Ralph's Rants does reviews, Doc Savage: The Miracle Menace

Doc Savage the Miracle Menace

 

 

 

I have been a Doc Savage fan since I was a kid. To this day he is still my favorite pulp hero. Will Murray began writing new Doc Savage tales about 20 years ago and then stopped. Recently he started again, and his newest Doc tale is called the ‘Miracle Menace’. I have to say that there have been some great stuff in Will’s Doc books, as well as some mediocre ones.

But this newest story may be the best one yet. I read this in two days, spending hours at a time reading it. It involves a magician, his assistant, Christopher Columbus (Yes you read that correctly), a savage Indian tribe, a mysterious house, an international spy ring, a group of evangelicals, as well as telepathy.

In all honesty this was my favorite of Will’s ‘Docs’. It was exciting and interesting. All in all I thought it was great.

Just to make sure you don’t think I’m gushing without restraint, I’m going to list a few things I didn’t like about it as well. First I didn’t like that Doc didn’t seem as infallible as in previous books. I don’t like that in my hero’s, especially not Doc. At one point he’s battling this Indian chief, and he actually thinks he’s going to lose. Yet later on he soundly kicks the guy’s butt, which made up for the earlier fight. Then in another section of the book he emerges from the mysterious house dazed and confused almost. His skin actually looked pale, as if he had been frightened. Again I did not like that. I’m fine with him being surprised by something or a foe being underestimated, but Doc is Doc.

Now that being said, beyond those two incidences, this was an amazing and fantastic book. Though there was one part of the book where Monk squared off to fight Doc and Doc kayoed him with a gas pellet. I would have liked to have seen them fight. I know Doc is stronger than Monk, and certainly better looking, but I think a fight between Doc and an infuriated Monk (Which is what we had here) would have been fun to see. Later on Monk and Long Tom almost square off, yet Monk is hesitant. The rest of the crew were taking bets, with Ham actually wagering on Monk to win. That’s where my money would have lay too.

This was just great fun and a fantastic adventure absolutely worth the name of the “Wild Adventures of Doc Savage”

No doubt about this one, five stars, handily.  


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