[PREV - TRILLING_TALES]    [TOP]

SAVAGE_HONEYCOMB

                                                            mid-2007

   Kenneth Robeson,                                       Originally in:
   "The Fantastic Island" (1933)                          NAUGHT_SEVEN

    Unusually readable for a "Doc Savage"
    novel, probably because very little of         A few points of data
    it deals with Savage's useless henchmen        for future researches,
    blundering around on their own.  Savage        if any:
    is on stage from fairly early in the story,
    and stays there almost continuously.              There's a mention of
                                                      shipping people
    This really is the thinnest possible              upstate to Doc's
    adventure story schtick, though --                secret hospital where
    Doc repeatedly gets himself out of                an operation will
    "scrapes" using concealed tricks we               cure their criminal
    haven't been told about before.                   tendencies (we call
                                                      these "lobotomies"
       Oh, and Doc's odd                              these days).
       little tick --
       many pulpy heroes    (E.g. Nero                Pat Savage appears, and
       have such ticks,      Wolfe's                  has a few lines of
       in fact many are      lip action.)             godawful "plucky
       nothing but --                                 heroine" dialog at the
                                                      outset, before she
       "Suddenly, the many-mouthed murmur             becomes another search
       in the lobby, came a weird sound,              object -- almost as bad
       a kind of musical trilling which               as Doc's "aides".
       ran up and down the scale, softly
       fantastically, as though the sound             A mysterious cause
       emanated from the air itself.  It              of death turns out
       was suggestive of the sibilant                 to be another childish
       slipping of an evening wind                    piece of stage trickery
       through palm fronds, or of the                 that couldn't possibly
       call of some golden-winged bird                work.
       out of an Arabian nights fairy
       tale."                                         The original working
                                                      title was clearly
           p. 29, Chapter IV "Radio Trap"             "The Devil's Honeycomb"...
                                                      they work the phrase
       I think I finally got it:                      hard enough.
       he's going "ooo-EEE-oooo".


--------
[NEXT - SHADOWING_WOMEN]