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Doc Savage (Original) #3
Quest of the Spider
Inside the grim, swamp-surrounded "Castle of the Moccasin," the Man of Bronze and his faithful, fearless band are trapped -- perhaps forever -- in an insidious web of evil by a masterdevil known only as the Gray Spider!
150 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1933
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About the author
Kenneth Robeson
915 books134 followersKenneth Robeson was the house name used by Street and Smith Publications as the author of their popular character Doc Savage and later The Avenger. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:
William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson
Lester Dent is usually considered to be the creator of Doc Savage. In the 1990s Philip José Farmer wrote a new Doc Savage adventure, but it was published under his own name and not by Robeson. Will Murray has since taken up the pseudonym and continued writing Doc Savage books as Robeson.
All 24 of the original stories featuring The Avenger were written by Paul Ernst, using the Robeson house name. In order to encourage sales Kenneth Robeson was credited on the cover of The Avenger magazine as "the creator of Doc Savage" even though Lester Dent had nothing to do with The Avenger series. In the 1970s, when the series was extended with 12 additional novels, Ron Goulart was hired to become Robeson.
William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson
Lester Dent is usually considered to be the creator of Doc Savage. In the 1990s Philip José Farmer wrote a new Doc Savage adventure, but it was published under his own name and not by Robeson. Will Murray has since taken up the pseudonym and continued writing Doc Savage books as Robeson.
All 24 of the original stories featuring The Avenger were written by Paul Ernst, using the Robeson house name. In order to encourage sales Kenneth Robeson was credited on the cover of The Avenger magazine as "the creator of Doc Savage" even though Lester Dent had nothing to do with The Avenger series. In the 1970s, when the series was extended with 12 additional novels, Ron Goulart was hired to become Robeson.
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August 16, 2018
I have just reacquainted myself with six dear old friends. Back in high school, this reader just could not get enough of the adventures of Doc Savage and his five faithful associates, eagerly devouring four dozen of the Doc Savage paperbacks that Bantam books released in the late '60s and early '70s. These paperbacks were hugely popular back in the day and are now highly prized collectible items, not only for the stories themselves, but for the beautifully rendered cover illustrations that James Bama created for well over 100 of them. Eventually, though, I tired of reading the Doc Savage novels, as a certain formulaic sameness started to become evident in them (and indeed, years later, I learned that author Lester Dent did have a chart hanging on his office wall, delineating what was to happen by certain points in every book), and after gobbling down those 48 novels, left around seven of them unread. And they stayed unread for a very long time...until just last week, actually, when I picked up and devoured my first Doc Savage novel since high school...and high school, for me, was a very loooong time ago!
It has just struck me that there might be some of you who have not had the pleasure of encountering Doc & Co., so allow me to give you a very brief history of this seminal pulp character before I proceed. Doc Savage was an almost superhuman, bronze-skinned genius who was trained from a very young age, by his father and a group of leading scientists, to be both a mental and physical wonder. As a scientist himself, he excelled in dozens of fields, primarily medicine and surgery, and his fantastic inventions and gifts to mankind were legion. Provided with a nearly unlimited supply of gold, courtesy of some benevolent lost Mayans in a Central American valley, Doc Savage utilized his physical, mental and monetary gifts to combat crime whenever and wherever he could. And he was aided by five very unusual characters: Lt. Col. Andrew Blodgett Mayfair, aka Monk, a 260-lb. tank of a man who was also one of the world's foremost chemists; Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks, aka Ham, a brilliant and always dapper lawyer who was never seen without his trusty sword cane; Col. John Renwick, aka Renny, one of the world's greatest civil engineers, whose fists were of an enormous size; Major Thomas J. Roberts, aka Long Tom, the slender weakling of the group (comparatively speaking) but also one of the world's foremost experts in electricity; and finally, William Harper Littlejohn, aka Johnny, one of the world's foremost geologists and archaeologists. From the first issue of "Doc Savage Magazine" (March 1933...the same month that "King Kong" had its premiere, incidentally) and over the course of 181 issues, ending with the Summer '49 edition, the publication thrilled, amazed and entertained Depression, wartime and postwar readers with a monthly dose of remarkable pulp adventures. And of those 181 issues, Lester Dent, writing under the house name of Kenneth Robeson, was responsible for writing (or, in some cases, co-writing) no fewer than 155! A truly remarkable feat, and if you think it a simple matter to think up and write a 150-page novel--even a pulp novel--month after month, year after year, to the tune of 155 finished works, I invite you to try it sometime!
To continue: Over the years, there has been much speculation as to whether or not Doc Savage was an inspiration for the Superman character, which first appeared in 1939. For me, however, there has never been a shred of doubt regarding this matter. Consider this: Doc Savage was known as The Man of Bronze, his real name was Clark Savage, Jr., and he had a retreat in the Arctic known as his Fortress of Solitude, to which he would repair by himself to work on his gifts to mankind. Superman was known as The Man of Steel, his real name was Clark Kent, and he had a retreat in the Arctic known as his Fortress of Solitude. (And oh...Doc is referred to as a "superman" in the novel I just finished!) I rest my case.
But as to the book I just read: It was the Bantam paperback #68, "Quest of the Spider." This, as it turns out, was a very suitable book to help reacquaint myself with these famous characters, as "Quest of the Spider," which first appeared in the May '33 issue of "Doc Savage Magazine," was the third novel in the series, out of those 181. (The order of the Bantam paperbacks and the order of the magazine releases have very few similarities, it would appear.) In this installment, a mysterious figure known only as the Gray Spider sets his sights on taking over all the lumber industries in the southern U.S. Owners of all the major lumber concerns have been disappearing completely, or are suddenly signing over all their assets to puppets of the Gray Spider. But when "Big Eric" Danielsen, owner of the South's largest lumber company, is attacked and subsequently coerced to sell, he takes his beautiful blonde daughter Edna to NYC to confer with his old college buddy, Theodore Marley Brooks, and try to enlist his and Doc Savage’s assistance. Never one to turn down a request for help--or to jump into any sort of action, for that matter--Doc and his associates travel back to New Orleans with the Danielsens, and try to pick up the Gray Spider's trail. As it turns out, this is not that difficult a thing to do, as the crime fighters are attacked in midair before they even land, and once in the Big Easy, are assailed by poison darts, bombs, poison gas, and a seemingly endless horde of what two of the Gray Spider's underlings--crooked Danielsen detectives named Lefty and Bugs--refer to as "swamp snipes": illiterate, stunted, near-savage bayou dwellers who worship the Gray Spider as some sort of voodoo deity, the roofs of their mouths tattooed with the telltale water moccasin! And ultimately, Doc and his companions track the Gray Spider to his so-called Castle of the Moccasin, deep in the gator-infested Louisiana swamps, for one furious battle royale....
In true pulp fashion, "Quest of the Spider" dishes out fast-moving action set pieces in every single one of its 17 chapters. Indeed, in the very first chapter, the Danielsens are compelled to make a quick exit from their NYC-bound passenger plane, in which a Gray Spider minion has just exploded a bomb in the washroom...an airplane with two parachutes too few, as it turns out! Other standout action bits include that poison gas attack in Big Eric's office, forcing Doc & Co. to take refuge on a very narrow, very high, outdoor window ledge; Johnny's infiltration of the swamp snipes' hideout, disguised as a voodoo priest; Doc's apparent demise after doing battle underwater with a bayou gator; the penultimate showdown in those swamplands, with Doc and his men besieged by dozens of the Gray Spider's underlings; and the final showdown at the Gray Spider's hidden Castle of the Moccasin, replete with blasting hand grenades, poisonous flies, and the ultimate revelation of the chief villain's actual identity. As to that last bit, the Gray Spider wears a gaudily colored silk handkerchief over his face throughout the novel, and his secret identity is meant to be something of a mystery by Dent. But since there are only two possible suspects to choose from in the book, guessing the Gray Spider's actual identity is something of a snap for the reader. This old fan was not at all surprised at how things turned out, in this regard. Interestingly, Monk, Renny, Long Tom and Johnny do not make an entry into this book until almost the halfway point, but their first appearance is an explosive one. And in this third Doc Savage adventure, the reader learns what The Man of Bronze does with all the villains whom he captures (those who don't perish while resisting him, that is). Curiously enough, there are not turned over to the cops for trial and imprisonment, but rather, are sent to a facility in upstate NY that Doc maintains, where their memories are wiped clean and they are taught the rudiments of becoming solid and productive citizens. Surely, some food for debate vis-à-vis ethics and penology there!
