I been reading the Doc Vandal series by Dave Robinson, and recently got the fifth volume, The Sunkiller Affair. Doc Vandal was influenced by Doc Savage, but has other influences as he was raised on the Moon (shades of Captain Future) by alien AIs and gifted with an improved body, along with knowledge of a long-ended alien civilization (shades of Perry Rhodan). He exists in a different world where aliens exist along with other strange things.
He has a small group of associates that over the first three novels slowly increases. Originally he is aided by Vic, Gus, and Gilly. Vic is an expat Russian countess, pilot, and thrillseeker who is like a sister to Doc. Gus is a talking gorilla from a lost city in Africa and a genius. Gully is the group’s driver, as well as a diver and photographer, and is black. Over the next few books they are joined by Gus’ gorilla wife, Kehla; Vic’s girlfriend, Li Ming (who is also a doctor); and Shard, an alien from another dimension (who is more an associate than a member of the team, but gets involved in the action this time). Other associates who are around, but don’t get involved in the main action, are Vic and Ming’s mothers, who share an apartment in New York, along with Vic’s cousin Viktor.
In this story, the group must contend with two enemies that I thought might be connected, but not so. First off, they must contend with the German American Bund. This group has been infiltrating the NY police, and arrest Vic on trumped-up charges. Their aim is to retreive the German war zepplin that Doc and team took after an earlier adventure and is storing at his upstate New York farm. They don’t succeed, which is good, as the team will need that zepplin for the main enemy.
At the same time, Doc and team are attacked by strange men in flying suits, connected with a strange airship that seems to move on beams of golden light. I was reminded of the airships from the Buck Rogers comic strip that used repeller rays to stay aloft. Doc and friends had saved a young girl from being kidnapped, and it seems she was seeking Doc to ask for help in finding her missing scientist father, who was experimenting with solar power.
It seems the big baddies are called the Technarchy, a dangerous off-shoot group of Technocracy. Technocracy was a real organization that pushed for a utopian scientific belief in addressing how society would be run. It had its heyday in the 1930s, and still exists today. The leader of Technarchy has plans to take him and his followers to Tau Ceti and setup a new world. And needs information Doc has on an ancient alien device that will cause the Sun to expend more energy to “push” them along. However, they don’t realize that this will cause the Sun to destroy the Earth in the process!
To stop them, Doc and his friends will go up against the group twice in their zepplin in some low-earth-orbit space fights! Will they succeed and stop them and be able to return home safely?
Overall, this was another good work. My only issue was the matter of the sunkiller device. How did the bad guy know of the report Doc had written on them? If this didn’t exist, how did he think they’d succeed in leaving the Earth? And wouldn’t the report explain clearly the dangers of the device? This seemed the main weak point of the story.
But this series is pretty good overall. Each book progresses from the previous one. Robinson has written #6 and is working on #7. I’m not sure when the next one will come out. As they are set around 1937/38, we are moving quickly to the start of WWII. How will that happen in this world? We’ve seen the growing influence on the Bund in the New York police. How will that work out? Doc and friends have run afoul of both the Nazis and the Japanese. So will have to see.
But if you haven’t checked out this series, please do so.
