Another Winner! Volume Two of Nosotalgia Ventures' pulp reprints presents another pair of Classics. The Chinese Disks continues the trend from the "Crime, Insured" storyline in the first volume by intorducing more of the Shadow's agents, some appearing for the first time. Although not as fast paced as the latter, "Disks" has some good action sequences as well as more insight on how the Shadow and his agents go about trailing and eventually foiling the schemes of the Bad guys, usually by piecing together information gathered as well as the some good old fashioned spying. Diamond Bert, the villian, is not as imposing or siniester as some of the other foes the Shadow has faced, but he does have history. He appeard in the first Shadow novel, "the Living Shadow", as well as "the Shadow's Shadow", in which he no doubt ends up in Jail, where he remains until this story takes place (Dont worry, you don't have to read either novel to catch on to the story, but if you must, both novels were reprinted in the 1970's by Pyramid books and can be found on ebay, ussualy for around $10-$20). Again, this book contains a standout tale by Walter Gibosn, who penned about 282 of the 325 Shadow novels, not all of which were masterpieces I must admit, but considering the sheer number of novels as well as the short time he took to produce each of them, there is no doubt that Mr. Gibson's Shadow canon is an impressive one, and an achievement deserving more notice and readership next to other serial heroes such as Batman, James Bond and the rest who survived the eras in which they were created and flourished beyond that.
The Chinese Disks and Malmordo Clear your calendar when you start reading this one. Again viable plots and with "rats" like these only The Shadow and his organization can defeat their plans. Keeping who is who in the Chinese Disks is part of the fun.
This IS The Shadow Nostalgia Ventures is an ingenious publishing company to begin to reprint the original printed adventures of The Shadow. He was THE predecessor of Batman, and a good deal more freer about his crime-busting. Unlike the lesser radio show incarnation, Walter B. Gibson's Shadow is VIRTUALLY invisible, a take-no -prisoners guy who wields two automatic pistols. The best of the two (unabridged, thank God) Shadow novels is the first, The Chinese Disks (1934). The Shadow first assembles his vast network of agents to combat his old nemesis, Diamond Bert Farwell. The second, Malmordo (1946), is a perfectly atmospheric mystery (the ending of which I guessed before I read it), but it seems to lack the Shadow feeling of the vintage era (1931-1939). I HIGHLY recommend this volume (the second in a series) to anyone who loves detective and/or (very action-oriented) mysteries. This IS The Shadow, and Nostalgia Ventures has done a justice to faithful fans.
Great second volume! This is the second in the series of reprints from Nostalgia Ventures. There are two stories in this volume, as well as some historical information that is fun to read about the author.
The first story, "The Chinese Disks" pits the Shadow against a master diguise artist who keeps slipping away from the Shadow's agents who are trying to tail him. A very fast-paced story, this tale shows where several of his standing agent came from, with this being their first appearance. The mystery of how the thefts are occuring helps keep the drama going. A very fun read!
The second story is my favorite. "Malmordo" has an international master criminal attempting to set up operations in New York. he and his followers are called "human rats" by the police due to their choice of hidouts, clothing and behavior. There are several great story twists, and the last twist at the end was a complete surprise, and involves a natural enemy of rats. (I'll let you try to figure that one out!) This was as much fun to read as it was trying to solve the mystery based on the clues in the story.
If you're a fan of action films, this will be your style of novel!
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