Resurrection Day

Doc Savage (Bantam) #36

by Kenneth Robeson (House Name), Lester Dent

The sweeping genius of The Man Of Bronze reaches into the very secret of life itself. A stunned nation hears the announcement that one-and only one-long-dead human being will be brought back to life. Who will be chosen? Lincoln? Edison? Shakespeare? As the world rejoices and conjectures, the powers of Evil plan a final, insidious joke on all humanity!

Genres: Adventure, Pulp, Fiction, Science Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy

119 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1936

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

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highlights: One of the villains is a guy who likes to use different dialects (French, Mexican, Chinese, New York, etc) for no reason, and the other main villain is an attorney who suffers from a mania for decapitation. He blacks out and feels an uncontrollable urge to cut off heads. There's also a passage about how Doc Savage wouldn't bring Jesus Christ back to life (the plot has to do with Doc being able to resurrect one person throughout history, but only one person) because God did that already. Fun.

[Duane Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a quick and entertaingin read. It almost seemed like it was Doc Savage meets the ReAnimator or a Doc Savage and Encino Man cross over. At first seeing how the main villian talked i was like, oh great, another stupidly spelled accent that's going to take 30 years to decipher. But it wasn't that bad, not like the last books accents.
My main questions while reading this were, the country can barely argee on a president and Doc asked for suggestions on who to bring back to life? Good luck with that one. And they brought him back and made a huge deal about it so the whole world was watching and waiting, so shouldn't there have been a huge commotion when they didn't say what had happened to Solomon. So the whole world just forgot about it?

Even with that, this issue did give us quite a few literary gems, Like:-----------
“Don’t you know I have a weak heart?” were Shaster’s first words. (My first word was Mama, but to each his own I guess)

MYSTERY MAN MAKES MYSTERY MOVE! (Mysterious mystery move mystifying to mysterious moving men of mystery)

“They’re Doc Savage’s five aids,” those who didn’t know were informed. (thank god I said that out loud to no one, seeing as how i asked the question in my head so no one has any idea what I'm talking about...I need friends)

"In short, we want to know who the people of the United States want brought back to life." (Tony Stark! Spock! The 2 for one sale at Pennys! Ecto Cooler! Cuba Gooding Jr.s career!)

The following day was a holiday—Sunday (Yeah, you know..Christmas, thanksgiving, New Years, the 4th of July, Sunday..National Holidays)

'all beer and skittles for Doc Savage and his idea and plan.' (So Doc gave up that idea and plan and created Beer flavored Skittles. Then in honor of that invention, he created a new holiday...Monday)

“But why?” (because, shut up. Thats why.)

'The voice sounded like a bulldog with a bone when another bulldog comes close' (so he sounded like a bulldog, got ya.)

“Hell!” roared Funston. “You ain’t a female!” (AUSTIN POWERS VOICE: "You're a man, baby!")

It might have been the result of a small wind in a naked, sleet-laden forest. (Or a clothed one, you know, whatever floats your boat)

"When I get in a tight place, it seems all I can think of is cutting their heads off!” (Hey buddy, calm down. Don't loose your head over this..OOps..Too soon?)

'His gaze was fixed hungrily on Renny’s muscular-looking neck.'(What is this guy? A vampire, cannibal or just a normal everyday weirdo?)

“Now, don’t you two start Monk-and-Hamming it!” (A Monk and Hamming it and 2 moons over my hammy for table 3)

“But,” murmured General Ino, “we shall take measures.” They took measures. (Oh, thank god. I was wondering if they'd take measures)

'It was something like the Grand Canyon country of the United States' (Oh, i thought you ment the grand canyon of Denmark, thanks for the clarification)

It also gave us a few (Insert your own joke here) lines, like:--------------
“Spanking Solomon!”

Squawled the driver. “That hole is too little!”

'SET ONE OF THEM OFF BEFORE FOUR O’CLOCK TO-MORROW AFTERNOON TO SHOW YOU ARE WILLING TO DICKER.'

