This review originally appeared on Goodreads on December 25, 2018.

Men of Bronze

By Scott Oden – Medallion Press – January 1, 2005

Review by Robin Marx

This action-packed historical fiction book is about Barca, a rage-filled mercenary working in the service of the Pharaoh and entrusted with protecting Egypt from encroaching Greeks and Persians. It reads a great deal like the swashbuckling historicals of Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb, so fans of the action pulp tradition will find a lot to like here.

Characters are sketched in broad strokes, but the main ones are given enough nuance to keep them from seeming shallow. The pacing is brisk throughout, and the ancient Egyptian setting adds flavor without getting bogged down in minutiae.

While fans of Robert E. Howard or ancient battle action in general are likely to enjoy this book, the ending seemed ridiculously abrupt to me. The climactic battle itself was vivid and exciting, but it would have been nice if a little more time was spent on the conclusion to Barca's tale and the aftermath. The ending isn't bad, per se, just rushed. That being said, I'd be happy to read other books by the author.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 24, 2016.

The Land of Terror (Doc Savage #2)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1933

Review by Robin Marx

Doc Savage's second adventure (according to the serial publication date, rather than the novel series') is a lackluster one. It starts off interestingly enough, with an acquaintance of Doc Savage falling victim to a mysterious assassination, his body almost completely dissolved by an unknown substance. While action packed, the story and characterization that follows is sleight, even by pulp fiction standards.

One weakness is that the heroes don't reach the titular Land of Terror until literally halfway through the book. The first half mostly involves Doc Savage and his crew dealing with thugs led by a shadowy villain known as Kar. Savage discovers their hideout, a cheesy pirate ship museum, fairly early on, but for some reason he ends up making multiple trips to this same location, rather than dealing with the criminals in one fell swoop. While there are some exciting set pieces (including the classic situation where a sidekick is trapped in a chamber slowly filling with water), it feels strange that Savage keeps returning there.

Things pick up when Savage and his friends finally end up at the Land of Terror (that's actually the name used for the island in the text). As the cover reveals, the place is a “Lost World” filled with aggressive dinosaurs.

There's some attempt to play up the “mystery” surrounding Kar's identity, but that plot thread is fairly limp. I suspect most readers paying a modicum of attention to the story will pick up on it.

One issue I noticed in the first story returns in the second as well: Doc Savage has too many friends. The bickering between the apish chemist Monk and the prissy lawyer Ham continues to entertain, but Doc Savage's other three traveling companions (Renny, Long Tom, and the Other Guy) still don't have any memorable (or even distinguishing) qualities, nor do they contribute much to the plot apart from serving as kidnap victims.

While not a bad story, this volume was uneven and merely OK. Hopefully the next installment is closer in quality to the first book.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 5, 2015.

Gentlemen of the Road

By Michael Chabon – Ballantine Books – October 30, 2007

Review by Robin Marx

Impishly nicknamed “Jews with Swords” by its author, Gentlemen of the Road is a historical adventure tale about a pair of rogues—a giant African soldier named Amram and a German physician/fencer named Zelikman—and their journey through the (largely unfamiliar to me and apparently scantly chronicled) city-states of Khazaria.

Pleasingly reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Amram and Zelikman are introduced in a very amusing fashion that immediately familiarizes the reader with the most salient aspects of their personalities. They overcome their baser instincts to grudgingly become involved in what looks like a simple escort mission, only to find their task rapidly balloon in importance, until they end up having an inadvertent and significant political impact on the region.

While this book is dedicated to Michael Moorcock, to me it felt more like a swashbuckling yarn in the tradition of Robert E. Howard or Harold Lamb. The narrative travels along at a brisk pace with no wasted verbiage, and characters are mostly rendered in broad, archetypal strokes. The episodic format (the novel was originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine) and monochrome illustrations by the excellent Gary Gianni (who also handled the Del Rey Conan and Solomon Kane books, etc.) also contributed greatly to the pulp adventure appeal.

My only complaint with the book is that there isn't more of it. I would love to read more of the “Gentlemen's” adventures, but with his “literary” pedigree Chabon is probably loath to be perceived as repeating himself. Indeed, parts of the included Afterword seem a bit like a defense of him writing the story in the first place, saying effectively “Yeah, I mostly write New Yorker-style slice-of-life stories, but adventure tales are also really great!” Personally, I'd rather see him continue to experiment with genre rather than write any more “Jewish writer has marital struggles” stories, but it remains to be seen when he'll release his next “fun” novel.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 28, 2019.

The White Darkness

By David Grann – Doubleday – October 30, 2018

Review by Robin Marx

A brief but exciting read about a modern adventurer walking in the footsteps of his hero, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. In addition to a quick overview of the earliest polar expeditions, this book covers Henry Worsley's successful journey as well as the disastrous solo attempt that followed years later. The story touches on hero worship and the limits of human endurance as well as reminding the reader just how much untouched and inhospitable terrain remains on our planet.

