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Post by Johnlprobert on Sept 13, 2010 9:10:38 GMT
Seven Footprints to Satan by Abraham Merritt (1928)
Psychedelic Orbit / Futura Edition 1974
Following on from my jolly experiences with Burn, Witch, Burn! fans of this sort of stuff will no doubt be delighted to know that this one is even better! Our hero is Jim Kirkham, an Indiana Jones-gone-bad type who spends his time stealing valuable items from round the world, selling them and then losing the money in poker games. He finds himself kidnapped by a six foot six massively obese super-rich individual who calls himself Satan and challenges Jim to undertake the ordeal of the seven footprints. If Jim steps in the correct four footprints carved into the flight of steps leading to Satan's throne Satan will be his slave, but if he steps in the others then he will be Satan's slave, facing death or the living horror of the keph addict! Is our villain really Satan? Will Jim survive and get to save the gorgeous Eve Demerest? Moreover will he manage to achieve the exciting and yet highly illegal challenges that "Satan" has set for him? I haven't finished this yet but the bit where Jim has to steal a valuable necklace from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a great set piece and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.
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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 13, 2010 12:17:31 GMT
I read this a little while back, but didn't think much of it. From the title, I was really hoping for horror - I'm not really into the criminal mastermind genre. Actually, I am slowing becoming aware of just how narrow my tastes really are - if it doesn't involve either supernatural horror or insanity (preferably both) then I am probably not going to think much of it.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Sept 13, 2010 12:58:03 GMT
And here's the front and back cover:  |
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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 13, 2010 13:22:58 GMT
That's the one I had (it went back to the charity shop I got it from). I'd forgotten about that totally misleading blurb - not surprising that I was disappointed when I was expecting "a classic novel of the supernatural forces that lie beyond the grasp of science" involving "the awful powers of Satanism" but instead got an obese version of Fu Manchu.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Sept 14, 2010 13:10:36 GMT
Finished this last night and it all came to a climactic shoot 'em up ending far too soon for my liking. Satan meets a sticky end and our hero is saved by his old British army pal Harry. Harry's dialogue has to be some of the most 'colourful working class chatter', or uninterpretably racist gibberish depending on your opinion, that I've read in ages. "Gor Blimey Guvnor put yer 'ands up" isn't the half of it - I had to read some of it a few times to work out what on earth he was on about. Compared to Harry the occasional 1928 references to 'yellow fiends' seemed positively equal opportunities  |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 14, 2010 13:48:06 GMT
Finished this last night and it all came to a climactic shoot 'em up ending far too soon for my liking. Satan meets a sticky end and our hero is saved by his old British army pal Harry. Harry's dialogue has to be some of the most 'colourful working class chatter', or uninterpretably racist gibberish depending on your opinion, that I've read in ages. "Gor Blimey Guvnor put yer 'ands up" isn't the half of it - I had to read some of it a few times to work out what on earth he was on about. Compared to Harry the occasional 1928 references to 'yellow fiends' seemed positively equal opportunities That made me laugh. Edgar Rice Burroughs had some spectacular chat in Tarzan of the Apes (1912) between the British sailors on board. If you used any of the language in modern times you'd be saved from immediate arrest only because the police would have a better chance of understanding the monkeys. |
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