Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom by Tim Byrd
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $15.99, 192pp, tp, 9780399247835. YA adventure.
Tim Byrd is a man who read way too many pulps as a child, and realized the death of that subgenre was a loss to the world. So he’s reincarnated some of his favorites, with modifications, and given us Doc Savage for the early 21st Century… in a somewhat alternate universe.
Doctor Spartacus Wilde is the modern man of bronze. Very modern. Oh, he’s fabulously wealthy, handsome, gifted in every field of endeavor, universally recognized, and surrounded by devoted friends and helpers (sort of like Buckaroo Banzai, but without the rock band). But Doc Wilde differs from his dashing forebears in one important way: family. Doc’s family is an intimate part of his world, first and foremost his not-quite-pubescent children, Brian and Wren. They’re miniature versions of their father, from the blonde hair, bronzed skin, and omnivoracious mental appetite, to their incredibly physical training and stamina, and on to the adventurers’ vests containing every conceivable tool they’ll need for any adventure. Doc’s parents are also nearby, living in their fabulous suite on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building (which was the first, strongest clue I needed to point to an alternate universe: there’s no such suite there, as I know because that’s where I got married).
Anyway, Doc’s the guy every man wants to be, and every woman wants to be with. But this is a book for kids (just about the ages of Brian and Wren, 12 and 10), so those women don’t enter into the story. What does enter into the story is a mysterious picture of Doc’s father standing in front of a cave that looks like a menacing frog, and then Doc’s mother casually mentioning at dinner that his father is missing. The elder Wilde had been lecturing about astrophysics at Harvard when he disappeared, and the trail (and the clues—key among them a rash of frogs and frog-like creatures) point a tiny landlocked South American country.
So Doc and the kids (along with their faithful aide Phineas Bartlett and their driver/strongman Declan mac Coul) take to the autogyro and head south. In the primordial rain forest, they’ll encounter powers so strong as to change a man into a, well, man-frog. They’ll deal with political intrigue and religious hysteria. And they’ll eventually face down a god, trying to break down the barriers between alternate realities in an effort to swallow ours. Naturally, our heroes are heroic, and they’ll find Grandpa Wilde before their work is done. But getting there is all the fun.
Along the way, we’ll learn just why it’s a good idea to have a supergenius-inventor as a father, providing all manner of useful tools (think James Bond’s Q without the explosives). The party will be forcefully separated, death will be threatened, danger will loom, unexpected (but completely logical) skills will reveal themselves to aid in the saving of the day, and things will seem darkest just before they go completely black. But never fear: the Wildes are here.
I’ll be reading this one with my nephew just as soon as he’s old enough. By then, I’m sure, there will be more Doc Wilde adventures to continue to.