“In that case, you’d better be shucking your duds!”

And finally, for those counting, our Superamalgamated count was 5, the Holy cow count was 12, and things were Really wonderful a total of 20 times, and that is really wonderful..

Oh well, on to the next one...

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly interesting yarn. This despite some ridiculous points about the story. The first goes to the central theme of the story, being the resurrection of a person dead. The second being that this was something that could only be done once every several decades due to the fact that the some of the elements needed for the procedure were so rare and scarce. Another ridiculous error by the author is to convey to the reader that the resurrected one from King Solomon’s time was centuries old. How could the author flub that one. Speaking of a glaring flub, at one point when Doc and his crew are in the sands of Egypt and Doc must go out and investigate the arid and hostile environment, he packs light taking with him nutrition pills and only a few of the elements needed to make water. Apparently the author lacked a proper public education being deficient in both history as well as basic chemistry.

That being said, the narrative was surprisingly well paced and ended up being an enjoyable read despite the glaring muffs and bungles already stated, I really did like the story as a whole. I certainly enjoyed the ironic twist at the end.

All of Doc’s crew is in on this caper.

This story was published November 1936 and authored by Lester Dent.

[Stormcrow Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad the other people who reviewed this book enjoyed it as much as they did. For me, it was one of the most ridiculous Doc Savage adventures I've ever read. Of course, that's what some people find amusing (right, Mr. Kearns?) Anyway, it was so utterly ridiculous I could hardly keep my eyes from rolling and I say that as a hardcore fan of Doc Savage! But the premise from the very beginning was so ridiculous (yes, I know I'm overusing that word, but it fits!) that it had nowhere else to go.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit unusual for a Doc Savage book, because the premise is that Doc announces that he will resurrect a long-dead person -- not something one would expect of him. But when he announces who this person is, of course, a criminal mastermind with his own interests interferes, and then a wild adventure begins. Utterly preposterous, of course (what Doc Savage novel isn't preposterous?), but fun.

[John Rallios · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poorly written but fun adventure in which Doc Savage accidentally resurrects a rogue pharaoh who leads a criminal mastermind and his crew to hi buried hidden treasure chamber. Suspension of disbelief a must.

[Jeff J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulp novel featuring Doc Savage. A unique take on the hidden treasure cliche.

[Charles Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best in the Doc Savage series, real mind blower!

[Mark Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even farther out that most Doc novels. Put your logical mind on pause and just go along with the craziness. Very enjoyable.

[Kek-w Kek-w · Rating 2 out of 5]

More daft Doc Savage pulp action fun with resurrected mummies and mad international gang-leaders. Shame about the casual 1930s Islamophobia and the tomb looting colonial mentality.

[Kevin Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of the best Doc adventures.

[Ted · Rating 2 out of 5]

Knowing that these pulp adventure stories were churned out as fast as humanly possible, I went in with low expectations. I enjoy boning up on my superhero history, and with the recent announcement of a Doc Savage movie, I thought I'd pick up a few of the books. The story for this one concept intrigued me, so I dove in just looking for corny one-liners, wonderful coincidences, and maybe a few arguably racist/sexist statements [okay, I don't LOOK for that, but considering the trends of the time, I kind of expected it].

Unfortunately, the quality of the writing does suffer from the lack of time put into books like this. These were one-dimensional characters in a not-so-greatly structured story. Savage's buddies are for the most part useless, action scenes aren't explained very well, and the climax leaves much to be desired. And, as expected, there were many statements in the book that could have rooted from racist undertones, and I'm 90% sure there wasn't one female in the entire book. This is my first 'Savage' book, so I'm not sure if this is a good example of the series. I'm guessing that none of them are exactly Shakespeare, but there might be a few gems worth praising.

