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paulcowdell's review
3.0
With 'The Wrath of Fu Manchu' (the second title contained in this volume) I have finally worked my way through all of Rohmer's Fu Manchu books. It's a little bit of an anticlimactic wrap-up, unfortunately, as 'Wrath...' is a collection of short stories, only four of which are actually Fu Manchu tales.
Short stories aren't in any case the ideal form for Fu Manchu, as they don't allow the deranged unfolding of his schemes, or the messy sprawl of his conflict with Nayland Smith (who is on reliable earlobe-tugging form). The other tales are predominantly Egyptiana, which Rohmer also did well, but they seem a little out of place. (Fu Manchu needs no padding!) Best of all is 'Nightmare House', a rewrite of his earlier 'The Haunting of Low Fennel'.
I may only have rated 'Wrath...' 3 stars, but the other book here, 'The Island of Fu Manchu' is waaaay more like it, and the omnibus series as a whole is magnificent. I'll mark the series overall down to 4.5 for two slightly picky reasons: i) the photographic text reproduction makes the pagination somewhat eccentric, as well as leaving intact all those pulp typos we know and love, and ii) it really would have made more sense to run the novels in chronological sequence.
Rohmer didn't do a lot of through narrative, but he did some that's easier to follow if you read in order. Also, perhaps more importantly, that enables the reader to keep tabs on the wider socio-political context Rohmer's trying to set Fu Manchu against as the story unfolds. (You think the representation of Asian people is nasty? He hates communists much much more...) If that'd been the case, the title story of 'Wrath...' could have been slotted into the place it actually occupies in the narrative sequence without requiring the additional material.
But these really are cavils, because this omnibus series is great, and the Devil Doctor is here in all his sinister magnificence. I may have to start again from the beginning.
Short stories aren't in any case the ideal form for Fu Manchu, as they don't allow the deranged unfolding of his schemes, or the messy sprawl of his conflict with Nayland Smith (who is on reliable earlobe-tugging form). The other tales are predominantly Egyptiana, which Rohmer also did well, but they seem a little out of place. (Fu Manchu needs no padding!) Best of all is 'Nightmare House', a rewrite of his earlier 'The Haunting of Low Fennel'.
I may only have rated 'Wrath...' 3 stars, but the other book here, 'The Island of Fu Manchu' is waaaay more like it, and the omnibus series as a whole is magnificent. I'll mark the series overall down to 4.5 for two slightly picky reasons: i) the photographic text reproduction makes the pagination somewhat eccentric, as well as leaving intact all those pulp typos we know and love, and ii) it really would have made more sense to run the novels in chronological sequence.
Rohmer didn't do a lot of through narrative, but he did some that's easier to follow if you read in order. Also, perhaps more importantly, that enables the reader to keep tabs on the wider socio-political context Rohmer's trying to set Fu Manchu against as the story unfolds. (You think the representation of Asian people is nasty? He hates communists much much more...) If that'd been the case, the title story of 'Wrath...' could have been slotted into the place it actually occupies in the narrative sequence without requiring the additional material.
But these really are cavils, because this omnibus series is great, and the Devil Doctor is here in all his sinister magnificence. I may have to start again from the beginning.
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