As a two-part New Yorker essay, this was perfectly sized. However, had I paid for the published book edition (currently $12 on Amazon) I likely would have felt ripped-off. This book is more of a breezy sketch than an in-depth day-by-day portrayal.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 9, 2017.

The Polar Treasure / Pirate of the Pacific (Doc Savage #4 & #5)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1934

Review by Robin Marx

The Polar Treasure was a lot of fun, but the accompanying Pirate of the Pacific was perhaps the weakest installment in the series this far, even worse than Quest of the Spider.

The Polar Treasure starts off with the kidnapping of a blind master violinist and ends up with a submarine voyage to the arctic. The action is great, Doc's exploits are clever, and the supporting characters memorable. One twist was that instead of one nefarious criminal gang, Doc and his crew find themselves dealing with two competing gangs of crooks. This adds an extra dimension to the narrative not seen in previous installments.

While The Polar Treasure was a great deal of fun, Pirate of the Pacific was a dull slog. Taking place immediately after The Polar Treasure (Doc and his friends are journeying back from the arctic circle in their submarine), the story involves a “modern day” pirate named Tom-Too attempting to conquer the “Luzon Union” (apparently the fictionalized Philippines). I found it difficult to remain involved in the action. There's a briefly interesting passage where Doc and his pals go incognito on the same ocean liner as Tom-Too and his cronies, but Doc Savage's pals are repeatedly and monotonously kidnapped and rescued over the course of the story. Doc's escapes from danger are even more unbelievable than usual, and even the shark attack scenes are less exciting than they could have been. When Tom-Too's true identity was revealed as a fairly unobtrusive supporting character I couldn't summon up much more than a shrug.

While it tinges pretty much all of the Doc Savage stories given the time period, the racism in Pirate of the Pacific is particularly egregious. Tom-Too's gang is a mix of Asian ethnicities, so there are lots of references to “slanted-eyes,” yellow skin, “half-castes,” and so forth. The Man of Bronze spends a great deal of time undercover in yellow-face, speaking in the same cringe-worthy “Me so solly!” pidgin and fawning “O most beneficent one!” pseudo-Chinese speech as the evil Asian criminals. As a pulp fiction fan I generally don't get too worked up about outdated depictions of ethnic minorities, but they were particularly prominent and ignorant in Pirate of the Pacific. The Polar Treasure had some references to foul-smelling, superstitious Eskimos, but they weren't portrayed as wicked sub-humans.

The Polar Treasure was one of the better Doc Savage yarns, but I think Pirate of the Pacific can be safely skipped.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 18, 2019.

The Man Who Shook the Earth (Doc Savage #12)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1934

Review by Robin Marx

This installment in the Doc Savage series has a lot in common with previous volumes Quest of the Spider and The Czar of Fear. All of these stories deal with a disguised criminal mastermind trying to muscle out the competition and take over a specific industry. The previous two books involved lumber and mining, while this one involves nitrate production.

I groaned a bit when I saw the direction this story was taking, but the end result was more interesting than those previous two stories. Rather than taking place in the US, this story involved both New York and Chile, and—even when lightly sketched and reliant on broad stereotypes—Doc Savage's globe-trotting adventures tend to be the most fun.

The villain was also more intriguing this time, as his interest in nitrate production was about more than just personal enrichment. The reader is kept guessing as to the villain's true identity up until the very end, as well, instead of being obvious from their first appearance.

Despite the somewhat formulaic approach, this ended up one of the more interesting installments in the series.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 25, 2016.

Quest of the Spider (Doc Savage #3)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1933

Review by Robin Marx

Despite being marked as #68, Quest of the Spider was originally printed as the third Doc Savage adventure.

I found this story to be a mixed bag. The swampy setting is interesting (albeit not as much as a dinosaur-filled Lost World) and there's plenty of action, but the core premise—the search for a shadowy crime lord who has been disrupting Louisiana's lumber industry—isn't as exciting as the ones presented in the first two stories.

Much of the second half of the story takes place deep in the swamp, where Doc Savage and his companions battle against the titular Grey Spider's henchmen, an isolated Creole voodoo tribe called the Cult of the Moccasin. This portion of the story has a lot of excitement, but readers are also subjected to a lot of dodgy pulp representation of the Cajun dialect and the voodoo cult characters are stereotyped as ignorant savages (mixed race but exhibiting only the worst characteristics of their origins and none of the positive ones, to paraphrase a line from the book) who revel in the idea of sacrificing a white child. That being said, late in the story two of the named swamp folk are given a bit more development; one realizes the error of his evil ways and another's defects are revealed to be the result of a brain injury and cured by Savage.

