178r 03/44 The Derelict of Skull Shoal

Posted by on Mar 11, 2004 in 1944, Bantam 169-180, larkin, moran, novel, pulp, stein | 3 comments

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In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean a dog howls — launching Doc and his crew on a high-seas adventure involving bloodthirsty pirates, man-eating sharks, and an island of zombie-killers!


  • http://chuckwelch.com Chuck Welch

    As do many fans I prefer the early Doc Savage. In this novel he spends most of the time complaining about his head. Doc isn’t the man he was a mere decade earlier and he knows it. Pretty much the entire crew is missing in this adventure. Add a pedrestrian “mystery” and some sorry “zombies” and you have a third rate Doc.

    (This is the one novel were Lester Dent received the byline. Too bad it wasn’t one of his better Doc novels.)

  • http://www.paulcook-sci-fi.com Paul Cook

    The Derelict Of Skull Shoal was the first Doc Savage novel I had read as a pulp. I got it from Fred Cook (no relation) in 1965 and was SO disappointed in the man Doc was depicted as being in this book. He’s whacked on the back of the head early on (it knocks out his colored contact lenses) and he stumbles about the ship in a daze. I did notice later on that Bantam books had been in the habit of publishing the best Docs first and of course the series got worse and worse as Bantam left the worst for last. Then in Omni 13 Derelict appears along with the last Docs. While I love the last three (they were commissioned by different editors at Street and Smith) you could tell that the other Docs in Omni 13 were the worst, definitely the last Bantam wanted to see in print. Oddly enough for this adventure, Monk’s violent personality, common to the early 30s pulps really shines through here. The closing tussle brings out the best in Monk.

  • http://www.magicandmirth.com Paul Sponaugle

    I love your side-by-side covers!

    Thanks for all your hard work on the site.

    I’ve never collected the original pulps, but love them for what they are. I have ALL of the Bantam, DC, Marvel, Gold Key, Millenium, etc reprints.