Lester Dent/Kenneth Robeson, I should in fairness say, was a terrific and imaginative storyteller, although his early work here surely shows all the signs of a novice writer working a bit too quickly, no doubt under deadline pressures. To be succinct, "Quest of the Spider" features any number of flubs, the most egregious of which being Monk and Renny's recognizing the voice of the Gray Spider...even though they had never (unlike Doc and the Danielsens) met his alter ego before! A terrible blunder on the author's part. Dent is also guilty of numerous instances of faulty grammar here (such as the highly educated Doc saying "Where is Big Eric, Edna, and Ham?") and any number of improper word usages. He repeatedly tells us that a car "skewered," instead of "skewed"; says that the Spider has a "guttering" laugh, rather than "guttural"; mentions that something or someone "squawled" (no such word), rather than "squalled"; uses the word "cupronickel," rather than "copronickel"; tells us that a small needle "gouged" someone, rather than "pricked"; and confuses the words "whence" and "whither." And let's not even get into the casual racism to be found here, with the swamp dwellers continually being referred to as "monkey men." These are all things that didn't bother me much back in high school, but that tend to irk me a bit more today, now that I am supposedly a reasonably enlightened, adult copy editor and proofreader. I suppose that the Doc Savage novels grew a bit more polished as Dent practiced, practiced and practiced his craft, also. Still, even in this early and imperfect outing, the sheer propulsive drive of the action itself, and the book's colorful backdrop and unique story line--not to mention those six wonderful lead characters, who are all so easy to fall in love with--manage to make this another terrific bit of Doc Savage escapism. These books are like bonbons, and I personally cannot wait to try my next one. Incidentally, I hear that no less a figure than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has just been tapped to star in an upcoming Doc Savage movie, and I cannot imagine a more appropriate casting choice. Can't wait!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Lester Dent....)
It has just struck me that there might be some of you who have not had the pleasure of encountering Doc & Co., so allow me to give you a very brief history of this seminal pulp character before I proceed. Doc Savage was an almost superhuman, bronze-skinned genius who was trained from a very young age, by his father and a group of leading scientists, to be both a mental and physical wonder. As a scientist himself, he excelled in dozens of fields, primarily medicine and surgery, and his fantastic inventions and gifts to mankind were legion. Provided with a nearly unlimited supply of gold, courtesy of some benevolent lost Mayans in a Central American valley, Doc Savage utilized his physical, mental and monetary gifts to combat crime whenever and wherever he could. And he was aided by five very unusual characters: Lt. Col. Andrew Blodgett Mayfair, aka Monk, a 260-lb. tank of a man who was also one of the world's foremost chemists; Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks, aka Ham, a brilliant and always dapper lawyer who was never seen without his trusty sword cane; Col. John Renwick, aka Renny, one of the world's greatest civil engineers, whose fists were of an enormous size; Major Thomas J. Roberts, aka Long Tom, the slender weakling of the group (comparatively speaking) but also one of the world's foremost experts in electricity; and finally, William Harper Littlejohn, aka Johnny, one of the world's foremost geologists and archaeologists. From the first issue of "Doc Savage Magazine" (March 1933...the same month that "King Kong" had its premiere, incidentally) and over the course of 181 issues, ending with the Summer '49 edition, the publication thrilled, amazed and entertained Depression, wartime and postwar readers with a monthly dose of remarkable pulp adventures. And of those 181 issues, Lester Dent, writing under the house name of Kenneth Robeson, was responsible for writing (or, in some cases, co-writing) no fewer than 155! A truly remarkable feat, and if you think it a simple matter to think up and write a 150-page novel--even a pulp novel--month after month, year after year, to the tune of 155 finished works, I invite you to try it sometime!
To continue: Over the years, there has been much speculation as to whether or not Doc Savage was an inspiration for the Superman character, which first appeared in 1939. For me, however, there has never been a shred of doubt regarding this matter. Consider this: Doc Savage was known as The Man of Bronze, his real name was Clark Savage, Jr., and he had a retreat in the Arctic known as his Fortress of Solitude, to which he would repair by himself to work on his gifts to mankind. Superman was known as The Man of Steel, his real name was Clark Kent, and he had a retreat in the Arctic known as his Fortress of Solitude. (And oh...Doc is referred to as a "superman" in the novel I just finished!) I rest my case.
But as to the book I just read: It was the Bantam paperback #68, "Quest of the Spider." This, as it turns out, was a very suitable book to help reacquaint myself with these famous characters, as "Quest of the Spider," which first appeared in the May '33 issue of "Doc Savage Magazine," was the third novel in the series, out of those 181. (The order of the Bantam paperbacks and the order of the magazine releases have very few similarities, it would appear.) In this installment, a mysterious figure known only as the Gray Spider sets his sights on taking over all the lumber industries in the southern U.S. Owners of all the major lumber concerns have been disappearing completely, or are suddenly signing over all their assets to puppets of the Gray Spider. But when "Big Eric" Danielsen, owner of the South's largest lumber company, is attacked and subsequently coerced to sell, he takes his beautiful blonde daughter Edna to NYC to confer with his old college buddy, Theodore Marley Brooks, and try to enlist his and Doc Savage’s assistance. Never one to turn down a request for help--or to jump into any sort of action, for that matter--Doc and his associates travel back to New Orleans with the Danielsens, and try to pick up the Gray Spider's trail. As it turns out, this is not that difficult a thing to do, as the crime fighters are attacked in midair before they even land, and once in the Big Easy, are assailed by poison darts, bombs, poison gas, and a seemingly endless horde of what two of the Gray Spider's underlings--crooked Danielsen detectives named Lefty and Bugs--refer to as "swamp snipes": illiterate, stunted, near-savage bayou dwellers who worship the Gray Spider as some sort of voodoo deity, the roofs of their mouths tattooed with the telltale water moccasin! And ultimately, Doc and his companions track the Gray Spider to his so-called Castle of the Moccasin, deep in the gator-infested Louisiana swamps, for one furious battle royale....
In true pulp fashion, "Quest of the Spider" dishes out fast-moving action set pieces in every single one of its 17 chapters. Indeed, in the very first chapter, the Danielsens are compelled to make a quick exit from their NYC-bound passenger plane, in which a Gray Spider minion has just exploded a bomb in the washroom...an airplane with two parachutes too few, as it turns out! Other standout action bits include that poison gas attack in Big Eric's office, forcing Doc & Co. to take refuge on a very narrow, very high, outdoor window ledge; Johnny's infiltration of the swamp snipes' hideout, disguised as a voodoo priest; Doc's apparent demise after doing battle underwater with a bayou gator; the penultimate showdown in those swamplands, with Doc and his men besieged by dozens of the Gray Spider's underlings; and the final showdown at the Gray Spider's hidden Castle of the Moccasin, replete with blasting hand grenades, poisonous flies, and the ultimate revelation of the chief villain's actual identity. As to that last bit, the Gray Spider wears a gaudily colored silk handkerchief over his face throughout the novel, and his secret identity is meant to be something of a mystery by Dent. But since there are only two possible suspects to choose from in the book, guessing the Gray Spider's actual identity is something of a snap for the reader. This old fan was not at all surprised at how things turned out, in this regard. Interestingly, Monk, Renny, Long Tom and Johnny do not make an entry into this book until almost the halfway point, but their first appearance is an explosive one. And in this third Doc Savage adventure, the reader learns what The Man of Bronze does with all the villains whom he captures (those who don't perish while resisting him, that is). Curiously enough, there are not turned over to the cops for trial and imprisonment, but rather, are sent to a facility in upstate NY that Doc maintains, where their memories are wiped clean and they are taught the rudiments of becoming solid and productive citizens. Surely, some food for debate vis-à-vis ethics and penology there!
