The Polar Treasure / Kenneth Robeson

The Polar Treasure by Kenneth Robeson (Doc Savage #4, June 1933). 122 p.

My plan was to read one of these a week, but I'm going to have to dial it back to one a month--they're not nearly as much fun as they were when I was a kid, mostly because it's harder for me to ignore the problematic stuff. In this one, that's mostly the plot. A blind violinist took a pleasure cruise on which everyone was killed, including his wife and young daughter, and he only survived because he was rescued by a benefactor, who asked him not to mention the disaster to anyone. And for 15 years he never does! Not only does he ignore it--except when mourning for his lost family--no one ever asks him about it, either! For 15 years! I mean, I expect some plotholes in my pulp, but come on. I'm perfectly happy to accept Doc killing a polar bear bare-handed (see cover), but I can't swallow that plot point.

First appearance of: Doc carrying explosive chemicals in false molars. Doc using tiny fingertip needles under fake fingertips to inject knock-out drugs by merely touching others.

Quest of the Spider / Kenneth Robeson

Quest of the Spider by Kenneth Robeson (Doc Savage #3, May 1933). 150 p.

This entry has a particularly lame plot, so I'll skip recapping it--except to mention that at one point it involves a character crawling around the swamp in a stuffed alligator suit. With a zipper. When I can't enjoy the action or the plot, I focus on the cultural details of the story. In this one there's a fair amount of airplane travel. I wish I knew more about 1930's commercial airline standards, because a plane some minor characters take is described as having wicker seats and a parachute provided for each passenger! At another point they're driving fast--60 mph--in a car with the windscreen down, and since the passengers don't have goggles they have difficulty seeing due to the wind (except for Doc, of course). Why on earth wouldn't you put the windscreen up, then? Am I missing some significance here?

First appearance of: Doc's thin-walled capsules of anesthetic gas, scattered about for bad guys to step on. "Brain operations" as part of the treatment turning criminals into upright citizens.

The Land of Terror / Kenneth Robeson

• The Land of Terror by Kenneth Robeson (Doc Savage #2, April 1933). 155 p.
  
  I realize that a monthly pulp magazine--especially one that's just getting established--had to reintroduce its main character every month in case it's the first time a reader has picked up the magazine. That said, I think the first two pages of this novel qualify as the clunkiest, most ham-handed info dump I've ever read. A well-respected chemist spends those two pages talking about how wonderful his friend Doc Savage is, then immediately gets murdered. Doc spends the rest of the book catching up to, and then punishing, the killers. Doc kills a lot of people in this book. Towards the end the setting shifts from NYC to a veritable lost world full of dinosaurs.
  
  First appearance of: Doc's special miniature machine guns (although they shoot regular bullets at this point). Doc "treating" bad guys instead of sending them to jail.

The Man of Bronze / Kenneth Robeson

The Man of Bronze by Kenneth Robeson (Doc Savage #1, March 1933). 135 p.

So my last post of the year will set up a project I'm beginning that will continue through next year and beyond: I intend to read all of the Doc Savage novels, in publication order, one per week. (The last time I tried to read all of them, I failed, but it's been about 15 years.) I'm reading the Bantam books reprints of the novels, which first appeared in Doc Savage Magazine in the 1930s and 1940s, so my page counts are taken from the reprints.

The Man of Bronze is of course one of Doc Savage's nicknames--his real name is Clark Savage Jr. His father raised him from birth to be a man who would use his extraordinary physical and intellectual talents to better mankind. In this first book, Doc's father has died under mysterious circumstances, so he gathers together five friends that he made during the Great War--all tops in their particular fields, all eager for adventure--and they go off to find out who is responsible. Not only do they do so (of course), they end up with a practically inexhaustible source of wealth, which will come in handy for fighting evil.