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Doc Savage (Bantam) #62
The Pirate's Ghost
At his supersensational best, the Man of Bronze finesses an international band of modern-day pirates in possession of the master invention by the Mad Genius of Death Valley!
135 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
3 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Robeson
923 books135 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 - 13 of 13 reviews
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 13, 2020
I have always loved to dip into an old Doc Savage novel every now and then. This one is rather different than most - the elaborate mystery of the story is all about a fairly low-level scheme to filch a few hundred thousand dollars from investors. I'm used to Doc Savage having to save the world from much greater evils than this. But, the story zips along at the fast pace of all these books, and has a nuttier sense of humor than many. The villains are a bit more caricaturish than many, and there's a cowboy named Sagebrush Smith that fights with both Monk and Ham the same way they quarrel with each other. I wonder if this was one of the novels Lester Dent didn't write himself under the Robeson nom de plume - Street and Smith owned that name, and occasionally used somebody else to fill in as it had to be enormous pressure for one man to write a whole novel filled with intricate plots and pseudo-scientific wonders every month for years and years.
November 6, 2020
Decent caper adventure, but also a bit of a weird one.
The title character has basically a cameo and for a story bragging about pirates, most of it takes place in the California desert...?
Otherwise, some nice action scenes, a decent, if eventually convoluted and dissatisfying mystery. Everyone is well written, Doc and company, the bad guys and especially Sagebrush Smith.
That guy deserved his own spin-off story.
The women get a raw deal: one goes off stage at the halfway point and doesn't return till the last couple pages and then there's a damsel who gets mentioned a lot and gets to say maybe three words.
Fun, but the ending feels like a stumble.
The title character has basically a cameo and for a story bragging about pirates, most of it takes place in the California desert...?
Otherwise, some nice action scenes, a decent, if eventually convoluted and dissatisfying mystery. Everyone is well written, Doc and company, the bad guys and especially Sagebrush Smith.
That guy deserved his own spin-off story.
The women get a raw deal: one goes off stage at the halfway point and doesn't return till the last couple pages and then there's a damsel who gets mentioned a lot and gets to say maybe three words.
Fun, but the ending feels like a stumble.
June 20, 2025
A fun one with the entire crew. This could be used as an accompaniment to a course in 1930s cowboy slang.
December 20, 2022
I very much enjoyed this story. It was well told and well paced of action. It appears to me that at this point, there is a maturation in the story line, especially for the start of the books. For the second book in a row, Doc is already involved in the mystery. Monk and Ham are with Doc. The story deals with the invention of a device that can snag static from the atmosphere that translates dead peoples messages to the living. After several transmissions that seem to pan out, a dead pirate announces that he disclose the whereabouts of his hidden treasure trove.
At one point Doc, Monk, Ham and a character named Sagebrush Smith are traveling on a train to Los Angeles. This is only the second time that Doc and his crew travel by train. The first time was back in Brand of the Werewolf, Doc’s eighth adventure.
Published in April 2938 and written by a Lester Dent.
At one point Doc, Monk, Ham and a character named Sagebrush Smith are traveling on a train to Los Angeles. This is only the second time that Doc and his crew travel by train. The first time was back in Brand of the Werewolf, Doc’s eighth adventure.
Published in April 2938 and written by a Lester Dent.
January 16, 2018
THE PIRATE'S GHOST by Lester Dent (writing as Kenneth Robeson) is not just a good pulp adventure but a good adventure, period. It involves a machine known as a "Static Translator" operating on the principle that some forms of static are messages from the spirit world. A naive cowboy stumbles on the dying inventor in Death Valley only to have the device stolen by an unscrupulous huckster. Doc Savage goes through rough times trying to expose the crook. Doc's aides are captured, tortured, imprisoned, and threatened with death. Doc, operating at less than 100%, puts up a fierce battle as the villain and his cohorts threaten to blow up a ship to hide their crimes. Action, thrills, and excitement follows, and in the end the naive cowboy learns a lesson about growing up and accepting responsibility.
