[Review] The Great Secret by L. Ron Hubbard

The Great Secret
L. Ron Hubbard
September 8, 2008
Galaxy Press
122 pages

Amazon/Book Depository/B&N

Fanner Marston was raised a slave as a child, became a petty street thief as a teen, and now masters his own craft and crew as a grown man. He's also gone completely mad. Driven by privation, with a vicious greed and slavering lust for power, Marston alone of forty men has survived the perilous trek through a blistering desert to the magical city of Parva, where legend says a secret awaits which will give him absolute control over the Universe. However, Marston finds the key to all power is not at all what he expected. . .

This book was an interesting find. The people at Galaxy Press are re-releasing classic L. Ron Hubbard pulp fiction tales with classic art and the feel of the old pulp fiction magazines. This book is a collection of four short stories, each independent and standing on their own.

Despite these tales being over sixty years old, I found myself pulled into each tale and found myself rooting for the characters as they faced their challenges and trials. The tales included in this volume are The Great Secret, Space Can, The Beast, and The Slaver. In each tale, men face off against the unknown and face down their challenges with the determination and uncertainty you find in these old stories.

In The Great Secret a single man is faced with the punishing elements on an alien world to find the great secret of a lost civilization.

Space Can brings a small destroyer face to face with a superior enemy, but don't count the smaller vessel out until the end, especially when the chips are down.

The Beast faces a great white hunter against a thinking beast on Venus that is terrorizing the locals.

A last but not least, The Slaver shows that villains should never let their guard down.

I won't give away anymore of the secrets of these tales, I'll leave that to the readers.

As I read these tales of daring I came to a conclusion. Despite the age of these tales, they still have meaning and are a great read even today. I gladly give this book a solid four laser pistols. This book, like so many of the tales from that age, is really out of this world.