Doc and The Magic Mushrooms
Doc Savage 25- Land of Always Night by Kenneth Robeson/Lester Dent
Doc and The Magic Mushrooms
A reflection by M. J. Moran
Land of Always Night by Kenneth Robeson/Lester Dent
Street & Smith 25
Cover Walter Baumhofer
Bantam 13
Cover- James Bama
March 1935
“Land of Always Night” is one of the first Doc Savage adventures I read along with “Lost Oasis” and “Brand of the Werewolf”. It definitely was the cover that caught my attention. So when reading it this time, I decided to order a coffee mug from Fantom Press that had that image. Not my sponsors but definitely worth checking out for Doc stuff.
I sometimes give short shrift to Lester Dent since his writing can fall into certain patterns. This adventure reminded me of how much of his imagination goes into the works. The story begins with the mysterious murder of Beery Homer by Ool. Ool is pasty white, fuzzy haired with a deadly touch. When interrogating Beery, his hand floats around like a butterfly or a snake ready to strike. Just so we get the message the first chapter is titled “The Butterfly Death” and a subsequent chapter “Moccasin Death”. A reference to the Water Moccasin not the shoe.
Slight digression and no shade on Dent but I couldn’t help but think of wrestler Santino Morelli. His move was a “devastating” hand strike called the Cobra. It was a silly bit of him putting a sock on his hand then cocking it like a cobra and striking his opponent. Eventually he eschewed the sock but it still was a purposefully silly gimmick.
Ool concerned that Doc and his crew are on to his plans arranges to be captured by Monk and Ham at Doc’s Hangar. Subsequently he escapes but leaves behind a strange pair of goggles with opaque lenses. This is classic Dent having the crooks so worried about Doc being involved in their plans that they unintentionally involve Doc in their plans. For the rest of the adventure Doc will be one step ahead to the bad guys without knowing their plans.
Ool with Watches Bowen attempts to regain the goggles using subterfuge and disguise. Doc keeps thwarting his plans with a bit of subterfuge of his own. At one point Monk is captured but is rescued before Ool and Watches’s gang take off for Alaska.
Doc and his aides follow in Doc’s dirigible, eventually discovering a chasm in the ice. Monk trying the goggles sees a plume of gas rising from the opening. After landing the two groups exchange gunfire and again Doc tricks the criminals thinking that they have been trapped. As Doc’s team progresses through caverns they come across an underground civilization. The goggles are worn by the denizens to see in caverns. We also meet Sona the Golden Princess just so we have someone to moon over Doc and cause Monk and Ham to posture. Doc’s gang now has to contend with multiple beings with hands that act like snakes.
It’s here that Dent’s imagination shines. He presents a stratified society with significant scientific achievements including the multiple use of mushrooms and other fungi. Uses include food, shelter and chemicals.
In the end the crooks are once again too smart for their own good. Dent even presents that their scheme for gaining riches on the surface world made no sense. Something I was scratching my head about as the adventure was coming to a close.
As said in a previous reflection I stopped reading pulp material for over 6 months. “Land of Always Night” reminded me that Doc’s adventures are fun and worth diving back into. The moves and countermoves between Ool and Doc were genius especially since there were times Ool was playing checkers against Doc playing chess. I also was reminded of why this is one of my favorite Doc adventures from 50 years ago.
