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skjam's review
3.0
Two lovable Avenger novels and a Whisperer story for dessert.
"River of Ice" features the discovery of pre-Columbian artifacts in the Pacific Northwest, from a lost civilization far in advance of what had previously been believed to exist prior to the last Ice Age. "Flame Breathers" has four Polish scientists perish of apparent indigestion--so bad that they exhale flame as they die.
Both stories have Richard Benson and his crew in fine fettle, though the ice story is more epic. It does have some mild racism, of the "Native Americans are superstitious" sort.
The Whisperer story, "Hidden Treasure" is a short piece about a half-million dollars and a deadly secret formula that are locked in a sunken safe, which the criminals are attempting to locate. The Whisperer (aka Police Commissioner Gordon) doesn't want them to. And there's a twist in the tale.
As Will Murray points out in the editorial piece, "The Flame Breathers" is the last of the "old-school" Avenger stories; after this executive meddling mandated some changes to the formula.
For more pulp reviews, see http://www.skjam.com/tag/pulp/
"River of Ice" features the discovery of pre-Columbian artifacts in the Pacific Northwest, from a lost civilization far in advance of what had previously been believed to exist prior to the last Ice Age. "Flame Breathers" has four Polish scientists perish of apparent indigestion--so bad that they exhale flame as they die.
Both stories have Richard Benson and his crew in fine fettle, though the ice story is more epic. It does have some mild racism, of the "Native Americans are superstitious" sort.
The Whisperer story, "Hidden Treasure" is a short piece about a half-million dollars and a deadly secret formula that are locked in a sunken safe, which the criminals are attempting to locate. The Whisperer (aka Police Commissioner Gordon) doesn't want them to. And there's a twist in the tale.
As Will Murray points out in the editorial piece, "The Flame Breathers" is the last of the "old-school" Avenger stories; after this executive meddling mandated some changes to the formula.
For more pulp reviews, see http://www.skjam.com/tag/pulp/
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