The Goblins

Doc Savage (publication order; no omnibus) #128

by Kenneth Robeson (House Name), Lester Dent

Doc Savage and his crew are cornered. They're pinned down in a blazing crossfire between the forces of law, a ruthless master criminal and the most horrible horror The Man Of Bronze has ever faced. A terror squad of tiny green men with fiendish grins-whose slightest touch means instant, agonizing death!

Sanctum Books #32, double volume reprint
paired with The Feathered Octopus

52 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2009

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

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. Starts off weirdly with a young telegraph operator waking up to find a little green man smiling in his room. Before long it turns out the green man burn you to death with a touch. This feels awkwardly at times like a somewhat light-hearted pulp story about the young man with Doc and the green men squeezed into it. That said, it's pretty enjoyable, ingeniously recycling a gimmick author Lester Dent used just a few months earlier.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wartime Doc, and different enough from the normal skullduggery you find in one of Lester Dent's later novels. While it isn't one of his super sagas, there is an interesting and likable proxy hero driving the opening scenes. And the mysterious goblins -- otherwise known as Pocopoco throughout -- is interesting.