Book Report #65 - The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont

What a HOOT!

Being a lover of pulp fiction what could be better than a pulpy adventure involving the authors of some of the best known titles?  Walter Gibson (aka Maxwell Grant - The Shadow) and Lester Dent (aka Kenneth Robeson - Doc Savage) find themselves ensnared in a mystery involving the death of H.P. Lovecraft, poison gas and Chinese warriors.

There is a wonderful rivalry between these two giants of pulp fiction which walks the line between fiction and fact and is used very cleverly to have them confront the peril from opposite ends.

Malmont did a fine job of including other up-and-coming luminaries of genre fiction of the time (1930's) into the story.  He also managed to include and make very important to the story, Lester Dent's wife and Walter Gibson's love.  Both these ladies played critical roles in pushing the story further.

Once you read this you'll want to dig up as many Doc Savage and Shadow books you can get your hands on.

It took a little while for the story to get going (a function of today's fiction market expecting books of a certain length) which I had to struggle through.  The book was divided into five "Issues" that were roughly the length of the magazines of the day, this was a nice nod to that era's fiction.  It would have been nice if each of these issues would have had stronger cliff-hanger endings but that is a very minor criticism of the work.

I could feel the respect, depth of knowledge and love of the pulps that Malmont brought to this first novel.  Which was confirmed in his tender epilogue.

Yup.  I'm a fan.

Visit Paul Malmont's web page HERE

Paul Malmont

Book Report #59 - The Spider Strikes by R.T.M Scott

The "original" Radio Archives cover.

Arguably the Number Three character of the pulp era, after The Shadow and Doc Savage.

Richard Wentworth is a rich New York bachelor who, with the help of his trusted servant, Ram Singh and his girlfriend Nita Van Sloan, fights crime with deadly consequences.  He's suspected by the police of being The Spider which adds a fun increase to the suspense of the stories.  Not only are you wondering how he's going to defeate the bad guys but also how he's going to avoid capture by the authorities.

Set in present day 1933, the story kicks off with Wentworth confronting a notorious con man on board a transatlantic ocean liner. The rest of the story is set in Manhattan where you can hear the jazz, see the potted ferns and taste the champagne of a man who has continued to thrive, even in the depts of the Great Depression.

The first two novels were written by Scott before being taken over by Norvell W. Page who then took the character to dizzying places.  I'm looking forward to these supercharged stories.  This first novel of the series was very much a battle of wits from two highly intelligent foes and relies a lot on deception by the use of disguises.

My favourite part of the story was when our two advisaries meet face to face and have a civil discussion on how they will defeate each other.

The story was wonderful.  It was sophisticated, quick-paced, violent and filled with believable characters.  It was definitely worth the 10 cents charged at the time and the $3.00 I paid for the paperback reprint, published in 1969, that I bought from a used bookstore.

My paperback copy

Partway through the book I spent another $3.00 to get the ebook version from a company called Radio Archives.  This version was fantastic; not only did I get the original novel and the original cover art but there was an historical essay about the the Spider stories and the pulp era.  Plus, and this was the real hook for me, the two backup short stories that were published in the original magazine.  This is the kind of stuff that can really add to the experience of reading vintage fiction and is a way of preserving stories that would be lost otherwise.

These guys are doing a fantastic job!  Look for Radio Archives HERE to browse all the titles.

Now for the short story reviews:

Baited Death by Leslie C. White: Holy cow! This was a serious bit of hard, hard boiled storytelling. A cop is killed and his partner takes justice into his own hands to avenge his death. This story alone was worth the purchase price.

Murder Undercover by Norvell Page: Another story about Revenge. Set in Washington, DC, the nephew of an Italian ambassador uncovers the truth behind his uncle's death.

Ford 8

Book Report #58 - The Spook Legion a Doc Savage Adventure by Kenneth Robeson

Doc Savage.  There is no way I can begin to tell you about this legendary fictional hero.

Start at Wikipedia then follow the links from there for further exploration.  Get there from HERE.

I've read a few Doc Savage stories before and I've always found the narrative a bit stiff but I've always been able to set that aside as it being an example of the style from its time.  First published in April 1935, Doc, Monk and Ham try their best to stop a crime spree committed by invisible groups of men.

