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 As a pulp fiction fan I generally don't get too worked up about outdated depictions of ethnic minorities, but they were particularly prominent and ignorant in Pirate of the Pacific.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 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 February 11, 2019.

The Phantom City (Doc Savage #10)

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

Review by Robin Marx

After what seems like too many America-bound stories (The Red Skull, The Czar of Fear, Quest of the Spider), this entry is a return to globe-trotting adventure. After being attacked by a group with high-tech weapons (basically rail guns, which was surprising to see in a story this old) Savage is approached by an Arab seeking to hire the Helldiver submarine (last seen in The Polar Treasure) for mysterious reasons.

Put simply, this is the sort of story I read Doc Savage for. It has a brisk pace, world travel, a lost civilization, subhuman savages, advanced technology, and an exotic beauty. It was nice to see the return of the Helldiver submarine, as it seems like gear, treasure, and vehicles acquired in pulp stories and comics all too often evaporates between episodes.

I was starting to lose interest in the series after bland installments like The Red Skull and The Czar of Fear, but this story was a return to form. It looks like the following volume is another story set in America, but hopefully it maintains this level of energy.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 30, 2018.

The Sargasso Ogre (Doc Savage #8)

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

Review by Robin Marx

Returning from their last adventure, upon leaving Egypt Doc Savage and his companions have their ocean liner hijacked by modern day pirates and taken to the Sargasso Sea. Doc Savage finds himself working to protect both the passengers of his ocean liner and a shipful of beautiful castaways while dealing with well-entrenched enemies led by the titular “Sargasso Ogre.”

This was one of the better entries in the Doc Savage series so far. It felt a bit more grounded than some previous installments (i.e., no giant poisonous bats this time), but it included exotic locations, an interesting antagonist, and plenty of action.

Doc's companions didn't seem especially effective this time, so Doc is left to do most of the heavy lifting. The women presented in the story were surprisingly well-rendered for the time. Their leader instantly falls for “woman-proof” Savage, of course, but she and her crew prove to be brave and resourceful.

Bruze, the “Sargasso Ogre,” is one of the more interesting opponents portrayed in the series so far. He's physically intimidating, but in his one hand-to-hand combat with Doc he immediately realizes he is outmatched, and spends rest of the book actively avoiding another fight, instead relying on animal cunning to put Savage in danger. The moment in which he receives his comeuppance is rather abrupt, but it makes for an exciting scene of poetic justice.

★★★☆☆

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

The Red Skull (Doc Savage #6)

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

Review by Robin Marx

Doc Savage is hired to investigate a criminal conspiracy and incidents of sabotage involving a dam being built by the Desert Mining Construction Company.

While not without merit, this is probably the blandest entry in the Doc Savage series so far. There are some nice action scenes and Monk's secretary Lea Aster, the sole female character, shows a great deal of ingenuity in getting word out to Doc Savage after she is kidnapped by hoods. This volume was also completely absent of dated racist stereotyping, but this is probably because the book takes place entirely within America's borders. Exotic locations are a big draw for me when it comes to pulp fiction, so their absence in this story was a definite negative. While physically present for most of the story, another weakness is the fact that Savage's five companions also do not have much dialogue.

The criminal conspiracy at the heart of the story is interesting, as is the fact that Doc Savage spends a great deal of time surrounded by people who may or be secret saboteurs. However, once again the masked mastermind is dramatically revealed to be...a minor, unobtrusive supporting character who we are given no prior reason to suspect. This seems to happen frequently in the Doc Savage stories. A little foreshadowing would go a long way when it comes to adding some impact to the final reveal. All in all a C effort.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 19, 2016.

The Man of Bronze (Doc Savage #1)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – March 1, 1933

Review by Robin Marx

I had heard a bit about the titular “Man of Bronze,” but had never previously had the chance to read one of the stories. As a fan of pulp fiction I read this, the first of the Doc Savage novels, with great interest.

Both the characters and the story lived up to expectations. Doc Savage was, as expected, a paragon of mankind. He's a genius with the physique of an Olympian. His close friends—a lawyer, geologist, chemist, historian, etc.—are equally as remarkable, but I found it interesting that even in their chosen specialties, they're still second to Savage himself. Savage is basically perfect. And while this would grate in many forms of literature, it's easy to accept in pulp fiction from this time period. Savage is JUST that good.

While I had a bit of trouble keeping Savage's five friends straight (some have more of a presence in the story than others), I enjoyed their first adventure. The pace was brisk and it involved both strange assassins and the treasures of a lost Mayan civilization deep in the jungle. Just the kind of thing I was looking for when I picked up this book.

This book is a product of its time, but I was pleasantly surprised with how the Mayans were treated in this book. They weren't all ignorant savages, many of them were shown to be intelligent, civilized, and generous. They worked with the main characters and had agency, rather than being presented as inferior cannon fodder. There's only one named female character in the book, but she too is shown to be bright and resourceful, and is never reduced to a mere victim or damsel in distress.

I found the ending to be a bit abrupt, but the heroics and breakneck pace of the story appealed a great deal. I look forward to reading future installments in the series.

★★★★☆

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