Savage U Books

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Lauren Redder

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Aug 5, 2024, 7:20:37 AM8/5/24

to persrarihi

Notonly will the cover pull you into this story, but the very first chapter will do just the same! I am so thankful to have read this Alice in Wonderland inspired novel, and I have so many great things to say about it.

Overall, I am just blown away by this story and the level of creativity and pull that is has. You will not want to stop turning the pages. 5th graders and up who want an escape from reality into a world of crazy fantasy will thoroughly enjoy this book!

He has been writing books for over twenty years. His books have received various recognitions including Junior Library Selection, Starred reviews from PW and Kirkus, Amazon Book of the Month,

Barnes and Noble Select book, and several state award nominations.

He has visited over 2500 schools, dozens of writers conferences, and taught many writing classes. He has four children and seven grandchildren. He lives with his wife Jennifer in a windy valley of the Rocky Mountains.

When I first started visiting HorrorNet back in late '98, a lot of people started talking up Richard Laymon's writing. Unfortunately, at that time he was still published mainly in the United Kingdom (since then, Leisure and Cemetery Dance have brought over more and more of his work). Then the World Horror Convention came around in March of '99, and people continued to talk up Laymon, telling me I HAD to pick up something of his.

He browses some hardcovers and I add "One that's easy on the budget." Fortunately at WHC 2000 in Denver, I had no such budget restraints and walked away with some nice hardcovers. I even managed to get them signed! Pretty sweet.

So Lassen and I get to talking, and we settle on SAVAGE. I fork out the extra bucks for the English edition, thinking "nearly $20.00 for a paperback? He damn well better be good!" I head back toward my hotel room to drop it off in the safety of my luggage, not wanting to pour beer on my new rather expensive collection.

And lo and behold I step into the elevator with none other than Richard Laymon and his wife and daughter. But did I know this? Nope. I'm standing there with SAVAGE under my arm, and I'm standing with this average looking family, and making bullshit small talk like,

"You folks enjoying the con? Great! See ya."

And I get off on my floor and am none the wiser until several hours later when Brian Keene points him out and says

"Oh, by the way, that's Richard Laymon."

D'oh!

The plot surrounds fifteen-year-old Trevor Bentley, who has the misfortune of catching Jack the Ripper in the midst of one of his notorious murders. After a scuffle and a chase that ends in the cold River Thames, he boards a boat and is knocked unconscious by one of the passengers. When he finally awakens, he finds he is a prisoner of Jack the Ripper, along with the other passengers, an American family. By torturing the young woman he is holding in the cabin with Trevor, he coerces them to take him to America, where he hopes to find kindred spirits amongst the savage Indians.

After several unsuccessful attempts by Trevor to convince the others to fight back (as well as a few interesting exchanges in which the Ripper attempts to sway Trevor into his own cruel line of thought), they finally land in America. Trevor hurls himself overboard and eludes the Ripper, becoming the boat's sole survivor.

He soon embarks on a journey that ultimately takes him across the still-nearly-infant United States and into the Wild West . It reads a lot like Huckleberry Finn's trip down the Mississippi, yet Trevor's adventures make Huck's look like a walk in the park. Trevor learns of love, learns to shoot, faces survival in the Western deserts, and much, much more before the final confrontation with the Ripper.

The book carries a heavy Western feel through much of the book, with a strong spirit of adventure. Yet the Ripper's cruelty and nasty deeds are visceral enough for the most avid of horror readers. He's very much the villain you love to hate.

SAVAGE has a little of everything: an evil villain, a young, coming-of-age hero, romance, suspense, and adventure. It's a book I'm sure to come back to time and again when the reading pile wears thin, and in my humble opinion it's a modern classic. I give SAVAGE five BookWyrms, and a tip o' the hat to Lassen for putting it in my hand (and to the HorrorNet Cabal for turning me onto Laymon, period).

FAIR USE - PRIVACY POLICY - OWNERSHIP - CONTACT

All fiction stories belong to their individual authors.

All images and text belong to E.C.McMullen Jr. unless otherwise noted.

Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior who "rights wrongs and punishes evildoers." He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic at Street & Smith Publications, with additional material contributed by the series' main writer, Lester Dent. Doc Savage stories were published under the Kenneth Robeson name. The illustrations were by Walter Baumhofer, Paul Orban, Emery Clarke, Modest Stein, and Robert G. Harris.

The heroic-adventure character would go on to appear in other media, including radio, film, and comic books, with his adventures reprinted for modern-day audiences in a series of paperback books, which had sold over 20 million copies by 1979.[1] Into the 21st century, Doc Savage has remained a nostalgic icon in the U.S., referenced in novels and popular culture. Longtime Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee credited Doc Savage as being the forerunner to modern superheroes.[2]

Doc Savage Magazine was printed by Street & Smith from March 1933 to the summer of 1949 to capitalize on the success of The Shadow magazine and followed by the original Avenger in September 1939. In all, 181 issues were published in various entries and alternative titles.[3]

Doc Savage became known to more contemporary readers when Bantam Books began reprinting the individual magazine novels in 1964, this time with covers by artist James Bama that featured a bronze-haired, bronze-skinned Doc Savage with an exaggerated widows' peak, usually wearing a torn khaki shirt and under the by-line "Kenneth Robeson". The stories were not reprinted in chronological order as originally published, though they did begin with the first adventure, The Man of Bronze. By 1967, Bantam was publishing once a month until 1990, when all 181 original stories (plus an unpublished novel, The Red Spider) had run their course. Author Will Murray produced seven more Doc Savage novels for Bantam Books from Lester Dent's original outlines. Bantam also published a novel by Philip Jos Farmer, Escape From Loki (1991), which told the story of how in World War I Doc met the men who would become his five comrades.[4]

Clark Savage Jr. first appeared in March 1933 in the first issue of Doc Savage Magazine. Because of the success of the Shadow, who had his own pulp magazine, the publishers Street & Smith quickly launched this pulp title. Unlike the Shadow, Clark Savage, "Doc" to his friends, had no special powers but was raised from birth by his father and other scientists to become one of the most perfect human beings in terms of strength, intelligence, and physical abilities.[5]

Doc Savage set up base on the 86th floor of a world-famous New York skyscraper (implied, but never outright stated, as the Empire State Building; Phillip Jose Farmer, in his Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, gives good evidence that this is likely the case). Doc Savage fights against evil with the assistance of the "Fabulous Five".[citation needed]

Doc Savage Magazine was created by Street & Smith Publications executive Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic to capitalize on the success of Street and Smith's pulp character, The Shadow. Ralston and Nanovic wrote a short premise establishing the broad outlines of the character they envisioned, but Doc Savage was only fully realized by the author chosen to write the series, Lester Dent. Dent wrote most of the 181 original novels, hidden behind the "house name" of Kenneth Robeson.[citation needed] (See List of Doc Savage novels for a complete list of the titles in the original pulp magazine series.)

One Lester Dent biographer hypothesizes that one inspiration for Doc Savage may have been the American military officer and author Richard Henry Savage, who wrote more than 40 books of adventure and mystery stories and lived a dashing and daring life.[6]

It was announced on May 30, 2016, that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will be playing Clark "Doc" Savage, being billed as the "World's First Superhero", and the film will be directed by Shane Black with a script written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry.[7] In 2020, the concept was changed from a film to a television show.[8]

A team of scientists assembled by his father deliberately trained his mind and body to near-superhuman abilities almost from birth, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, a mastery of the martial arts, and vast knowledge of the sciences. Doc is also a master of disguise and an excellent imitator of voices. He is a physician, scientist, adventurer, detective, inventor, explorer, researcher, and, as revealed in The Polar Treasure, a musician. Dent described the hero as a mix of Sherlock Holmes' deductive abilities, Tarzan's outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy's scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln's goodness. He also described Doc Savage as manifesting "Christliness." Doc's character and world-view is displayed in his oath, which goes as follows:[9]

Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.