Lester Dent/Kenneth Robeson, I should in fairness say, was a terrific and imaginative storyteller, although his early work here surely shows all the signs of a novice writer working a bit too quickly, no doubt under deadline pressures. To be succinct, "Quest of the Spider" features any number of flubs, the most egregious of which being Monk and Renny's recognizing the voice of the Gray Spider...even though they had never (unlike Doc and the Danielsens) met his alter ego before! A terrible blunder on the author's part. Dent is also guilty of numerous instances of faulty grammar here (such as the highly educated Doc saying "Where is Big Eric, Edna, and Ham?") and any number of improper word usages. He repeatedly tells us that a car "skewered," instead of "skewed"; says that the Spider has a "guttering" laugh, rather than "guttural"; mentions that something or someone "squawled" (no such word), rather than "squalled"; uses the word "cupronickel," rather than "copronickel"; tells us that a small needle "gouged" someone, rather than "pricked"; and confuses the words "whence" and "whither." And let's not even get into the casual racism to be found here, with the swamp dwellers continually being referred to as "monkey men." These are all things that didn't bother me much back in high school, but that tend to irk me a bit more today, now that I am supposedly a reasonably enlightened, adult copy editor and proofreader. I suppose that the Doc Savage novels grew a bit more polished as Dent practiced, practiced and practiced his craft, also. Still, even in this early and imperfect outing, the sheer propulsive drive of the action itself, and the book's colorful backdrop and unique story line--not to mention those six wonderful lead characters, who are all so easy to fall in love with--manage to make this another terrific bit of Doc Savage escapism. These books are like bonbons, and I personally cannot wait to try my next one. Incidentally, I hear that no less a figure than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has just been tapped to star in an upcoming Doc Savage movie, and I cannot imagine a more appropriate casting choice. Can't wait!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Lester Dent....)
January 7, 2011
I tend to (re-)read a half-dozen or so Doc Savage novels a year--either re-reading old favorites or tackling stories I've not read yet.
For the most part, doing so is an exercise in comfort and nostalgia. While I do think Lester Dent was a lot better than almost all of his fellow pulpsters, and Doc himself is perfect iconic hero (perhaps THE iconic hero of the 20th Century from whom almost all other heroes descend--Superman, The Fantastic Four, Batman, James Bond, etc. etc.), I will not attempt to argue to anyone other than fellow Doc fans that this series is immortal.
I'd guess I've read at least 2/3 of the total corpus of 182 novels (not including the later novels by P.J. Farmer and Will Murray) at this point, and plan to finish them all (I hope) before I leave this mortal coil. But with so much else to read I'm certainly not rushing to do so. The Doc books, however, are perfect one-sitting reads, if you have 90 minutes to kill and want an entertaining old-school adventure yarn.
THE QUEST OF THE SPIDER is #3 in original publication order (May 1933), and I probably last read it around 1979. I have to say I found it pretty disappointing on a re-read, especially coming right on the heels of the super-sagas THE MAN OF BRONZE and THE LAND OF TERROR, the first 2 in the series. (And I'd re-read the latter, with its island of dinosaurs and great supervillain, fairly recently.)
Plot summary (no spoilers):
With the help of his legions of swamp natives, the mysterious Gray Spider is systematically pillaging and bankrupting the great lumber companies of Louisiana. Coming to the aid of CEO “Big Eric” Danielson and his lovely daughter Edna, Doc and his crew brave the dangers of the bayou for a showdown at the Castle of the Moccasin.
Notes and comments (possible spoilers):
All five aides take part in this adventure, and it's pretty clear Dent is struggling with keeping the whole cast meaningfully engaged in the adventure. Worse, the plot feels very fragmented, with a lot of running around that doesn't support any aesthetically satisfying narrative trajectory: I am reminded of some of the critiques of Dashiell Hammett's early novels, like RED HARVEST, which were published in serial or as stories and then "woven" into novels later, with the seams clearly showing. And above and beyond the plot and cast challenges, Dent has clearly not yet found his rhythm as a prose stylist. Plus: Doc Savage at one point dons an alligator suit disguise--thankfully we never see that one again!
The bottom line: don't make this Doc adventure your first one. If you want to try Doc, I recommend THE POLAR TREASURE, THE LOST OASIS, METEOR MENACE, or THE MYSTERY UNDER THE SEA as a few good "starter Docs."
For the most part, doing so is an exercise in comfort and nostalgia. While I do think Lester Dent was a lot better than almost all of his fellow pulpsters, and Doc himself is perfect iconic hero (perhaps THE iconic hero of the 20th Century from whom almost all other heroes descend--Superman, The Fantastic Four, Batman, James Bond, etc. etc.), I will not attempt to argue to anyone other than fellow Doc fans that this series is immortal.
I'd guess I've read at least 2/3 of the total corpus of 182 novels (not including the later novels by P.J. Farmer and Will Murray) at this point, and plan to finish them all (I hope) before I leave this mortal coil. But with so much else to read I'm certainly not rushing to do so. The Doc books, however, are perfect one-sitting reads, if you have 90 minutes to kill and want an entertaining old-school adventure yarn.
THE QUEST OF THE SPIDER is #3 in original publication order (May 1933), and I probably last read it around 1979. I have to say I found it pretty disappointing on a re-read, especially coming right on the heels of the super-sagas THE MAN OF BRONZE and THE LAND OF TERROR, the first 2 in the series. (And I'd re-read the latter, with its island of dinosaurs and great supervillain, fairly recently.)
Plot summary (no spoilers):
With the help of his legions of swamp natives, the mysterious Gray Spider is systematically pillaging and bankrupting the great lumber companies of Louisiana. Coming to the aid of CEO “Big Eric” Danielson and his lovely daughter Edna, Doc and his crew brave the dangers of the bayou for a showdown at the Castle of the Moccasin.
Notes and comments (possible spoilers):
All five aides take part in this adventure, and it's pretty clear Dent is struggling with keeping the whole cast meaningfully engaged in the adventure. Worse, the plot feels very fragmented, with a lot of running around that doesn't support any aesthetically satisfying narrative trajectory: I am reminded of some of the critiques of Dashiell Hammett's early novels, like RED HARVEST, which were published in serial or as stories and then "woven" into novels later, with the seams clearly showing. And above and beyond the plot and cast challenges, Dent has clearly not yet found his rhythm as a prose stylist. Plus: Doc Savage at one point dons an alligator suit disguise--thankfully we never see that one again!
The bottom line: don't make this Doc adventure your first one. If you want to try Doc, I recommend THE POLAR TREASURE, THE LOST OASIS, METEOR MENACE, or THE MYSTERY UNDER THE SEA as a few good "starter Docs."
January 19, 2018
A much better story than the first couple of Doc Savages, with the only downfall being the character of Doc Savage himself... Still the perfect, unlikable character, he is still somehow better at literally everything than his five WWI hero companions.
July 29, 2024
This is the third tale of the original 213 (published in 1933). It is one of the better tales, with all of Doc's team getting page time, the rivalry between Monk and Ham kept to a minimum, and the identity of the villain kept secret until the end.
The tale of lumber baron Big Eric and his daughter Edna is solid. The way the Gray Spider attacked them and others to loot their businesses was plausible with similar, smaller crimes happening back then due to lax laws when it came to power of attorney documents.
