The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu (Dr Fu-Manchu #2) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu
Series: Dr Fu-Manchu #2
Author: Sax Rohmer
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Pulp Mystery
Pages: 240
Words: 75K
Publish: 1916

This was a very weak 3star book. I almost gave it 2.5, but considering that I plan to read at least the next Dr Fu-Manchu book, I realized there was enough interesting things so it did deserve that 3stars.

Sadly, Dr Fu-Manchu doesn’t play nearly as big a part in this book as he did in the previous. This was more about Petrie and Smith (the two Brits opposing the bad Dr) and sadly, they were world class buffoons. That was mainly down to Rohmer writing them like idiots to drive the story forward or to force the plot through.

In the previous book, Fu-Manchu had given a drug to a police official and it made him forget everything between a certain time period. So when the beautiful girl that Petrie loves turns up working for Fu-Manchu again and claims not to remember either Petrie or Smith, what do you think happens? Do they think calmly and rationally and remember what Fu-Manchu had done in the past? Heck NO! They immediately push the girl away as a traitor to all mankind and disbelieve every word she says, even when she’s trying to save them. Fu-Manchu comes in for his own idiocy at times too, sadly. He has been given a great honor, a white peacock and Petrie finds it and hides it in a cab, one street away from Fu-Manchu’s lair. And Fu-Manchu can’t find the bleeping thing and is about to be totally dishonored or killed within his secret society, when Petrie trades the peacock for Smith’s life.

This story was just filled to overflowing with everybody being stupid and making irrational and bad decisions just to move the plot forward.

My respect for Rohmer (the author) plummeted. Being a bad writer is a terrible sin.

The original title is The Insidious Dr Fu-Manchu but was changed for an American audience to the one I listed. That was too bad, because I like the first title more. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an AI generated cover for either title like I did for the first book, so I had to choose this one.

★★★☆☆

From Bookstooge

Fu-Manchu returns to England to continue his nefarious schemes to overthrow the entire western world. Karamenah is back to working for the bad dr and has no memory of either Dr Petrie or Nayland Smith.

Petrie and Smith attempt to foil various plots of Dr Fu-Manchu without understanding any of his bigger plans. Dr Fu-Manchu pursues his attempts to make Dr Petrie his protege and his attempts to kill Nayland Smith. Finally, Karamenah remembers her love for Dr Petrie and shoots Dr Fu-Manchu in the head, apparently killing him.

The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu (Dr Fu-Manchu #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu
Series: Dr Fu-Manchu #1
Author: Sax Rohmer
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Pulp Mystery
Pages: 267
Words: 72K
Publish: 1913

Oh, this is going to be a tough review. So many different thoughts, many conflicting, ran though my head as I read this book.

The first thought. I enjoyed the heck out of this story. It was a fantastic 1913 mystery pulp with a series of stories connected together as we are introduced to our protagonists, the heroes opposing the deadly Dr Fu-Manchu. Fu-Manchu might have the title, but he’s the villain and doesn’t show up that often. In many ways, he seems modeled on a Moriarty sketchboard. The smartest, evilist genius the world has ever known. He’s ALWAYS in control. It was awesome (yeah, yeah, that word doesn’t mean what I think it means…) I had so much fun reading the short stories. The stories weren’t disconnected though and always were just a step along the path for the heroes to finally confront the Dr. Only for us the readers to realize that the Dr had been in complete control the entire time. He really is the epitome of an Evil Genius. I almost clapped my hands in glee to be honest. And there is no Sherlock Holmes to oppose him, just two Englishman with all the faults and blindspots of their time and one Arab woman in thrall to Dr Fu-Manchu but in love with one of the heroes. It made the situations all the more desperate and that desperation came through. The threat presented by Dr Fu-Manchu was real.

That leads me to my second thought. This book would send the WOKE kids of today into catatonic shock. Or they’d go burn some more tesla cars or loot a drugstore or say it’s ok to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, you know, the typical things over-privileged, under-disciplined stupid kids are doing nowadays. I could totally see New Guy from work reading the first story in ten minutes, then ranting for thirty minutes about how “evil” the book is. I am not WOKE at all, period.

But that leads to my third thought. Even “I” had a tough time with the continued references to the Yellow Peril or the Danger to the White Race. I don’t know anything about Rohmer as a person (except that Sax Rohmer was a pen name) and thus I don’t know if he had a thing against Asians or if he was just writing to the zeitgeist of the times. I CAN understand using skin color as a descriptor though. So that’s where the conflicted thoughts come in. I am trying to keep in mind when this was written as well. The thing that made it tough was that it was mentioned in almost those exact terms at least twice in every story. It’s the kind of thing I don’t want to get used to, just like I don’t want to get used to profanity in the books I read, or violence, or blasphemy.

Finally, the cover. I showcased this cover on an earlier “My Week” post but didn’t say why I liked it or anything specific. What I enjoy about this one is that it reminds me, very strongly, of the Arcane Casebook covers. Those are great stories with some seriously cool covers and I get that same vibe from this version of The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

Dr. Petrie is surprised by a late night visitor, "a tall, lean ... square cut ... sun baked" man who turns out to be his good friend (ex-Assistant Commissioner Sir Denis) Nayland Smith of Burma, formerly of Scotland Yard, who has come directly from Burma. We then learn that various men associated with India are the target of assassination by the Chinese master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu, who seems to have been active in Burma (as distinct from India), in places such as Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein and the "Upper Irrawaddy" and who comes to England with dacoits and thugs.

Fu Manchu is pursued from the opium dens of Limehouse in the East End of London to various country estates. We learn that Dr. Fu Manchu is a leading member not of "old China", the Mandarin class of the Manchu dynasty, or "young China", a new generation of "youthful and unbalanced reformers" with "western polish" – but a "Third Party". Nayland Smith is outwitted several times by Fu Manchu and thus he reflects more the narrow escapes of the later Bulldog Drummond rather than the "logical" superior approach of the earlier Sherlock Holmes.

Fu Manchu is a master poisoner and chemist, a cunning member of the Yellow Peril, "the greatest genius which the powers of evil have put on the earth for centuries", though his mission is not exactly clear at this stage. He appears to be trying to capture and take back to China the best engineers of Europe for some larger criminal purpose.

By the end of the book, Fu Manchu's slave girl Karamaneh, a beautiful Arab woman, apparently now in love with Dr Petrie, and her brother Aziz are freed from Fu Manchu's captivity, and Inspector Weymouth, driven mad by an injection of serum from Fu Manchu, is restored to sanity by Fu Manchu, who appears to have escaped from a fire which destroys the house that he had previously entered.