One interesting aspect of this story is how Doc Savage captures most of his opponents alive, drugs them, and has them shipped to a secret facility Savage has established in upstate New York, where he “corrects” criminal behavior through neurosurgery. This probably seemed both high-tech and humane at the time these stories were written (they're fixed now!), but perhaps seems a little ominous to the modern reader in our more cynical era.

Another interesting part of the story is how little “screen time” Doc Savage himself receives. He's missing and presumed dead for much of the last third of the book, and it's his assistants that feature most heavily. Also starring are a two-fisted lumber baron and his amazingly gorgeous daughter with an amazingly dowdy name: Edna. Both play an active role in helping Doc Savage help them. Once again we see Doc Savage ignore a beautiful woman's attention. This is presented as evidence of his gravely serious nature and lack of time for frivolity, but I like a bit of “spice” (to use the pulp term) and it seems like a missed opportunity for drama to me.

Like the last book, there's a bit of mystery surrounding the identity of the Grey Spider. It's not as blatantly telegraphed as in the second Doc Savage book, but neither is the reader given much of a reason to suspect the true enemy, nor is he given much of a motive than pure greed. The result is that when the Grey Spider is revealed, my reaction was less a gasp than a shrug. OK.

All-in-all this was a brisk, energetic read, but it didn't grab me as much as the stories that precede it.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 31, 2011.

The Son of Tarzan

By Edgar Rice Burroughs – A. C. McClurg – 1915

Review by Robin Marx

While The Son of Tarzan gets off to a promising start, the second half was disappointing compared to the previous books in the series. The title character, Jack/Korak, suffers from not being as interesting as his father. The books lacks a compelling antagonist as well, replacing the strong villain Rokoff with a small and continually rotating rogues gallery that appear small time by comparison.

There's a fair amount of jungle adventure to be had in this installment. Jack's adjustment to life in the wilderness and his life with the ape Akut are the highlights of the novel. However, the plot takes a sharp turn halfway in, with almost the entire remainder of the book focusing on the least interesting character in the story. Perhaps a more fitting title would have been The Son of Tarzan's Girlfriend.

Despite the above complaints, the climax and denouement go a long way in redeeming the overall story. While nowhere near as strong as The Beasts of Tarzan, this book is still worth a read.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 17, 2018.

The Czar of Fear (Doc Savage #9)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – 1933

Review by Robin Marx

While this book had some high points, overall it was a pretty tepid entry in the series so far.

The plot felt like it borrowed a great deal from previous installment Quest of the Spider, but with the sinister criminal mastermind attempting to move in on a mining town rather than the lumber industry. I tend to prefer Doc Savage's more globe-trotting expeditions, however, so this small town America-bound story was less engaging for me. Apart from the titular Czar of Fear, the Green Bell, the other antagonists seemed pretty one-dimensional and ineffectual.

On the plus side, the villain makes some interesting use of technology and is also fairly clever in his struggle against Doc Savage. Having Doc on the run from false murder allegations also adds an extra twist to the tale, making this adventure seem like slightly less of a cakewalk than usual for him. And while I missed Ham's absence from most of the narrative, Long Tom has a bit more spotlight time than most episodes and Monk's soft spot for beautiful women is brought up again.

Overall, this book is worth a read for Doc Savage fans, but it's not a particularly distinguished or memorable adventure.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 3, 2014.

Bait

Edited by J. Kent Messum – Plume – August 27, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

Short and nasty, this little book was sort of a combination between The Most Dangerous Game and Saw. The premise was simple but effective: shadowy figures maroon six junkies on a remote archipelago in the Florida Keys, then place a package of heroin and supplies on a neighboring island. The addicts are forced to deal with aggressive sharks and their murderous audience, who watch from an offshore yacht. The heroin acts as bait for the addicts, and the addicts are bait for the sharks. Exciting stuff!

While the author kept things moving fast, the first half of the book was still hindered by the presence of six unnecessary and redundant flashbacks. The characters' backgrounds were all pretty similar (“I used to be X, then got hooked on heroin. Yesterday I was stalked and rendered unconscious by beefy guys.”), and they end up verbally explaining their circumstances to the other characters anyway. The flashbacks are mercifully brief, but they distract from the characters' more exciting present and end up feeling like filler. The book could have shed this bit of fat and become an even better, punchier novella.

While the characters were a little thin—the non-shark antagonists seemed a bit like comic book baddies—the story's pace was brisk and action-packed. While the term “pulp” is often used by snobs to dismiss stories that emphasize action and excitement over characterization and deep reflection, Bait is a good, modern embodiment of the best qualities of the pulp adventure tale. If the premise intrigues you, by all means give this book a read.

★★★★☆

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