events of one of the original Doc Savage adventures, Fortress Of Solitude. Yeah, that’s right, Doc had a Fortress Of Solitude in the Arctic many years before a certain other famous character in comics poached the concept (and his first name is even Clark too... ring any bells?). Also, fans of the Doc Savage series will know that Fortress Of Solitude was a very important novel in the Doc Savage canon. For... not only did it point out a mistake that Doc Savage had made in keeping an arsenal of “too advanced to fall into human hands” super weapons in his Fortress, thus providing the carrot for the lead villain on that particular story, but it also introduced the only villain ever to appear twice in the Doc Savage series (of which there were over 180 novels).

The thing is about Doc Savage is, he’s pretty much invincible. I only ever knew him to lose a situation once (in the very last of his original adventures after the title was cancelled, Up From Earth’s Centre... presumably because Dent wanted people to write in to the publishers to complain so they could see what happens next?) and he has always commanded an attitude and strength of character wherein you know that, if Doc Savage is on the case, he’s going to solve the groovy mystery (always explainable by science, with the one exception being, again, that very last published story of his early adventures) and this leaves the writer with something of a problem, if you look at it in this way. It means that every foe Doc comes up against... he only comes up against the once. He defeats them and he moves onto the next adventure. Except in one very special circumstance... in Fortress Of Solitude, the villain known only as John Sunlight, who is extremely smart and not to be taken for granted, almost as smart as Doc Savage himself, wanders off at the end and is “presumed” to be eaten by a stray polar bear.

However, that very same year, a further Doc Savage adventure, The Devil Genghis, put paid to that theory when John Sunlight returned. It’s an interesting development and I wish Dent would have brought the character back for further stories but perhaps he felt that this would wear down Doc’s credibility as an adventuresome superman too much. Who knows?

In Death’s Dark Domain, Doc and three of his crew (Monk, Ham and Long Tom) are still clearing up after the damage done in Fortress Of Solitude and it’s clear that they aren’t taking Sunlight’s supposed death for granted. In fact, Sunlight’s long shadow is cast over the first two thirds or so of this book like a spectre haunting Doc and his crew. It’s like they’re all expecting Sunlight to show his hand at any moment and this gives the writing an interesting colouring. Is John Sunlight in this one? And if he is, does that wreck continuity with the later story, The Devil Genghis? Well I’m really not going to tell you, you’ll have to find out for yourself but... certainly something of Sunlight’s presence is felt among the pages of this gripping tale, but it doesn’t necessarily come from the direction you think. And that’s all I’m saying about the Sunlight connection here.

The book starts off well and sets up the usual inexplicable phenomenon which Doc always gets around to explaining at the end of the novel in scientific terms. In this case, a darkness is causing the odd person to wake up supposedly dead, only to find that he or she has been turned into a pair of floating eyeballs. There are also ferocious, unseen cyclops wandering the country in which this is set and also much talk of vampires... indeed, Mr. Bram Stoker’s astonishing literary creation even gets a shout out here, and it’s unusual for a Doc Savage tale to identify a fictional character quite this blatantly.

One of my favourite characters, Pat Savage, gets a look in at the start of the novel but, alas, doesn’t join in on the adventure proper... again, I won’t say why. But the tale does feature a strong female character, who’s very much a mystery herself and... oh wait... I shouldn’t say too much about her either. but she’s pretty interesting and Doc is throughly disapproving of her actions in certain parts of the novel.

Murray weaves his tale with his usual brilliant pacing and utterly compelling storyline, which really does read like its just another novel sized story from the original pulp magazine. The action never lets up and he also uses elements that were ahead of the time in the thirties but which we can look back to now with a nostalgic reference.... something that Dent did in the original tales without understanding the effect, perhaps, that it would have on future generations of readers. Here, for example, Will Murray introduces a theremin as one of the elements in the mystery... which really brightened my reading experience because, well, I really love theremins (both the musical instrument and the story of the inventor behind them).

What more can I say about Death's Dark Domain? This book is terrific. If Doc Savage is your thing, and if you’re bothering to read this review I’m guessing he is, then you really won’t be disappointed with this blistering tale of the start of a war aggravated by the actions of John Sunlight in Fortress Of Solitude. Seriously good fun and Doc is seen at his most serious. Can’t wait to get onto the next one in the series. Well worth every penny.

Doc Savage: The Infernal Buddha

Buddha Keen, A Contender

Doc Savage The Infernal Buddha
by Will Murray 
writing as Kenneth Robeson
Altus Press 
ISBN: 978-1618270597

Warning: There are some spoilers in this review. Sorry.

So here we have the third of Will Murray’s second batch of Doc Savage novels (also reviewed here and here), following on from the batch he wrote in the early 1990s. Once again it’s a tale of high adventure using some of the characters we’re all familiar with from the original Lester Dent stories of the 1930s and onwards and, as usual with this guys work on the series, it’s got a lot going for it and Murray proves himself a more than worthy successor to the legacy of Street and Smith Publications' house name Kenneth Robeson.

