If Rock Sinister sounds more like a bad 80s heavy metal hair band, you might have a sense of the strange failure of this book. This books has some weird attention span lapses, like mixing Inca and Maya, which kind of spoil the fun.
But anyway, on to the cool highlights.
A return to Blanco Grande! Hmm, is this the only recurrent country in the Doc sagas outside of Hidalgo? I wonder. But nonetheless, what we have here is a failure to comminuicate on an international scale. Intrigue, war, say it isn't so!
Doc is called a combo of Samson and Gallahad. Sounds about right, except that I think those guys should be called "ancient versions of Doc Savage" from now on. Doc is also called much later on in the book the most important non-political person on the world stage. Agreed.
There are some interesting descriptions in this book. The headquarters is described more from a historical point of view. But Doc is said to be experimenting with interior design of his plane and it is so luxurious that the female lead is very impressed and it embarrassed Doc. Doc is also decribed by an attracted female as handsome, firm and strong like the cornerstone of a bank. Yes, but he is literally a bank in more ways than one, my dear.
Ham is called a "hornet" of a man, in shape and temperment. There is also an alternate Ham history in this book.
Monk's penthouse in this story is extreme and lavishly decorated, especially Habeus Corpus' accomodations. There is nice scene where Monk meets a hulking bodyguard named Square, and they both try to out squeeze each other in the handshake. Shows they both are hurting, though they refuse to acknowledge it. Lastly, there is a sad detail of Monk's appearance that is the direct result of all these years of thrillseeking: he has false teeth. When they are out he lisps, and ham finds out. Poor Monk. Maybe he should knock out a few of Ham's teeth to even the score.
- | - January 20, 2006 04:02 PM
