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All-New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage #6
Skull Island
The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage
KONG!
Before the world knew them, they met ...
Before they were legends, they clashed!
An urgent summons from his father brings Clark Savage, Jr. to San Francisco for a mysterious mission: to locate the long-lost clipper ship captained by his legendary ancestor, Stormalong Savage.
Their quest will take them to the heart of the Indian Ocean and a fog-shrouded isle unknown to civilization, a place inhabited by dinosaurs unsuspected by history and ruled by a titanic creature known only as ... Kong!
Doc Savage meets his first great challenge in the fierce prehistoric jungles of Skull Island!
KONG!
Before the world knew them, they met ...
Before they were legends, they clashed!
An urgent summons from his father brings Clark Savage, Jr. to San Francisco for a mysterious mission: to locate the long-lost clipper ship captained by his legendary ancestor, Stormalong Savage.
Their quest will take them to the heart of the Indian Ocean and a fog-shrouded isle unknown to civilization, a place inhabited by dinosaurs unsuspected by history and ruled by a titanic creature known only as ... Kong!
Doc Savage meets his first great challenge in the fierce prehistoric jungles of Skull Island!
410 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2013
About the author
Will Murray
705 books77 followersWill Murray was an American novelist, journalist, and short-story and comic-book writer. Much of his fiction has been published under pseudonyms. Will is the author of over 50 novels in popular series ranging from “The Destroyer” to “Mars Attacks”. Collaborating posthumously with the legendary Lester Dent, he has written to date nine Doc Savage novels, with “Desert Demons” and “Horror in Gold” now available. For National Public Radio, Murray adapted “The Thousand-Headed Man” for “The Adventures of Doc Savage” in 1985, and recently edited “Doc Savage: The Lost Radio Scripts of Lester Dent” for Moonstone Books. He is versed in all things pulp.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
March 15, 2013
This book was excellent, but at the same time disappointing. Let's start with the disappointments first, and there are two: One, Will Murray seems to be hell-bent on dispelling the Wold Newton Universe. He makes numerous, seemingly gratuitous references to characters such as Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, and Nick Carter just to say that these characters are fictional and, thus, cannot be part of a shared universe like the Wold Newton Universe, a universe I particularly enjoy. My problem is not that I really care that Murray wants to keep Doc Savage out of the WNU, but the blatant, obvious manner in which he does so seems childish. It could've been done with more subtlety so that it didn't seem like LL Cool J calling out Kool Moe Dee on an 80's rap album.
My only other complaint, which is very minor, is that Doc's aides played so little a role in this story. I understand that it takes place prior to the aides being the aides. I also understand that some people actually enjoy the focus being placed on Doc without the buffoonery of the aides. I just like to see Monk and Ham verbally fence; to see Renny pound things with his abnormally large fists; to hear Johnny use words I have to look up in an unabridged dictionary; and to see Long Tom fight people even though he looks like he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag.
Those complaints aside, this book was still pretty awesome. Young Doc is clearly not the Doc we see in The Man of Bronze a decade later: he is more brash, more talkative, more impetuous, and more violence-prone than the Doc we are used to reading. He's also more than a dozen years younger. Nonetheless, he is clearly Doc Savage, with superhuman strength and stamina honed from years of training. We see Doc in his youth, like watching a home movie from a superstar's youth; we see bits and pieces of the man Doc will become.
We also learn of Doc's family. We see his father Clark Sr., long before he is killed in the Empire State Building. He is the austere, hard-ass father who one would expect to push his son to be a superman from birth. He sees Doc as weapon or tool in his battle to right the wrongs of the world. We also see him realize, over the course of the story, that Doc is his flesh and blood, not just a means to an end. Clark Sr. shows, by the end, that he actually loves his son, something that might not have existed in the early chapters.
There is also Doc's grandfather, Stormalong Savage. A giant of a man, and a giant of a person, apparently. He is very old, but has led a full life, even if that last several years have been on Skull Island. Murray uses him as a window into Doc's early life and family tree, as well as inspiration to young Doc to follow for years to come. I wish we could see more of Old Stormy.
Then there is Skull Island. What an island. It's both a pre-historic animal preserve, full of classic dinosaurs and evolved quasi-dinosaurs, and the home to at least two unknown human civilizations. How any humans survive on this island, unless their name is Savage, is beyond me. The island was a character unto itself.
Finally, we meet Kong. He is so much more than just an enormous ape. He is closer to human than one would think and he is, at the same time, godlike. He rules the island with a large, furry fist. The ancient creatures on the island know who is in charge. The humans on the island know he is in charge. Despite his great power, or maybe because of it, the humans seem to adore and worship Kong. Of course, the sea-faring headhunters who are hunting his head throughout the story don't worship him, but everyone else does. Kong is the "king" of Skull Island and he knows it, literally throwing his weight around whenever he needs to exert his power. Murray shows us the grandeur of Kong, but foreshadows his vulnerability too.
This was a wonderful romp showing the early years of Doc Savage with King Kong playing a gigantic supporting role. The Wold Newton Universe barbs aside, Murray nailed this one. Possibly his best Savage story yet.
My only other complaint, which is very minor, is that Doc's aides played so little a role in this story. I understand that it takes place prior to the aides being the aides. I also understand that some people actually enjoy the focus being placed on Doc without the buffoonery of the aides. I just like to see Monk and Ham verbally fence; to see Renny pound things with his abnormally large fists; to hear Johnny use words I have to look up in an unabridged dictionary; and to see Long Tom fight people even though he looks like he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag.
Those complaints aside, this book was still pretty awesome. Young Doc is clearly not the Doc we see in The Man of Bronze a decade later: he is more brash, more talkative, more impetuous, and more violence-prone than the Doc we are used to reading. He's also more than a dozen years younger. Nonetheless, he is clearly Doc Savage, with superhuman strength and stamina honed from years of training. We see Doc in his youth, like watching a home movie from a superstar's youth; we see bits and pieces of the man Doc will become.
We also learn of Doc's family. We see his father Clark Sr., long before he is killed in the Empire State Building. He is the austere, hard-ass father who one would expect to push his son to be a superman from birth. He sees Doc as weapon or tool in his battle to right the wrongs of the world. We also see him realize, over the course of the story, that Doc is his flesh and blood, not just a means to an end. Clark Sr. shows, by the end, that he actually loves his son, something that might not have existed in the early chapters.
There is also Doc's grandfather, Stormalong Savage. A giant of a man, and a giant of a person, apparently. He is very old, but has led a full life, even if that last several years have been on Skull Island. Murray uses him as a window into Doc's early life and family tree, as well as inspiration to young Doc to follow for years to come. I wish we could see more of Old Stormy.
Then there is Skull Island. What an island. It's both a pre-historic animal preserve, full of classic dinosaurs and evolved quasi-dinosaurs, and the home to at least two unknown human civilizations. How any humans survive on this island, unless their name is Savage, is beyond me. The island was a character unto itself.
Finally, we meet Kong. He is so much more than just an enormous ape. He is closer to human than one would think and he is, at the same time, godlike. He rules the island with a large, furry fist. The ancient creatures on the island know who is in charge. The humans on the island know he is in charge. Despite his great power, or maybe because of it, the humans seem to adore and worship Kong. Of course, the sea-faring headhunters who are hunting his head throughout the story don't worship him, but everyone else does. Kong is the "king" of Skull Island and he knows it, literally throwing his weight around whenever he needs to exert his power. Murray shows us the grandeur of Kong, but foreshadows his vulnerability too.
This was a wonderful romp showing the early years of Doc Savage with King Kong playing a gigantic supporting role. The Wold Newton Universe barbs aside, Murray nailed this one. Possibly his best Savage story yet.
March 24, 2013
DOC AT HIS MOST SAVAGE . . . AND MOST REVEALING!
Wow. This is Doc Savage as you've never seen him.
Even without King Kong, this would be one of my favorite Doc novels ever - and that's saying something, seeing that almost two hundred of them have gone before.
The story starts with Kong lying dead at the foot of the Empire State Building. Doc and the gang were not involved in the events that led to the King's demise, but the city asks them to supervise the removal of the oversized remains. For Doc, this is a sad affair, because if he and Kong were - if not friends - at least old acquaintances. And once the body is on its way back to Skull Island, he tells the guys how that first meeting came about.