For readers sensitive to such things, there are some wildly racist comments concerning the swamp folk around New Orleans. At best, they are cringe-worthy and at worst, some readers may DNF with this volume. I would encourage everyone to stick with and enjoy the mystery while being thankful this is not acceptable today.
Highly recommended for fans of Doc, Pulp in general, and anyone who likes a good adventure/mystery novel.
FIND IT! BUY IT! READ IT!
The tale of lumber baron Big Eric and his daughter Edna is solid. The way the Gray Spider attacked them and others to loot their businesses was plausible with similar, smaller crimes happening back then due to lax laws when it came to power of attorney documents.
For readers sensitive to such things, there are some wildly racist comments concerning the swamp folk around New Orleans. At best, they are cringe-worthy and at worst, some readers may DNF with this volume. I would encourage everyone to stick with and enjoy the mystery while being thankful this is not acceptable today.
Highly recommended for fans of Doc, Pulp in general, and anyone who likes a good adventure/mystery novel.
FIND IT! BUY IT! READ IT!
March 1, 2024
This was so good! And it had a very pleasing, unexpected ending!
July 31, 2016
While this is the 68th book Bantam Books published, "Quest of the Spider" by Kenneth Robeson (aka Lester Dent), is actually the third installment of the Doc Savage series. In it, "Big Eric" Danielson, a big shot in the Louisiana lumber business, and his daughter, Edna, travel from New Orleans to New York. They travel there because they need Clark Savage, Jr., aka Doc Savage's help. Seems a lot of lumber companies in Louisiana are seeing their owners go on vacay and never return. Meanwhile, the missing owners have apparently signed over ownership of their companies to some unknown person known only as the Gray Spider. Upon gaining ownership of these lumber companies, the Gray Spider begins selling off pieces of each company for profit. ....Which is kind of a dumb evil villain plan. I mean, wouldn't the plants be more profitable if GS kept the companies together and running, business as usual? I mean, the money you'd get for each building and piece of used equipment couldn't compare to the money those lumber yards bring in each year, could it? And if GS has a monopoly on lumber, wouldn't that make him that much richer? And why waste time killing off the original owners? If you can afford as many minions and underlings as GS has, why not outright *buy* the companies? As Evil Plans, Dr. Evil in the "Austin Powers" movies had better ones. (Then there's the Gray Spider's plan to kill Doc Savage and his five buddies by releasing poisonous flies. As if the flies will only attack Doc and crew and go no further than that. Or that will even attack Savage and friends. Damn. How short-sighted. What a gee-nee-us.)
But even that's not the worst of the stupidities in "Quest of the Spider". There's the casual sexism that exhibits itself whenever Lester Dent mentions Big Eric's daughter. Virtually every time she's referred to, it's as "beautiful Edna Danielson" or "adorable Edna Danielson" or "pretty Edna Danielson". Apparently to Dent, her looks are the only personality she has. (And please note, more often than not, she is the only character regularly called by her full name. Once introduced, very rarely are any of the other protagonists identified as anything but their first names or nicknames. A couple of minor characters that work at Danielson and Haas [Big Eric's company] are identified by their full names, too.)
Then there's the racism. Yeah, I know. It was kind of endemic to the time QotS was written, but, man. All of the Gray Spider's mulatto Creole minions are referred to as "yellow monkeys/apes", at once each time they appear. They are constantly othered as sub-human throughout the novel. It then gets worse when Doc Savage applies blackface make-up to one of his crimefighting cohorts, Johnny, so Johnny can impersonate a Voodoo High Priest. Cringe.
And while many of Doc Savage's mechanical and scientific are silly, to say the least, like the tiny miniature machine guns Doc created. The worst of the lot was the apparently very convincing alligator suit Doc wore. Maybe in the 1930s, the costume *might* have fooled a city-slicker, but people living on the bayous of Louisiana? Oh, hell no. If Lester Dent had bothered thinking a bit, he might have realized the anatomical differences between human arms and legs and a gator's limbs are a bit dramatic. There's no way Savage could have pulled off that disguise. It's truly a facepalm, head-shaking moment in QotS. (I love that the costume is described as a stuffed alligator that could easily folded to store in the back of their car. Seriously!?!)
But even more disturbing is that when Doc Savage captures one (or two or three or ten) of the Gray Spider's minions, rather than imprisoning or killing them, Doc administers a drug that renders them unconscious for *two weeks* (I hope they are at least fed intravenously), locked in a hotel room until Doc can take them to a New York hospital/asylum where the bad guys can be given lobotomies and other medical treatments, and turned into model citizens, unable to ever resort to a life of crime again. I guess, he is rehabilitating these villains, but, um, it is still creepy. (And most likely, even back then, very illegal.)
But still, the book is a fast-paced action adventure that, despite some really awkward writing, draws the reader into the story and keeps your interest. Provided you ignore the racism and sexism that was a part of that era. And some of the stupidity in the plot. (Like how often Doc just happens to have the one item that will save the day where he can readily get at it. Because Doc Savage thinks of everything!)
But hey. At least Doc's five allies - Ham, Monk, Renny, Long Tom and Johnny - aren't completely useless this time around, unlike their presence in "The Land of Terror", the previous Doc Savage novel.
But even that's not the worst of the stupidities in "Quest of the Spider". There's the casual sexism that exhibits itself whenever Lester Dent mentions Big Eric's daughter. Virtually every time she's referred to, it's as "beautiful Edna Danielson" or "adorable Edna Danielson" or "pretty Edna Danielson". Apparently to Dent, her looks are the only personality she has. (And please note, more often than not, she is the only character regularly called by her full name. Once introduced, very rarely are any of the other protagonists identified as anything but their first names or nicknames. A couple of minor characters that work at Danielson and Haas [Big Eric's company] are identified by their full names, too.)
Then there's the racism. Yeah, I know. It was kind of endemic to the time QotS was written, but, man. All of the Gray Spider's mulatto Creole minions are referred to as "yellow monkeys/apes", at once each time they appear. They are constantly othered as sub-human throughout the novel. It then gets worse when Doc Savage applies blackface make-up to one of his crimefighting cohorts, Johnny, so Johnny can impersonate a Voodoo High Priest. Cringe.
And while many of Doc Savage's mechanical and scientific are silly, to say the least, like the tiny miniature machine guns Doc created. The worst of the lot was the apparently very convincing alligator suit Doc wore. Maybe in the 1930s, the costume *might* have fooled a city-slicker, but people living on the bayous of Louisiana? Oh, hell no. If Lester Dent had bothered thinking a bit, he might have realized the anatomical differences between human arms and legs and a gator's limbs are a bit dramatic. There's no way Savage could have pulled off that disguise. It's truly a facepalm, head-shaking moment in QotS. (I love that the costume is described as a stuffed alligator that could easily folded to store in the back of their car. Seriously!?!)
But even more disturbing is that when Doc Savage captures one (or two or three or ten) of the Gray Spider's minions, rather than imprisoning or killing them, Doc administers a drug that renders them unconscious for *two weeks* (I hope they are at least fed intravenously), locked in a hotel room until Doc can take them to a New York hospital/asylum where the bad guys can be given lobotomies and other medical treatments, and turned into model citizens, unable to ever resort to a life of crime again. I guess, he is rehabilitating these villains, but, um, it is still creepy. (And most likely, even back then, very illegal.)
But still, the book is a fast-paced action adventure that, despite some really awkward writing, draws the reader into the story and keeps your interest. Provided you ignore the racism and sexism that was a part of that era. And some of the stupidity in the plot. (Like how often Doc just happens to have the one item that will save the day where he can readily get at it. Because Doc Savage thinks of everything!)
But hey. At least Doc's five allies - Ham, Monk, Renny, Long Tom and Johnny - aren't completely useless this time around, unlike their presence in "The Land of Terror", the previous Doc Savage novel.
August 26, 2016
Despite being marked as #68, Quest of the Spider was originally printed as the third Doc Savage adventure.
