The ruthless power of The Shimba threatened to overthrow the good and gentle ruler of an African kingdom — and destroy forever the line of succession. Until the mighty Man of Bronze smashed the jungle menace and solved its terrible secret!
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A great adventure. African tribes, warfare, ancient treasure, witch doctors, people disappearing, the dead- or nearly so- “speaking,” and Doc right in the middle of trouble. One of my favorites, and some of the bit players are well-drawn, much more alive that the supporting cast in some of the books. Lots of fun.
Many Doc Savage pundits, such as Farmer and Murray, consider this the worst Doc novel ever written. I don’t know why they pick on this one. It’s not a classic, but for a Donovan novel, it’s not too bad. It’s fairly well-plotted and suspenseful, and written with rich atmosphere. The closing scenes actually had me on the edge of my chair. One of the better of the ghostwritten Docs, in my opinion.
I’ve read this book three times and have always enjoyed it. I particularly liked the fact that when Doc and his men fly to Africa they do so in a flying wing. The novel is otherwise straight-forward with chases, captures, escapes, and fights. While Dent successfully avoids elements of racism, it is peculiar that Doc never does (to my knowledge, anyway) have another adventure in sub-Saharan Africa again. He’s all over the map north of the Equator in Africa, but in the heart of darkness, Doc is a now-show. Maybe Dent thought that Burroughs had claimed enough of the literary terrain of Africa for himself that he instead would spread Doc’s adventures all over the globe. But, then, of course, we have the Burroughs rip-offs in Murder Melody and The Other World. Still, this is a good adventure and I’m sure I’ll read it once more before I die.