In flashback, we're with twenty-year-old Doc as he returns from the war in Europe, where he and his future associates became fast friends. He's summoned by his father, the close-mouthed and mysterious Clark Savage Sr., who desires his presence on a voyage to the South Seas. The trip is well underway before Clark Sr. reveals the true purpose of their mission: They're seeking Doc's grandfather, the near-legendary seafarer Stormalong Savage - who's been missing for years. (In a nice touch, Clark Sr.'s vessel is a black-hulled schooner, much like that piloted by Lester Dent's Black Mask hero, Oscar Sail.
This first portion of the voyage, in which Doc and his father get reacquainted - or more properly get truly acquainted for the first time in their lives - is the closest to literary fiction a Doc novel is ever likely to come. This is some fine writing from Will Murray, proving he's capable of far more than simply channeling Lester Dent (which he does, of course, very well). It's no wonder this is the first Doc novel bearing his own name rather than the traditional "Kenneth Robeson."
But Skull Island is first and foremost an adventure story, and the adventure aspects build gracefully until Doc, his pop, and yep - old Stormalong Savage himself - find themselves battling prehistoric monsters and bloodthirsty Dyak headhunters while trying to evade the king-sized grasp of Kong, the undisputed lord and master of the island.
Kong, as you might expect, is awesome, and a real badass when riled, but we also see a softer side to his character, and get some insight into what motivates him. This makes his movie fate all the more poignant.
And then there's Doc, more savage than we've ever seen him. As we know, he's a product of his intensive training, and this novel takes place just after WWI, where he's been trained to kill. And man, did he learn! This is Doc Unleashed, as he snaps necks, bashes brains, slices off body parts, and mows down the headhunters with his newly invented annihiliator machine pistol (which fires real bullets). The battle scenes are a real kick, and it seems unlikely we'll ever again see the like.
Along the way, we get tantalizing hints of the wild lives led by Clark Savage Sr. and his pop Stormalong, and even the pre-war life of Clark Savage Jr. The result is a unique and thoroughly satisfying Doc novel. This would seem open up new vistas for Mr. Murray to explore. I can't wait to see what he does next.
Wow. This is Doc Savage as you've never seen him.
Even without King Kong, this would be one of my favorite Doc novels ever - and that's saying something, seeing that almost two hundred of them have gone before.
The story starts with Kong lying dead at the foot of the Empire State Building. Doc and the gang were not involved in the events that led to the King's demise, but the city asks them to supervise the removal of the oversized remains. For Doc, this is a sad affair, because if he and Kong were - if not friends - at least old acquaintances. And once the body is on its way back to Skull Island, he tells the guys how that first meeting came about.
In flashback, we're with twenty-year-old Doc as he returns from the war in Europe, where he and his future associates became fast friends. He's summoned by his father, the close-mouthed and mysterious Clark Savage Sr., who desires his presence on a voyage to the South Seas. The trip is well underway before Clark Sr. reveals the true purpose of their mission: They're seeking Doc's grandfather, the near-legendary seafarer Stormalong Savage - who's been missing for years. (In a nice touch, Clark Sr.'s vessel is a black-hulled schooner, much like that piloted by Lester Dent's Black Mask hero, Oscar Sail.
This first portion of the voyage, in which Doc and his father get reacquainted - or more properly get truly acquainted for the first time in their lives - is the closest to literary fiction a Doc novel is ever likely to come. This is some fine writing from Will Murray, proving he's capable of far more than simply channeling Lester Dent (which he does, of course, very well). It's no wonder this is the first Doc novel bearing his own name rather than the traditional "Kenneth Robeson."
But Skull Island is first and foremost an adventure story, and the adventure aspects build gracefully until Doc, his pop, and yep - old Stormalong Savage himself - find themselves battling prehistoric monsters and bloodthirsty Dyak headhunters while trying to evade the king-sized grasp of Kong, the undisputed lord and master of the island.
Kong, as you might expect, is awesome, and a real badass when riled, but we also see a softer side to his character, and get some insight into what motivates him. This makes his movie fate all the more poignant.
And then there's Doc, more savage than we've ever seen him. As we know, he's a product of his intensive training, and this novel takes place just after WWI, where he's been trained to kill. And man, did he learn! This is Doc Unleashed, as he snaps necks, bashes brains, slices off body parts, and mows down the headhunters with his newly invented annihiliator machine pistol (which fires real bullets). The battle scenes are a real kick, and it seems unlikely we'll ever again see the like.
Along the way, we get tantalizing hints of the wild lives led by Clark Savage Sr. and his pop Stormalong, and even the pre-war life of Clark Savage Jr. The result is a unique and thoroughly satisfying Doc novel. This would seem open up new vistas for Mr. Murray to explore. I can't wait to see what he does next.
April 4, 2017
Since the Savage headquarters was on top of the building where Kong made his final stand I guess it's fitting that their paths should have crossed before. It's a fine story featuring a young Doc and a Kong at the height of his power, with several neat bits and pieces as well. We meet Clark Savage, Sr. for the first time, as well as Grandfather "Stormalong." Young Doc isn't as perfectly settled and sure of himself as he would become in the magazine super-sagas, and he hasn't yet developed his aversion to killing his foes. He is doing his training exercises everyday, building gadgets, and working on his iconic "trill." The relationship with his father is amusing, quite reminiscent of Indiana Jones and his father. The only thing wrong with the book is that it's way too long... There's too much running back and forth on Skull Island, too much sailing there, just too much altogether that doesn't serve to advance the plot swiftly enough.
April 6, 2013
I finished reading Skull Island this afternoon; number 195 of (so far) 195 Doc Savage novels. It’s pretty darn good. I can’t tell which I want to do more: read another one or watch the original “King Kong” movie.
Between the mid-60s and late 70s/early 80s I was a huge Doc Savage fan and read around 160 of the original novels before my interest sort of petered out. There were probably two reasons for this. First, the later novels of the 181/182 originals were quite different from the early ones, more subdued and mystery like, rather than the high flying, no holds barred adventure stories of the early books. Second, I went from an 11 year old to a 20-something year old and my tastes changed.
Nostalgia is a powerful force however, so I continued to buy the reprints when they came out, then the 8 new adventures in the early 90s, and now the (so far) 5 new adventures of the 10s.
A year or so ago I read the first of the new adventures, Escape from Loki (1991) by Philip José Farmer and was a tad disappointed. It was neither as exciting as I hoped for Doc Savage nor as outrageous as I expected from Farmer.
But when I got Skull Island in mail earlier this week, something sparked and I had to read it. I mean Doc Savage and King Kong! How could anyone resist that?
Although the opening sequence takes place in 1933, immediately after the end of the original “King Kong” movie, this is merely a framing sequence. This part of the book takes place early on in the original series: sometime after the second book The Land of Terror, cover dated April 1933, (coincidentally?) the same month “King Kong” was released, and before the ninth book The Czar Of Fear.
Most of the action takes place in 1920, when Doc is in his late teens, 17 if you follow Farmer’s chronology in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Of course if you follow Farmer’s chronology the framing sequence takes place in 1931, but that's another story.
In any case, this isn’t the Doc Savage that appears in most of the fantastic adventures of the 30s and 40s. He’s still learning who and what he is. In most of the pulp adventures he’s opposed to killing, but here he still relatively fresh from the WWI, and is interesting in making more efficient killing tools.
In late 1919 the young Clark Savage, Jr, still in France after war’s end, is called to San Francisco by his father. It seems that Clark Savage, Sr has found a clue to the whereabouts of his missing father, Stormalong Savage. His ship has been spotted adrift in the Indian Ocean. So off they go, aboard The Orion, the very boat Clark Savage, Jr was born on (Farmer’s note that The Orion sank in 1902 is apparently incorrect).
And off we go, on a wonderful adventure about a Doc Savage we’ve never met; but one we can believe will grow up to be the one we knew so well.
Between the mid-60s and late 70s/early 80s I was a huge Doc Savage fan and read around 160 of the original novels before my interest sort of petered out. There were probably two reasons for this. First, the later novels of the 181/182 originals were quite different from the early ones, more subdued and mystery like, rather than the high flying, no holds barred adventure stories of the early books. Second, I went from an 11 year old to a 20-something year old and my tastes changed.
Nostalgia is a powerful force however, so I continued to buy the reprints when they came out, then the 8 new adventures in the early 90s, and now the (so far) 5 new adventures of the 10s.
