Magazine Review: High Adventure #171: Far East Fiction of Frederick Moore edited by John P. Gunnison
In this pulp reprint issue, we’re off to the exotic South Seas, in particular Malaysia. According to the introduction, although Frederick Moore’s byline listed him as “Captain”, there’s no record of him ever earning that title.
“The Cloth of Command” starts us off with an undercover investigator coming to the island of Ikanpaus. It seems a large shipment of gold went missing, and the captain of the ship that was plundered is beached there, along with the pirates most likely to have been responsible. It’s a battle of wits between Captain Hillish and Kung Chun of the fighting crickets, with hotel proprietor Markin playing both sides in an effort to find out just where the gold is hidden.
Those of you who’ve read this blog for a while or are just familiar with pulp fiction in general will know that the stories from this time period tend to have outdated racism and ethnic prejudice as a common feature. The stories in this issue are particularly unpleasant to the Chinese.
There’s a final twist that explains the title, and onward!
“Pirate Pearls” concerns itself with the plot of a gang of thieves to steal pearls from a local merchant. But it’s okay, because he’s Chinese and therefore probably did bad things to get the pearls. We’re supposed to be impressed with the cleverness of the robbers, but I can’t help that notice every bad thing we hear about the merchant is from someone in the gang. Part of a page is missing from the story, but it doesn’t seem to have contained any surprises.
“Trade Heads” switches things up with some white adventurers planning to defraud a tribe of headhunters with counterfeit goods so that they can access the tribe’s gold. They get what’s coming to them in a manner the Cryptkeeper would be pleased by. I liked this story the best of the issue.
“Gunfire at Battle Island” has an undercover policeman investigating why mysterious screams are coming from a bay near a white woman’s copra plantation. Despite what the superstitious natives might think, it’s not ghosts or any other supernatural being. This time there’s gold and silver involved.
“Cadburn Escapes from Permata” is one of those titles that gives away the ending. Cadburn came to the island to find a secret stash of cultured pearls, but now he must leave the island without alerting the Chinese merchant who rules the place with an iron fist. Two other beachcombers, at least one of whom is a spy, aren’t going to make it easy!
Overall, this is an okay set of adventure tales, but the racism is going to make it a tough sell for anyone who isn’t heavily invested in tales of the South Seas. You might want to skip this one.