This novel is a bit of a curious one in what you are actually getting, in terms of maybe a little more deviation from the formula than you might be comfortable with... although I think in this case, when respectfully done, it refreshes and updates, in the most positive way, the franchise for a new generation of readers (much like what Russel T. Davies did with Doctor Who a few years back). Different from the usual formula in that, while it all locks together as a single story, the structure of this one is such that it’s almost like it’s split into two different mini adventures. If I were any kind of football fan I might say it’s definitely a novel of two halves... but I’m not so I’ll try to make myself a little clearer.

The story involves a bunch of pirates headed by the first main villain of the piece, who comes into possession of an artefact called the Buddha’s Toe... which is about as dangerous a weapon as you’re going to get. Something happens when you open the box that houses the Buddha’s Toe, in that everything from the area in front of the box is dried up and made devoid of moisture, including people who quickly mummify up and die in seconds if they’re not beating a very hasty retreat. Doc Savage becomes embroiled in the affair and he obviously makes it his business to get the toe out of the hands of the murdering pirates who would possess it for themselves and unleash a deadly force which could destroy the world without even knowing what they are doing... and this he achieves in the first half of the book... the lead pirate mummifying to death in the power struggle which takes place, for the most part, on an island. Then things get more complicated as the Buddha’s Toe is merely a fragment of another artefact with the same properties, only much larger and more threatening.

The second half of the story follows Doc as he poses as a pirate in an attempt to wrest control of the more powerful artefact form the obsessive Japanese destroying Chinese cutthroats who would unleash it’s power in a similarly ignorant attempt to control a force that would be best left outside of their grasp. Things get a bit dicey for Doc and the gang but it all works out in the end... as you can probably guess.

An interesting and, for me, disappointing thing about this novel was that not all of The Amazing Five, Doc’s gang of aides, are present in the story. This is nothing new for the Doc Savage stories, and as the original thrillers used to be absent a number of the five towards the end of the run in 1949, you can’t fault Murray for jettisoning a few characters that he thought might have either been clogging up the action or providing too much of a deux ex machina in their collaboration in this story. So this one just features Monk, Ham and Rennie as Doc’s invaluable aides. I was distraught that Patricia Savage didn’t make the cut in this one either... I always like the stories where Doc’s cousin Pat is present, bronzed amazon adventuress that she is.

What you do get in this one is a more vulnerable Doc who does often find himself in situations which he doesn’t quite know how to handle. Now don’t panic, I know how that’s going to sound to any Savage fan, but you needn’t worry because the character in the original stories did used to have occasional brushes with uncertainty every now and again too. Let’s face it, although people lionise their heroes because of their superhuman, less flawed characteristics... that can sometimes make for a dull story. Instead, Murray gives us a version of Doc who has to rely on his wits just a little more than usual but, like I said, it’s not a bad call and, as long as he doesn’t start doing this in every novel, I personally think it’s acceptable once in a while. Not that he’s writing these for me, of course.

An especially great touch is when Doc loses his metal skull cap. It wasn’t mentioned too much in the original tales, as far as I recall, but it was certainly a part of the character which has always been there right from the beginning. Doc Savage’s fine hair is actually a facsimile of the same hair which sits underneath a metal skullcap, used to deflect bullets if Doc has to go diving head first into a brawl... it’s a stupid but brilliant invention and it's typical of the 1930s culture that spawned it. Like I said, it’s always there but rarely referred to this pointedly in the original series... and here, Murray spotlights it in one scene and uses it to make the hero even more vulnerable in a tight position. Using this stuff as a dramatic device is a good call and it works really well here because long term fans of the series will get another hit of “Savage nostalgia” while it also serves to put the key characters under more pressure. Bravo, Mr. Murray.

My one big complaint, and its a similar one I had when I was reading the denouement of his earlier novel Doc Savage: The Desert Demons (reviewed here), is that although the less than understandable destructive power of the Infernal Buddha is explained away in typical, for the series, scientific manner... the origin of the artefact in question is less explainable and relies on the reader swallowing a possible extraterrestrial origin. I personally think this is less than acceptable in a series that only once (to my knowledge), in its original incarnation, presented the “object of mystery”, as something genuinely unexplainable for Doc... which is something which was saved for his very last adventure, Up From Earth’s Centre, when the pulp magazine was cancelled. So, yeah, I would have preferred a lot more down to earth explanation for the title’s artefact in this story, methinks, but ultimately it didn’t detract too much from a solid adventure yarn, on the whole.

Also, while the cover artwork is another triumph of fantastic painting, I thought the subject matter was a little less in keeping with the spirit of the covers that have come before it over the last 80 years and it also spoils one of the possible surprises in one of the chapters... instead of letting realisation slowly dawn as to the identity of a new character arrival, we just have to remember the front cover illustration. So that could possibly have tipped novice Doc Savage readers off... seasoned readers will have jumped on it anyway as soon as the character appears.

