[The Terror of Fu Manchu - Collector's Edition] [By: William Patrick Maynard] [April, 2009]

Fu Manchu #17

by William Patrick Maynard

The death of a seemingly respectable missionary draws Denis Nayland Smith and his devoted companion, Dr. Petrie, back into the web of the diabolical Dr. Fu Manchu. The investigation takes our heroes on a harrowing journey where they cross paths with the Si-Fan, a rival theosophist society and the famous French detective, Gaston Max. The clash of Eastern and Western cultures contrasts sharply with the age-old battle between the forces of Good and Evil, as Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie grapple with the fragile truths that rule their world. A suspenseful thriller that moves rapidly between London and Paris in December 1913, The Terror of Fu Manchu is William Patrick Maynard's first novel. This action-packed thriller is the first authorized Fu Manchu adventure in over twenty years and reintroduces Sax Rohmer's classic characters to a new generation of readers.

Hardcover

First published April 1, 2009

About the author

William Patrick Maynard was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. His passion for writing began in childhood and was fueled by an early love of detective and thriller fiction. He was licensed by Sax Rohmer's Literary Estate to continue the Fu Manchu thrillers. THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU, published in 2009, was a Pulp Factory Awards nominee for Best Pulp Novel. THE DESTINY OF FU MANCHU was published in 2012 was a Pulp Ark Awards nominee for Best Pulp Novel.

His short fiction has appeared in THE RUBY FILES (2012/Airship 27), GASLIGHT GROETESQUE (2009/EDGE Publishing), TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN (2009/Black Coat Press), and LES COMPAGNONS DE L'OMBRE (2010/Riviere Blanche).

He is a former weekly columnist for The Cimmerian and is currently a weekly columnist for The Black Gate. His articles have been published in the magazines Blood 'n' Thunder, Van Helsing's Journal, and The Official Magazine of The Peter Sellers Appreciation Society. He was nominated for a Rondo Award for Best Article of 2010 for a contribution to Van Helsing's Journal.

He recently collaborated with Tom Bleecker on the screenplay adaptation of Bleecker's new novel, TEA MONEY. Forthcoming projects include THE OCCULT CASE BOOK OF SHANKAR HARDWICKE, THE TRIUMPH OF FU MANCHU, a hardboiled detective novel entitled LAWHEAD, and a short story collection.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm reluctant to rate this a "Didn't like," because I'm glad to see someone who obviously loves the Fu Manchu stories put the effort into writing a new story and it's interesting to see Maynard explicitly grappling with the issue of racism and Yellow Peril stories.

But ultimately it feels overstuffed and badly misjudges the character of Fu Manchu (I feel).

[Stuart Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reverend Eltham has written his memoirs of the Boxer Rebellion, to everyone's dismay. Not only will it stir up memories of an event most want forgotten, but he has also unwittingly revealed the true identity of Dr. Fu-Manchu. He has given up the priesthood and joined the Brotherhood of the Magi, an Alistair Crowley type group of devil worshipping theosophists. This has brought him into contact with the beautiful Ursula Trelawny, whose apparent immortality also interests Fu-Manchu. Dr. Petrie and Nayland Smith implore him not to publish to no avail, resulting in mayhem and death.

Smith and Petrie as usual encounter and evade death traps including a giant snake and a crocodile while they pursue both the Brotherhood and the Si Fan as those groups vie for possession of Eltham's manuscript. Petrie meets a ghost, is mesmerized, and meets Sax Rohmer's other great creation, the French detective Gaston Max. He also comes across an orgy in progress and joins a cult.

Much of the book is filled with excerpts from Eltham's novel, and Petrie spends much time soulsearching his relationship with his father and Christianity. Petrie acts in a most ungentlemanly fashion and is hypnotized so much that it isn't clear just how much of the book is real and how much imagined. Dr. Fu-Manchu is also out of character, being cruel and vindictive and much more hands-on than normal. Smith acts like Smith but is absent for much of the time. Gaston Max seems an interesting character but isn't around enough to be sure. Some of the characters turn out to be the same person under different names and it is unclear whether the Si Fan or the Brotherhood are responsible for some of the actions. Petrie and Smith don't so much solve the mystery as happen to be present when all is revealed. And there's far too much magic and mysticism for a proper Fu-Manchu story. I'm not impressed.

[Mark Golden · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author clearly has imagination and skill, but his efforts to graft what is more is more a Stephen King or H. P. Lovecraft style of a yarn onto the Fu Manchu franchise failed (at least for me).

