The Andrew Doran series is a Cthulhu Mythos Two-Fisted Tales action adventure series by Matthew Davenport.
Doctor Andrew Doran is an Adventurer Archaeologist in the employ of Miskatonic University during the build-up to World War 2. An expert on the Cthulhu Mythos and its various monsters, he is shocked and horrified to discover the Nazis have started using the occult in their plots to Take Over the World.
Rather than a Cosmic Horror story, the Andrew Doran series is a mostly Black-and-White Morality tale of our arrogant protagonist working to engage in larger-than-life battles agaisnt supernatural monsters. The resemblance to Indiana Jones is deliberate and frequently homaged in-universe.
Promoted to the rank of Dean of Miskatonic University, Andrew Doran struggles with paperwork more than he ever did with Nazis or shoggoths. He is also haunted by a split personality that seeks to claim his body for their own. Encountering the daughter of an old friend breaking into his office, Andrew discovers that the Nazis want to claim the ancient and terrible weapons of the Elder Things. Seeking to find the lost Professor Dyer before the Nazis, they will journey to Antarctica to finish a mission into the Mountains of Madness.
It is followed by Andrew Doran and the Scroll of Nightmares.
Andrew Doran and the Mountains of Madness contains the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Nancy Dyer is every bit the fighter that Andrew is as well as a Legacy Hero.
- Actually, I Am Him: Nancy's lie that she was meeting with the Dean in her father's office failed due to the fact that Andrew Doran is the Dean of Miskatonic University.
- All for Nothing: The shoggoths are very handily able to deal with the Nazis on their own.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Leo's physical body dies but Andrew arranges for him to be able to live in the Dream Lands.
- Big Bad: Befehlsleiter (Command Leader) Erich Strobel is the Nazi seeking the Elder Things' ancient city.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Olivia actually proves to be a bigger threat than Erich.
- Deal with the Devil: Andrew trades Olivia to the Timothy in order to get her out of his head. Possibly literally once we discover Timothy is Nyarlathotep.
- Evil Versus Evil: Andrew heads into the Blasted Heath to recover William Dyer and is followed by the Nazis. The Color (or more precisely, its offspring) takes strong exception to the latter.
- Face–Heel Turn: Olivia has gone from a helpful spirit to a constant tempting, nagging, and insulting presence. She gets much worse once she's turned over to Timothy.
- Grand Theft Me: Olivia's primary ability is to possess people from the Dreamlands and use them to attack Andrew.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Leo makes one of these to try to stop Olivia in Nancy's body.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Child of Dreams AKA Annie that Andrew and Olivia encounter in the Dream Lands terrifies even the locals.
- Kick the Dog: Andrew Doran trades Olivia to Timothy despite the fact she's a sentient free willed entity born from his mind.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Ammi from The Color Out Of Space is finally killed off.
- Doctor Dyer doesn't survive his second trip to Antarctica.
- Leo dies at the end of the book, though he also Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence.
- Macguffin: The quest for the Elder Things' technology is what motivates Andrew this time around.
- Polluted Wasteland: The Blasted Heath, having had its reservoir drained away, is a hellish place avoided by the locals.
- Power-Up: Strobel was actually intending to come to the city in order to transform himself into a primordial proto-shoggoth that was far more powerful than the current members of his kind.
- Precursors: As per At the Mountains of Madness, the Elder Things used to be the most powerful race on Earth and predate humanity by billions of years.
- Reality Warper: Annie possesses the power to warp reality as a child born to the Dream Lands.
- The Reveal: Strobel is actually a shoggoth rather than a Nazi.
- Sanity Slippage: Olivia spends an unknown amount of time in Timothy's care but apparently it is enough to drive her completely insane as well as make her obsessed with killing Andrew.
- Wasteland Elder: Ammi is the only human being who knows anything about the Blasted Heath and lives there.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: An odd example as the Nazis and Andrew are desperate to find the Elder Things' armoyr. When they do, they discover the Elder Things' ultimate weapons were shoggoths. Which are more or less uncontrollable in large numbers as the Elder Things found out.
- Worthy Opponent: Strobel feels this way toward Andrew Doran. He doesn't return the favor.