A year or so ago I read the first of the new adventures, Escape from Loki (1991) by Philip José Farmer and was a tad disappointed. It was neither as exciting as I hoped for Doc Savage nor as outrageous as I expected from Farmer.
But when I got Skull Island in mail earlier this week, something sparked and I had to read it. I mean Doc Savage and King Kong! How could anyone resist that?
Although the opening sequence takes place in 1933, immediately after the end of the original “King Kong” movie, this is merely a framing sequence. This part of the book takes place early on in the original series: sometime after the second book The Land of Terror, cover dated April 1933, (coincidentally?) the same month “King Kong” was released, and before the ninth book The Czar Of Fear.
Most of the action takes place in 1920, when Doc is in his late teens, 17 if you follow Farmer’s chronology in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Of course if you follow Farmer’s chronology the framing sequence takes place in 1931, but that's another story.
In any case, this isn’t the Doc Savage that appears in most of the fantastic adventures of the 30s and 40s. He’s still learning who and what he is. In most of the pulp adventures he’s opposed to killing, but here he still relatively fresh from the WWI, and is interesting in making more efficient killing tools.
In late 1919 the young Clark Savage, Jr, still in France after war’s end, is called to San Francisco by his father. It seems that Clark Savage, Sr has found a clue to the whereabouts of his missing father, Stormalong Savage. His ship has been spotted adrift in the Indian Ocean. So off they go, aboard The Orion, the very boat Clark Savage, Jr was born on (Farmer’s note that The Orion sank in 1902 is apparently incorrect).
And off we go, on a wonderful adventure about a Doc Savage we’ve never met; but one we can believe will grow up to be the one we knew so well.
October 12, 2016
This is exciting pulp adventure, featuring two heroes from the 30s--Doc Savage, who first appeared in the pulp magazines in 1933 and the giant ape King Kong, who appeared in the classic film KING KONG, also in 1933. In this story, Will Murray brings them together-at last! It starts right after Kong has crashed down to his death from the Empire State Building and from there takes us back to a young Savage finding Skull Island, the lost world inhabited by Kong and dinosaurs. The story also moves forward to the future. I think Murray does a great job, bringing the two legends to life. I admit to being more of a Kong fan; I read a half-dozen of the Doc Savage Bantam paperbacks featuring Doc, but wasn't really a big fan. I don't know how the purist Doc Savage fans regard Murray's depiction of "the Man of Bronze" in this story, but I thought he certainly did a great job with Doc, as well as King Kong--and the dinosaurs! I'll look for more of Murray's books. Interestingly, both Kong and Doc may get movies coming out in the near future. We will see...
September 25, 2021
This was recommended to me by my good friend, Bob, and I'm so glad I finally got around to checking it out! We're both Doc Savage fans, so I should have known that he would have an excellent suggestion for a Doc Savage book!
While the opening of the book is in "modern" times (at least for Doc), the bulk of the tale is told when he's much younger and has just returned from the war. His father, who never makes an appearance in the main series, summons him to an adventure to rescue Doc's grandfather, Stormalong Savage.
There are two things that I really liked about this book. First, we get to see Doc's father, whose whole contribution to the main series is Doc's exceptional training and the inheritance he leaves him at the start of The Man of Bronze. It was really interesting to see him fleshed out as a character, and to learn about his relationship with his son. I also really loved that the Doc we see in this story is still pretty young. He's very capable, but there's a little more hesitancy, a little more doubt, and he's a little green. I guess I sort of assumed he just sprung from the womb as the man he is in the books (I had never given it much thought), but I loved that this one showed us an earlier version of Doc, that while different, was no less true to the character.
The adventures were thrilling, the monsters threatening, and Kong was so cool! All in all, it was an excellent read, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to pick it up. Thanks, Bob!
While the opening of the book is in "modern" times (at least for Doc), the bulk of the tale is told when he's much younger and has just returned from the war. His father, who never makes an appearance in the main series, summons him to an adventure to rescue Doc's grandfather, Stormalong Savage.
There are two things that I really liked about this book. First, we get to see Doc's father, whose whole contribution to the main series is Doc's exceptional training and the inheritance he leaves him at the start of The Man of Bronze. It was really interesting to see him fleshed out as a character, and to learn about his relationship with his son. I also really loved that the Doc we see in this story is still pretty young. He's very capable, but there's a little more hesitancy, a little more doubt, and he's a little green. I guess I sort of assumed he just sprung from the womb as the man he is in the books (I had never given it much thought), but I loved that this one showed us an earlier version of Doc, that while different, was no less true to the character.
The adventures were thrilling, the monsters threatening, and Kong was so cool! All in all, it was an excellent read, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to pick it up. Thanks, Bob!
May 9, 2013
Doc Savage: Skull Island
By Will Murray
Will Murray’s newest Doc Savage book is a different take on one of the world’s first superheroes. This book is more of an never before seen origin story for Doc, and it includes three generations of his family as well as Doc’s first post WWI adventure where he actually met the Mighty King Kong!
Yes, THAT King Kong. This story takes place mere months after Doc and friends begin to take up residence in the Empire State Building in 1933. Doc’s father has already passed away at this point, so this takes place after ‘The Man of Bronze’. Doc returns to the Empire State Building and finds Kong’s corpse at his door step. Sadly he recounts to Monk and Ham how he knew the creature and then he aids New York in removing the body back to the island it came from for burial.
At this point Doc begins recounting his first adventure with Kong in a flashback sequence that lasts the rest of the book up until the last few pages.
What follows is perhaps Will Murrays BEST Doc Savage novel to date (Though his ‘Forgotten Realm’ MAY still hold that distinction for me) this is a rousing adventure wherein Doc and his father actually have some bloody conflicts with not only headhunters but prehistoric monsters as well. Doc is barely twenty in this tale and freshly back from WWI. We learn a lot about him within these pages, including his rather strange relationship with his father. We even get to meet his grandfather, the towering ‘Stormalong’ Savage, a sort of ancient mariner type who pines for the days of tall ships with a great love of the sea.
Without giving too much more away I can wholeheartedly endorse reading this great adventure novel. It’s a Doc we’ve never really seen before, one who is fresh out of his training and a war and is only now beginning to seek and understand his place in the world. Also we get the unique perspective of Doc having to follow another man’s lead, his fathers. And then there is the mighty King Kong. Will conveys all the sympathy and empathy movie goers have had for the great ape over the years masterfully in this tale. Kong, the lonely creature who despite his great size is less monster than those who hunt him for a trophy. The last of his kind creature who is master of his domain, and all who live on that island know this and bow to his sovereignty.
This Doc Savage story is a welcome addition to the collection of all things ‘Doc’. Will Murray knows the character well, and reading his novels always leaves me with a feeling that I am reading a TRUE Doc Savage story as opposed to one that could be considered simple fanfiction, as most properties that have fallen out of the original creators hands and into another’s have.
I only hope that now that there is talk of a Doc Savage movie again that they consult Will Murray and hopefully have him write the story.
Five stars out of five. I absolutely liked this novel! It was great!
By Will Murray
Will Murray’s newest Doc Savage book is a different take on one of the world’s first superheroes. This book is more of an never before seen origin story for Doc, and it includes three generations of his family as well as Doc’s first post WWI adventure where he actually met the Mighty King Kong!
Yes, THAT King Kong. This story takes place mere months after Doc and friends begin to take up residence in the Empire State Building in 1933. Doc’s father has already passed away at this point, so this takes place after ‘The Man of Bronze’. Doc returns to the Empire State Building and finds Kong’s corpse at his door step. Sadly he recounts to Monk and Ham how he knew the creature and then he aids New York in removing the body back to the island it came from for burial.
At this point Doc begins recounting his first adventure with Kong in a flashback sequence that lasts the rest of the book up until the last few pages.
What follows is perhaps Will Murrays BEST Doc Savage novel to date (Though his ‘Forgotten Realm’ MAY still hold that distinction for me) this is a rousing adventure wherein Doc and his father actually have some bloody conflicts with not only headhunters but prehistoric monsters as well. Doc is barely twenty in this tale and freshly back from WWI. We learn a lot about him within these pages, including his rather strange relationship with his father. We even get to meet his grandfather, the towering ‘Stormalong’ Savage, a sort of ancient mariner type who pines for the days of tall ships with a great love of the sea.
