Book Review – Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom by Tim Byrd

Author: Tim Byrd
Cover Artist: Tim Gabor
Publisher: Putnam
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: May 2009

Fans of pulp stories hoping to recruit a new generation of readers can rejoice.  They now have a fantastic pamphlet they can use to corrupt the younger set in the form of  Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom. Those familiar with the tropes of pulp adventure stories and the many offshoots Weird Tales spawned will easily recognize Doc Wilde, his entire family, and his entourage.

The book begins with Doc’s father disappearing mysteriously.  Naturally, Doc Wilde, his daughter Wren, his son Brian, their majordomo Phineas Bartlett, and driver and pilot Declan mac Coul must go and rescue him.  The pursuit leads them to a small country in the South American rainforest that is populated by mutant frogs.  This book is full of gadgetry and impossibility, but it never loses its sense of fun.  Books of this type always require immense amounts of suspension of disbelief.

The Wildes are all practically superhumanly good-looking, frighteningly intelligent, and so skilled in combat only large groups of idiots willing to fight them would even think about trying to attack them.  There is, of course, and archvillain.  There must be, or else there wouldn’t really be much point to the book.

The author does pepper the plot with factual information, quotes from sources as diverse as Henry David Thoreau and H.P. Lovecraft, and some things that actually do exist.  I, for one, would hate for a child reading this book to think a Tucker Torpedo automobile was an entirely made-up vehicle.  It, in fact, is not (and is the inspiration for a very good movie starring Jeff Bridges entitled Tucker). The author also has included bits of technology that do exist, along with things like very advanced nanotechnology, which may or may not come to fruition at a later date.

The book is intended for much younger readers.  It’s a slim book and a very quick read.  The publisher had fun with utilizing various fonts for things like sound effects and certain important words which gives the book an air of tongue-in-cheek satire that might be lost on very young readers.  Personally, I think that this book would be great for boys who like adventure stories, especially if they’re very fond of Indiana Jones movies or shows about exploring far-flung locales.  I also think that this book would be a hoot for reading aloud, it would certainly lend itself well to very animated story telling.

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