This book did not lack for action, but I nevertheless found the first half exceedingly dull.  The trio would chase after the crooks as they moved from bigger to bigger acts of robbery.  Unfortunately Robeson/Dent kept trying to thrill the reader by revealing the acts of invisible (Gasp! Invisible!) men.

The story did not get interesting until Doc and Monk were taken captive and made invisible themselves.  Once the boys were interacting with the "invisi-bad-guys" I was turning pages and looking forward to finding out how it all ended.

Lester Dent wrote most of the 181 Doc Savage stories, some are better than others, this one is only okay - good if you can get to the last half of the book, but you have to read the first half to get there.

The original magazine - April 1935

Book Report #35 - Pacific Vortex by Clive Cussler

Oh my God - what fun!

Clive Cussler has a special place in my heart.  I read him a lot when I was a teenager (sadly a long time ago) and I grew out of his books in my mid 20's.  With my interest in pulp fiction it didn't take long to rediscover good 'ol Cussler who has not slowed down one bit.

This guy is in his 80's now and is only increasing his output by teaming up with all kinds of authors including his own son, Dirk.  The authors he's teamed up with are, Paul Kemprecos, Craig Dirgo, Jack Dubrul, Justin Scott and Grant Blackwood.

The basic story goes like this:  There is an area in the Pacific, north of Hawaii, called the Pacific Vortex, that has, for decades, has been known for ships disappearing with out a trace, just like the Bermuda Triangle.  Along comes a newly built American nuclear submarine and it too goes missing.  Our hero, Dirk Pitt, finds the captain's log capsule floating in the ocean and takes it directly to the US navy.  Thus begins the adventure and with the weight of the US navy the mystery of the Vortex is uncovered.

Pacific Vortex was the first Dirk Pitt adventure written by Cussler but was the sixth in publication order.  This is like American James Bond stuff!  Complete with an evil overlord in a hidden fortress of doom!  There are many tropes that Cussler uses that, like the James Bond films, if they are not present the book feels incomplete.  There is always a beautiful woman who falls, usually tragically, in love with Pitt, there is his best friend and partner Al Girodino and there are the cars.  Oh, the cars are wonderful and sadly the cars also come to tragic ends as well.  But not in this story  Here Pitt drives an AC Cobra into the sunset with nary a scratch on her.  Whew!

This was pure pulpy fun!  Knowing that it was written in the 70's and published in 1983 the story actually stands up very well.  There are no glaringly obsolete technologies mentioned and the story feels just like a James Bond movie.  If you like action, adventure, exotic locations, beautiful babe, humor and men being men - you really can't go wrong with this book.

Book Report #34 - Perry Rhodan - Enterprise Stardust

Perry Rhodan, Book 1
by
K. H. Scheer & Clark Darlton

This is an interesting story in the world of publishing.  Begun in 1961 this German science fiction series has been in constant publication, written by a team of authors, for nearly 50 years!  To stagger the mind a bit more; it's published weekly!  The series is sold in instalments and many story arcs (or cycles as they are know in this series)  can range from 25 to 100 issues before the tale is told.

The universe of Perry Rhodan is revisionist; substituting Neil Armstrong as the first man on the moon with Perry Rhodan and his team.  Written a bit like the Doc Savage stories of the 30's Rhodan is the brains behind everything while his team members represent the best in his field.

In 1969 Ace Books began publishing English translations of the series in mass market paperbacks.  If you haunt used book stores, like I do, you'll see loads of these books still floating around.  The difficulty is in finding the early issues in publication order.  Ace published 118 books in the series before ending the project due to lack of sales.

I was able to find PDF editions of the books on-line and converted the first five books to EPUB and loaded them onto my new Kobo Vox.

This first story sets the stage in the series; Rhodan and his team crash land on the moon because some energy beam interfered with their remote controlled landing sequence.  Once safely on the surface Rhodan discovers another crash-landed ship.  This one is most definitely alien in origin.  They make first contact and discover they are in a position to help the aliens in exchange for advanced technology and Rhodan's desire to unite all the people of Earth, which would allow humans the opportunity to join a galaxy-spanning society filled with alien races united under one old (and failing) government.

You can see all the popular science fiction movies taking parts of this series and using them in their own stories.  First Contact, Galactic Empires, Humans discovering they are not alone - all of it is here.

Even more fun is the cheesy 60's and 70's attitudes that prevail and how 50 years of scientific progress renders these stories charmingly dated.