Without giving too much more away I can wholeheartedly endorse reading this great adventure novel. It’s a Doc we’ve never really seen before, one who is fresh out of his training and a war and is only now beginning to seek and understand his place in the world. Also we get the unique perspective of Doc having to follow another man’s lead, his fathers. And then there is the mighty King Kong. Will conveys all the sympathy and empathy movie goers have had for the great ape over the years masterfully in this tale. Kong, the lonely creature who despite his great size is less monster than those who hunt him for a trophy. The last of his kind creature who is master of his domain, and all who live on that island know this and bow to his sovereignty.
This Doc Savage story is a welcome addition to the collection of all things ‘Doc’. Will Murray knows the character well, and reading his novels always leaves me with a feeling that I am reading a TRUE Doc Savage story as opposed to one that could be considered simple fanfiction, as most properties that have fallen out of the original creators hands and into another’s have.
I only hope that now that there is talk of a Doc Savage movie again that they consult Will Murray and hopefully have him write the story.
Five stars out of five. I absolutely liked this novel! It was great!
September 14, 2018
It’s been about fifteen years since I borrowed a bunch of Doc Savage novels from my brother-in-law and read all about the Man of Bronze’s exploits. Since then I’ve also seen him in the comics but while I’ve always found the character interesting, I haven’t felt inspired to pick up any more of his novels—until now. The idea of putting Doc Savage and King Kong together intrigued me and I found myself happily reading Skull Island but with increasingly mixed reaction.
First the good: the basic idea, Doc Savage coming on to the scene right after King Kong had been shot down off the Empire State Building was great. Learning that the Man of Bronze had encountered Kong on Skull Island was even better. I was quite ready for the story. Having a tale of Doc Savage as a young man before he has fully become Doc Savage was also fascinating. I thought Murray dealt with him pretty well and I liked the jungle scenes and the slow building tension to Kong’s arrival and the great climatic conclusion worked well too. In addition, the chance to learn about Savage’s parents and grandfather also went well with me. But all of this wasn’t enough to fully overcome the weaknesses of the tale.
So now the bad: The first third of the novel is three times longer than it should have been. The sea journey is interminable and I wanted to give up reading. The only reason I didn’t give up was I wanted to see Kong. Add to that that I thoroughly disliked the depiction of Savage’s father (whom I had never encountered before) and hated every moment the character appeared on the page. He was a major distraction from the good things happening in the story. Calling him a horse’s rear end is being too kind, but I kept getting the impression that the author thought he was both cool and all around wonderful. (I could be wrong, but that was my impression.) Finally, the opening scenes indicate that Savage is going to take Kong’s body home to Skull Island, so when the story ends well before that happens, I felt disappointed. Murray could easily have cut a hundred pages from the earlier part of the story and brought the reader back for Kong’s “funeral” for want of a better word. And I think that also would have been the point to give the reader some reason to believe that Kong wasn’t actually the last of his kind, or that he could, in fact be revived in some way back in his native home. The whiff of hope would have made for a happier ending and promised future stories.
So in sum, I’m glad I read the book. There are lots of good characters and a problem worthy of Doc Savage’s and King Kong’s peculiar skill sets. But with some quality editing this could easily have been a far better novel.
First the good: the basic idea, Doc Savage coming on to the scene right after King Kong had been shot down off the Empire State Building was great. Learning that the Man of Bronze had encountered Kong on Skull Island was even better. I was quite ready for the story. Having a tale of Doc Savage as a young man before he has fully become Doc Savage was also fascinating. I thought Murray dealt with him pretty well and I liked the jungle scenes and the slow building tension to Kong’s arrival and the great climatic conclusion worked well too. In addition, the chance to learn about Savage’s parents and grandfather also went well with me. But all of this wasn’t enough to fully overcome the weaknesses of the tale.
So now the bad: The first third of the novel is three times longer than it should have been. The sea journey is interminable and I wanted to give up reading. The only reason I didn’t give up was I wanted to see Kong. Add to that that I thoroughly disliked the depiction of Savage’s father (whom I had never encountered before) and hated every moment the character appeared on the page. He was a major distraction from the good things happening in the story. Calling him a horse’s rear end is being too kind, but I kept getting the impression that the author thought he was both cool and all around wonderful. (I could be wrong, but that was my impression.) Finally, the opening scenes indicate that Savage is going to take Kong’s body home to Skull Island, so when the story ends well before that happens, I felt disappointed. Murray could easily have cut a hundred pages from the earlier part of the story and brought the reader back for Kong’s “funeral” for want of a better word. And I think that also would have been the point to give the reader some reason to believe that Kong wasn’t actually the last of his kind, or that he could, in fact be revived in some way back in his native home. The whiff of hope would have made for a happier ending and promised future stories.
So in sum, I’m glad I read the book. There are lots of good characters and a problem worthy of Doc Savage’s and King Kong’s peculiar skill sets. But with some quality editing this could easily have been a far better novel.
November 27, 2016
They say “you can’t go home again,” and for the better part of the last 35 years I’ve kind of held that as an unassailable truth in relation to many of my childhood reading passions. Doc Savage books, which I was utterly obsessed with as a pre-teen, were pretty much at the top of that list. My subsequent issues were not with the character, or concept, simply the writing. And let me just say that Doc Savage was as important to me then as the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle are to me now, and I’ve edited 3 professional anthologies of Sherlock Holmes stories with a 4th on the way, so that should tell you something. I had, to my mind, outgrown the perceived formulaic and generic style (or lack of it) of pulp fiction. My belief was likely reinforced by a casual effort, at some point early on in my 20s or 30s, to revisit THE MAN OF BRONZE, which I presumably found lacking. If it’s any consolation, I can’t read Asimov anymore either, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish and largely irrelevant. In any case, Doc Savage had been relegated to a dusty and cluttered locker of my childhood nostalgia. Fondly remembered, but better left alone. Then some surprising things happened. A John Carter film was finally made, so I picked up A Princess of Mars for a re-read, and found ERB to be less fusty than I had convinced myself. A new Tarzan film arrived in 2016, so I went back to ERB yet again. Titan was rereleasing all the Sax Rohmer Fu Manchu novels, so I decided to give them another shot, and again I was surprised to find myself enjoying the sort of stories I hadn’t read since the days before reaching adulthood. Yet, I could not convince myself to re-read a Doc Savage book. Maybe it was because I felt burned every time someone issued a weak comic book, or maybe I just didn’t want to risk losing that warm and fuzzy childhood affection, but somehow my interest in the character was revived this year. I still couldn’t bring myself to re-read any of the originals, but a few friends recommended I give one of Will Murray’s ‘Wild Adventures’ a shot. The seed had been planted, but it took an appeal to my film buff sensibilities to finally take the plunge. When I was informed that Murray had crafted a story that tied Doc Savage to King Kong, one of may favourite films, itself a sort of pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD, my resistance gave way…and I’m so very glad it did.
SKULL ISLAND begins hours after the film King Kong ends. Kong’s gigantic corpse lies at the foot of the Empire State Building, which, of course, houses the headquarters of Doc Savage and his crew, so it’s only natural that the authorities turn to Savage to remove it. Doc hurriedly returned from his Fortress of Solitude surprises his pals with the news that Kong is actually familiar to him, and so begins the flashback, that is the whole of the book, wherein Doc relates his earlier experience of the gigantic ape.
It all started with a telegram from his father, Clark Savage, Sr., while Doc was returning from France at the close of WWI, that drew him into a search for the recently spotted ship of his grandfather ‘Stormalong’ Savage, who had been missing for a number of years. Doc and Savage Sr., along with a tight crew of Mayans, set sail for the Indian Ocean and the last known site where the long lost Stormalong’s ship had recently been sighted. After an encounter with Dyak headhunters, and using cryptic clues uncovered on the found ship, Doc, his father and a loyal Mayan eventually make their way to Skull Island and their highly-anticipated encounter with Kong, natives, prehistoric beasts and another go-round with the aforementioned headhunters. All of which could have been pretty standard pulp fare, but Murray’s writing elevates the scenario. At some 385 pages of story there is more depth here than in any of the classic Robeson pulps. We are allowed to see Doc, who is very much a proto-Doc at this point, actually develop and grow as a character on his way to become the heroic figure we know and love. Watching the relatively cold relationship between Doc and his father thaw throughout the course of the book is a delight, especially once old Stormalong turns up and we have three generations of Savages to deal with. We also get a thoughtful bit of background to the culture of the islanders and Kong himself. Murray deftly manages to deliver a story that is true to the pulp tradition of Doc Savage, in terms of action and adventure, but it’s a much denser, layered and character driven approach that elevates the material beyond my memory of its roots. Not only does he play fair with Doc, but he adds texture to the character and background of Kong that should bring joy to fans of the classic 1933 film.
