My fascination with the original Fu Manchu novels started a good couple of years ago when I visited one of my favourite book stores of all times: ADVENTURES IN CRIME AND SPACE in Austin, TX. No idea if that place still exists. Haven't been in Austin in ages but that store was a mandatory stop whenever I was there.

Had purchased two or three of the Pyramid editions and fell in love with the cover design (as well as of course the stories). Over the years I gradually acquired the remaining Pyramids and read the books in random order.

And now have finally come around to reading the last piece of the collection, chronologically speaking the second in the actual series.

Unfortunately this is also one of my least favourite novels. Probably because they were initially conceived as short stories and only later combined into a novel format, the individual parts of the plot feel very random. There are moments when it seems as if one had accidentally skipped a few pages when we're being introduced to new characters in the middle of an important conversation and most of the rescues are very deus ex machina.

Still, even a very average Fu Manchu is a-ok in my book.

More pulpy, briskly-paced adventure from Sax Rohmer as Commissioner Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie combat once again their most formidable nemesis in The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu. The incidents in this second volume of the Fu-Manchu series draw upon and are, admittedly, sometimes similar to the incidents in the first book. Nonetheless, if you're in the mood for some good, chewy pulp, Rohmer is one of the best. His language is evocative and rich, his pacing is brisk, and he is quite good at evoking sensations of eerie otherness, as evidenced in the "Cragmire Tower" section of the novel. In these "Cragmire" chapters, an element of the occult is introduced into the story, and the mood and setting are shudderingly delectable. Wonderful book.

The second Fu-Manchu novel, originally published in 1916 by Sax Rohmer (Arthur Henry Ward) continues the tales of the “most diabolical evil genius of all time”. Published in the UK under the name, “The Devil Doctor”, the story is told once again from the first-person perspective of Dr. Petrie who acts as a sort of Watson to the more adventuresome Nayland Smith, a colonial police commissioner in Burma who has been granted a roving commission that allows him to utilize any group that can help him in his mission. When this book was written the western world was in the midst of the “Yellow Peril” and thus a diabolical mastermind intent on subjugating the West was a well-received idea.

Just as in the first book, this one is filled with idealized adventure much as one would find in the pulps and it never lets up on the accelerator. It is sort of episodic in nature, reflecting the way in which the stories were first published so we bounce from one adventure to the next. Smith and Petrie come very close to catching their nemesis, but this is matched only by the number of times they are themselves captured and must escape the clutches of Dr. Fu Manchu.

A prominent character and one of Dr. Fu Manchu's primary agents is the "seductively lovely" Kâramanèh, a former slave to Egyptian flesh peddlers. A major question running through this book is whether or not Kâramanèh is really working for Fu Manchu or is trying to sabotage his efforts and assist Dr. Petrie whom she seems to be falling for. There are also some supernatural aspects to parts of the book (at least the main characters think so) including a jaunt through a haunted house as well as a visitation by a mummy!

As always with pulp books from that era, today’s readers will have to accept the inherent racism that dwells within these pages. If that can be done, there is a lot of fun adventure to be had.

Abel Slattin shrugged his shoulders, racially...

"Be pleased to enter," he said in his harsh, negro voice.

Sometimes a yellow face showed close to one of the streaming windows; sometimes a black-eyed, pallid face, but never a face wholly sane and healthy. 

The terribly evil Dr. Fu-Manchu returns to London and completely baffles the entertainingly racist British detectives pursuing him. This is the second book in the series, and a lot of fun for two reasons. On one hand it is exciting and melodramatic, and on the other it is a glimpse into the mindset of the author, writing at a time when the "Yellow Peril" was seen as a scientifically proven reality. Reading this book is both an absorbing diversion and an interesting comparison to the hidden racism in our own time.

Not really much to say about this one. It's a sequel, but it feels more like a remake of the previous book as it follows the two leads, Smith & Petrie, getting into all sorts of scrapes with Fu Manchu. Lots of aimless galavanting, their confidant dies unexpectedly - thanks to you know who, Petrie falls in love with the exotic Arabic woman (again), and the ending is left ambiguous whether it really is the end for our Oriental criminal mastermind. *SPOILER*



(and Sax Rohmer just cranked them out right until the end) Insert footage of Rohmer during a rant - I won't get into specifics but you probably have some sort of idea.



Despite this I actually enjoyed it more than the first one, which kind of dragged, but I'd still hesitate to call it good. Rohmer's turgid prose and melodromatic descriptions do nothing to draw out the characters and what makes them tick (and this is coming from a person that's read countless stories of H.P Lovecraft), it simply presents them as bog standard caricatures of super sleuths who go on crazy adventures. The setpieces are well executed but the story feels like it's not amounting to anything, which also bugged me in the previous book. Still it's an interesting relic from the past, albeit one that has lost much of its shine.