Doc Savage (1933) is an early superhero, predating Superman (1938) and Batman (1939). Like Batman, he has no superpowers but he has honed his body to perfection and is a super genius as well. He has all sorts of gizmos and special vehicles. He is a brilliant detective and never kills if he can avoid it. Yes, he is Batman without the costume. Where Batman only has Robin, Doc Savage has the Fab Five, a team of geniuses in various fields: There's Monk the industrial chemist, Ham the lawyer, Renny the construction engineer, Long Tom the electrical engineer, and Johnny the archeologist/geologist. If that's not enough, his cousin Patricia Savage has a habit of joining adventures despite Doc's protests.
Some years ago, I saw the movie Doc Savage: Man of Bronze with Ron Ely in the lead. It was a campy mess. To call it mediocre would probably be overrating it. However, I've had Doc Savage novels appear in my Amazon suggestions ever since. Okay, what the heck. Let's see if the book is better. So, I got the Kindle edition of The Desert Demons.
Our story opens in the California deserts near Palm Springs. A camera crew films a rain dance during a drought. Suddenly, a red cloud descends from the sky and devours the camera crew and their truck. Only a white powder remains. Further attacks hit Hollywood and Doc Savage arrives in Los Angeles in his custom speed plane. Already, some of the Fab Five are investigating but Doc takes over. Then follows an endless stream of failed chases and poorly written banter. Monk and Ham do most of the talking to the various suspects while Doc is either absent or merely looks on with knowing eyes. There are so many characters and an alarming amount of dialogue, all of it written in vernacular. You could probably cut out 10% of the pages if the arguments and petty jibes between Monk and Ham were excised. The book was more often tedious than exciting. The plot is ludicrous, the characters are one-dimensional, and the idea that no one but Doc and his team are investigating something that has killed scores of people in Hollywood is beyond belief. Avoid this book at all costs!
It was not until I had finished the novel that I discovered it was written in 2011 by a modern author, not a reprint of one of Lester Dent's original stories from the 1930s. How accurately was Dent's style copied? If it was very accurate, I'm amazed Doc Savage was a major pulp figure.
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