For me this was the best of both worlds and a perfect way to re-enter the world of Doc Savage, or at the very least the new ‘Wild Adventures’ of Doc Savage, as I’m still not sure I can revisit the original pulp stories. I am, however, very definitely looking forward to diving in to my next Will Murray Doc Savage adventure as this one was pure genius.
SKULL ISLAND begins hours after the film King Kong ends. Kong’s gigantic corpse lies at the foot of the Empire State Building, which, of course, houses the headquarters of Doc Savage and his crew, so it’s only natural that the authorities turn to Savage to remove it. Doc hurriedly returned from his Fortress of Solitude surprises his pals with the news that Kong is actually familiar to him, and so begins the flashback, that is the whole of the book, wherein Doc relates his earlier experience of the gigantic ape.
It all started with a telegram from his father, Clark Savage, Sr., while Doc was returning from France at the close of WWI, that drew him into a search for the recently spotted ship of his grandfather ‘Stormalong’ Savage, who had been missing for a number of years. Doc and Savage Sr., along with a tight crew of Mayans, set sail for the Indian Ocean and the last known site where the long lost Stormalong’s ship had recently been sighted. After an encounter with Dyak headhunters, and using cryptic clues uncovered on the found ship, Doc, his father and a loyal Mayan eventually make their way to Skull Island and their highly-anticipated encounter with Kong, natives, prehistoric beasts and another go-round with the aforementioned headhunters. All of which could have been pretty standard pulp fare, but Murray’s writing elevates the scenario. At some 385 pages of story there is more depth here than in any of the classic Robeson pulps. We are allowed to see Doc, who is very much a proto-Doc at this point, actually develop and grow as a character on his way to become the heroic figure we know and love. Watching the relatively cold relationship between Doc and his father thaw throughout the course of the book is a delight, especially once old Stormalong turns up and we have three generations of Savages to deal with. We also get a thoughtful bit of background to the culture of the islanders and Kong himself. Murray deftly manages to deliver a story that is true to the pulp tradition of Doc Savage, in terms of action and adventure, but it’s a much denser, layered and character driven approach that elevates the material beyond my memory of its roots. Not only does he play fair with Doc, but he adds texture to the character and background of Kong that should bring joy to fans of the classic 1933 film.
For me this was the best of both worlds and a perfect way to re-enter the world of Doc Savage, or at the very least the new ‘Wild Adventures’ of Doc Savage, as I’m still not sure I can revisit the original pulp stories. I am, however, very definitely looking forward to diving in to my next Will Murray Doc Savage adventure as this one was pure genius.
March 31, 2013
3 and a half stars: How could I resist getting a book in which Doc Savage faces King Kong? This is, of course, a modern continuation of the Doc Savage series, written by Will Murray rather than Lester Dent. That was actually an attraction for me, because while I enjoy the original Doc Savage series, I’m not very enamored of Dent’s writing. I also have very much enjoyed Murray’s work on the Destroyer series.
However, whether by intent or not, Murray’s prose seemed to echo Dent’s pretty closely so I didn’t find myself getting lost in the prose of this tale. The story started out wonderfully by beginning just at the point where the movie, King Kong, left off. A dead Kong’s body must be hauled off and Doc Savage and his crew get the job. After that, we flash back to Doc’s first meeting with Kong, which took place before he’d even reached the age of 21. I didn’t particularly like the flashback aspect but once we flashed back we stayed there so it wasn’t much of a problem.
I did enjoy getting to know more about Doc’s history, particularly with his father and his grandfather, although I thought it took a bit longer than necessary to get to Kong’s island. I’d rather have spent some time exploring and detailing the characteristics of the island itself. I won’t give away the ending but will say that I enjoyed it. It’s good fun, just not as much fun as I was hoping it would be. Maybe I was just expecting too much.
However, whether by intent or not, Murray’s prose seemed to echo Dent’s pretty closely so I didn’t find myself getting lost in the prose of this tale. The story started out wonderfully by beginning just at the point where the movie, King Kong, left off. A dead Kong’s body must be hauled off and Doc Savage and his crew get the job. After that, we flash back to Doc’s first meeting with Kong, which took place before he’d even reached the age of 21. I didn’t particularly like the flashback aspect but once we flashed back we stayed there so it wasn’t much of a problem.
I did enjoy getting to know more about Doc’s history, particularly with his father and his grandfather, although I thought it took a bit longer than necessary to get to Kong’s island. I’d rather have spent some time exploring and detailing the characteristics of the island itself. I won’t give away the ending but will say that I enjoyed it. It’s good fun, just not as much fun as I was hoping it would be. Maybe I was just expecting too much.
March 8, 2013
I'm an unrepentant Doc Savage fan, though I favor the early ones over the WWII period. I haven't read all the novels, but most of them. SKULL ISLAND combines another love: King Kong.
The novel begins in the aftermath of the events of the movie. Doc had missed it, being away at his Fortress of Solitude at the time. He arrives to take charge of Kong's body, preserving it, and arranging for it to be sent back to Skull Island.
Then he proceeds to realte to his friends how he had met Kong before, had his life saved by the big primate, returned the favor, and lived to tell about it.
We learn a lot about the Savage clan in this one, meet Doc's father, Clark Sr., and his grandfather, old Stormalong Savage, and the three's adventures on Skull Island long before Carl Denham found the island.
Loved this one.
The novel begins in the aftermath of the events of the movie. Doc had missed it, being away at his Fortress of Solitude at the time. He arrives to take charge of Kong's body, preserving it, and arranging for it to be sent back to Skull Island.
Then he proceeds to realte to his friends how he had met Kong before, had his life saved by the big primate, returned the favor, and lived to tell about it.
We learn a lot about the Savage clan in this one, meet Doc's father, Clark Sr., and his grandfather, old Stormalong Savage, and the three's adventures on Skull Island long before Carl Denham found the island.
Loved this one.
October 4, 2016
To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much from this Doc Savage novel. Surprise, surprise, surprise! It was really wonderful. Fast paced, non-stop action with loads of fun. There are even loads of details about Doc's history and background before his first adventure. Yeah, the stuff with King Kong may have been a tad over the top, but then this is one of the Wild Adventures of Doc Savage. Once again Will Murray offers and excellent addition to the chronicles of the Man of Bronze. Job well done! Keep 'em coming!
September 1, 2014
A fun pulp adventure that tells of Doc Savages first meeting with King Kong. It has loads of historic moments for Doc too. It's neatly bookended by the 'current' events of King Kong, the majority of the book being Doc's first adventure post WWI. It only gets 3 stars as it was a little dry in parts and the ending could have done with a bit of work.
July 10, 2016
This is an especially interesting book for Doc Savage fans. He's telling his team about his early days--about his father, grandfather, finding Skull Island, his adventures on the island, and how he met King Kong. This flashback is because King Kong was just killed--and the ending was interesting because I wondered how they'd take care of the cleanup...
May 22, 2014
Doc Savage and King Kong. What else do you need?
August 8, 2019
I was a huge Doc Savage when I was a kid. I read almost every Bantam paperback I could buy or find. They were fun, light-hearted adventures of a proto-superhero & his team. (Superman & others were partly inspired by Doc & his darker counterpart, Phillip Wylie's "Gladiator".)
Doc Savage books were the 1st novels I read. Before, I read short stories for grade school classes or comics for myself. In fact, I was so proud when I was 11 years old and read a Doc Savage book all the way through in a single day on New Year's. Admittedly, it was only 110 pages but that was a new personal best for me.
This book is an interesting, fun crossover with another childhood favorite - "King Kong". After Kong falls from the Empire State Building, Doc and his team (who use that location for their HQ) worked to get the corpse back to Skull Island. As a result, Doc told them of his prior meeting with Kong.
