The Falcon Killer: Golden Age Stories
Written by L. Ron Hubbard
Narrated by R.F. Daley, Christina Huntington, Jim Meskimen and
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
The Japanese military has turned the once-thriving Chinese city of Nencheng into a reeking pile of blood and ash. And now the Japanese Rising Sun threatens to scorch the ancient—and oil-rich—Kingdom of the Silver Lake. Can the Chinese survive the onslaught? Do they have a prayer?
The answer is about to fall out of the sky. He is The Falcon Killer. China's ace fighter pilot and scourge of the Japanese air force, he is in fact Bill Gaylord, an American orphaned and self-reliant—a man without a country and without fear.
Shot down over Nencheng, Gaylord parachutes into the arms of the one woman who can give him reason to live and to rejoin the fight against Japan—as he squares off against their top spy. His prey is in his sights, and catching it will change everything ... for The Falcon Killer.
L. Ron Hubbard
With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.
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Reviews for The Falcon Killer
12 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a great one! Very sharp and confident! Ingenious plot and hero.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this to be a fairly interesting story. It's a little slow in parts (and considering how short it is, I was a bit surprised by this!) but it's kind of fun. I did kind of like the glimpses of world views that I found in the book. It's very dated and as such very un-PC, but that seems to be part of the overall charm. All in all, a pretty good story. I would read more of these older L. Ron Hubbard stories if I came across them.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This story is a trite and disposable little novel, though sufficient in its ambitions to provide a simple and thrilling adventure yarn. The story is definitely dated with a jingoist attitude towards all of the Chinese, Japanese and the Russian characters being crude stereotypes. The hero is the archtypical swashbuckler, damsel in distress, close calls and double crosses, are check, check and double check on the pulp adventure stock list.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Falcon Killer is part of the "Stories From the Golden Age" series, a book line dedicated to reprints of famed pulp fiction author L. Ron Hubbard's short stories and novellas. The Falcon Killer tells the story of an American fighter pilot flying for the Chinese Air Corps against the Japanese invaders during the late 1930s. He is shot down over Manchuria but is rescued by an American businessman and his family who happen to still live in the area. The family then sneaks off with the pilot to the Ruhr oil fields (where said businessman made a lot of his money and still has interests) in order to defend it against the approaching Japanese army. This story has all the tropes and clichés you would come to expect from a pulpy tale. The hero is stalwart, handsome, and dripping with machismo. If someone doesn't absolutely love and adore him, it's because he's a bad guy. There's a love interest, a rival, treachery, feats of derring-do, and a huge finale in which the hero pulls victory from the jaws of defeat using his own wit and skill and brawn. In short, it's literary yumminess on a stick.Now, I'm a fan of the pulp genre. I expected to like this book, and I wasn't disappointed. But for those who either aren't fond of the genre or who are expecting a little something else, the enjoyment factor might not be quite so high. I gave this one four stars, but please do keep in mind that your mileage may vary according to tastes.I was pleased to see that the editing was headed up by Kevin J. Anderson, one of my favorite authors from my squandered youth spent devouring Star Wars novels. Given the quality of the product, I'd say he did an outstanding job.As for the artwork, it's magnificent. The cover art is beautifully pulpy, alive with color and drawn with the flair and attention to detail of someone who truly understands the artwork of the era. The text is dotted with a few illustrations as well, black and white artwork that aptly captures the spirit of pulp magazines. Of course, the illustrations also help to add some bulk to what amounts to a very slim volume, which is necessary when you're trying to publish a short story as a book to itself. And boy, did they do that a lot. The Golden Age line of books includes over a hundred titles, all of which retail to the tune of $9.99 per book. Given the quality of the books (and my interest in the genre), I can forgive them that. Other folks may not like dropping a sawbuck on what amounts to a 6,000 word short story. It would be more worth the consumer's literary buck if they'd created some sort of omnibus volume of Hubbard's stories. But oh well. They're still good stories, and still worth the time and money to read them.