Golden Hell: Golden Age Stories

Written by L. Ron Hubbard

Narrated by R.F. Daley, Tait Ruppert, Owen Sun and 4 more

A blind obsession. A driving ambition. A relentless, unrestrained, single-minded pursuit of a shiny metal. These are the symptoms of a condition known as gold fever, and American mining engineer Captain Humbert Reynolds has got it bad. Possible side effects include: temporary insanity, a propensity for violence and death.

The search for gold has taken Reynolds from the ruins of the Yucatan to the mountains of Ecuador to the wilderness of northern Canada. Now, his search for a yellow brick bonanza has brought him halfway around the world, to the Gobi desert.

But the lure of the precious metal is about to lead Reynolds into a Golden Hell, as he plunges into an inferno—a mountain of horrors run by an unspeakably evil gang. And if he doesn't find a way out, a path to redemption, he may find that instead of snatching the ultimate prize he will have to pay the ultimate price.

Also includes the adventure, Pearl Pirate, a story of betrayal and deceit in which an American captain loses his ship to a money-lender, and the only way to get it back is to outfight and outfox a ruthless pirate and bring home a fortune in black pearls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Galaxy Press
• Release date: Mar 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781592124541

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.

Reviews for Golden Hell

[tpmcnulty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For this 1936 submission to "Thrilling Adventures" magazine, L. Ron Hubbard wisely chose a first person narrative to recount the adventures of Captain Humbert Reynolds. The authoritative first person voice is handled with Hubbard's uncanny skill. Here is a writer who can set the scene, introduce characters, and elevate the suspense level with but a few strokes of his typewriter. And as usual the pacing is relentless. From the first paragraph Humbert Reynolds makes it clear he went through hell. His tribulations nearly cost him his life and he will forever be a changed man because of his experiences. Gold fever propels Reynolds to the Gobi desert where he's captured by bandits and sentenced to a short life as a slave in the gold mines beneath the treacherous mountains. Gritty, brutal and unforgiving, Hubbard paints a portrait of a man driven by greed who learns all too quickly how merciless can be life. For Humbert Reynolds it will take all of his determination to survive a captivity in this golden hell. This edition also includes the short story "The Pearl Pirate" which should thrill fans of these classic hardboiled pulp stories.