Lester Dent was the primary Doc Savage writer. When he took the time, he could be quite effective:
The desert night was either very still, or it was made weird by the tiny whirls of wind that went scurrying through the sand dunes, although some of the winds weren't so tiny and traveled like Kansas whirlpools, picking up fine sand, lifting it two or three hundred feet, looking in the moonlight like cinnamon-robed giants hobble-skirting along.
That's an arresting image. He could also be succinct:
Coyotes yapped in the distance, like children laughing.
Like snowballs and wars, it started small and grew.
And there are bits of humor such as this scene aboard an airplane:
Monk developed a great grin.
"There goes Mary Main, the movie queen," he chortled. "I bet I have her dated up before we get to New York."
They climbed into the plane, and as they passed the movie charmer's seat, Ham spoke.
"Why, Monk Mayfair," he said loudly, "isn't your charming wife going with you on this trip?"
Monk shuffled to his seat and collapsed into it.
There are few Doc adventures that could be called bad. Many are good; a few are average. THE PIRATE'S GHOST however is great, a worthy investment of anyone's time and effort.
Lester Dent was the primary Doc Savage writer. When he took the time, he could be quite effective:
The desert night was either very still, or it was made weird by the tiny whirls of wind that went scurrying through the sand dunes, although some of the winds weren't so tiny and traveled like Kansas whirlpools, picking up fine sand, lifting it two or three hundred feet, looking in the moonlight like cinnamon-robed giants hobble-skirting along.
That's an arresting image. He could also be succinct:
Coyotes yapped in the distance, like children laughing.
Like snowballs and wars, it started small and grew.
And there are bits of humor such as this scene aboard an airplane:
Monk developed a great grin.
"There goes Mary Main, the movie queen," he chortled. "I bet I have her dated up before we get to New York."
They climbed into the plane, and as they passed the movie charmer's seat, Ham spoke.
"Why, Monk Mayfair," he said loudly, "isn't your charming wife going with you on this trip?"
Monk shuffled to his seat and collapsed into it.
There are few Doc adventures that could be called bad. Many are good; a few are average. THE PIRATE'S GHOST however is great, a worthy investment of anyone's time and effort.
April 20, 2011
This was my first foray into the pulp icon that is Doc Savage. Having little point of reference for what is a typical Savage story, I found The Pirate's Ghost to be an enjoyable piece of fleeting entertainment, and not much else.
The draw of the Man of Bronze, as best as I can glean, is not a result of his relate-ability or believability, but rather his personification of a marginally outdated idea of masculinity. Doc Savage and his entourage of super-geniuses are an infallible crime fighting collective that string the reader along not for the thrill of if the protagonists will prevail, but rather how.
The story of The Pirate's Ghost takes Doc Savage & Co. to the desolate frontier that is Death's Valley. A high-profile scientist has recently died and a fervor of rumors begin to emerge regarding his final invention that could have immeasurable implications worldwide.
The secondary characters (non-Savage and cohorts) function more as Western stereotypes designed to solidify the frontier scenery. With names like Sagebrush Smith and Hoke McGee coupled with innumerable variances of cliche utterances such as "Gosh" and "Golly," these characters are never fully developed into anything more than mono-functional plot devices for Doc Savage to navigate.
That being said, the intentions of the Doc Savage series (once again, as much as my minimal familiarity enables me to understand) is not aiming for high-brow intellectual stimulation. It is a dated piece of male-centric escapism, wherein the reader lives vicariously through the serialized exploits of a portrait of perfection.
The draw of the Man of Bronze, as best as I can glean, is not a result of his relate-ability or believability, but rather his personification of a marginally outdated idea of masculinity. Doc Savage and his entourage of super-geniuses are an infallible crime fighting collective that string the reader along not for the thrill of if the protagonists will prevail, but rather how.
The story of The Pirate's Ghost takes Doc Savage & Co. to the desolate frontier that is Death's Valley. A high-profile scientist has recently died and a fervor of rumors begin to emerge regarding his final invention that could have immeasurable implications worldwide.
