I’ve been reading the Vic Challenger series by Jerry Gill, wondering when we’d see the next one, and just before the end of 2019 we got Vic Challenger No. 9: A Savage Place.
Set in the 1920s, this New Pulp series stars young Victoria Custer who discovers she is the reincarnation of a cave girl, Nat-ul, who lived 100,000 years ago. The character actually comes from Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ The Eternal Lover (later renamed The Eternal Savage).
Using the name “Vic Challenger,” she works as a travel writer (and adventurer) while looking for her soul mate from 100,000 years ago, whom she thinks is also reincarnated. But in her travels, she gets into various dangers, and the experience in her past life as a cave girl warrior helps her out. This helps because in this series, Vic and her friends always come up against bad guys and dangerous cryptids.
Sadly, as her good friend Lin Li was injured in an adventure a couple of books back, she is not able to accompany Vic on this trip to Madagascar. Vic reads an article in a paper about a mysterious valley in Madagascar with a giant man-eating plant (this is based on a real article that appeared in papers of the time). Maybe this valley is real, maybe not, but for Vic it would be an adventure going there and discovering the source for the article, and write about it all.
So she heads out, and before she even gets to Madagascar, there is trouble. Sailing from South Africa on a dhow, they are attacked by a larger vessel and everyone (but Vic, of course) is killed. The dhow is damaged and sinks. Vic needs to get to shore before she is eaten by a shark or crocodile. And even then, she must survive on her own while making it to civilization. But her skills and knowledge help her there.
Making it to her destination city, she is again waylayed by some toughs. So maybe someone is trying to stop her? Her contact shows up, but Vic is suspicious of him. She is able to find someone who can lead her to the mysterious valley, but they are pursued by others after riches. Two groups, in face, with adds to the threats. And, yes, she will find dangerous cryptids, including that giant man-eating plant. There are giant lemurs, a giant crocodile, and more. Can she survive this adventure and get home safely?
Also in the valley is a lost tribe that has been living there in isolation. And Vic discovers that their leader has a direct connection to her! Things are setup that may bring her back to this part of the world as well.
As always it’s a good adventure novel in this series. I look forward to the next volume and wonder where Vic will go next. On the back cover we get a world map with stars highlighting where she’s had adventures. Since she is also searching for her lost love, I wonder if she will make progress on this quest, as in the last few works there hasn’t been must progress.
It also appears the author has again revamped all the covers of the series. This is the fourth time. Now each cover is a different color, with almost photo-like artwork surrounded by ropework. While better than the previous style, I still think the covers are a little too dark. I still think the second set of artwork was better. I hope we’ll see the 10th volume sometime later this year.
