The Annihilist

Doc Savage (Bantam) #31

by Kenneth Robeson (House Name), Lester Dent

The dread Annihilist was slaughtering the criminals of New York in wholesale lots. Hundreds of men were found mysteriously murdered, victims of the hideous pop-eyed death. The finger of suspicion pointed directly at one man, Doc Savage himself. Even as The Man of Bronze scrambled to solve the terrifying enigma, the invisible assassin began to play havoc with one of humanity’s most important secret defenses — Doc Savage’s legendary crime college.

Genres: Adventure, Pulp, Mystery, Fiction, Action, Crime, Science Fiction

138 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Kenneth Robeson 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, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:

William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson

Lester Dent is usually considered to be the creator of Doc Savage. In the 1990s Philip José Farmer wrote a new Doc Savage adventure, but it was published under his own name and not by Robeson. Will Murray has since taken up the pseudonym and continued writing Doc Savage books as Robeson.

All 24 of the original stories featuring The Avenger were written by Paul Ernst, using the Robeson house name. In order to encourage sales Kenneth Robeson was credited on the cover of The Avenger magazine as "the creator of Doc Savage" even though Lester Dent had nothing to do with The Avenger series. In the 1970s, when the series was extended with 12 additional novels, Ron Goulart was hired to become Robeson.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interestingly, this was the last of the Bantam Books Doc Savages I acquired in a search that stretched from the 1970s into the 1990s. Yes, pre-Internet, pre-ebay, when your searches were carried out hopping from bookstore to bookstore in every town you found yourself in. Those were the days. Anyway, the Doc I most coveted was "The Annihilist," and fittingly, it was the final one I found, 25 or so years after publication, in a used bookstore.

"The Annihilist" ranks among the best dozen Doc Savage novels, no question. It has it all: Doc's criminal-curing "Crime College" at its very center, great action, and Doc's cousin Pat in the cast. The first half of this tale is astoundingly good; it's so violent it reads like a Spider adventure, with people's eyes bulging out of their heads as they suffer the dreaded pop-eyed death (no, not wishful thinking from Bluto). This is a landmark tale, but also just a plain crackerjack one.

The second half gets bogged down a bit, but how could writer Lester Dent sustain that momentum?

"The Annihilist" will always have a special place in my heart, for its pure greatness and as a finally found love.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Annihilist is a "Doc Savage" novel by Kenneth Robeson. Kenneth Robeson was the house name Street and Smith Publications used as the author of their popular Doc Savage novels. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:
William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson
I love reading these old pulp novels from time to time. I read about 80%+ of the Doc Savage novels when I was a teenager but that was a very long time ago. I have been trying to find them again in the Bantam editions I read in my youth. I have found several of them in used bookstores and have bought several from online aftermarket bookstores.
In this one, Doc Savage and his men are in the thick of it again. The action is classic Doc Savage, filled with good old-fashioned adventure and gadgets that always seem to be there when the hero needs them. You can relax and escape for a little while. A good read in the Doc Savage series.
Note: This one has a rare appearance by Doc's cousin Pat Savage.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone or something in New York City is killing criminals in a gruesome manner, leaving them with popped out eyes. An overly eager police detective suspects Doc Savage is to blame, but of course he is not, and there is a greater plot unfolding, involving Doc's rehabilitation center for criminals. Very good, if preposterous, entry in the series.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars because Pat Savage is in it and it has a cool cover. Also stuff about Doc's "college" of rehabilitation for criminals. Otherwise, it's bad guys running around tripping over each other.

[Michael Emond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read three Doc Savage pulps now is the last year and this is by far my favourite. That's not to say this is great literature and I am grading on a bit of a sliding scale knowing these pulps were pumped out pretty quickly back in the day without a lot of thought on the plot.

The quick summary is - someone called the Criminal Annihilist has a machine that causes criminals in the New York area to die with their eyes popping out when they are in the act of trying to commit murder. Doc and his gang are involved because he has a place in upstate NY that does brain surgery on the criminal gland and transforms criminals into good people (and strips them of their memories of their past bad lives) so they can be reintegrated into society. So it looks like Doc might be doing this (although only the police detective Hardboiled (ick) believes that).