I found this story to be a mixed bag. The swampy setting is interesting (albeit not as much as a dinosaur-filled Lost World) and there's plenty of action, but the core premise—the search for a shadowy crime lord who has been disrupting Louisiana's lumber industry—isn't as exciting as the ones presented in the first two stories.
Much of the second half of the story takes place deep in the swamp, where Doc Savage and his companions battle against the titular Grey Spider's henchmen, an isolated Creole voodoo tribe called the Cult of the Moccasin. This portion of the story has a lot of excitement, but readers are also subjected to a lot of dodgy pulp representation of the Cajun dialect and the voodoo cult characters are stereotyped as ignorant savages (mixed race but exhibiting only the worst characteristics of their origins and none of the positive ones, to paraphrase a line from the book) who revel in the idea of sacrificing a white child. That being said, late in the story two of the named swamp folk are given a bit more development; one realizes the error of his evil ways and another's defects are revealed to be the result of a brain injury and cured by Savage.
One interesting aspect of this story is how Doc Savage captures most of his opponents alive, drugs them, and has them shipped to a secret facility Savage has established in upstate New York, where he "corrects" criminal behavior through neurosurgery. This probably seemed both high-tech and humane at the time these stories were written (they're fixed now!), but perhaps seems a little ominous to the modern reader in our more cynical era.
Another interesting part of the story is how little "screen time" Doc Savage himself receives. He's missing and presumed dead for much of the last third of the book, and it's his assistants that feature most heavily. Also starring are a two-fisted lumber baron and his amazingly gorgeous daughter with an amazingly dowdy name: Edna. Both play an active role in helping Doc Savage help them. Once again we see Doc Savage ignore a beautiful woman's attention. This is presented as evidence of his gravely serious nature and lack of time for frivolity, but I like a bit of "spice" (to use the pulp term) and it seems like a missed opportunity for drama to me.
Like the last book, there's a bit of mystery surrounding the identity of the Grey Spider. It's not as blatantly telegraphed as in the second Doc Savage book, but neither is the reader given much of a reason to suspect the true enemy, nor is he given much of a motive than pure greed. The result is that when the Grey Spider is revealed, my reaction was less a gasp than a shrug. OK.
All-in-all this was a brisk, energetic read, but it didn't grab me as much as the stories that precede it.
I found this story to be a mixed bag. The swampy setting is interesting (albeit not as much as a dinosaur-filled Lost World) and there's plenty of action, but the core premise—the search for a shadowy crime lord who has been disrupting Louisiana's lumber industry—isn't as exciting as the ones presented in the first two stories.
Much of the second half of the story takes place deep in the swamp, where Doc Savage and his companions battle against the titular Grey Spider's henchmen, an isolated Creole voodoo tribe called the Cult of the Moccasin. This portion of the story has a lot of excitement, but readers are also subjected to a lot of dodgy pulp representation of the Cajun dialect and the voodoo cult characters are stereotyped as ignorant savages (mixed race but exhibiting only the worst characteristics of their origins and none of the positive ones, to paraphrase a line from the book) who revel in the idea of sacrificing a white child. That being said, late in the story two of the named swamp folk are given a bit more development; one realizes the error of his evil ways and another's defects are revealed to be the result of a brain injury and cured by Savage.
One interesting aspect of this story is how Doc Savage captures most of his opponents alive, drugs them, and has them shipped to a secret facility Savage has established in upstate New York, where he "corrects" criminal behavior through neurosurgery. This probably seemed both high-tech and humane at the time these stories were written (they're fixed now!), but perhaps seems a little ominous to the modern reader in our more cynical era.
Another interesting part of the story is how little "screen time" Doc Savage himself receives. He's missing and presumed dead for much of the last third of the book, and it's his assistants that feature most heavily. Also starring are a two-fisted lumber baron and his amazingly gorgeous daughter with an amazingly dowdy name: Edna. Both play an active role in helping Doc Savage help them. Once again we see Doc Savage ignore a beautiful woman's attention. This is presented as evidence of his gravely serious nature and lack of time for frivolity, but I like a bit of "spice" (to use the pulp term) and it seems like a missed opportunity for drama to me.
Like the last book, there's a bit of mystery surrounding the identity of the Grey Spider. It's not as blatantly telegraphed as in the second Doc Savage book, but neither is the reader given much of a reason to suspect the true enemy, nor is he given much of a motive than pure greed. The result is that when the Grey Spider is revealed, my reaction was less a gasp than a shrug. OK.
All-in-all this was a brisk, energetic read, but it didn't grab me as much as the stories that precede it.
January 10, 2018
Actually the third Doc Savage novel from when he and his posse still killed villains. Fast-paced and really goofy, like a Mascot cliffhanger serial in prose, it is never dull.
February 17, 2016
Quest of the Spider is the 3rd of the Doc Savage novels, and if you have read one, you know what you are in for. Pulp novels were not about wordsmithing or craft, they were about delivering quick entertainment that kept moving rapidly through the story to a conclusion. They were popcorn for readers, and as such they were usually written quickly, edited hastily and read as an evening’s entertainment before TV was around. The Doc Savage novels were driven by formula, and as long as you know that going in, they are fun, escapist entertainment.
This novel, one of the early ones in the series, has all of the elements down. Doc Savage is a superman, better at everything than anyone, and he and his five colorful companions battle evil. In this novel, they battle The Grey Spider, a supposed voodoo lord who is attempting to take over a logging company and drain it of its funds.
The story jumps quickly from action sequence to action sequence, with characters seeming to die, only to be saved by knowing an attack was coming and having the perfect plan to stop it while appearing to perish. It’s all a bit hokey, but it’s played straight and comes off as well as an old B-Movie serial. The main characters are interesting, the plot moves rapidly, and the repetitive nature of the plot can be forgiven when you remember these were written for people to read quickly.
If you judge it by normal novel standards, it’s poorly written and shoddily plotted, but if you judge it by pulp standards, it’s a fun ride that is a bit above the average Pulp Hero novel, with a strong sense of morality and characters who are engaging and fun to spend time with.
This novel, one of the early ones in the series, has all of the elements down. Doc Savage is a superman, better at everything than anyone, and he and his five colorful companions battle evil. In this novel, they battle The Grey Spider, a supposed voodoo lord who is attempting to take over a logging company and drain it of its funds.
The story jumps quickly from action sequence to action sequence, with characters seeming to die, only to be saved by knowing an attack was coming and having the perfect plan to stop it while appearing to perish. It’s all a bit hokey, but it’s played straight and comes off as well as an old B-Movie serial. The main characters are interesting, the plot moves rapidly, and the repetitive nature of the plot can be forgiven when you remember these were written for people to read quickly.
If you judge it by normal novel standards, it’s poorly written and shoddily plotted, but if you judge it by pulp standards, it’s a fun ride that is a bit above the average Pulp Hero novel, with a strong sense of morality and characters who are engaging and fun to spend time with.
October 15, 2016
The first Doc Savage story appeared in 1933 and the series ran in pulp and later digest format into 1949. Bantam reprinted the entire series in paperback with wonderful, iconic covers starting in the 1960's. Doc was arguably the first great modern superhero with a rich background, continuity, and mythos. The characterizations were far richer than was common for the pulps; his five associates and their sometimes-auxiliary, Doc's cousin Pat, and the pets Chemistry and Habeas Corpus, all had very distinctive characteristics and their byplay was frequently more entertaining that the current adventure-of-the-month. The settings were also fascinating: Doc's Fortress of Solitude, the Hidalgo Trading Company (which served as a front for his armada of vehicles), and especially the mysterious 86th floor headquarters all became familiar haunts to the reader, and the far-flung adventures took the intrepid band to exotic and richly-described locations all over the world. The adventures were always fast-paced and exciting, from the early apocalyptic world-saving extravaganzas of the early days to the latter scientific-detective style shorter works of the post-World War Two years. There were always a few points that it was difficult to believe along the way, but there were always more ups than downs, and there was never, ever a dull moment. The Doc Savage books have always been my favorite entertainments... I was always, as Johnny would say, superamalgamated!