After the Great World War, Doc was summoned by his father, Clark Savage Sr., to meet him in Frisco once he musters out of the US Army. They go on a long sea voyage to find Doc's long-lost grandfather, Stormalong Savage. Of course, they come to Skull Island but, before that, they have near misses and even a run-in with Sea Dyak pirates. (Dyaks are a native tribe to New Guinea.)
A group of these Sea Dyaks had already found Skull Island and this led to a series of confrontations as well as unbelievable discoveries on the Island.
This Doc is a younger version of what readers are familiar with - he kills enemies with guns, poisoned blow darts & blades. But he also is just back from the horrors of the trench warfare in France in the war. His mellowing to become a non-fatal crimefighter begins at the end of the book. (Not really a spoiler as his future self is well-established.)
While longer than the traditional, 1930s pulp adventures, it was just as fun a book to read and now I wanna find those old Bantam paperbacks to reread.
Doc Savage books were the 1st novels I read. Before, I read short stories for grade school classes or comics for myself. In fact, I was so proud when I was 11 years old and read a Doc Savage book all the way through in a single day on New Year's. Admittedly, it was only 110 pages but that was a new personal best for me.
This book is an interesting, fun crossover with another childhood favorite - "King Kong". After Kong falls from the Empire State Building, Doc and his team (who use that location for their HQ) worked to get the corpse back to Skull Island. As a result, Doc told them of his prior meeting with Kong.
After the Great World War, Doc was summoned by his father, Clark Savage Sr., to meet him in Frisco once he musters out of the US Army. They go on a long sea voyage to find Doc's long-lost grandfather, Stormalong Savage. Of course, they come to Skull Island but, before that, they have near misses and even a run-in with Sea Dyak pirates. (Dyaks are a native tribe to New Guinea.)
A group of these Sea Dyaks had already found Skull Island and this led to a series of confrontations as well as unbelievable discoveries on the Island.
This Doc is a younger version of what readers are familiar with - he kills enemies with guns, poisoned blow darts & blades. But he also is just back from the horrors of the trench warfare in France in the war. His mellowing to become a non-fatal crimefighter begins at the end of the book. (Not really a spoiler as his future self is well-established.)
While longer than the traditional, 1930s pulp adventures, it was just as fun a book to read and now I wanna find those old Bantam paperbacks to reread.
February 5, 2020
Though I’ve been familiar with Doc Savage for decades, this was my first Doc Savage novel. If you don’t know anything about the character, imagine Batman’s apex human capabilities, with the jawline/worldview/arctic Fortress of Solitude/metal body comparisons of Superman, going on the adventures of Indiana Jones. Before Superman and Batman, Doc Savage was the greatest hero in pop culture, and the ideas haven’t aged flawlessly.
This novel is a “new” Doc Savage novel, written in the style, structure, and era of the original novels, but released in 2013, but it feels like it was written in the 1930s. That said, I’ve started a few Doc Savage novels and never liked the writing style. Part of me wants to say that’s because of the era, but I adore the writing style of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories, a contemporary of the pulp novels of Savage’s era.
Everything about this book is campy, and yet it is done with frankness, violence, and occasional heart. The story really grabbed me, but the writing style is so dated (I want to say bad, but that feels like I may be missing the greater historical context) that I just couldn’t enjoy the over-the-top adventure to its fullest. It’s a heck of a lot of fun, but the quality is either bad or anachronistic to the point of being indistinguishable from badness.
If you don’t love pulp adventure novels of the 1930s, I simply can’t recommend this book. But if you do love pulp novels, this is a very enjoyable (though clunky) adventure.
Story (to my personal taste): 11/10
Characters: 2/10
Writing: 1/10
This novel is a “new” Doc Savage novel, written in the style, structure, and era of the original novels, but released in 2013, but it feels like it was written in the 1930s. That said, I’ve started a few Doc Savage novels and never liked the writing style. Part of me wants to say that’s because of the era, but I adore the writing style of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories, a contemporary of the pulp novels of Savage’s era.
Everything about this book is campy, and yet it is done with frankness, violence, and occasional heart. The story really grabbed me, but the writing style is so dated (I want to say bad, but that feels like I may be missing the greater historical context) that I just couldn’t enjoy the over-the-top adventure to its fullest. It’s a heck of a lot of fun, but the quality is either bad or anachronistic to the point of being indistinguishable from badness.
If you don’t love pulp adventure novels of the 1930s, I simply can’t recommend this book. But if you do love pulp novels, this is a very enjoyable (though clunky) adventure.
Story (to my personal taste): 11/10
Characters: 2/10
Writing: 1/10
September 15, 2020
A mixed bag that's very much a YMMV book. A lot of the fun is looking at Young Doc Savage and seeing Murray develope the details of his life and family, but if you're not a Doc fan, I suspect that wouldn't work for you.
The book opens with Doc and his engineer sidekick Renny figuring out how to move King Kong's corpse out of New York. Doc reveals he knew the ape — Kong saved his life once and vice versa — and we flash back to Doc, newly out of the military (and relishing the new nickname, "doc," he got working as a medic), joining his father to find his missing grandfather "Stormalong" Savage. Guess where the old guy has ended up? Yep.
Murray does really well on the Doc/Kong interactions and I like a lot of the interplay between Doc and his father (even if my head canon and Murray's are quite different on some points). But we spend way too much time dealing with native savages (and yes, it does come across racially stereotypical) rather than Skull Island. And even there, Murray can't make Doc vs. dinosaurs work as well as the original pulps did. Like I said, a mixed bag.
The book opens with Doc and his engineer sidekick Renny figuring out how to move King Kong's corpse out of New York. Doc reveals he knew the ape — Kong saved his life once and vice versa — and we flash back to Doc, newly out of the military (and relishing the new nickname, "doc," he got working as a medic), joining his father to find his missing grandfather "Stormalong" Savage. Guess where the old guy has ended up? Yep.
Murray does really well on the Doc/Kong interactions and I like a lot of the interplay between Doc and his father (even if my head canon and Murray's are quite different on some points). But we spend way too much time dealing with native savages (and yes, it does come across racially stereotypical) rather than Skull Island. And even there, Murray can't make Doc vs. dinosaurs work as well as the original pulps did. Like I said, a mixed bag.
July 28, 2024
I'm perhaps overrating this slightly since it was the book that go me through a very bad time mentally, but it also introduced me to the fantastic Doc Savage novels that Will Murray wrote in his Wild Adventures series. This acts as a prequel to the original Doc Savage stories and his character is still establishing itself here and his companions are only in it for the prologue chapter. But, his father - The Man of Brass - is is here to guide him onto his path.
The downside is that a third of the book is taking up with the sea journey to Skull Island and his conversations with his father, with only the odd pirate cannibal to fight off. Fortunately the rest of the book is fantastic as Doc Savage pits himself against dinosaurs, a wild primeval land, no-gooders and of course King Kong himself. It also nicely slots into the King Kong film timeline before and after. And if you read Murray's King Kong Vs Tarzan, you can get another full adventure set during the film. And it all feels quite seamlessly together.
Anyway - slow, bloated start aside, I loved it
The downside is that a third of the book is taking up with the sea journey to Skull Island and his conversations with his father, with only the odd pirate cannibal to fight off. Fortunately the rest of the book is fantastic as Doc Savage pits himself against dinosaurs, a wild primeval land, no-gooders and of course King Kong himself. It also nicely slots into the King Kong film timeline before and after. And if you read Murray's King Kong Vs Tarzan, you can get another full adventure set during the film. And it all feels quite seamlessly together.
Anyway - slow, bloated start aside, I loved it
May 8, 2017
So much fun. Would make a hell of a movie.
This book delves into the younger Doc Savage, and his relationship with his father. It gives a third dimension to Dic's character, which I loved. On top of that, were given a rip-roaring, epic yarn involving pirates, head hunters, dinosaurs and, of course, the great Kong himself.
Will Murray's description is riveting, especially the action scenes. Definitely great for my skull-cinema.
If you haven't read a Doc Savage book before, I wouldn't necessarily start here, only because you'd miss a lot of the deeper meaning of certain story aspects. Get a few stories under your belt and then come back to this one. It'll make an already-great read that much greater.
This book delves into the younger Doc Savage, and his relationship with his father. It gives a third dimension to Dic's character, which I loved. On top of that, were given a rip-roaring, epic yarn involving pirates, head hunters, dinosaurs and, of course, the great Kong himself.