This one stood above the other two Doc Savage adventures I read because the premise was more interesting, Doc's involvement in the case felt more personal, we explore an aspect of Doc in greater detail (his upstate reform hospital), and the fact the law was on his heels added a nice layer to the conflict. There was also a bit less "Doc or some of his gang gets captured". I mean it still happened a lot but in the other novels it seemed to happen every other page.

One key issue I had with this is the reveal of who the Annihilist was felt rushed and lack a punch and the other villain Bose's reveal was also a letdown. So the ending was a bit weak. Also - with Bose, Hardboiled. the Annihilist and others who were acting as spies or stuff it was hard to keep track of who was on whose side and what their motives were. The Annihilist's reason for making the machine in the first place was never really explained.

As well, if the writer had taken more time, the premise could have led to some interesting things - the machine killed people about to commit murder but what if someone in a jail murdering someone on death row got killed. Or a cop shooting at a criminal who was shooting at them. Or a citizen killing someone in self defence. We could have also explored "is it right for Doc to get rid of evil and wipe memories in crooks?" Also - what kind of person are they? Someone who can't even put up a fight is they are attacked? The whole Doc brain surgery thing is something future critics of the series have focused on and use as a reason to call Doc Savage a monster...but you know...I kind of like that he does it. It is controversial but you have the Shadow just gunning everyone down - while Doc has a non-killing code (Superman?) so his approach is far more humane. And - think about it - the theory behind jails is to rehabilitate crooks so they can reenter society (which we know they don't do well) so why not have a foolproof way of doing that? Anyway - it is something to debate about.

Getting to back to what WAS in the book - the other critique I have is the same one I have for every Doc Savage adventure - the 5 team members (one doesn't even show up) + his female cousin Pat don't serve much of a purpose other than to get captured. We are always told things like Monk is an expert chemist, Remmy an engineer and so on. Tops in their fields. I wish they would put that to use to help advance the story or help Doc instead of just using their fists and coming along so Doc has someone to talk to.

However, even with my gripes - I did like how original this adventure was and it was a lot more interesting than the other two I read.

[Tobin Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was meh, and another showing, I believe, Lester Dent's fatigue at writing Savage. This one was a "sort of" novel.

There was sort of a plot. There was sort of an appearance by Pat Savage. There was sort of an appearance by Renny (though his NY apartment got more screen time than he did). There was sort of an explanation for the eye popping. There was sort of... ah, you get the idea.

I mean, the nefarious plot by the titular Annihilist was so thin that, once revealed, even one of the crime partners basically reacted with a "that's it? That's looney!"

It's a sad thing when you can't even get your fictional characters to go along with the plan.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting Doc Savage adventure in that groups of thugs are after the secret of Doc Savage’s crime college in upper New York State. Monk, Ham and Renny help aid Doc in this saga, along with Doc’s cousin Pat.

The cast of bad guys is large and added to this is an antagonistic cop who is attempting to pin murder on Doc Savage. Inspector “Hardboiled” Humbolt is after Doc and is seeking to arrest Doc for the strange eye-bulging deaths of criminals that defy explanation.

The tie-in with Doc’s criminal college really drove the interest in this story for me.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ages since I read the first half of this double-volume. It's still a good story, very gritty with depictions of torture and death. I remember the pop-eyed death was one of the things that caught my attention when I was a kid, since it was so weird.

I'm more jaded now, and I knew what was coming, but there were a few events and characters I'd forgotten, so that made the reading fresh and let me appreciate how good Lester Dent was as a writer.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this Doc adventure in the 70s

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[Devin Coryell · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 / 5

[Duane Olds · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely entertaining outing for the man of Bronze.

This one deals with Doc's 'inistution'. We've all read about it, it's where he sends all the bad guys to get them 'treated' to become upstanding citizens. Honestly, reading all these books I never really gave it any thought, it was like Batman, when he caught a riminal they went to Arkham; end of story. But this deals with what happend to the 'treated' criminals when they are released.

When you think about it, is Doc really that good of a guy? He catches criminals sure, but sends them to a top secret place to get their brains scrambled all without them or the general public knowing. Theres some shady stuff going on with that line of thought that I don't want to get involved with.

I found the beginning when Doc first shows up humerous, he doesn't want fame or fortune or publicity, doesn't want any attention drawn to himself, but drives around in a car with a personalized 'DOC 1' license plate.