April 15, 2015
A vicious mastermind called The Gray Spider is taking over the lumber industry in the South. His current target is an old friend of Ham's, so of course this friend and his daughter seek out Ham and his friends to hopefully enlist the aid of their friend and benefactor, the one and only Doc Savage!
It's action from the word go as Big Eric and his daughter are nearly killed by one of the Gray Spider's agents on their plane, the whole thing made to look like a terrible accident. Once Doc is on board, things just get more and more interesting. Poison gas, evil swamp men, voodoo cult worship, and killer flies. All in a day's work for Doc and his team.
This is pulp at its best! A fun read, even though some of the dialogue coming from Doc and his aids didn't feel quite right.
It's action from the word go as Big Eric and his daughter are nearly killed by one of the Gray Spider's agents on their plane, the whole thing made to look like a terrible accident. Once Doc is on board, things just get more and more interesting. Poison gas, evil swamp men, voodoo cult worship, and killer flies. All in a day's work for Doc and his team.
This is pulp at its best! A fun read, even though some of the dialogue coming from Doc and his aids didn't feel quite right.
September 13, 2017
So what to say about a 1930's pulp fiction novel?
Well, it's not good in the traditional sense of the word, but it is enjoyable. It is a product of its time where men were real men, women are always described as "attractive" or "beautiful" or some other word that only describes her appearance, and the racial viewpoints are well on the low end of enlightened (the word "monkey men" is used more often than is comfortable). Our hero is good at everything - and I mean everything - and is without equal in any area of life: intellect, education, physical ability, even wealth.
Worth a quick read if just for the experience.
Well, it's not good in the traditional sense of the word, but it is enjoyable. It is a product of its time where men were real men, women are always described as "attractive" or "beautiful" or some other word that only describes her appearance, and the racial viewpoints are well on the low end of enlightened (the word "monkey men" is used more often than is comfortable). Our hero is good at everything - and I mean everything - and is without equal in any area of life: intellect, education, physical ability, even wealth.
Worth a quick read if just for the experience.
January 28, 2018
Doc and the crew face off against The Grey Spider and a voodoo cult of bayou swamp folk in this third supersaga. The Spider is illegally taking control of the lumber industry in the American South. Of course their are last minute escapes and a beautiful woman falling for hopelessly asexual Doc. A bad man is redeemed and the villain gets his comeuppance.
A run-of-the-mill Doc Savage book. Short and pulpy good.
A run-of-the-mill Doc Savage book. Short and pulpy good.
November 16, 2013
Look behind you, Doc! That's a freaking huge spider behind you!
Or not, because it is just a cheap cover gimmick of the James Bama era. This book is completely giant-spider-free. In fact, "The Spider" is the name of the mastermind villain behind kidnapings and murders to gain control of the lumber market in Louisiana. I bet you don't saw that coming.
A decent entry in the long list of Doc Savage adventures, with or without huge spiders.
Or not, because it is just a cheap cover gimmick of the James Bama era. This book is completely giant-spider-free. In fact, "The Spider" is the name of the mastermind villain behind kidnapings and murders to gain control of the lumber market in Louisiana. I bet you don't saw that coming.
A decent entry in the long list of Doc Savage adventures, with or without huge spiders.
February 26, 2016
Of all the pulp era heroes few stand out above the crowd, Doc Savage is one of these. With his 5 aides and cousin he adventures across the world. Fighting weird menaces, master criminals and evil scientists Doc and the Fab 5 never let you down for a great read. These stories have all you need; fast paced action, weird mystery, and some humor as the aides spat with each other. My highest recommendation.
September 24, 2013
May, 1933, Street and Smith release the third Doc Savage supersaga, Finally, Doc and his friends remain in the USA to fight a very human villain, the Gray Spider. Very good adventure, Makes me want to read another right now . . . oh that's right, I'm going to. Lester Dent is hitting his stride with his new hero. Bring on another adventure!
December 24, 2007
read 08.15.84
July 27, 2010
About typical for a Doc Savage book. Imaginative, very action oriented, but not very well written.
May 29, 2012
Book #3 - Finished.
October 7, 2012
Good story.
January 23, 2016
reread SOMETIME in 2011
November 16, 2016
read paperback version (not kindle) some time in 1985
October 4, 2017
Another good Doc adventure that I read back in the 70s.
May 23, 2024
This one started out good but the last 30 pages with the stupid accents made the end a chore to get through. But while reading it a few random things came to mind, like the plane is careening towards certain death and these people are having a normal everyday conversation?
So they put acid in the parachute! Why not just cut the strings? No one would know.
Cult of the Moccasin? You're a worldwide evil organization and THAT is the best you could come up with? Naming yourself after shoes Indians wear?
Oh great, just what this book needed, a character with a really dumd dialect that's hard to read.
Maybe it's me but Doc seems a lot more violent this time around.
I was wondering if this book was borderline racist until I read "From now on, you're in blackface!" he smiled. then I knew
It did give us some literary gems, such as:-------------------
A COMET hurtled through the cloudy summer sky. It was a man-made comet of toughened steel and alloy (Oh great, Krypton must have exploded again)
He had an evil face. (The fact that his name was Eve L. Face didn't help either)
The plane cabin was partially sound-proofed. (Don't ask me how I know, just take my word for it)
"Ham--is that his nickname?" (Nope, he's made out of ham, he's a pig)
"That slick-haired man went into the washroom a few minutes ago! Remember?" "Sure, I remember!" rumbled Big Eric. "The dirty rat!" (was it a slick haired man or a rat? Or maybe a slick haired rat?)
A fat lady promptly screamed. (Well, you know it's not over till the fat lady.. Er...close enough)
This air line was one which equipped their planes with a parachute for each passenger! (A parachute for each passenger! What airline is this? The other ones barely give me a small bag of peanuts!)
"That slick-haired skunk is getting away from us!" (Now he's a skunk? Make up your mind man!)
"I'd bet a million that he was a tool of the Gray Spider!" (Yeah, what a tool)
Such an arm! (Yeah, hubba hubba!)
"Poison gas!" bellowed the quick-thinking Ham. (Yeah, sorry, that's me. I had Taco bell last night)
The Gray Spider pilot knew he had caught a Tartar. (What the hell does that even mean?)
"The car you ordered to meet you, sir!" (Great, nice to meet you car, now you may go)
BUT it was widely known that voodooism did exist. (Elvis, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster said so)
The ropes snapped off his wrists. (It was the worst friendship bracelet ever)
Doc was convinced they were right. He knew men. (A lot of men. Too bad they were all dead)
Then came the tumbling gobble of a machine gun. (Or Thanksgiving dinner, not too sure which, there was a lot going on)
It was not one of the submachine or "Tommy" guns (But only his friends could call him Tommy, to everyone else he was "Mr. Bang bang dead gun")
He hadn't been talking to one of his fellows. He had been conversing with the bronze "debbil!" (Oh Doc, with impersonation skills like that you're sure to win Star Search!)
No doubt the secret chamber was virtually soundproof. (How has everyone in the world suddenly become experts on whether a room is sound proof or not?)
A body threshed. A gun exploded. Silence followed. (Sentences fragmented. Many more. Sense not make. Yoda sound like, yes.)
"Nifty work Bugs!" (Thanks Elmer Fudd!)
He wore pale-gray gloves for this work. (They all laughed at me for selling only gray gloves, but who's laughing now?!)
And below that was a death-fall of ten stories. (And oh what stories they were, one was about Dracula, one about the wolf man and one about an old ladt in a shoe)
He gave a noncommital answer. (No comment)
The mirror, of course, was water. (of course, duh)
IT did furnish us with some (insert your own joke here) lines, like-------------------
He was trusting his work-hardened muscles, now wrapped around the other man's body,
Only a steady, low moan told of their terrific momentum.
