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The Avenger #8
The Glass Mountain
A misty cloud filled with deadly lightening bolts leaves a trail of destruction at the site of a tunnel through Mt. Rainod. Does the ancient Indian rain god still live? The Avenger must unearth the truth before the electrical current destroys him.
In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human.
It was so with Dick Benson. He had been a man. After the dread loss inflicted on him by an inhuman crime ring, he became a machine of vengeance dedicated to the extermination of all other crime rings.
He turned into the the person we know now: A figure of ice and steel, more pitiless than both; A mechanism of whipcord and flame; A symbol to crooks and killers; A terrible, almost impersonal force, masking chill genius and super normal power behind a face as white and dead as a mask from the grave. Only his pale eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, hint at the deadliness of the scourge the underworld heedlessly invoked against itself when crime's greed turned millionaire adventurer Richard Benson into The Avenger.
In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human.
It was so with Dick Benson. He had been a man. After the dread loss inflicted on him by an inhuman crime ring, he became a machine of vengeance dedicated to the extermination of all other crime rings.
He turned into the the person we know now: A figure of ice and steel, more pitiless than both; A mechanism of whipcord and flame; A symbol to crooks and killers; A terrible, almost impersonal force, masking chill genius and super normal power behind a face as white and dead as a mask from the grave. Only his pale eyes, like ice in a polar dawn, hint at the deadliness of the scourge the underworld heedlessly invoked against itself when crime's greed turned millionaire adventurer Richard Benson into The Avenger.
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
57 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Robeson
914 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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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 22, 2022
Richard Benson (AKA “The Avenger”) is called into assist in a difficult engineering task in Idaho. Mount Rainod is a large mountain made of smooth black basalt and dubbed “The Glass Mountain”. Now, a railroad is working to build a tunnel through the mountain which is proving to be a tall order. But when a green mist column appears and begins electrocuting men, Benson’s work becomes even more difficult. To add to the challenge, an elderly Pawnee begins to scare workers by telling of a rain god that dwells within the mountain. The very name “Rainod” would appear to be a derivative of “Rain God”. And obviously the Rain God doesn’t want any tunneling happening in his mountain.
This eighth “Avenger” novel was first published in the April 1st, 1940, issue of The Avenger magazine. It may be most famous today, due to the 1973 Warner paperback publication, as being the greenest cover ever produced. Nevertheless, it is another enjoyable yarn from the pen of Paul Ernst writing under the Kenneth Robeson pseudonym. Most of Benson’s associates turn in a good performance including Mac, Smitty, Nellie Gray, and Josh who gets to act as the camp cook. Interestingly, Josh gets electrocuted by the green column of mist early on and actually dies. Benson resurrects him by assembling a crude device that today we would call an automated external defibrillator (AED). Realizing this was written in 1940, I had to look up when AEDs were invented. Turns out it was 1930 but for a minute there, I thought Paul Ernst was on to something before his time.
Benson and his team work to determine what is really happening behind the scenes. It’s a pretty straight forward mystery story as they figure out who stands to profit the most. Benson suspects the corporate partners back in Chicago. The plot unfolds nicely and, as always, the science behind the supernatural elements is interesting. Benson knows most of what s going on from the very beginning, but we readers are left, along with his crew, to puzzle it out ourselves or simply sit back and enjoy Benson’s masterful revelations.
Comparisons of Richard Benson to Doc Savage are always inevitable and, indeed, there are many similarities. But there is one key difference that is entirely evident in this entry. While Benson tries to minimize the killing, he is not opposed to the villains, even whole groups of them, to perish in the pursuit of their goals. Such is the case, and I, for one, am not opposed either.
I own the complete series of these books and will continue to enjoy them as I occasionally consume one here and there between weightier tomes. Like Doc Savage novels, they’re always a treat.
This eighth “Avenger” novel was first published in the April 1st, 1940, issue of The Avenger magazine. It may be most famous today, due to the 1973 Warner paperback publication, as being the greenest cover ever produced. Nevertheless, it is another enjoyable yarn from the pen of Paul Ernst writing under the Kenneth Robeson pseudonym. Most of Benson’s associates turn in a good performance including Mac, Smitty, Nellie Gray, and Josh who gets to act as the camp cook. Interestingly, Josh gets electrocuted by the green column of mist early on and actually dies. Benson resurrects him by assembling a crude device that today we would call an automated external defibrillator (AED). Realizing this was written in 1940, I had to look up when AEDs were invented. Turns out it was 1930 but for a minute there, I thought Paul Ernst was on to something before his time.
