A review by ethanlaborde
The Living Shadow by Walter B. Gibson, Maxwell Grant

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
This short story is pretty good, with more twists than I thought there'd be going in. The one at the end regarding Wang Foo is especially memorable, and the action (when it happens) is awesome as well. I was surprised at the relatively slow pace of the story (at least when compared to some other pulps I've read, such as The Spider), but the mystery was compelling, so I didn't really mind. I was somewhat surprised at how frequently racial slurs were used by some characters, but I guess that just comes with the territory when reading stories this old. The illustrations in the scanned copy I read (courtesy of the Internet Archive) are good, and definitely helped me picture the events in my mind more accurately. Overall, it's a very good story, and I'll definitely be reading more Shadow pulps in the future!
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