Mr. Maynard's strengths as a writer clearly fall much more to conveying mood and atmosphere than to investing his characters with real personality and life. He operates at a double disadvantage here, since he not only fails to bring his own characters convincingly to life, but to the extent they do exhibit SOME character, they are patently NOT the characters of Petrie, Smith or Dr. Fu Manchu that Sax Rohmer created. At best, they come off as poorly drawn and crudely exaggerated caricatures of their originals. Fu Manchu himself suffers the most: a raging lunatic, clearly mad, literally frothing at the mouth ... not the chilling, brilliant embodiment of sheer malevolence that the world would rightly fear. Smith comes off as a throughly dislikable prig, with no particularly outstanding deductive, mental or heroic qualities. He is not just insensitive to his callous rudeness, he is downright mean and snarky to Petrie. But this Petrie is almost pure buffoon. When he is not utterly transfixed by the glimpse of a heaving bosom, he is "helpless and drifting into a madness that threatened to devour every last shred of my sanity." Only to be miraculously (and often without much explanation) saved, then rushing on to stumble headlong into the next "unspeakable horror" that he will be helpless to explain, let alone fight against, a page or two later.

Some of the writing is just plain sloppy. "There was only the incessant splashing of the stagnant water below," as though incessant splashing and stagnancy were not mutually exclusive states.

To his credit, the author does not try to rationalize or explain away the inherent racism or xenophobia of the original series and the times in which the story is set. Rather, he objectively places these attitudes and behaviors into a historical context in a manner which brings coherence. The passages which purport to be Eltham's own narrative about the Boxer Rebellion vividly conveys a clash of cultures where acts of intolerance, rising to the level of barbarism were evident on all sides. The violence that resulted is thus rendered understandable, even though never acceptable or justified. And it certainly is the author's voice that is heard (since such a level of awareness and understanding is far beyond the capacity of his cardboard Petrie) when the following summing up appears:

"There were some, Nayland Smith among them, who suggested the Boxer Uprising could be laid at the feet of over-zealous, intolerant missionaries such as Eltham. The Boxer Uprising had seen thousands of innocent Chinese and white men and women slaughtered. It had brought the mighty armies of England, Europe, and the colonies together to unite against a common enemy. The Boxer Uprising had doomed the once-noble Manchu dynasty to extinction. It had brought the terror of Fu Manchu upon the British Empire ... Nevertheless, the Boxer Uprising could be said to have claimed Eltham's life, just as it had thousands of others. It was justice, in a way, but still the repercussions were being felt."

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me get one thing out of the way quickly: yes, I am uncomfortable with the casual racism of Sax Rohmer's original Fu Manchu novels. The constant reference to barbaric peoples, savage hoards and so forth do annoy me every time I take pause from breathlessly following a marvelously convoluted plot thread to reflect that he uses these epithets to refer to folks like me. But I'm not able to take it very seriously.

Even so, I'm glad that William Patrick Maynard's addition to the series, THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU, addresses this issue head-on. Maynard does not concede to post-facto sanitisation by winnowing out terms such as 'Chinaman', which the protagonists would naturally have used to describe their Chinese adversaries. However, he does offer a nuanced picture of the 'yellow peril' represented by the Si-Fan and their most dreaded operative, Fu Manchu, showing it as a larger clash between cultures, one in which the West was certainly not an innocent, virtuous victim. Fair enough. A modern-day addition to a franchise that is rightly or wrongly associated with some of the most derogatory depictions of Asians needs to take a stance in these matters, and Maynard strikes an ideal balance.

His book is also much more sexually frank - not explicit - than Rohmer's ever were. This, again, is a change for the better. There was something a little disturbing in the barely-repressed fascinated revulsion with which Rohmer hinted at the lascivious charms of various Asiatic temptresses. Maynard's frank treatment of the sexual angle is a breath of fresh air. It adds depth to the plot at times, and gives him the chance to weave in some rather kinky moments, which can only be to the good in putting together a pulp fiction adventure.

It's also a more philosophical book than I'm aware of the originals being - there's a certain dialogue between reason and faith (or spirituality) running through the book, and this is the aspect that I'm not completely comfortable with for reasons that I'll get to presently.

Now to the plot - it's a suitably labyrinthine creation, as not just the Si-Fan but also an esoteric order called the Brotherhood of the Magi scheme and counter-scheme to get hold of a precious magical artifact. Our old friends, Petrie and Smith deal with multiple murders, an ever-growing list of enemies and a complex mystery that takes them through the seamier side of London, a detour through Paris (where Gaston Max, another Rohmer creation, is encountered) and back. There's a brief nod to the Cthulhu mythos and all sorts of nice little touches (amongst other things, I think Maynard is hinting that Petrie's father is the noted real-world Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, a concept with immense potential for future Fu Manchu adventures). There's a series of cliffhangers, each more deadly than the previous one, and a positive excess of fiendish villains to grapple with. It's complex, convoluted and gripping.

SPOILERS AHEAD
What I'm less pleased with is the resolution, where Maynard seems to be hinting that the hand of god, to put it bluntly, rescues our heroes. Divine intervention is not a concept I want to debate philosophically; to each their own; but it is a somewhat disappointing way to resolve such an exciting plot.
SPOILERS OVER

This caveat aside, I found this to be a most gripping and thrilling novel. Maynard is a plot-spinner in the grand pulp tradition and I look forward to reading further installments of fervid action and adventure from him.

[Ralph L Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Terror of Fu Manchu- A review

This was a different type of book for me, as stories set in the past are usually not my normal type of reading material. Thankfully I was surprised by this book.
The Terror of Fu Manchu is a story that travels about the globe, truly beginning with the Chinese Boxer rebellion and traveling forward a few years from there. The book is set in the early 20th century, and follows Dr. Petrie, who is the narrator, and his friend Sir Dennis Nayland Smith in their pursuit of the evil Fu Manchu, who bears a grudge against the western world.
Fu and his Si-Fan (A group of assassins made up of the scurrilous of a hundred different races) are seeking, through mystical means, the destruction of western civilization. Along with several mysterious groups of evil-doers and secret societies involved in this books pages, he just might achieve it.
Petrie follows the trail of Fu Manchu from England to France where he teams with a French Gendarme who saves his life on more than one occasion.
Along the way Smith and Petrie encounter snowmen (Both live and dead) a giant crocodile and hordes of villains as well as a few mystery’s. All in all it’s a compelling tale that rivets your attention to the books pages. In many ways for me it was reminiscent of a Sherlock Holmes story.
What I didn’t like about the story was that Petrie was more of a victim throughout it than hero. Constantly being captured and tortured in one way or another, his constant pining for this woman who is a slave to Fu Manchu grew tiresome as the book progressed. He was, if anything an anti-hero or perhaps simply along for the ride. What I mean by that is that instead of him working against his enemy he simply seemed to follow him along trying to catch up, and when he finally did he was captured and either drugged or tortured or mesmerized. He was certainly no Sherlock Holmes or James Bond in that regard.
Nayland-Smith was more of a heroic character in the book, but for a large portion of it he was nowhere to be found. I was actually surprised by this, having never read a Fu Manchu story before, the only contact I had with these characters was through Marvel’s ‘Master of Kung Fu’ title which featured Fu Manchu’s son, Shang Chi. (A Marvel creation.) Nevertheless Nayland-Smith was a central character through much of that series, as was Fu himself.
So going in I did not know what to expect.
William Patrick Maynard gave us a surprisingly well written and edited book. The story flowed perfectly, and even though I felt it was a bit convoluted at times, as there was just so much going on, perhaps a little bit more than was easily kept track of, it was still a good read.
Recommended, Four out of Five Stars.

[Jim Dooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years ago, the Sax Rohmer adventures of the nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu sparked my imagination. The stories had more depth than the pulp adaptations of Doc Savage and The Shadow which I also enjoyed, and the partnership between Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie so reminded me of the one between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson who were other favorites.

Now, there is no doubt that the original stories were incredibly racist, with the members of Fu Manchu's organization virtually all Chinese. At my age then, I had no awareness that the villains were stereotypical creations. I was too busy reveling in a crackling good adventure story.

The writer has picked up Sax Rohmer's mantle and has continued the adventures. I can see how times have leaned more toward "political correctness," as adherent's to the clandestine Si-Fan organization are not all Chinese, and villains can arrive from all nationalities. Also, there is more sexuality in this version...nothing overt, but certainly more descriptive than the "exotic" label of the original series.

As the series continued, I recall there being less of Fu Manchu in each book. The same can be said with this one. His "presence" may be felt, but the encounters are few. It truly feels like a continuation of that series.

All of this adds up to a period adventure for the modern reader. The story is intriguing, there are still diabolical traps, and I was surprised more than once by the twists and turns. This was a night time read for me, allowing me to read a chapter or two each night before drifting off to sleep, and the book is amiably suited for such an approach.

For the child inside whose heart beats faster at the thought of Indiana Jones, this is an admirable entry in the same vein.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Petrie deserves a 'medal'