Three times the dagger had appeared — destroyed — then disappeared! Three times the knife of KUKULKAN hung in the sky, two hundred feet tall, while death struck. The Man of Bronze stalks the dark secret of the blade — a quest that takes him deep into the jungle to the very edge of doom!
This is one is noteworthy not so much for the story but for the sense of fun reading this one conveys. You can just tell that Dent is enjoying this one. It has some good action as well as a bit of sophistication with a more character development: Doc falls for the female lead, the whole story starts as Doc is on his way to a much needed vacation because he is starting to feel the burden of all the media hype presenting him to the general populace as a “superman.” A good, solid Doc. Well worth reading.
Dear Sir: I would like to know if I can purchase a print of “The Dagger in the Sky”. I greatly appreciate your help in this matter. Thank you very much.
P.S. I mean a copy of the cover artwork.
On the pulp cover, is Doc wearing a diaper?
Another dog from the dark year of 1939, “Dagger” features one of the dumbest plots in Doc history, perpetrated by a group of villains that inspire all the dread of an accounting firm. As far as figuring out the dagger gimmick, trust me, you’ll get it on your first try. The only thing that saves the book from being a total disaster is that it features a scene where Doc actually entertains amorous thoughts about a woman. Dent probably realized what a bowser he’d written and decided to throw in a little spice at the last minute.
I don’t know about “one of the dumbest plots in Doc history” — it sounded a lot like the
Halliburton Conspiracy Theory regarding the war in Iraq, and so on. The military industrial complex conspiring to control the fate of nations? Sounds pretty chilling to me…
I actually started reading this and my first reaction was that it was not Dent but one of his sub-contractors. Then Sanda MacNamara appeared and I knew I was reading the real thing.
This is a novel in the transition period between the supersagas and the lower-key wartime exploits: there is still a conspiracy run by a criminal (or at least semi-criminal) organisation and a long voyage but there is no over-the-top technology and Doc behaves in a far more human manner.
Perhaps the most interesting point about this Doc novel, however, is that it prefigures the central scheme in Atlas Shrugged.