Doc Savage: The Desert Demons (The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage Book 1)

This new novel about Doc Savage and his 5 fabulous assistants has a lot of problems. The identity of the "criminal mastermind" (to use the term loosely) is obvious not long after he first appears as a character. Even his motive, although totally wacky, is fairly obvious early on. The organization of the novel is careless, and an important early character, a meteorologist, is apparently killed, then said to be still alive, but never seen or mentioned again. The menace is fairly goofy too, swarms of insects which live very high in the earth's atmosphere, but when summoned to the surface by a technique the bad guys have learned somehow, settle on objects and bring their temperatures close to absolute zero. In the course of the novel, thousands of inhabitants of Hollywood and various oil fields are killed in this way. A huge amount of space is wasted on very unfunny bickering between two bizarre characters, both of whom dress like cowboys and talk the way they think cowboys talked. The novel is too long by about a factor of two, and somewhat of a chore to get through. Pat Savage is inserted into the plot in a preposterous way, and does essentially nothing other than wander around in absurd disguise and get captured by various bad guys. This is all supposedly based on an unused plot outline by Lester Dent. It's pretty clear why he never got around to using it.

Review from: [....]Receiving its first print publication in twenty years, Altus Press began a relaunch of the titular character in 2011 called The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage, The Desert Demons being the first story in this new ongoing series. Credited to Kenneth Robeson, which 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, many others worked on the title under the same house name and this new publication is no different as this novel was assembled by Will Murray, based on an outline from Lester Dent. Murray does a tremendous job of keeping Dent’s writing style intact and offers a novel that feels like it was published during the golden age of pulp storytelling.As a ferocious blood-red “desert demon” cloud descends from the skies to earth, killing everything in its wake, Doc Savage snaps to action as prominent Hollywood players begin disappearing at the hands of this meteorological mystery. Causing a mass exodus from the state of California, Doc, along with his crazy cast of sidekicks, will travel to and from New York, California, Florida and more. The Man of Bronze will find himself pitted against seemingly intelligent and extremely deadly clouds that may contain an origin that is not of this world.True to form of the classic novels from which this series was spawned, The Desert Demons is filled with heaps of pulp action. Bouncing from one action set piece to the other, very little character development is left standing in the way. Even though none of the characters are all that fleshed out or have any dramatic arcs, Murray delivers with plenty of classic over-the-top action with nice and tidy conclusions. The novel even ends on a cliffhanger that packs enough punch to lure you into the next entry of this series.Dodging a hail storm of bullets, car chases, explosions, there is so much action packed into this quick read. Murray does an excellent job of expounding upon Dent’s original notes and provides a glorious story that feels right at home with the original run of novels from the heyday of the pulp era. This is a great jumping on point for new readers and serves as a wonderful continuation for long time fans.

A quick search for a pulp magazine hero led me to The Desert Demons: A Doc Savage Adventure by Kenneth Robeson. I eagerly downloaded the title to my Kindle, curled up on the couch, and tapped the cover art to begin my adventure among the virtual pages. Opening in 1936 Hollywood, mysterious red clouds appear to devour several persons with ties to the film industry, turning everything they touch brittle, bleached, and cold to the touch. Clark “Doc” Savage, Jr. and his companions employ their scientific expertise and futuristic gadgetry to find the missing Pat Savage, Doc’s cousin, and unravel the mystery of the Desert Demons. After finishing the story, I learned that this novel, published in 2011, is the first in the most recent Doc Savage tales. Based on some notes by Lester Dent, the most prolific of the depression-era Doc Savage authors, Will Murray authored the book under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson. The Desert Demons has all the hallmarks of welcoming back longtime readers. In addition to Pat Savage, the author includes Chemistry and Habeus Corpus, a pet ape and pig respectively, and all five of Doc’s frequent associates: Ham, Monk, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny. The methods of introducing elements such as the stratospheric dirigible, firearms capable of discharging tear gas or traditional bullets, and Doc’s use of his finely trained body to perform feats of strength and agility imply reader familiarity from previous encounters. Containing all the shoot-outs, fisticuffs, and fantastical explanations I hoped for, The Desert Demons proves to be a satisfying read crafted in a driven style with vernacular evoking the setting.. The discovery that this was not part of the first run serials remains my only disappointment. The Desert Demons left me eager to discover the stories which originated the Doc Savage.

I've recently finished Will Murray's 'The Desert Demons' and I was a little disappointed.To put things in perspective, the last Doc Savage book I read was 'The Sargasso Ogre' back in February of 2005 — eight years ago almost to the date.I read most of the Bantam reprints back in the '70s and then as they came out right through college and beyond. When I was younger - I breezed through them and loved them all. By the college years they became a bit of a slog, which I attributed to the fact that these were the 'war years' adventures which don't rate too highly with many Doc Savage fans. I remember being very excited by the releases of 'The Red Spider' and Farmer's 'Escape from Loki'.The first seven Murray Bantam's were very welcome additions to my collection, especially 'The Forgotten Realm' which I still maintain was one of the best 'lost civilization' yarns in the canon. I did not share the complaints that the newer books were too long.So what happened?Well, maybe my tastes have changed. My years-separated, second reading of 'Escape from Loki' was not as enjoyable as the first. Mostly it think that the story was long on Doc Savage 'tropes' and short on action and adventure. Perhaps as the first book in a new series, more exposition was necessary for new readers, but I think anyone buying this book already knows who the characters are. I'm now reading Horror in Gold and it's a much better read so far.

When I was a kid in the 70's, I use to read Doc Savage books. They were translated in french for us in the province of Quebec, Canada. A couple weeks ago I discovered that new aventures had been written. After reading ''skull Island'', I fell in love with the series again. Desert deamons is my second Doc that I ordered. The cover art is just perfect. Like those I had as a teen.

Not as good as earlier books

Not bad, but the plot is weird and certainly not the best I've read. Still interesting though, just not one of the best Doc Savage story.

A typical doc savage story ,takes me back to my childhood and fascination of a different age without technology. Doc savage is a mixture of sherlock Holmes, the shadow , and your typical superhero ,sometimes you smile at its simplicity compared to this age but read in context it both entertains and remains us all of and age now gone.