Two queer-looking men stepped out of a closet.
ejaculated the leader of the gang.
For those who still care, our Holy Cow count was 1 With Supermalgamated coming in at 0
Oh well, on to the next one....
So they put acid in the parachute! Why not just cut the strings? No one would know.
Cult of the Moccasin? You're a worldwide evil organization and THAT is the best you could come up with? Naming yourself after shoes Indians wear?
Oh great, just what this book needed, a character with a really dumd dialect that's hard to read.
Maybe it's me but Doc seems a lot more violent this time around.
I was wondering if this book was borderline racist until I read "From now on, you're in blackface!" he smiled. then I knew
It did give us some literary gems, such as:-------------------
A COMET hurtled through the cloudy summer sky. It was a man-made comet of toughened steel and alloy (Oh great, Krypton must have exploded again)
He had an evil face. (The fact that his name was Eve L. Face didn't help either)
The plane cabin was partially sound-proofed. (Don't ask me how I know, just take my word for it)
"Ham--is that his nickname?" (Nope, he's made out of ham, he's a pig)
"That slick-haired man went into the washroom a few minutes ago! Remember?" "Sure, I remember!" rumbled Big Eric. "The dirty rat!" (was it a slick haired man or a rat? Or maybe a slick haired rat?)
A fat lady promptly screamed. (Well, you know it's not over till the fat lady.. Er...close enough)
This air line was one which equipped their planes with a parachute for each passenger! (A parachute for each passenger! What airline is this? The other ones barely give me a small bag of peanuts!)
"That slick-haired skunk is getting away from us!" (Now he's a skunk? Make up your mind man!)
"I'd bet a million that he was a tool of the Gray Spider!" (Yeah, what a tool)
Such an arm! (Yeah, hubba hubba!)
"Poison gas!" bellowed the quick-thinking Ham. (Yeah, sorry, that's me. I had Taco bell last night)
The Gray Spider pilot knew he had caught a Tartar. (What the hell does that even mean?)
"The car you ordered to meet you, sir!" (Great, nice to meet you car, now you may go)
BUT it was widely known that voodooism did exist. (Elvis, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster said so)
The ropes snapped off his wrists. (It was the worst friendship bracelet ever)
Doc was convinced they were right. He knew men. (A lot of men. Too bad they were all dead)
Then came the tumbling gobble of a machine gun. (Or Thanksgiving dinner, not too sure which, there was a lot going on)
It was not one of the submachine or "Tommy" guns (But only his friends could call him Tommy, to everyone else he was "Mr. Bang bang dead gun")
He hadn't been talking to one of his fellows. He had been conversing with the bronze "debbil!" (Oh Doc, with impersonation skills like that you're sure to win Star Search!)
No doubt the secret chamber was virtually soundproof. (How has everyone in the world suddenly become experts on whether a room is sound proof or not?)
A body threshed. A gun exploded. Silence followed. (Sentences fragmented. Many more. Sense not make. Yoda sound like, yes.)
"Nifty work Bugs!" (Thanks Elmer Fudd!)
He wore pale-gray gloves for this work. (They all laughed at me for selling only gray gloves, but who's laughing now?!)
And below that was a death-fall of ten stories. (And oh what stories they were, one was about Dracula, one about the wolf man and one about an old ladt in a shoe)
He gave a noncommital answer. (No comment)
The mirror, of course, was water. (of course, duh)
IT did furnish us with some (insert your own joke here) lines, like-------------------
He was trusting his work-hardened muscles, now wrapped around the other man's body,
Only a steady, low moan told of their terrific momentum.
Two queer-looking men stepped out of a closet.
ejaculated the leader of the gang.
For those who still care, our Holy Cow count was 1 With Supermalgamated coming in at 0
Oh well, on to the next one....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2021
Doc Savage's third published adventure was written roughly ninety years ago, resulting in some unusual aspects of this story that might not have aged well.
As with many of Doc's adventures, this one involves him and the boys infiltrating a criminal organization threatening a large number of people. In this case, it's a Voodoo Swamp Cult that is taking over lumber mills and selling of their assets for cash. Weird, huh? A couple of other things that stand out:
*Doc Savage stacking unconscious bad guys like cordwood in a nearby hotel so he can later enroll them in his brainwashing clinic to be turned into decent law-abiding citizens.
*There is an unfortunate instance - with no apologies - in which Doc Savage dresses Johnny up like a swamp cult voodoo preacher, complete with blackface.
*There is A LOT of ejaculating going on in this book.
"Golly!" ejaculated Big Eric, staring at the plane which was being rolled into view.
"Bien!" he ejaculated. "Keel heem both!
"Yo' gat heem, huh?" ejaculated the leader of the gang.
"Holy smoke!" Johnny ejaculated. [In blackface]
"Bien!" ejaculated Johnny, imitating the conglomerate dialect of the swamp men.
"Bien!" ejaculated Johnny, lapsing into the conglomerate swamp dialect. [Johnny does a lot of ejaculating while in blackface]
"Bien!" ejaculated Buck Boontown.
It might sound juvenile, but I challenge that anybody reading a contemporary novel with this much ejaculating would at least raise an eyebrow.
*The voodoo swamp cult is known as the Cult of the Moccasin. So what kind of name would you give a voodoo priest leading a swamp cult names after a snake? That's right, the Gray Spider. Why is an arachnid ruling a snake cult? Only Doc knows.
*When they reveal the secret identity of the Gray Spider, it (obviously) turns out to be somebody they already met but would never suspect, but then no time is explaining, or even trying to understand, why or how they ended up leading a voodoo swamp cult.
*This one's a deal breaker for me. There's always a willing suspension of disbelief when reading Doc Savage novels, and I'm more than willing to believe that Doc is the amazing superman that can out-perform anybody, mind or body. However... later chapters in the book describe a large alligator crawling around the voodoo swamp cult hideout where Monk, Ham, and Johnny are being held prisoner. The alligator wandering around the hideout, and eventually let into the boys' cell to scare them, turns out to be DOC SAVAGE IN AN ALLIGATOR SUIT. Nope. That's where you lose me. Dinosaurs on a secret island? No problem. The massive frame of The Man of Bronze crawling around in an alligator costume successfully fooling everybody? Nope. Sorry, Doc.
Overall, this entry in the Doc Savage series was less interesting than the previous two, possibly due to its mix of the repeated (secret cult) and the mundane (robbing sawmills).
As with many of Doc's adventures, this one involves him and the boys infiltrating a criminal organization threatening a large number of people. In this case, it's a Voodoo Swamp Cult that is taking over lumber mills and selling of their assets for cash. Weird, huh? A couple of other things that stand out:
*Doc Savage stacking unconscious bad guys like cordwood in a nearby hotel so he can later enroll them in his brainwashing clinic to be turned into decent law-abiding citizens.
*There is an unfortunate instance - with no apologies - in which Doc Savage dresses Johnny up like a swamp cult voodoo preacher, complete with blackface.
*There is A LOT of ejaculating going on in this book.
"Golly!" ejaculated Big Eric, staring at the plane which was being rolled into view.
"Bien!" he ejaculated. "Keel heem both!
"Yo' gat heem, huh?" ejaculated the leader of the gang.
"Holy smoke!" Johnny ejaculated. [In blackface]
"Bien!" ejaculated Johnny, imitating the conglomerate dialect of the swamp men.
"Bien!" ejaculated Johnny, lapsing into the conglomerate swamp dialect. [Johnny does a lot of ejaculating while in blackface]
"Bien!" ejaculated Buck Boontown.
It might sound juvenile, but I challenge that anybody reading a contemporary novel with this much ejaculating would at least raise an eyebrow.
*The voodoo swamp cult is known as the Cult of the Moccasin. So what kind of name would you give a voodoo priest leading a swamp cult names after a snake? That's right, the Gray Spider. Why is an arachnid ruling a snake cult? Only Doc knows.