The secondary characters (non-Savage and cohorts) function more as Western stereotypes designed to solidify the frontier scenery. With names like Sagebrush Smith and Hoke McGee coupled with innumerable variances of cliche utterances such as "Gosh" and "Golly," these characters are never fully developed into anything more than mono-functional plot devices for Doc Savage to navigate.
That being said, the intentions of the Doc Savage series (once again, as much as my minimal familiarity enables me to understand) is not aiming for high-brow intellectual stimulation. It is a dated piece of male-centric escapism, wherein the reader lives vicariously through the serialized exploits of a portrait of perfection.
October 1, 2015
The joys of the dependable.
"The Pirate's Ghost," from April 1938, shows just how pleasant a "merely good" Doc Savage story can be. It's not a spectacular concept or a globe-spanning adventure from the series' early years, but it does the job just fine, and shows some extra effort that brings a bump up in enjoyment.
This one starts in rather ordinary fashion with the death of an inventor at his Death Valley hideaway, and a passel of cowboy types recruited by the bad guy to do some nefarious work. Doesn't seem that special, but this one gets better as it goes along, with Doc Savage and the gang investigating a "static translator" said to broadcast the spirit voices of the dead. (That's what radio static is, didn't you know that?)
The goings on in Death Valley make you wonder for a while where the hell the pirate's ghost of the title comes in, but the static translator brings that all home, as you might imagine.
Here we have a more fleshed-out than usual character in Sagebrush Smith, who had stumbled upon the old inventor before he died. And writer Lester Dent wraps up his story with some nice touches at the conclusion, a surprisingly lengthy coda (meaning a couple of pages) in which the extremely modest Doc does Sagebrush the favor of demonstrating his prowess with a gun — shooting dimes out of the air.
Before we get there, though, there's a really exciting climax on an island off Baja California, after Doc is struck down by gas and loses consciousness for several days. Very nice wind-up to things here, and that wasn't always the case as Dent and others banged out monthly Doc Savage novels.
"The Pirate's Ghost," from April 1938, shows just how pleasant a "merely good" Doc Savage story can be. It's not a spectacular concept or a globe-spanning adventure from the series' early years, but it does the job just fine, and shows some extra effort that brings a bump up in enjoyment.
This one starts in rather ordinary fashion with the death of an inventor at his Death Valley hideaway, and a passel of cowboy types recruited by the bad guy to do some nefarious work. Doesn't seem that special, but this one gets better as it goes along, with Doc Savage and the gang investigating a "static translator" said to broadcast the spirit voices of the dead. (That's what radio static is, didn't you know that?)
The goings on in Death Valley make you wonder for a while where the hell the pirate's ghost of the title comes in, but the static translator brings that all home, as you might imagine.
Here we have a more fleshed-out than usual character in Sagebrush Smith, who had stumbled upon the old inventor before he died. And writer Lester Dent wraps up his story with some nice touches at the conclusion, a surprisingly lengthy coda (meaning a couple of pages) in which the extremely modest Doc does Sagebrush the favor of demonstrating his prowess with a gun — shooting dimes out of the air.
Before we get there, though, there's a really exciting climax on an island off Baja California, after Doc is struck down by gas and loses consciousness for several days. Very nice wind-up to things here, and that wasn't always the case as Dent and others banged out monthly Doc Savage novels.
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.
October 16, 2015
3.5 stars. Without giving spoilers, the criminal's scheme (involving a device capable of communicating with the dead) is pretty standard, but the story has great flair and energy, and by the end even Doc's been put through the ringer quite a bit. A good pulp thriller.
July 18, 2012
Love me some Doc Savage!!
May 24, 2016
read some time in 1988
April 17, 2017
5 for nostalgia! A good story with Lester Dent at his best re: consistency and writing style. Combines a Doc Savage story with a Western. Not one of the best DS stories but a fun read regardless.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews