The Shadow In Review
(Non-Fiction)
by John Olsen.
Pulplandia Press
Lulu.com
Price $10.00
515 Pages
Rating 5-Stars
In this nicely produced tome, John Olsen has
investigated and reviewed all 325 original pulp novels of The Shadow, plus the
two short stories, a paperback original novel, a lost Shadow story, and a
Shadow turned Batman comic book story, the serial, and the 1994 movie.
This huge work would have fit nicely among ALTUS PRESS
Companion books to other series, as basically it provides similar data, though
more aimed at reviews. It’s only lacking in not providing scans of the covers,
but those can be found on the Internet.
I’ve also read every Shadow novel, and I may not agree
with some of the author’s ratings, but we each have our own likes or dislikes,
and for the most part he does give valid reasons for the ratings of each novel,
and that’s his right. For instance, in one example he gives THE GOLDEN VULTURE,
a mishmash by Lester Dent & Gibson a 5-star rating, while dropping TEETH OF
THE DRAGON to 4-Stars; I’m sure Gibson had to do a lot of rewrite to Dent’s
adventure-style yarn in order to make the novel half way read like The Shadow.
While TEETH OF THE DRAGON, on the other hand is a topnotch Shadow set in San
Francisco’s Chinatown, and introduces the marvelous Myra Reldon/Ming Dwan, one
of best stories in my opinion. I only suggest the reader may consider other
ratings. Read the novels, and by all means add this fantastic book to your
shelf. Highly recommended.
Tom Johnson
Author of THE BLACK BAT
COMPANION
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