*When they reveal the secret identity of the Gray Spider, it (obviously) turns out to be somebody they already met but would never suspect, but then no time is explaining, or even trying to understand, why or how they ended up leading a voodoo swamp cult.
*This one's a deal breaker for me. There's always a willing suspension of disbelief when reading Doc Savage novels, and I'm more than willing to believe that Doc is the amazing superman that can out-perform anybody, mind or body. However... later chapters in the book describe a large alligator crawling around the voodoo swamp cult hideout where Monk, Ham, and Johnny are being held prisoner. The alligator wandering around the hideout, and eventually let into the boys' cell to scare them, turns out to be DOC SAVAGE IN AN ALLIGATOR SUIT. Nope. That's where you lose me. Dinosaurs on a secret island? No problem. The massive frame of The Man of Bronze crawling around in an alligator costume successfully fooling everybody? Nope. Sorry, Doc.
Overall, this entry in the Doc Savage series was less interesting than the previous two, possibly due to its mix of the repeated (secret cult) and the mundane (robbing sawmills).
August 9, 2021
This Doc Savage adventure wastes no time getting to the action. In the first few pages, a plane with our troubled protagonists, a lumber magnate and his beautiful young daughter (we know she’s beautiful because the book reminds us of this every single time she’s mentioned), begins going down. The passengers are forced to jump. Since the two main characters’ chutes have been sabotaged, they must double up with the pilots, and so begins the chase for the shady figure known only as the Gray Spider. From this point on, guns vomit bullets and arms like windmills knock around bad guys like sparrows.
Soon after the opening events, Doc Savage and his five mates join the fray and bring along with them mind control serums, various disguises, lightning quick reflexes, the ability to perform brain surgery in the swamp at a moment’s notice, and the Doc’s two hour daily workout routine, which he never goes without (not even when he’s amidst a war with Cajun monkey voodoo priests).
I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that the giant spider shown on the cover of the book never makes an appearance. The part of the story where Doc Savage hides for days inside an alligator costume and no one notices a large man traipsing under a rubber suit will have to do instead. Besides, the Gray Spider does carry an actual gray spider around with him. And he has so much fun attempting to pull off his schemes in the most roundabout ways, I’ll let it slide. If only Jeff Bezos could be this creative.
Soon after the opening events, Doc Savage and his five mates join the fray and bring along with them mind control serums, various disguises, lightning quick reflexes, the ability to perform brain surgery in the swamp at a moment’s notice, and the Doc’s two hour daily workout routine, which he never goes without (not even when he’s amidst a war with Cajun monkey voodoo priests).
I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that the giant spider shown on the cover of the book never makes an appearance. The part of the story where Doc Savage hides for days inside an alligator costume and no one notices a large man traipsing under a rubber suit will have to do instead. Besides, the Gray Spider does carry an actual gray spider around with him. And he has so much fun attempting to pull off his schemes in the most roundabout ways, I’ll let it slide. If only Jeff Bezos could be this creative.
December 17, 2021
I really enjoyed this Doc Savage adventure. It was the third Doc Savage story published originally but is the sixty-eighth published in paperback by Bantam Books. Also, some of the phrases used are now archaic but this did not ruin the reading experience. It did, however, gave pause, but not enough to truly interrupt the flow of the narrative. But these Doc Savage saga’s are pulp fiction, not literature. I still appreciated the story for what it was, stories written for teen boys back in the thirties who were attempting to make the best of a horrible, unending global depression.
The story opens with a father and daughter fleeing peril, flying to New York City to find the father’s friend, Ham. Doc is away at his Fortress of Solitude but soon returns. Eventually, Doc and his five men are enlisted to help with the chaos surrounding the lumber business around New Orleans.
Many of the crime bosses’ henchmen are rendered unconscious and stowed away in hotel rooms so that workers from Doc’s upper New York State institution can come and retrieve them so that they can be rehabilitated from their life from crime. However, I did note that Doc’s men use lethal rounds in some of their skirmishes. This was different from Doc’s men always using their mercy bullets in their machine gun pistols.
The story opens with a father and daughter fleeing peril, flying to New York City to find the father’s friend, Ham. Doc is away at his Fortress of Solitude but soon returns. Eventually, Doc and his five men are enlisted to help with the chaos surrounding the lumber business around New Orleans.
Many of the crime bosses’ henchmen are rendered unconscious and stowed away in hotel rooms so that workers from Doc’s upper New York State institution can come and retrieve them so that they can be rehabilitated from their life from crime. However, I did note that Doc’s men use lethal rounds in some of their skirmishes. This was different from Doc’s men always using their mercy bullets in their machine gun pistols.
June 15, 2018
Classic Doc Savage: a mysterious criminal conspiracy, an unspeakable cult, weird drugs and poisons, fights and gunplay, improbable disguises, and a masked villain. This one has less "superscience" (with the exception of Doc's high-tech items) than many others. Very pulpy portrayal of Louisiana voodoo - and inbred "swamp devils" that are supposed to be a combination of Cajuns and the descendants of "escaped criminals" (slaves?). On that subject, if you are from Louisiana and were annoyed by Dennis Quaid's terrible "Cajun" accent in The Big Easy, be warned, the "swamp lingo" in this book is even worse. As always, while Doc Savage is fun, don't look for a lot of cultural sensitivity in this book - the copy I have (from 1935) has cover art that at first glance appears to be Doc giving a forehead massage to a shadowy figure, but (based on the story), is actually him putting of his companions into blackface as a disguise (without giving any spoilers, this is only the SECOND most improbable disguise in the story.
August 19, 2023
Quest of the Spider is a "Doc Savage" novel by Kenneth Robeson. Kenneth Robeson was the house name Street and Smith Publications used as the author of their popular Doc Savage novels. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:
William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson
I love reading these old pulp novels from time to time. I read about 80%+ of the Doc Savage novels when I was a teenager but that was a very long time ago. I have been trying to find them again in the Bantam editions I read in my youth. I have found several of them in used bookstores and have bought several from online aftermarket bookstores.
In this one, Doc Savage and his men are in the thick of it again. The action is classic Doc Savage, filled with good old fashion adventure and gadgets that always seem to be there when the hero needs them. You can relax and escape for a little while. A good read in the Doc Savage series.
William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson
I love reading these old pulp novels from time to time. I read about 80%+ of the Doc Savage novels when I was a teenager but that was a very long time ago. I have been trying to find them again in the Bantam editions I read in my youth. I have found several of them in used bookstores and have bought several from online aftermarket bookstores.
In this one, Doc Savage and his men are in the thick of it again. The action is classic Doc Savage, filled with good old fashion adventure and gadgets that always seem to be there when the hero needs them. You can relax and escape for a little while. A good read in the Doc Savage series.
February 18, 2020
A solid adventure in the Doc series...and one which finally shows the type of Doc Savage we'll know and love through the next 170+ adventures: deep humanitarian, devotee of social justice, criminal reformer, and striving never to kill. This is also the first to take place entirely in the United States, rather than a globe-trotting adventure -- though the location is a bit exotic, with much of the action taking place in the bayous around Louisiana.
The main caveat: racism rears its head several times in the story. It's another example of how far we've come, as it's clear that the casualness of the racism written here was rather blithely accepted by mainstream America in 1933. It was enough to pull me out of the story and suspend my suspension of disbelief.
(Although, on another note entirely, Doc just happening to have a very convincing zipper-up alligator suit handy was a bit incredulous, too.)
The main caveat: racism rears its head several times in the story. It's another example of how far we've come, as it's clear that the casualness of the racism written here was rather blithely accepted by mainstream America in 1933. It was enough to pull me out of the story and suspend my suspension of disbelief.
(Although, on another note entirely, Doc just happening to have a very convincing zipper-up alligator suit handy was a bit incredulous, too.)
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