Will Murray's description is riveting, especially the action scenes. Definitely great for my skull-cinema.
If you haven't read a Doc Savage book before, I wouldn't necessarily start here, only because you'd miss a lot of the deeper meaning of certain story aspects. Get a few stories under your belt and then come back to this one. It'll make an already-great read that much greater.
July 10, 2024
I’ve read dozens of the original Doc Savage novels over the years and several of the Will Murray New Doc Savage novels. Murray is more of a modern novelist, in that he takes more pages (in some cases, hundreds of more pages) to flesh out characters and elaborate on visual details. I like both styles, but I must confess to occasionally wishing Murray would get to the pertinent plot a little quicker.
I loved this novel for the reason that I initially perchased it. I wanted to know more about Doc Savage’s past and learn more about Kong and Skull Island. This book does these things extremely well; both through the narrative and dialogue. This was my favorite of Murray’s Doc Savage books thus far and I plan on reading the remaining books in this series in future!
I loved this novel for the reason that I initially perchased it. I wanted to know more about Doc Savage’s past and learn more about Kong and Skull Island. This book does these things extremely well; both through the narrative and dialogue. This was my favorite of Murray’s Doc Savage books thus far and I plan on reading the remaining books in this series in future!
June 26, 2026
Great job adding new history to classic characters.
Very well written (except for one word, widows instead of windows),
but that's in the epilogue. ;)
Great characters in a very well paced action adventure. You get emotionally involved by the end. I'm afraid to read others that might pale in comparison, but Doc is my all time favorite character.
I'll read more just as I finished the original series as well as the Sherlock Holmes canon. (I've also read Nick Carter as a boy)😁
It was fun visiting all of those iconic characters again, especially Kong. Great read, a job exceptionally well done.
Very well written (except for one word, widows instead of windows),
but that's in the epilogue. ;)
Great characters in a very well paced action adventure. You get emotionally involved by the end. I'm afraid to read others that might pale in comparison, but Doc is my all time favorite character.
I'll read more just as I finished the original series as well as the Sherlock Holmes canon. (I've also read Nick Carter as a boy)😁
It was fun visiting all of those iconic characters again, especially Kong. Great read, a job exceptionally well done.
April 15, 2023
A Treat for the Fan
I have read most of the Doc Savage stories from reprints in the 70s. The characters and stories are good escapism fare. This chronicle that concerned Doc Savages past was welcomed, as I always wondered about that. If you like it you may enjoy the earlier volumes taken from the old pulp magazines. However, I find these more modern stories have more detail and less repetition.
I have read most of the Doc Savage stories from reprints in the 70s. The characters and stories are good escapism fare. This chronicle that concerned Doc Savages past was welcomed, as I always wondered about that. If you like it you may enjoy the earlier volumes taken from the old pulp magazines. However, I find these more modern stories have more detail and less repetition.
March 23, 2019
Interesting premise, but rather dull in places. The book went into lengthy descriptions of Skull Island, much like ERB used to describe Barsoom or Pellucidar. While there was a great deal of action, I don’t believe it did much to advance the plot.i think some judicious editing might improve it a bit.
November 11, 2021
If you want to play a drinking game while reading this, take a shot every time they mention Tarzan or Sherlock Holmes.
March 27, 2025
Adventure! Action! Doc Savage on Skull Island is a fun throwback to pulp fiction and adventure. 5.0 bookworms
November 3, 2021
Grande e detalhado panorama dos cenários de ambos os personagens, com estruturas narrativas que remetem a Lester Dent, Merian C. Cooper e até Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Ao final das contas, um divertido exercício estilístico.
Ao final das contas, um divertido exercício estilístico.
June 25, 2026
An icon of pulp meets one of the classic monsters of film, but not quite what we were expecting and a lot more.
Instead of giving us Doc vs Kong in NY, this book starts where the movie ends, and answers the question we've all had: how the heck did they move Kong's body and what happened to it?
The rest of the book is a massive flashback that shows us that Doc's encounter with Kong actually happened before the events of the movie.
Young Clark Savage, freshly returned from the battlefields of WW1 meets up with his Father and they set out to discover what really happened to Clark's equally famous, seafaring grandfather, who was believed to have gone down with his ship.
The search eventually takes them to the mysterious island from the title.
The adventure itself is a lot of fun, but I was equally interested in the father/son element of the story.
We've gotten very little about Doc's past and this may be the only book to touch upon his relationship with his father, and how all Doc's training impacted the family.
There's also some crumbs of information about Doc's mom, which we never get.
She finally gets a name!
While I miss the famous 5, it is fun seeing three generations of Savages working together.
A really interesting book, but not a perfect one.
There are some weird stumbles.
First: everything takes too long. This is pulp.
A pulp novel doesn't ever need to be 350 pages long.
That's the same length as 3 original Doc paperbacks.
There's this weird element where we are delving deep into the histories of two very famous fictional characters, yet go out of our way to say guys like Tarzan, Holmes and Nick Carter 'aren't real'...?
Why?
While I love Murray delving into Doc's past, he seems to try really hard only to give us so much info and no more.
He gets weirdly vague at times and it's clunky and distracting..
Saving it for another book?
What's going on?
A fun blending of two characters' worlds and a unique look into Doc's past.
Not perfect, but definitely worth reading.
Instead of giving us Doc vs Kong in NY, this book starts where the movie ends, and answers the question we've all had: how the heck did they move Kong's body and what happened to it?
The rest of the book is a massive flashback that shows us that Doc's encounter with Kong actually happened before the events of the movie.
Young Clark Savage, freshly returned from the battlefields of WW1 meets up with his Father and they set out to discover what really happened to Clark's equally famous, seafaring grandfather, who was believed to have gone down with his ship.
The search eventually takes them to the mysterious island from the title.
The adventure itself is a lot of fun, but I was equally interested in the father/son element of the story.
We've gotten very little about Doc's past and this may be the only book to touch upon his relationship with his father, and how all Doc's training impacted the family.
There's also some crumbs of information about Doc's mom, which we never get.
She finally gets a name!
While I miss the famous 5, it is fun seeing three generations of Savages working together.
A really interesting book, but not a perfect one.
There are some weird stumbles.
First: everything takes too long. This is pulp.
A pulp novel doesn't ever need to be 350 pages long.
That's the same length as 3 original Doc paperbacks.
There's this weird element where we are delving deep into the histories of two very famous fictional characters, yet go out of our way to say guys like Tarzan, Holmes and Nick Carter 'aren't real'...?
Why?
While I love Murray delving into Doc's past, he seems to try really hard only to give us so much info and no more.
He gets weirdly vague at times and it's clunky and distracting..
Saving it for another book?
What's going on?
A fun blending of two characters' worlds and a unique look into Doc's past.
Not perfect, but definitely worth reading.
May 3, 2014
I picked this up for the amazing idea of having Doc Savage and King Kong in the same novel. However, that wasn't the highlight of the book.
Doc Savage is an iconic figure whose father outsourced his upbringing to others to teach him all the skills he would need to continue the Elder Savage's quest to right wrongs and so he's bred to the peak of physical perfect, a virtual superman by virtue by all of his different teachers training. However, he hardly knew his own father.
After World War I, Doc is summoned by his father to serve on board the Orion, a scooner searching the Pacific Isles for Doc's grandfather Stormalong Savage. However, as the book begins, the sad fact is that Doc doesn't really know his father or understand him. The emotional distance in the relationship is illustrated by the fact that Doc's father makes him call him Captain Savage in the name of "ship's discipline" which is kind of absurd when there were four other members of the crew: all Mayans who couldn't speak English.
However, over the course of the first few chapters of the book, we begin to really get a picture of this father and son that is really quite compelling. Of course, we get to the action scenes, but there's still that development as we understand the complexities of this father-son relationship as well as the father-son relation between Captain Savage and his father Stormalong, it's a wonderful picture. Here, we see a different Doc Savage: Younger, more violent, and still not sure who exactly he is and wants to be, and we get to see some of that character form in the course of this story.
The ultimate goal is Skull Island and here we're treated to a lot of action adventure with attacks from deep sea Dayak Headhunters who are interested in getting the head of Kong but also willing to take the heads of one of the Savages and their crew. I should say that when I said Doc was more violent. This is what I mean. Fresh from the war, Doc has not developed his goal of avoiding taking life at all costs. He doesn't use Mercy bullets and there are some pretty gory chapters that I wouldn't normally associate with Doc Savage as in Chapter 14 he brutally repels a Dayak attack and does so again several times. I lost track of the body count in this one. This book is definitely not for kids.
