The King of Terror: Doc Savage #120

Doc Savage (publication order; no omnibus) #122

by Kenneth Robeson

Seemingly machine-gunned to death, forced to impersonate himself, Doc is dragged to a fortified South Sea island to face a master criminal determined to become the Master of the World!

112 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 31, 2020

About the author

Kenneth 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.

Reviews

[James Hold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the few times I actually enjoyed Monk and Ham in a tale. It's the usual madman trying to take over the world plot, this time substituting dopplegangers of world leaders. I've read this plot several times before, but this appears to be one of the earlier iterations of it. Doc is believed to be dead (What? Again?) so he joins the King's gang by impersonating himself. A clever tale, and wonderfully short.

[Henry Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another WWII clunker.