The Professor Was a Thief: Golden Age Stories
Written by L. Ron Hubbard
Narrated by R.F. Daley, Bob Caso, John Mariano and
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The Empire State Building has vanished into thin air! Gone, too, are Grant's Tomb and Grand Central Station, and all hell is breaking loose in New York City!
What's the story? One grizzled old newspaper reporter known simply as Pop—is on top of it ... and better stay there, because his livelihood is on the line. If Pop fails to get to the bottom of the vanishing landmarks, his job will disappear as well—and land in the hands of the newspaper publisher's son-in-law.
Any cub reporter could find a someone breaking the laws of the city, but tracking down a suspect who's breaking the laws of physics is a different story altogether. But Pop's like a dog with a bone, and he won't let go until he gets at the truth ... no matter how strange or astounding it is. In the end, he gets a lesson in larceny, proving that when you get down to business, size really does matter.
Also features the science fiction adventures Battle of Wizards, in which an epic battle between science and magic unfolds with an entire planet hanging in the balance; and Hubbard's first published foray into science fiction and fantasy, The Dangerous Dimension, the story of a mathematics professor who discovers an equation that enables him to teleport anywhere he can imagine ... even if he doesn't want to go.
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 Professor Was a Thief
2 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The reprint series from Galaxy Press continues where they are publishing all pulp fiction stories from L. Ron Hubbard, who later became founder of the Scientology organization. I prefer the science fiction stories, though critics and even people in the street think he only wrote sci-fi.
He wrote a lot of spy adventure and westerns as well, but these are not my cup of tea.
I borrowed from my local library the volume called The Professor Was a Thief, which is actually an anthology of three stories printed in the 1940s. Why pay $20 a piece for the originals when they are all right here?
By the way, the book is easily carried and in hardcover. It is complete with a glossary which comes in handy as I'm not that familiar with pre-World War II slang! These stories are written in pulp style, imaginative and silly. They were always meant to be throwaway mags at the time.
The Professor Was a Thief, purported to be Hubbard's favorite pulp fiction tale, is about a disgruntled professor who has somehow invented a way of shrinking buildings and things at the atomic level so that they are very tiny. The story is also about a newspaper man who, at age 53, is being put out to pasture by a young punk kid, which kid became his boss due to the good graces of the managing editor and not about skill. It's a fun story because we see Pop as he takes the reins of the paper and gets out the story, and see how he's happiest when he's running and organizing the big story of the Penn Railroad Station suddenly disappearing. The professor though is a pretty dishonest if brilliant scientist who is used as a foil by Hubbard to show how a person who loves his work can make anything happen. Cute story.
The Battle of Wizards is the weaker of the stories; about a scientific group that lands on a savage planet where magic is king. The captain sees these people as starving and having no agricultural methods and use infanticide and killing off their older populations to keep food on the table. He is challenged to show that science is greater than magic or vice versa and have a contest to the death. The ending was abrupt, but the story entertaining nonetheless.
Finally, The Dangerous Dimension, Hubbard's first published sci-fi work (I used to have the original pulp, oh well). This tale is about a little nerd who is henpecked by his maid, and is the typical absent-minded professor. He develops an equation that enables him to transport himself (mind over matter) just by thinking of the place or it being suggested to him. The trouble is, he has not yet figured out the other equation that would give him some control over the situation. So when he thinks "Paris", he is in Paris. When someone says jump in the Martian canals, he then appears on Mars trying not to drown! It's humorous when he tells people to shut up when they are about to suggest where he can go next. As with most pulps, a silly ending.
Hubbard's stories often involve men who don't seem to have a lot going for them but find that with a little effort and persistence make things happen in their lives and these three stories are certainly evidence of that.
I do suggest reading all of these Galaxy Press stories. Who knows, maybe I'll check out some westerns! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is just for fun. The story line is most likely detailed elsewhere with the bartender partaking of a potion from Borneo that shrinks him small as a mouse.
It is a riot!
Pure fun and imagination and antics! I have had two friends listen to this story and they laughed some good ones and frequently. Like a funny cartoon! Anything can happen and does!