Benson and his team work to determine what is really happening behind the scenes. It’s a pretty straight forward mystery story as they figure out who stands to profit the most. Benson suspects the corporate partners back in Chicago. The plot unfolds nicely and, as always, the science behind the supernatural elements is interesting. Benson knows most of what s going on from the very beginning, but we readers are left, along with his crew, to puzzle it out ourselves or simply sit back and enjoy Benson’s masterful revelations.
Comparisons of Richard Benson to Doc Savage are always inevitable and, indeed, there are many similarities. But there is one key difference that is entirely evident in this entry. While Benson tries to minimize the killing, he is not opposed to the villains, even whole groups of them, to perish in the pursuit of their goals. Such is the case, and I, for one, am not opposed either.
I own the complete series of these books and will continue to enjoy them as I occasionally consume one here and there between weightier tomes. Like Doc Savage novels, they’re always a treat.
October 12, 2022
Another pulp, another villain undone by his own schemes. But like the prior Avenger story, there is a supernatural tone to The Glass Mountain.
September 17, 2025
The Avenger (and his aides) are called in to help an old friend when there is trouble boring a tunnel through a mountain of glass.
The curse of an ancient Indian Rain God is electrocuting people from a clear sky. There is a green mist which follows people and then they are found dead. The drilling crew fears this and all want to leave.
Benson and his crew are caught and trapped numerous times, and Josh is even killed (Benson brings him back from the dead), and a crazy woman wants to kill Benson as he was framed for the murder of her father.
And unknown to Benson and aides, a crew of evil killers are brought in to replace the deserting tunnellers, making things even worse.
The curse of an ancient Indian Rain God is electrocuting people from a clear sky. There is a green mist which follows people and then they are found dead. The drilling crew fears this and all want to leave.
Benson and his crew are caught and trapped numerous times, and Josh is even killed (Benson brings him back from the dead), and a crazy woman wants to kill Benson as he was framed for the murder of her father.
And unknown to Benson and aides, a crew of evil killers are brought in to replace the deserting tunnellers, making things even worse.
February 2, 2023
A better book, which follows the pulp pattern. Enjoyable, even so, it's not The Spider and not Doc.
February 8, 2017
Quick recap: The Avenger, Richard Henry Benson, is a wealthy adventurer who took early retirement to spend time with his wife and daughter. They were murdered by criminals, and he has sworn vengeance on crimedom, gathering a team of highly skilled people known as “Justice, Inc.” As mentioned in my review of #7, sales on the title weren’t doing so well, so editorial ordered some changes that removed the Avenger’s weird appearance and retconned his age to be considerably younger, with these changes taking place in Murder on Wheels.
This had a direct effect on the first story in this volume, House of Death. It had originally been finished by Paul Ernst (writing as Kenneth Robeson) under the title “House of Hate.” But then the editorial decision came down, Murder on Wheels was hastily put in place instead, and this story was stowed away. Then it was rewritten to change Benson’s appearance to the new look, excise his uncanny face-change ability, and put in a line explaining where the new team member Cole Wilson was. By that time, the next story also had “Hate” in the title, so this story was retitled.
So, what is House of Death about? It’s about an once powerful and wealthy family, the Haygars. Political changes and bad health have whittled away the family’s fortune and numbers, leaving only a handful of cousins from various parts of the world. They have come to America for a reunion, each bearing a small gold coin to identify themselves. However, those coins also mark the bearers for death, and at least one of the Haygars is an impostor.
The story has an interesting opening, focusing on Milky Morley, a down on his luck mugger who attacks a man on a lonely street for the “profit” of a wad of bills from a country that doesn’t exist any more, and a small gold coin of no known nation. He is only the first person in the story to die because he’s touched one of the coins.
Nellie Gray gets to be particularly useful in this story once the scene switches to an island off the coast of Maine. She brachiates ala Tarzan, kills a guard dog with an improvised boar spear, and saves the lives of several of the male members of the team. And if she gets in trouble in the deadly house of the title, it’s because everyone else has had a turn.
