The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril
Early on in Paul Malmont’s deliriously enjoyable novel THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL, a writer lists all the ingredients for a successful pulp story: “Secret identities and disguises. The Yellow Peril. Superweapons. Global schemes. Hideous deaths. Cliff-hanging escapes. Horrors from the grave. Lost lands. Overwhelming odds. Impossible heroics. Unflagging courage. Oh, and I almost forgot! Gun-totin’, lingo-slingin’ cowboys.”
CHINATOWN itself delivers all of these things in spades – with the added bonus of kung fu – and yet it is not pulp fiction as much as it is fiction about the men who made it. Namely, Lester Dent (creator of Doc Savage) and Walter Gibson (writer of The Shadow), bitter rivals until the murder of a fellow nickel-a-worder, “shudder” writer H.P. Lovecraft, eventually forces them to work together to save their own hides. And quite possibly the world.
In the 1930s, Gibson – then the bestselling writer in America – pays his respect to Lovecraft’s aunt, with eager writer (and future crackpot cult leader) L. Ron Hubbard in tow. Hearing that the young man was killed by human hands and not by stomach cancer as they believed, Gibson pokes his nose into the medical lab where Lovecraft worked. What he finds defies explanation in our rational world, but would be right at home in Lovecraft’s. This discovery leads him and Dent (separately, at first) to a secret passageway under an abandoned theater in Chinatown and to an uncharted isle full of zombies. Yes, zombies – that’s part of the joy of this novel, as it rarely ventures down the roads you’d expect. After all, this is a book that is presented in issues and episodes rather than parts and chapters.
Though exciting and swashbuckling, this is not a banged-out, first-draft, cheap-thrills throwaway. It’s a literary tale about two very successful writers who nonetheless operate in a void since their publishers force them to work under pen names. There’s a bit of an ongoing struggle of self-identity when you have to hide behind pseudonyms, when the public sees you one way and you feel another entirely. Malmont’s moving, lyrical depiction of that struggle just so happens to involve secret codes, curvy psychics, donut chemists, hidden treasure and barrels of toxic nerve gas.
Malmont’s obvious love for the pulps is equaled by his imagination in storytelling. Just reading about these two writers at work (and at odds) is pleasurable enough, but to see them have to assume the heroics previously displayed only through their typewriters gives PERIL an added punch, allowing it to dip its toes into genre-infested waters without actually diving in. And even his analogies are era-appropriate: “He sank to his hands and knees, bolts of pain radiating through his body like the energy waves broadcasting from the RKO Studios’ theatrical emblem.”
Throughout the book, Gibson and Dent refer to it all being about the ending. Malmont’s may be a tad melodramatic, but at least it services the story. I hated to see it come, though, because I wanted to hang out with Dent and Gibson for several more adventures. This is not only a near-flawless debut, but a clear candidate for year-end honors. –Rod Lott
[...] This has been an extremely personal week for me here at BOOKGASM, and the next review, Rod Lott’s take on Paul Malmont’s THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL, is no exception. This book is a fictional tale starring Lester Dent and Walter Gibson, creators of Doc Savage and The Shadow, respectively. My dad has a copy of every single Doc Savage paperback. All of them. So of course, I’ve read every Doc Savage book as well, and I think this is possibly one of the coolest ideas of the year. The title is even pretty good, somewhere among the best (DEATH IN SILVER) and far from the worst (WORLD’S FAIR GOBLIN, anyone?) Plus the cover is freakin’ sweet. [...]
[...] THE SHADOW KNOWS … YOU CAN’T WAIT UNTIL FALL The celebrated pulp novels of The Shadow and Doc Savage are headed back into print into officially licensed two-in-one collections, thanks to Nostalgia Ventures and pulp historian Anthony Tollin. Due in October, the first book reprints Walter Gibson’s CRIME, INSURED and Lester Dent’s THE GOLDEN VULTURE, complete with original interior illustrations! (Readers of Paul Malmont’s excellent new novel THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL will recall that latter story being a major point of contention between his lead characters.) Having never had the opportunity to read either pulp legend, I’m hungry to see what all the fuss was about. Anything that will erase the memory of the wretched Alec Baldwin movie is A-OK with me; thanks to Son of Michael May for the alert! [...]