Doc Savage is a fun character. James Bama's depictions of the character are perfect and it was no trouble for me to imagine his presence and voice based solely on the cover illustration. He is easily the most interesting part of the book for me, and I was kind of delighted that he wasn't actually brought into the story until a few chapters in, with his reputation literally preceding him. I can see how his character captured readers' attention in the past, and how he was the prototypical superhero. The Rock is probably the best casting they could have gotten for him; I'm very intrigued to see how that shapes up.

I'll read another book or two, just to get the idea of the series. But John Carter's still got my allegiance.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is as campy as most of the Doc Savage books, but as an adventure it has a slightly different setup from the usual "Doc encounters and vanquishes a specific villain" stories.

The premise: Because he's The Man of Bronze (tm) and is more brilliant than the top minds in... well, pretty much every field, Doc Savage discovers how to resurrect one important person from history, and goes public with his plan in order to collect suggestions as to who would benefit the world the most. Of course, there's not really any thought of whether a historical figure would WANT to be dragged back from the grave to an unfamiliar future specifically to serve society, but let's just roll with it, shall we?

Rather than *entirely* spoilering the book, I'll just say that the resurrection doesn't quite go according to plan, and Doc and his gang of brainy pals spend a most of the book trying to discover what happened, getting lost in a desert, being naked for like 6 chapters, (why does this happen so often?) infiltrating an ancient tomb, wrecking said ancient tomb, and mysteriously avoiding any kind of consequence for getting the hopes of the entire world up about this whole resurrection thing.

Despite (or perhaps BECAUSE of?) the weird plot holes, lingering descriptions of Doc's chiseled jaw, improbable deus ex machinas, and prolonged awkward naked scenes, this is a gem among Doc Savage novels... perhaps the Doc Savage-est of them all!

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Michael Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Resurrection Day" was my favorite Doc Savage novel when I was a kid in the sixties, and recently I reread it to see if it held up. I was elated to find it does...at least for what it is. Pulp novels of the 1930s were often written in week and usually showed it. For Doc Savage in particular, a lot of suspension of disbelief is required, as is a lot of turning the other way through the racist and misogynistic passages (though these days, those have become mainstream again). What makes it a better-than-most Doc is the pacing, the plotting, some deliberate humor, and the underlying thread that this story is actually about something other than unrealistic characters behaving like superheroes for cheap escapism. If you just can't accept Doc Savage, then this recommendation won't really matter. But if you're a Doc fan, warts and all, this is one of his best outings.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Doc figures out how to resurrect a single great individual from the past. Criminals scheme how to exploit it. Fun bits include Dent's deft capturing of the hoopla following Doc's announcement, and his poking fun at movie parallels ("There's usually enough electricity in those movies to execute a penitentiary full of convicts.").

[Jeff Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good pulpish adventure fun. Listened to the book read by the great folks at Uvula Audio.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read many, many Doc Savage books but this one is my favorite.

[John Nyetrae · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite Doc Savage books! Start here if you have never read one and you will be hooked.

[J.Scott Reinitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first dive into the world of Doc Savage, just to see what the series was about. Action pulp, adventure. Worked as a good starting point.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun read as Doc & associates want to bring a famous Biblical character back to life! possibly read in spring 1969

[Keith B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often placed as one of the better if not more exotic Doc Savage stories. Not sure I totally agree but fun to read either way. 5 for nostalgia.

[F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I liked it- it was not one of my favorites. I felt like the first third of the book Doc was not acting like himself. I don't mean within the story - I mean the writing was not very consistent with Doc as I have come to know him in the bulk of the stories. The ease in which he was fooled, the deliberate publicity, the need of the public's suggestions- all just rang untrue to me.
The rest of the book was better but just not on par with other stories. The two main villains were unrealistic to the point of being ludicrous [yes, I realize it is a pulp story]. Then there was the lack of wrapping up lose ends. the publics reaction to the "resurrection", the solution to the naked helpers, the dismantling of the criminal empire, etc.