• Originally published in Doc Savage Magazine, September 1937
• Reprinted by Bantam as DS # 48
• Lester Dent writing as Kenneth Robeson
Doc Savage grapples with a Dr. No-like villain plotting to control the world’s commercial airlines in this standard series entry. Some mild twists in the formula — Doc is offstage for nearly half the book; the usually misogynistic Long Tom Roberts falls head over heels for a Nordic blonde beauty — make it an entertaining time-waster for fans.
Doc’s enemy is High Lar, a mysterious South Seas business tycoon and ex-pirate. Rumored to wear an intricate robe of rare feathers and to keep a giant octopus as a pet (which he feeds people to), High Lar is appropriately nicknamed “The Feathered Octopus”. Assisted by his fanatically loyal wife, a Eurasian femme fatale called Lo Lar, he’s methodically gaining control of all major airlines operating in the Pacific. This is achieved via fraud, extortion, kidnapping and murder. Supreme confidence in these methods leads him to challenge Doc Savage on the bronze man’s home turf, the good ol’ USA. Although not widely publicized, Doc is the owner of a big air transport concern that High Lar has targeted for acquisition.
Ultimately Doc must penetrate High Lar’s remote island fortress to rescue his aides and thwart the villain’s scheme. The Man of Bronze man does end up fighting that killer octopus, as promised by the cover, but the sequence is ridiculously rushed — it’s over in just a couple of sentences!
Yet another promising Doc adventure undermined by a much too hasty climax.
Grade: C+
• Reprinted by Bantam as DS # 48
• Lester Dent writing as Kenneth Robeson
Doc Savage grapples with a Dr. No-like villain plotting to control the world’s commercial airlines in this standard series entry. Some mild twists in the formula — Doc is offstage for nearly half the book; the usually misogynistic Long Tom Roberts falls head over heels for a Nordic blonde beauty — make it an entertaining time-waster for fans.
Doc’s enemy is High Lar, a mysterious South Seas business tycoon and ex-pirate. Rumored to wear an intricate robe of rare feathers and to keep a giant octopus as a pet (which he feeds people to), High Lar is appropriately nicknamed “The Feathered Octopus”. Assisted by his fanatically loyal wife, a Eurasian femme fatale called Lo Lar, he’s methodically gaining control of all major airlines operating in the Pacific. This is achieved via fraud, extortion, kidnapping and murder. Supreme confidence in these methods leads him to challenge Doc Savage on the bronze man’s home turf, the good ol’ USA. Although not widely publicized, Doc is the owner of a big air transport concern that High Lar has targeted for acquisition.
Ultimately Doc must penetrate High Lar’s remote island fortress to rescue his aides and thwart the villain’s scheme. The Man of Bronze man does end up fighting that killer octopus, as promised by the cover, but the sequence is ridiculously rushed — it’s over in just a couple of sentences!
Yet another promising Doc adventure undermined by a much too hasty climax.
Grade: C+
3 comments:
Read this when I was 14 or so, and can't remember a thing about it. Guess it was middling DS. Nice green color scheme in the cover, though.
Btw, I've found all your Doc Savage reviews to be intelligent and interesting. I hope you keep 'em coming.
Thanks, Tosser! I'll probably keep it up as long as Curt lets me... Somehow, I'm still not burned out on 'em yet!
I remember liking FEATHERED OCTOPUS a little more than a C+, maybe just because the villain's fairly distinctive.
High Lar and Lo Lar-- damn, nobody came up with weirder names than Lester Dent!
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