The Hate Master, also by Paul Ernst, opens with a scientist disappearing from an isolated laboratory by unknown means. Then a Scottish terrier is torn to pieces by rabbits. It’s soon clear that the scientist has developed some means of causing animals and people to hate on command, which may be tied to a wealthy politician who’s running for president. (Will Murray’s article in this volume claims this was the first appearance of a “hate plague” in the hero pulps.) There’s an unpleasant scene of the political candidate whipping a dog with a copper wire
Both stories happen to have the gigantic Smitty’s ankles torn up by small animals, and have sections set in Maine.
After the two main stories, there are two shorts. “A Coffin for the Avenger” by Emile Tepperman appeared in Clues Detective, and has the Avenger up against a Nazi spy codenamed “the Black Tulip” after the villain’s horticultural ambitions. There’s a chilling first bit with a straitjacketed man forced to “drive” a car into a hotel lobby, only one of a series of events the Black Tulip has orchestrated. The villain boasts that he never overlooks a detail–he’s wrong, and it’s a short story because the Black Tulip’s henchman has failed to notice the neighborhood kids playing games.
“Death Paces the Widow’s Walk” by Bruce Elliott stars detective Nick Carter (see the review I did of one of his books) investigating an apparent suicide on Martha’s Vineyard. The suicide note is an obvious forgery, and the most likely suspect, the man with bald nostrils, has vanished. It’s a double “locked room mystery” and Nick cuts the solution very close to his own death.
While not quite up to the earlier stories in the series, these Avenger tales have some great plot twists and exciting action. Recommended to pulp fans.
For more pulp reviews, visit SKJAM! Reviews at http://www.skjam.com/tag/pulp/
This had a direct effect on the first story in this volume, House of Death. It had originally been finished by Paul Ernst (writing as Kenneth Robeson) under the title “House of Hate.” But then the editorial decision came down, Murder on Wheels was hastily put in place instead, and this story was stowed away. Then it was rewritten to change Benson’s appearance to the new look, excise his uncanny face-change ability, and put in a line explaining where the new team member Cole Wilson was. By that time, the next story also had “Hate” in the title, so this story was retitled.
So, what is House of Death about? It’s about an once powerful and wealthy family, the Haygars. Political changes and bad health have whittled away the family’s fortune and numbers, leaving only a handful of cousins from various parts of the world. They have come to America for a reunion, each bearing a small gold coin to identify themselves. However, those coins also mark the bearers for death, and at least one of the Haygars is an impostor.
The story has an interesting opening, focusing on Milky Morley, a down on his luck mugger who attacks a man on a lonely street for the “profit” of a wad of bills from a country that doesn’t exist any more, and a small gold coin of no known nation. He is only the first person in the story to die because he’s touched one of the coins.
Nellie Gray gets to be particularly useful in this story once the scene switches to an island off the coast of Maine. She brachiates ala Tarzan, kills a guard dog with an improvised boar spear, and saves the lives of several of the male members of the team. And if she gets in trouble in the deadly house of the title, it’s because everyone else has had a turn.
The Hate Master, also by Paul Ernst, opens with a scientist disappearing from an isolated laboratory by unknown means. Then a Scottish terrier is torn to pieces by rabbits. It’s soon clear that the scientist has developed some means of causing animals and people to hate on command, which may be tied to a wealthy politician who’s running for president. (Will Murray’s article in this volume claims this was the first appearance of a “hate plague” in the hero pulps.) There’s an unpleasant scene of the political candidate whipping a dog with a copper wire
Both stories happen to have the gigantic Smitty’s ankles torn up by small animals, and have sections set in Maine.
After the two main stories, there are two shorts. “A Coffin for the Avenger” by Emile Tepperman appeared in Clues Detective, and has the Avenger up against a Nazi spy codenamed “the Black Tulip” after the villain’s horticultural ambitions. There’s a chilling first bit with a straitjacketed man forced to “drive” a car into a hotel lobby, only one of a series of events the Black Tulip has orchestrated. The villain boasts that he never overlooks a detail–he’s wrong, and it’s a short story because the Black Tulip’s henchman has failed to notice the neighborhood kids playing games.
“Death Paces the Widow’s Walk” by Bruce Elliott stars detective Nick Carter (see the review I did of one of his books) investigating an apparent suicide on Martha’s Vineyard. The suicide note is an obvious forgery, and the most likely suspect, the man with bald nostrils, has vanished. It’s a double “locked room mystery” and Nick cuts the solution very close to his own death.
