The Blind Spot

A Thrill a Minute With the Rhamda Avec:
Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint's _The Blind Spot was serialized in _Argosy_ in 1921 and first published in book form in 1951. Damon Knight did the definitive hatchet job on this novel (see _In Search of Wonder_ (1967, 22-25)) that I can neither rebut nor improve upon. It is a thoroughly bad novel. And yet you may want to read it anyway. It is filled with a certain amount of innocent silliness and good cheer that makes it somewhat fun to read. Remember the old Saturday afternoon serials? Remember the heroes like Flash Gordon, Batman and Robin, Dick Tracy, Captain Video, Commando Cody, Congo Bill, Brenda Starr, Brick Bradford, and El Latigo? Remember the sinister villains stalking about with names like the Lame One, the Spider, Zolok, and Ming the Merciless? Remember the cheesy sets, the cliffhanging episode endings, the breathless melodrama, the Secret Hideouts, the trapdoors and secret panels, the clutching hands, and the dewy-eyed heroines? Remember _Phantom Empire_, the _Adventures of Captain Marvel_, _The Lost City_, and _Radar Men From the Moon_? Well, _The Blind Spot_ is that kind of a novel, with dark and mysterious figures with names like the Rhamda Avec and the Bar Sinestro. If you harbor a guilty pleasure from those old movies, you just may want to read the novel.