Skull Island, in addition to boasting of King Kong, also has a prehistoric nightmarescape full of dinosaurs and all sorts of dangerous and frightening beast.
Other than the gore, the big downsides of the book is that given his billing, there really enough Kong in this story. In addition, sometimes the dialog between the Savages does drag particularly when they get into a battle of quotes as each Savage provides one quote after another from Shakespeare, Nick Carter, or Sherlock Holmes. They even did this when one character was dying.
I listened to the audio version and I do want to praise Michael McConnohie's wonderful narration. When he managed the duet between Doc and his father of Stormalong John, it was very powerful and moving.
While I wouldn't recommend this book for kids, it's a solid read for fans of Doc Savage who want to better understand the Man of Bronze and his origins.
Doc Savage is an iconic figure whose father outsourced his upbringing to others to teach him all the skills he would need to continue the Elder Savage's quest to right wrongs and so he's bred to the peak of physical perfect, a virtual superman by virtue by all of his different teachers training. However, he hardly knew his own father.
After World War I, Doc is summoned by his father to serve on board the Orion, a scooner searching the Pacific Isles for Doc's grandfather Stormalong Savage. However, as the book begins, the sad fact is that Doc doesn't really know his father or understand him. The emotional distance in the relationship is illustrated by the fact that Doc's father makes him call him Captain Savage in the name of "ship's discipline" which is kind of absurd when there were four other members of the crew: all Mayans who couldn't speak English.
However, over the course of the first few chapters of the book, we begin to really get a picture of this father and son that is really quite compelling. Of course, we get to the action scenes, but there's still that development as we understand the complexities of this father-son relationship as well as the father-son relation between Captain Savage and his father Stormalong, it's a wonderful picture. Here, we see a different Doc Savage: Younger, more violent, and still not sure who exactly he is and wants to be, and we get to see some of that character form in the course of this story.
The ultimate goal is Skull Island and here we're treated to a lot of action adventure with attacks from deep sea Dayak Headhunters who are interested in getting the head of Kong but also willing to take the heads of one of the Savages and their crew. I should say that when I said Doc was more violent. This is what I mean. Fresh from the war, Doc has not developed his goal of avoiding taking life at all costs. He doesn't use Mercy bullets and there are some pretty gory chapters that I wouldn't normally associate with Doc Savage as in Chapter 14 he brutally repels a Dayak attack and does so again several times. I lost track of the body count in this one. This book is definitely not for kids.
Skull Island, in addition to boasting of King Kong, also has a prehistoric nightmarescape full of dinosaurs and all sorts of dangerous and frightening beast.
Other than the gore, the big downsides of the book is that given his billing, there really enough Kong in this story. In addition, sometimes the dialog between the Savages does drag particularly when they get into a battle of quotes as each Savage provides one quote after another from Shakespeare, Nick Carter, or Sherlock Holmes. They even did this when one character was dying.
I listened to the audio version and I do want to praise Michael McConnohie's wonderful narration. When he managed the duet between Doc and his father of Stormalong John, it was very powerful and moving.
While I wouldn't recommend this book for kids, it's a solid read for fans of Doc Savage who want to better understand the Man of Bronze and his origins.
July 5, 2015
Although my burgeoning interest in pulp fiction would have led me to Doc Savage sooner or later, it was actually the bizarre depiction of the character as ‘Caliban’ in Philip José Farmer’s A Feast Unknown which caused me to seek him out. And despite being a recent addition to the canon of roughly 200 novels, Skull Island seemed a good place to start. It is supposedly the first Doc Savage novel to act as a partial origin story for the character and to explore his familial relationships.
And as a fan of anything with a good monster (especially giant ones), the lure of a novel featuring King Kong and Skull Island was a strong one. Being already sold on the giant ape and his dinosaur-infested home, the question was whether the book would sell me on Doc Savage and on Will Murray. Unfortunately I can’t say it has.
The plot could be largely discerned from the title. Some excuse or other was going to land Doc Savage on Skull Island. It happened to be that he set out with his father to find and possibly rescue the grandfather he’d never known. Inevitably that entails a number of run-ins with the native inhabitants (human and otherwise) and bands of ‘sea dyak’ barbarian headhunting pirates.
As with anything he appears in, Kong is undoubtedly the star attraction. He’s used rather more sparingly than I expected with his only meaningful actions being a few pages in the final third. While that’s understandable, he really could have done with another couple of action scenes. The potential for hammering home his stature as the ‘King’ felt untapped. Consider for example that there’s only one brief appearance by a tyrannosaur-like dinosaur and Kong is not involved with it. I didn’t expect a remake of the fight scenes from the Peter Jackson movie but I wanted more than this.
As to Doc, this may not have been the most representative book on which to judge him but I hope there’s more to his character in other depictions. As it was he seemed one of the most utterly uninteresting protagonists I’ve ever read. Despite all the attempts to explore his relationships with his father and grandfather, it was hard to feel any engagement or dramatic tension with a character who is near enough to an expert in every skill known to man, or at least in whatever one he happens to need at that precise moment in the plot. Batman seems understated by comparison.
I feel that where Will Murray succeeds best is in conveying something of the poignancy and tragic nature of Kong. It has that juxtaposition of strength and weakness wherein he’s the undisputed lord of all he surveys and yet a living fossil powerless to continue his line, mournfully going through the motions until his end.
Frankly though I couldn’t find much else to excite me in this book. I haven’t written off Savage or Murray yet but I’ll need something more to convince me.
p.s. Pet peeve time. Early in the book, Kong is referred to as the largest land creature ever to walk the earth. This in a book featuring sauropod dinosaurs. Kong’s big but he ain’t that big.
p.p.s. By way of the cover artist Joe DeVito, this book has connections to the 2004 novel Kong: King of Skull Island and the upcoming film of the same name slated for a 2016 release. Hence probably worth a read for Kong fans regardless.
And as a fan of anything with a good monster (especially giant ones), the lure of a novel featuring King Kong and Skull Island was a strong one. Being already sold on the giant ape and his dinosaur-infested home, the question was whether the book would sell me on Doc Savage and on Will Murray. Unfortunately I can’t say it has.
The plot could be largely discerned from the title. Some excuse or other was going to land Doc Savage on Skull Island. It happened to be that he set out with his father to find and possibly rescue the grandfather he’d never known. Inevitably that entails a number of run-ins with the native inhabitants (human and otherwise) and bands of ‘sea dyak’ barbarian headhunting pirates.
As with anything he appears in, Kong is undoubtedly the star attraction. He’s used rather more sparingly than I expected with his only meaningful actions being a few pages in the final third. While that’s understandable, he really could have done with another couple of action scenes. The potential for hammering home his stature as the ‘King’ felt untapped. Consider for example that there’s only one brief appearance by a tyrannosaur-like dinosaur and Kong is not involved with it. I didn’t expect a remake of the fight scenes from the Peter Jackson movie but I wanted more than this.
As to Doc, this may not have been the most representative book on which to judge him but I hope there’s more to his character in other depictions. As it was he seemed one of the most utterly uninteresting protagonists I’ve ever read. Despite all the attempts to explore his relationships with his father and grandfather, it was hard to feel any engagement or dramatic tension with a character who is near enough to an expert in every skill known to man, or at least in whatever one he happens to need at that precise moment in the plot. Batman seems understated by comparison.
I feel that where Will Murray succeeds best is in conveying something of the poignancy and tragic nature of Kong. It has that juxtaposition of strength and weakness wherein he’s the undisputed lord of all he surveys and yet a living fossil powerless to continue his line, mournfully going through the motions until his end.
Frankly though I couldn’t find much else to excite me in this book. I haven’t written off Savage or Murray yet but I’ll need something more to convince me.
p.s. Pet peeve time. Early in the book, Kong is referred to as the largest land creature ever to walk the earth. This in a book featuring sauropod dinosaurs. Kong’s big but he ain’t that big.
p.p.s. By way of the cover artist Joe DeVito, this book has connections to the 2004 novel Kong: King of Skull Island and the upcoming film of the same name slated for a 2016 release. Hence probably worth a read for Kong fans regardless.
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