Will Murray has given us several fine posthumous
collaborations with Doc Savage author Lester Dent, but The War Makers is
something new. This one’s a collaboration with one of the other Kenneth
Robesons, W. Ryerson Johnson.
Ryerson Johnson was a writer of many talents who worked in
several genres and a variety of media before his death in 1995. During the last
twenty years of his life, he and Will developed a relationship, and Will
learned that Ryerson had a plot for a sequel (of sorts) to one of his three
Doc Savage novels, The Motion Menace.
Now, at last, that plot has been given life, and it’s
another crackling good adventure with Doc and the gang. What begins as
inexplicable behavior involving automobiles and their brakes soon escalates
into a globe-spanning crisis that has planes falling out of the sky.
While most Doc Savage adventures claim very few lives, the death toll in The War Makers climbs into the thousands. Doc’s up against some very bad dudes in this one, calling upon him to employ extreme measures. The story builds to a wild climax, and there’s plenty of fun along the way. As we’ve seen, Doc is a master of disguise, but this one finds him in what is probably the bizarre—and embarrassing—disguise of his long career.
Though The War Makers is related to the events in the 1938
adventure The Motion Menace, and also the 2012 story Death’s Dark Domain, this
novel stands alone. Having read the others (or reading the others afterward)
would no doubt enhance your enjoyment of this book, but the events in The War
Makers are thrilling enough on their own.
I met Ryerson Johnson briefly myself in the late ‘90s, and
had the privilege of listening to him expound on some of his pulp writing
experiences. Sadly, I was not aware of his involvement in three Doc Savage
adventures (the others were Land of Always-Night and The Fantastic Island) or I
would surely have got him talking about Doc and Dent. Still, it was great to
see him—and the always entertaining Mr. Murray—back in action.
Ron Goulart's book Cheap Thrills quoted Johnson as saying that he wrote Land of Always Night, "another one," and one about monsters in the Galapagos Islands. From the Galapagos reference, I deduced that the last one mentioned was The Fantastic Island. Now, thanks to your blog post, I finally know the name of that "other one."
ReplyDeleteOdd that three of my favorites were written by someone other than Lester Dent.
Can't say I remember The Motion Menace, but I liked the other two too.
ReplyDeleteCool, and another one to put on the order list. I've gotten behind reading the new ones, must remedy that. Just finished a 890 page triple novel, now need something short and fast to read.
ReplyDeleteHas he got a bazooka in his right pocket or is he just glad to see you?
ReplyDelete