Meteor Menace (Doc Savage #3)
This is the 13th story in Street and Smith’s original publishing order.
As I’ve stated many times, re-reading the books in the originally published order links them together. This story starts in Chile, where the locals are dedicating a hospital based on the work Doc did in the last story, The Man Who Shook the Earth.Tibetans mingle with the crowd (in typical Lester Dent fashion, the author throws in background on the theory of Indians crossing the Bering Strait, leading to the Tibetans to look enough like the Chileans to fit in). They attack a girl, then Monk and Ham; these events are followed by a shrill whistle, and a blue light flashing across the sky, putting Monk and Ham act brainless state. Doc’s medical skills can bring them out of it. The girl is the daughter of a Professor who was last seen in Tibet hunting for a meteor. Doc and the remaining three of the five in his group try to find passage on a boat to get Monk and Ham back to NYC for further diagnosis. But they are tricked by Shrops, a man who has some limited control over the Blue Meteor.
Eventually, even Doc is put under by Blue Meteor!
He and the five awaken in Tibet (from Chile to Tibet by boat!), with all of their belongings, and the girl claiming that she and Doc are engaged. Doc realizes that there is a cure for what the Blue Meteor causes (Monk and Ham are also revived), and sets off to find the Blue Meteor and the cure. He discovers that the Blue Meteor is controlled by a man named Mo-Gwei, who may have the girl’s father prisoner, and that Shrops and his gang are trying to take control of the Blue Meteor, and brought Doc to help them.
It is a different turn of events to see Doc succumb to anything, so that part of the story was unique. But the identity of Mo-Gwei was obvious; the method of delivery of the Blue Meteor was quite inventive!
My sortable table of Doc Savage books is here.
- Written by: Lester Dent
- Villain: Mo-Gwei, the controller of the Blue Meteor;
- Doc Gadget: builds machine that takes over the Blue Meteor;
- Doc Feat: avoiding marriage (!); tightrope walking on public address system lines;
- Exotic locale: Antofagasta, Chile; Tibet.
- By the numbers: originally published March 1934; Bantam #3 published October 1964; Philip Jose Farmer dated July 1933