All in all, though, I have to say that I really enjoyed this one and am especially looking forward to the March 80th anniversary story where Doc Savage crosses paths with another famous 1930s icon, King Kong. Can’t wait for that one. The Infernal Buddha is definitely a delight to read, however, and gets a hefty recommendation from me for any fans of the character who are still willing to go along for the ride. Good stuff!

Doc Savage: Horror In Gold

Bronzed Gold

Doc Savage: Horror In Gold

by Will Murray writing as Kenneth Robeson

Altus Press ISBN: 1618270230

Earlier in the year I reviewed the first in a new series of Will Murray’s second stint of following in the footsteps of the late, great Lester Dent (Kenneth Robeson). The first of these new Doc Savage novels was reviewed by me here and I also went into a little detail about just what the character had come to mean to me over the years and why Murray’s return to the series is such a special treat. I also had some misgivings about the pacing on that one but didn’t let it spoil things for me too much... and all in all I gave that novel a pretty good review.

All I can say about this follow up novel, Doc Savage: Horror In Gold is.. wow!

Well, no. Okay. That’d be a bit silly of me to write this review if all I could say is wow. That’d be pretty limiting to my vocabulary, don’t you think?

But the spirit of my review is definitely one of impressed stupefication, because this one is absolutely tremendous and doesn’t suffer from the same, slightly pendulous pacing which I raised objections to in the first. This novel, once again, shows that Murray is a real artist at work and, I’d have to say, if this was just packaged up like an old 60s or 70s Bantam reprint edition of one of the good Clark Savage Jr’s adventures and I didn’t know that this was Murray’s work, I would be none the wiser that it wasn’t an original “Robeson” I suspect.

Even before I got to the table of contents on this one, I was hooked by something I saw which, rather cheekily, was presented as a dedication but which tells you a whole lot more. Plus it included an “old timey” photo of the guy the dedication is made to. It reads as follows...

“For John L. Nanovic, who rejected this premise back in 1935, so that it could become a reality in the 21st century!”

How cool is that?

Dent had obviously, back in 1935, submitted a proposal for this novel and the powers that be in Conde Naste (presumably?) decided against it. I don’t know why it was rejected exactly but, if the nature of the mysterious deaths was already sketched out, I suspect it might have been felt that this was a little more stronger meat than the regular Doc Savage readers were used too. Or at least, would have become used to as the series progressed.

It’s pretty dark stuff too... with peoples heads suddenly half blowing off or exploding for no apparent reason and severed fingers suddenly turning up. There’s even a sequences where, due to the mysterious and highly scientificified* (hey, it’s Doc Savage after all) source of the mysterious death, Doc and his crew are attacked with unwilling human targets who explode against their will and leave a shower of red and gunky innards in their wake. Now while some people today may find this kind of excruciatingly gory death a little bit too much for a Doc Savage adventure, I’d like to point out that there were far more gruesome things appearing from time to time within the pages of the original Doc Savage pulp magazines than this. I remember one particularly dark torture scene once involving the application of splinters of wood set alight that fair made my hair stand on end when I was a lot younger than I am now.

So, frankly, any criticism of the way in which people in this novel meet their gruesome end is something that I think you can throw safely out the window. Horror In Gold is a very respectful romp through a typical Doc Savage adventure and the pacing on this one is beyond blistering and keeps the right tone all the way through. The amazing elements of the adventure are done in an intelligent and knowing manner and I never once lose faith in any of the characters... in fact, Murray had me trusting him on this one so much that when he has fan favourite Monk Mayfair do something which is very (well, fairly) uncharacteristic to Ham, it doesn’t grate or stand out. I just accepted it that this is what that character would do when subjected to this particular kind of stress. 

What’s more important, though, is that the novel is completely entertaining and, dare I say it in this day and age, thrilling. Also, it’s shot through with a great sense of humour which is in no way disrespectful to any of the characters and even has them identifying and joining in the fun. There’s a great running gag throughout the course of the story, for example, where all of the vehicles Doc and his crew use - land, air or sea - are systematically either stolen by the bad guys or completely destroyed by them... often leaving our heroes stranded before they can give chase. It’s a very welcome little gimmick which doesn’t outstay that welcome and Murray has done the right thing here and totally melded his own writing style with the “Dent/Robeson” style and, well, it really pays off.

If you’re already a Doc Savage fan then you need look no further than this fantastic homage to Doc and his crew. A brilliant and welcome edition to the original novels and the additions by both Philip Jose Farmer and Murray himself, over the years. If you’re not a regular reader of the character then, believe me, you could do a lot worse than use this one as a jumping on point... if you can’t get ahold of any of the original pulps or novels to devour first. A great read and well done to Will Murray. Looking forward to reading the next two in the series, which are both on my Christmas list!

*No, that's fine, it's my blog. I can make up words like that if I want to. You know what I mean anyway.