But then we were intoroduced to another foreign character with an outrageous accent I'm going to have to try to piece together. Oh what fun.

But this outing did give us a few good lines, like:--------
'Chapter I THE POP-EYED DEAD' (Popeye is dead! Oh no, who's gonna tell Olive Oyl?)

'All of these deaths were in Manhattan.' (New York, the national leader in bug eyed deaths)

'THE gunman was very lean, with dreamy blue eyes and an extraordinarily long chin' (Bruce Campbell?!)

"These babies were worried." (first pop-eyed deaths and now worried crime babies!?)

'Boke was effectively disguised by a flying suit and a muffler tied across his features.' (why does he have a car part tied across his face?)

'The bronze man carefully thrust his right hand inside his shirt, then got erect.' (Is that a hand in your shirt or are you just happy to see me...what? What are you doing!?!?)

We also had a few (insert your own joke here) lines:-----------
'There was a spanking sound from the window.'

"he have the sweetest voice you ever listen to." "He's got sweet ways, too," grinned Lizzie,'

"And the gay Frightful was found dead in that roomful of men who had their eyes popping."


Seeing as how there were none, i'm not sure why im going to list the Superamalgamated count, but here it is - Zero.

Oh well....on to the next one...

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Doc Savage story appeared in 1933 and the series ran in pulp and later digest format into 1949. Bantam reprinted the entire series in paperback with wonderful, iconic covers starting in the 1960's. Doc was arguably the first great modern superhero with a rich background, continuity, and mythos. The characterizations were far richer than was common for the pulps; his five associates and their sometimes-auxiliary, Doc's cousin Pat, and the pets Chemistry and Habeas Corpus, all had very distinctive characteristics and their byplay was frequently more entertaining that the current adventure-of-the-month. The settings were also fascinating: Doc's Fortress of Solitude, the Hidalgo Trading Company (which served as a front for his armada of vehicles), and especially the mysterious 86th floor headquarters all became familiar haunts to the reader, and the far-flung adventures took the intrepid band to exotic and richly-described locations all over the world. The adventures were always fast-paced and exciting, from the early apocalyptic world-saving extravaganzas of the early days to the latter scientific-detective style shorter works of the post-World War Two years. There were always a few points that it was difficult to believe along the way, but there were always more ups than downs, and there was never, ever a dull moment. The Doc Savage books have always been my favorite entertainments... I was always, as Johnny would say, superamalgamated!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

December 1934 gave Doc Savage fans a story they wouldn't soon forget. A young boy of 11 or 12 might have had nightmares through Christmas after reading the Annihilist. Doc and three of his crew, plus cousin Pat, are trying to figure out why criminals all over NYC are dropping dead with their eyes popping out. A truly gruesome plot is at work and Doc is in the middle of it, mainly because there are three different groups trying to keep him out of it. This also marks the first real appearance of Doc's crime college, where criminals go to be rehabilitated. While there is no real discussion about the morality of performing brain operations on unwilling subjects in order to reform them, Doc does give a bit of his reasoning towards the end of the story. A good read and a good place to stop for a bit. I'm only good for about 12 in a row.

[Steven Vaughan-Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some pulp adventures from the 1930s are better than others, and this is one of them. Doc Savage faces a truly dark and horrible threat that beyond the obvious, an unknown and invisible means of death that seemingly targets only criminals, implicitly asks what is truly criminal?

Mind you this is a very good novel only by the standards of 30s pulp, but within its genre it really is both enjoyable and thoughtful.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the pulp era heroes few stand out above the crowd, Doc Savage is one of these. With his 5 aides and cousin he adventures across the world. Fighting weird menaces, master criminals and evil scientists Doc and the Fab 5 never let you down for a great read. These stories have all you need; fast paced action, weird mystery, and some humor as the aides spat with each other. My highest recommendation.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very gory entry for this series (I vividly remembered the torture scene in here for years), as men all over New York start dropping like flies with their eyes bulging out ("The Pop Eyed Death!"), something so grotesque even Doc is shaken to see it. Who's behind it? How does it tie in with Doc's secret "crime college" for reforming prisoners? Overall a good entry in the series, though.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

possibly read in winter 1968

[Marko]

I have the german edition: Dwe Superkiller