Finally, after 10 years, we get the conclusion to one of the most interesting recent Doc Savage pastiches, William Preston‘s the Old Man.
This series consists of five stories, all appearing in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. Hopefully, now that all five are done, they will be collected into a book. The author recommends that people read the stories in order of publication, not in order of internal chronology.
The first story, “Helping Them Take the Old Man Down” (March 2010), introduces us to the Old Man through one of his aides. The story is mainly set in the post-9/11 world, but with flashbacks to prior events that the aide has been involved in. The Old Man is known only by this nickname, and his aides all have nicknames and are known by those.
For the previous few decades, the Old Man had gathered a diverse group of new aides who come and go as needed for a particular mission, due to their skills. Think of the old Impossible Mission Force, where certain agents are picked for a mission based on their skills. Some don’t make it (there is a hint that one aide died by suicide during a mission). We have no idea what has happened to his original aides (retired? died?). At some point, he moved his headquarters out of the Empire State Building to the World Trade Center, but had moved out of that building prior to 9/11. And this is what made the government suspicious. With the assistance of the aide, the government tracks the Old Man down at his base in the Arctic — though not before he’s able to destroy it — and takes him into custody.
The next story, “Clockworks” (April/May 2011), is set in the 1960s, and the Old Man is called the Big Man. One of the aides helping him in this story was shown as an older man in the first story. And they are also assisted by a former villain who has been “reformed” by the Old Man, obviously a hint to Doc’s Crime College.
The third story, “Unearthed” (September 2012), is set in 1925, early in the career of the Old Man. Here he is very young, known as the Little Boss. The story is set in South America at a mine owned by his father, referred to as the Big Boss. A problem occurs, and the Little Boss comes down to take care of it. It turns out to be much more mysterious than it appears.
The fourth story is “Each in His Prison, Thinking of the Key” (April/May 2014). Set after the events of the first story, we find the Old Man a prisoner of the government. The story focuses on the young man assigned to watch him and how this affects him. And the Old Man makes his escape.
The fifth and final story was to be “The World Will Be the World Again” and was planned to come out in 2014. Instead, it would appear in 2024 as “To Make an End” (May/June 2024). This time the story is set in 2031, further past the previous one. The world seems messed up, with real climate change, various virus pandemics that have killed millions, and a solar flair that has taken a further toll. Now there is something that has been mysteriously causing people to disappear.
A pair of siblings are looking for the Old Man, following various clues. They locate him in a strange hibernation chamber and awaken him, informing him of what is going on. This includes a bizarre messianic cult built around him, with centers around the country and world. The Old Man finds this unusual as the fictional stories shouldn’t have caused this and he went to great lengths to ensure his real involvement in the world wasn’t noticed. Is an old foe behind this? When he sees a list of those who have disappeared, he notices that several have a connection to him, including the siblings’ parents, who briefly worked for him, though not as aides.
This will lead to a confrontation with whoever or whatever is behind it. Will the Old Man triumph, and if so, what will come next?
Among the things we learn is more about the pulp magazine version of him, who wrote the stories, and what he was called, as well as what his parents called him. Oh, you want to know what those are? Read the story!
While there is certainly room for more adventures with the Old Man, I kind of doubt we will get any. Too bad. This was and is an interesting take on Doc Savage. I also think Asimov SF missed a great chance. They only cover featured one of the stories, the fourth. For this long-awaited fifth story, they instead chose to cover feature another work, and I found the cover kind of dull. Oh well.
As noted, the idea has been to collect all of these into a single volume, which will be great. though I have no idea if the author has discussed this with any publishers. I would certainly think any of the New Pulp publishers such as Airship 27, Bold Venture, Pro Se, or even Meteor House might be interested. Guess we’ll just have to see. I know I would buy a copy just to have on my shelf instead of the magazines.
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