While not quite up to the earlier stories in the series, these Avenger tales have some great plot twists and exciting action. Recommended to pulp fans.
For more pulp reviews, visit SKJAM! Reviews at http://www.skjam.com/tag/pulp/
December 13, 2015
(Greenest cover ever!)
The Avenger, Richard Benson, was one of the greatest pulp crime-fighters. He and his band of associates comprised Justice, Inc., and, armed with keen gadgets, clear genius, stout hearts, good humor, and the force of right set forth from their Bleek Street headquarters to thwart evil, defend goodness, and protect American society. The adventures were published as "by Kenneth Robeson, the creator of Doc Savage," (which may have led to the perception that The Avenger was something of a second-rate Doc), though the originals were actually written by Paul Ernst and then continued by Ron Goulart many years later. Armed with Mike & Ike, a very special knife and gun, Benson was teamed with Mac and Smitty (analogous to Monk and Ham from the Doc Savage series) from the beginning, and then joined by blonde and diminutive Nellie Grey (who could definitely have held her own with Pat Savage or Nita van Slaon) in the second book, Josh and Rosabel Newton, perhaps the best-depicted African-American couple from the era in The Sky Walker, and light-hearted Cole Wilson in the thirteenth adventure. The stories were well-paced and exciting and very well-written for the context of the era. Benson's origin, as recounted in Justice, Inc., the first story, was similar to Bruce Wayne's in that the loss of his family spurred his decision to fight crime; his wealth and physical prowess allowed him to do so. The loss of his wife and daughter resulted in a weird facial
deformity that made his skin lose its pigmentation and left it malleable like wax so that he could reform it and made him "the man of a thousand faces"; the loss of this ability in the thirteenth novel was a downturn in the series. The series continued for a second dozen adventures in the 1940's, and then revived for a third dozen in the 1970's when Warner Books had Goulart continue the series for another dozen volumes after they put out the first two dozen in paperback. It was a fun and thrill-packed intelligent series, more down-to-Earth than the Doc Savage books and much less crazy than The Spider series.
The Avenger, Richard Benson, was one of the greatest pulp crime-fighters. He and his band of associates comprised Justice, Inc., and, armed with keen gadgets, clear genius, stout hearts, good humor, and the force of right set forth from their Bleek Street headquarters to thwart evil, defend goodness, and protect American society. The adventures were published as "by Kenneth Robeson, the creator of Doc Savage," (which may have led to the perception that The Avenger was something of a second-rate Doc), though the originals were actually written by Paul Ernst and then continued by Ron Goulart many years later. Armed with Mike & Ike, a very special knife and gun, Benson was teamed with Mac and Smitty (analogous to Monk and Ham from the Doc Savage series) from the beginning, and then joined by blonde and diminutive Nellie Grey (who could definitely have held her own with Pat Savage or Nita van Slaon) in the second book, Josh and Rosabel Newton, perhaps the best-depicted African-American couple from the era in The Sky Walker, and light-hearted Cole Wilson in the thirteenth adventure. The stories were well-paced and exciting and very well-written for the context of the era. Benson's origin, as recounted in Justice, Inc., the first story, was similar to Bruce Wayne's in that the loss of his family spurred his decision to fight crime; his wealth and physical prowess allowed him to do so. The loss of his wife and daughter resulted in a weird facial
deformity that made his skin lose its pigmentation and left it malleable like wax so that he could reform it and made him "the man of a thousand faces"; the loss of this ability in the thirteenth novel was a downturn in the series. The series continued for a second dozen adventures in the 1940's, and then revived for a third dozen in the 1970's when Warner Books had Goulart continue the series for another dozen volumes after they put out the first two dozen in paperback. It was a fun and thrill-packed intelligent series, more down-to-Earth than the Doc Savage books and much less crazy than The Spider series.
September 23, 2013
Great pulp story with a particularly satisfying ending in the way the rather vicious bad guys meet an ironic but well-deserved end.
March 21, 2019
Much like Doc Savage the Avenger fights crime with the help of his aids. While the stories aren't as exciting and world ranging as Doc he is still a great pulp character and read. Very recommended
May 3, 2016
read some time in 1996
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews