STARTLING TOMES

HIDDEN WORLD . William Schoell. Raven Tale; 2025. I first became aware of William Schoell through his books on comics -- and one he did on 20th century opera -- but I also knew he wrote several horror novels back in the days of the horror boom. He also wrote a more recent novel entitled  Monster World  in which scientists use a time machine to bring dinosaurs to the 21st century, and it was excellent.  Hidden World  is a short, fast-paced novel in which a group of people, led by a determined and desperate woman, descend into a huge cavern under a Greek island to find an ancient city and in particular a certain mystical artifact. Schoell peoples the book with a host of interesting characters, some of whom meet dire fates, not unexpected when you consider the creatures -- huge lizards, rapacious rats, and even giant cannibals -- that he throws at them at regular intervals. You might be surprised at who survives and who doesn't. Written with Schoell's customary verve an...

DOC SAVAGE: SKULL ISLAND . Will Murray. Altus Press; 2013. In a brand-new Doc Savage adventure,   King Kong   has already attacked New York and fallen from the Empire State building when the novel begins. The 1930's pulp magazine hero tells his comrades about how he met Kong some years before in 1920, when he accompanied his stern father on a search of the Indian Ocean for Doc's grandfather, sailor Stormalong Savage. Grandpappy has been marooned on Skull Mountain Island and been the pet of the big ape-like creature for many years. In addition to staying out of the way of Kong and dodging all manner of hungry dinosaurs, Doc and his family members have to deal with murderous attacks by a band of head-hunting dyaks with poisonous blowguns.   Skull Island   has some exciting and intriguing moments, but it's not as memorable as the classic Doc-Savage-meets-Dinosaurs novel   The Land of Terror . The attempts to sort of humanize a completely unreal character, Doc, are ...