Kenneth Robeson

Ah, good ol' Dr. Clark Savage Jr. Imbued with stunning good looks, incredible gold flake eyes, perfect physique, and quite possibly the most perfect brain in the most perfect body ever imagined.

He sees all, knows all, and is endlessly inventive. He is the expert on every major discipline, whether it's medicine, chemistry, engineering...you name it, he's the best at it.

I mean, as near as I can figure, his only flaw (judging from the covers) is that he's incapable of keeping a shirt show more intact.

And in this inaugural adventure, the full set up is simply to make him and his team unimaginably wealthy, so they can do what they do best: chew gum and kick ass, and right now, they're plumb outta gum.

I first discovered the Doc Savage paperbacks when James Bama's glorious cover art captured my attention in the Coles bookstore in the Oshawa Centre, way back in 1974 or so, when I was a wide-eyed twelve-year-old looking for my next great read. And in Doc Savage's adventures, I found them. I could, even at that age, blast through one of the novels in two or three hours, and then head back to the mall for the next one. I read probably 25-30 of them over the next three years or so, until a certain horror author named [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] (along with [a:Graham Masterton|10275|Graham Masterton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1250596895p2/10275.jpg]) turned my head and set me down a new path.

Honestly, getting down to brass tacks, the writing is quite dreadful, the lead protagonist completely unbelievable, and the stories implausible...and yet, here I am with only 180 more of them to read, and fully committed to doing so over the next few years. I've restarted and stopped a couple of times in the ensuing four decades, but I've always wanted to read them all. Now, I'm gonna.

This is going to be equal parts fun, nostalgic, and painful. I can't wait. show less

This one was a more claustrophobic adventure, almost as though Doc Savage had suffered a budget cut.

Instead of spanning the globe and ending up in a more exotic location, this one never leaves the New York/New Jersey locale. And, it also cut out Renny, Long Tom, and Johnnie altogether, though it did once again bring in Pat Savage long enough to be captured and spend the bulk of the novel off stage. Seriously, Pat Savage is sorely underused in this series.

Still, for all that, it was a fun show more one, and Doc got caught off guard a couple of times. But overall, this one was different enough from the previous nineteen that I had to go check to see if it had been penned by Lester Dent. It had. So I'm wondering if there might have been a bit of writer fatigue going on. show less

I originally was going to say this was an utterly forgettable Doc Savage novel, and I mostly stand by that, aside from three things.

At one point, Monk is taken away for questioning, and Ham—consistently described as one of the finest legal minds to ever graduate Harvard—asks Doc if they can keep Monk in jail over night. Um...isn't that Ham's area of expertise?

At another point, Monk, one of the finest chemists on the planet, decides to find out what chemical is in a bottle...and it could show more be anything, including something extremely dangerous... and he just...opens it up.

And finally, just a little later, Doc has to explain to this same brilliant chemist about...the chemical properties of a radioactive substance.

Less than forgettable, this one was simply ridiculous. show less

Y'know, as I slowly make my way through the original Doc Savage yarns—with this one done, I'm at 8.8% through them—it's very obvious there's a formula. There's certain things that need to be mentioned in each book, or at least most of them.

Doc's physique and intelligence.
The real and nicknames and fields of his five accomplices.
Johnnie has to say "I'll be superamalgamated!"
Monk and Ham must squabble.
Doc must do his two-hour work out.
Doc must make his trilling noise.
Doc's building and show more offices have to be talked about.
It must be shown that most of the major industries (medical, journalism, law, political) will help Doc out unquestioningly, or get out of his way to let him do his thing.
An enemy who is physically abnormal must launch his nefarious plan.
Things need to appear to go south before we discover Doc has it all under control
Doc needs to set certain things in motion that will only play out later, showing his uncanny forethought and planning.
Fights and guns and travel (by air or sea or train or trudging through some jungle).
Often, there's a shockingly beautiful woman that Monk and Ham attempt to seduce (Monk seems to win a lot), but she'll also fall hard for Doc and be upset or angry that he doesn't reciprocate.

I'm probably missing a few, but that's not a bad list. It's all so predictable, and yet...

I really do enjoy the hell out of these 90 year old stories. They're stupid, they're misogynist, they're often racist, but, if you understand that that was the times, do your best to ignore the worst of it, this is like some epic comic book adventure every time. No, they're not politically correct anymore, but when I read them, I'm that 13 year old kid again, reading them for the first time and digging the heck out of them.

This one was no different. Some are better paced and written than others, and this was one of the better ones.

Only 165 more to go! show less