So after too long, I take a look at the adventures of Zana O’Savin works by Craig McDonald, which at first glance seems to be a Pat Savage pastiche series. Until I started the first one, The Blood Ogre (2022), and found it’s a more original idea.
There are many types of pastiches. Some just rename the main characters but keep them largely unchanged. Sometimes the author takes the idea that they are giving us stories of the “real characters” that the pulp stories were based on, which then leads them to making changes (good or bad), under that rubric. At the far end, you get characters that are basically more inspired by the pulp character but different enough to be more original. But this work goes in another direction.
For those not aware, Craig McDonald is an award-winning mystery writer. His main series is the Hector Lassiter series, with a dozen works, and this character actually appears in The Blood Ogre. And thankfully for us, he’s not one of those authors with little knowledge or appreciation of the pulps who decides to do some kind of modern-day deconstruction or the like. He has had several articles appear in the past few years in various pulp fanzines such as Bronze Gazette, The Shadowed Circle, and The Pulpster. Frankly, if Conde Nast was going to snub Will Murray for the new Doc Savage and The Shadow works, they should have gotten him instead of James Patterson.
In this series, we learn that several writers have such an imagination that they have caused their creations to come to life. These include Lester Dent, who has somehow caused Doc Savage, his aides, and Pat to become real people. And it also includes others like a couple of fellow Street & Smith writers and more. Walter Gibson calls these beings “tulpas.” But if these authors can bring forth such characters unwittingly, can they also cause darker things to emerge?
The Blood Ogre serves to introduce us to this world and its background, as well as give us a rousing story. It actually starts with Dent building his unique home in La Plata, Mo., some elements of which have a secretive purpose. We are pulled into this world through author Eskin “Bud” Fiske, who is visiting Norma Dent in 1965. He is friends with both Lassiter and Walter Gibson and had recently helped the widow of Ernest Hemmingway. Things don’t go well with their meeting, and later at a diner, Bud meets Zana, who saves him from an assassination attempt with the help of the other aides. And they join the others in a dirigible flying above La Plata.
This pulls Bud (and us) further into this world as we learn more about it thanks to flashbacks that go back to Lester’s childhood, when he created a group of childhood friends as well as another, his time writing Doc Savage and more. We also learn of Bud’s visit to Gibson and about both Bud’s and Gibson’s tulpas. So we also have a real live version of The Shadow running around as well, along with another pulp hero and his associated dreams up by Dent, Gibson, and Paul Ernst.
While it might seem that it’s just a case of Bud somehow teaming up with Zana and her cousin and the others to end the Blood Ogre, there is more to it. “Doc” is in a bad state and must somehow be revived. Or revised. And Bud’s tulpa has teamed up with the Blood Ogre, who has other allies, including an old foe of Doc’s, Saigon Shan. It may take more to end it all, and it will come to a cost for some.
The second work is The Mothman Menace (2023). Here Zana, along with The Colonel, goes up against the strange happenings in the area, one of which is the urban myth of the mothman in 1967. For those not aware, the mothman is an urban legend in this area of West Virginia, which is also tied to the disastrous collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River. Zana and the Colonel almost get caught in the collapse.
But there are also other strange goings on, including strange lights in the sky. There is a quartet of “men in black” who don’t quite seem human. And there is a strange man named Indrid Cold, who gives a prophecy that Doc’s aides will soon die, starting with the chemist of the group. Are these all tulpas or something else? And if so, why are they there?
Can Zana, with Doc and his aides, again along with The Shade and The Avenger and crew, put a stop to it? And could this be a new chapter in these characters’ story as they form a new group?
We are promised a third, The Death Killers, apparently coming later in 2024. I look forward to it.
Overall, I enjoyed these works. The author is clearly knowledgeable of these characters. He is able to write a good story that is both respectful of the characters, and handles them in a realistic manner.
Frankly, I would love to see more stories using these characters, even ones with just The Shade and The Avenger (or whatever he is called). Whatever we get, I am for it.
I am not a big fan of crime novels but would recommend that if you enjoyed these works as well, at least take a look at McDonald’s other works. You may enjoy them as well.
