Friday, July 22, 2016
The Wrath Of Fu-Manchu
With The Wrath of Fu-Manchu the official saga of Sax Rohmer's despicable "Devil Doctor" comes to a close. Released in 1973, well after the 1959 death of Rohmer, the book is actually a collection of stories as opposed to a novel. This makes the volume more akin to the earliest Fu-Manchu adventures which were serialized and had a distinctive episodic quality to them. In addition to "The Wrath of Fu Manchu" (which gives the tome its title) we have three more stories focused on Sir Denis Nayland's battle against the Devil Doctor: "The Eyes of Fu Manchu" (1957), "The Word of Fu Manchu" (1958) and "The Mind of Fu Manchu" (1959). The volume adds in other Rohmer short stories not featuring Fu-Manchu to make the volume more acceptable to the modern market and more like the novels which preceded.
The stories are dandy and have Fu Manchu trying to get his mitts on atomic power, life-preserving drugs and such as that. The usual material with a young hero who finds an exotic love battling alongside Sir Nayland Smith across the globe.
It's not the greatest, but it's pretty good. Fine entertainment and recommended.
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Aren't the Cay Van Ash-penned tales considered "official"?
ReplyDeleteThey were licensed by the Rohmer estate...
They might well be but as far as I know Titan is not planning to publish them.
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