The Original Skyman Battles the Master of Steam

I started out taking a note here and there so I’d have something to say for a review. But then I got so engrossed in the Skyman story, I forgot that part..I’m more of a Eureka and ST:TOS / :DS9 / :Voyager kinda gal. But Brian K. Morris is a friend of mine. And when Brian K. Morris is a friend of yours, you do. hear. about. “Skyman.” Often. (Just sayin.’).“Brian,” I uttered c.a.r.e.f.u.l.l.y., “you know I’m not into creepy sci fi. If I’m going to read one of your books, which one should it be?” He chose correctly: “Skyman Battles the Master of Steam”The story was so good, I was bummed when I saw 70% of my eBook was behind me..This is good, solid storytelling along with humor that made me LOL. It was fun getting to know the ‘cast’ and having an explanation for why Allan was able to do all those amazing things. The only time I got pulled out of the story was when I came across phrases that were 100% the Brian I know. I had heard him voice them!.It was fun. And I’m gonna read it again. Starting now.

Back in the Golden Age of comics superheroes were being born left and right, some stayed around others sort of faded out. Skyman unfortunately faded out. There was an attempt to bring him back in the late 80s but the company folded and alas, it was just not meant to be. Now thanks to author Brian K. Morris a prose novel of what is pretty much the origin story of Skyman can be read. Allan Turner has millions of dollars and a massive education and trained himself in the many sports available. With the education he has become an inventor, with the millions he has the resources and with the athletics he is superhero bound. Upon his graduation Allan's Uncle (who raised him since his parents died) is kidnapped by a representative of the Third Reich, the master of Steam (a steampunk villian).This story is a fun action read that will suck you in and leave you wanting more. Brian K. Morris knows how to make each chapter end with the reader only wanting more, thus creating a book you just can't put down.

Just recently finished reading "The Original Skyman Battles the Master of Steam" by the humerus and talented author Brian K Morris. Very well written book, that was a lot of fun to read. Full of adventure, heroics, mystery, as well as an awesome costumed vigilante battling against a Nazi plot to take over the world and occasionally battling against a beautiful yet dangerous woman (what good adventure story would be complete without one). I totally recommend the book, and of course, the author as well. You should pick up a copy and read it for yourself!

Enjoyed this trip back to the past with the stalwart Skyman and a brand-new superfoe. If you like New Pulp or Golden Age comics, you'll like this one!

Great story grabs you right away then runs away with you. A real page turner. I love the characters too.

Author Brian K. Morris knows how to blurb. His cover promo tossed a sirocco of enticements. ‘Steampulp!’ ‘Vincent Sullivan, Gardner Fox, and Ogden Whitney’ ‘Introduction by Roy Thomas!!!’ ‘Doc Savage! The Shadow! Indiana Jones! The Rocketeer!’ Truthfully, they had me at ‘Steampulp’; I loved that melding. It does feel appropriately pulpy, but in the best ways. Not in the infallible manner of some pulp heroes, but in a brave and very mortal sort of way. In Morris’s hands, Skyman becomes a brainy cross between Dr. Henry Jones, Jr and Cliff Secord, spiced by a dash of Lamont Cranston. A strong female support character owing much to ‘Agent Carter’ ideals adds to the action. While the novel remains true to the era, Morris nimbly avoids becoming mired by pulp tropes which can leave modern audiences cold.That isn’t so easy as it may sound. First, The Skyman isn’t a pulp hero in the same way Lee Falk’s Phantom isn’t a pulp hero. Because both pulp-style heroes appeared in graphics forms, comic books and strips, originally, they’re generally considered comics characters. Having been properly introduced to The Phantom in Lee Falk’s 1970s novelizations and in those same years reading paperbacks of The Shadow and Doc Savage, I appreciated the pulp roots of Kit Walker. Like Wildcat in 1940s ‘Sensation Comics’, The Phantom was a gateway character, a link connecting pulps to comics. Skyman, being a colorfully garbed masked adventurer with no superpowers but with awesome whiz-bang gadgets and an advanced plane, fits into this same Missing Link Legion.Being largely unfamiliar with the comic book character, I sought out a sampling of his original adventures in the pages of Columbia Comics’ ‘Big Shot Comics’. His uniform is streamlined as a cutting edge 1940s fuselage. Two primary support characters from the comics join our hero here. Only the cheesiness of their interactions has been handled differently.This is especially true of female P.I. Fawn Carroll. The original comics Skyman was portrayed pondering how to get Fawn out of such a dangerous business and into the kitchen where all red-blooded American women belonged. Morris playfully exhibits that thinking with other male characters in his novel, but portrays Skyman as someone more interested in talent, initiative, and hard work for a professional career, not someone hung up on gender. The matter isn’t slapped about the reader’s head and ears, just blended into the characterization logically.In the same way, some villains end up gray rather than dipped into vats of the deepest dye. One even attempts to redeem himself as a last act of contrition. Experiencing the original Golden Age comic tales of Skyman, you find a dynamic looking hero placed into fairly standard superhero adventures peopled with cardboard cutout characters. Morris is wise enough to leave most of that machinery in place as setting, but skillfully inflates the two-dimensional beings to give them more depth and complexity.Morris scripts this revision of The Skyman’s origin with the established elements in place, then infuses them into the mystery man’s first outing as college student and inventor Allan Turner graduates. Having inherited his parents’ fortune following their demise in a plane crash, young Allan was raised by his Uncle Peter, a brilliant inventor and scholar. As the world witnesses the march of Axis forces across the globe, young Allan begins planning to combat the evils on the rise by pledging his life, fortune and sacred honor by opposing it with his inventions and advanced aircraft design.When an armored agent of Der Fuhrer begins capturing the most brilliant minds of the world to work on behalf of the Third Reich, Allan’s uncle is abducted. His only relative now endangered, Allan rushes ahead with his project and soon The Skyman is on the hunt for Nazi operatives and their leader, the Master of Steam-Powered super-technology.Along the way, Morris adds riveting moments. Many pulp adventures read stale to me because the hero always…always…has anticipated the villain’s plots and is never truly challenged. The hero is too infallible, and constant risk of snapping the reader’s stringy suspension bridge of disbelief. Morris sets his hooks into the reader early with a scene wherein a main character is discarded to a certain death. The Skyman also has moments of failure, making inexperienced mistakes that nearly promise his first case will be his last.The result is a nicely flowing narrative with plenty of action, surprises sprinkled along the way, and a patriotic heart. Not one of overblown national pride, but rather the defining and heroic ideals of an America opposing the swaggering fascism threatening pursuits of life, hope and happiness. Morris balances the heroic with the playful, as proven by his chapter names. ‘In Combat with the Steam Master’ one chapter, ‘Fingered by Fawn’ in another.If you still wish ‘The Rocketeer’ had earned a sequel, or if you have a well-worn DVD of ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’, this book should please you. If you followed everything above regarding the Phantom and Wildcat without having to Google them, ditto. If you love Steampunk and always wondered what suit of armor a Tony Stark might have made with super-steam tech, this book is for you. If you just want to enjoy a pulp story with Renaissance masked heroes, Nazi villains, altruistic men and women of science working for the betterment of mankind, ‘The Skyman Battles the Master of Steam’ will please.