[...] AND DID WE MENTION THE DEATH CLOUD? All of our respective stars fell into place earlier this year with the publication of THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL by Paul Malmont. This tale, which could loosely be described as historical fiction, details an adventure shared by Lester Dent and Walter Gibson, the creators of Doc Savage and The Shadow, respectively. While the plot is best discovered on your own, let me just say that there’s something for everyone, and genre fiction fans will be delighted by who shows up in the course of events. It’s definitely our book of the year so far, and we’ve kept it in the news with a dizzying array of content, from Lott’s review to Grossman’s column about the pulps that inspired it, to an interview with Malmont himself. We do so not because someone’s paying us to (although the extra income would be nice), but because we’re in love with this book, If one book can sum up our mission statement, this is it. [...]
[...] It’s been a whirlwind of a week here at BOOKGASM; the Labor Day holiday in the U.S. shortened my time in the office for once, and hopefully this respite gave you, Dear Reader, what it gave me: time to reflect, eat some meat and reread THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL by Paul Malmont. It’s awesome, but there are newer gems in our gem box, and the most surprising one has 21 letters and starts with an S. Enjoy! [...]
[...] FRIDAY >> 10.13.06 Wrapping up the week is a very special installment of LOUIS’ SERIOUS ISSUES in which Louis confronts a problem very near and dear to me: high comic prices. I understand that a lot of the really good writers and artists demand high salaries, but can’t we outsource like 95 percent of the rest of the work to India or Kansas or somewhere? It doesn’t take a genius to think up “Okay, Superman dies, but then … wait for it … he comes back!” In other areas, Louis likes SHE-HULK, yet is ambivalent about ZOMBIE and STAN LEE MEETS THE AMAZING SPIDER MAN. Stan Lee. That dude was awesome in THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL, and I hear he will play his teenage self in the movie adaptation, thanks to plastic surgery and industrial-strength CGI. [...]
[...] Considering the Bacchanalian depths (heights?) of the BOOKGASM Halloween Party, it’s amazing that we posted any content at all this week, but I, at least, am still standing. For those of you who missed it, here are the highlights: • Despite our pledge to all dress up like characters from THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL, only Rod went through with it, shaving his head into a killer widow’s peak and pulling a GOLDFINGER to arrive as an awesome Doc Savage (as envisioned by James Bama). His pecs, unfortunately, let him down early and often. • Ken Davis learned that the “Sexy Cop” look isn’t just for the ladies. • Bruce Grossman and Louis Fowler succumbed to their costumes, and a deadly game of cat and mouse between Grossman’s Remo Williams and Fowler’s Fu Manchu played out on the dance floor. The subsequent hospital stays were mercifully short, however. • Chris Sharpe and Mark Rose both came dressed as their favorite character from NBC’s HEROES. As a side note, costume store clerks should be reminded that not everyone should be allowed to buy cheerleader outfits. • My Cthulhu getup, representing a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline – but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers; a scaly, rubbery-looking body; prodigious claws on hind and fore feet; and long, narrow wings behind – drove both Allan Mott and Doug Bentin into depths of insanity so great that only Jell-O shots could revive them. [...]
[...] Our most popular contest yet comes to a close, with two folks walking away with signed copies of Paul Malmont’s critically acclaimed (and not just by us) debut novel, THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL. [...]
[...] • THE HUSBAND by Dean Koontz • DARK HARVEST by Norman Partridge • ASK THE PARROT by Richard Stark • ECHO PARK by Michael Connelly • THE CRIMES OF JORDAN WISE by Bill Pronzini • THE DEAD LETTERS by Tom Piccirilli • THE EMPIRE OF ICE CREAM by Jeffrey Ford • ROAD TO PARADISE by Max Allan Collins • EVERYBODY KILLS SOMEBODY SOMETIME by Robert Randisi • THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL by Paul Malmont –Ed Gorman [...]
[...] Best in Fiction For those of you among the BOOKGASM faithful, this should come as no surprise: Paul Malmont’s THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL made our summer, and nothing else came close before or since. Paying tribute to pulp fiction in a literary style, Malmont excites while eliciting emotion – no easy task – and emerges with the year’s best made-up read, ironically about real-life writers most would think unworthy of such a showcase. Their loss, your gain. We simply cannot wait for Malmont’s next. [...]
Finally getting around to reading this (on your advice), and am enjoying it immensely.