Greed
Written by L. Ron Hubbard
Narrated by R.F. Daley and Bob Caso
3/5
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About this audiobook
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 acclaimed 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.
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Reviews for Greed
21 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very fun sci fi story. edgy
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5L. Ron Hubbard's "Greed" is a post-war science fiction morality tale told by a master storyteller. By the time "Greed" was published in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction magazine Hubbard had produced an astonishing body of fiction encompassing every genre: air-adventure, western, sea adventure, crime stories, far-flung tales in exotic locales, fantasy and tales from the Orient. "Greed" is typical of his output - well-written and fully realized. This edition includes two bonus stories - "Final Enemy" which is yet another classic, and the renowned "The Auto-Magic Horse." It's difficult to pick a favorite because all three are so good, but I'd have to lean in favor of "The Auto-Magic Horse." I own a rather battered copy of the original October 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction where "The Auto-Magic Horse" first appeared. Part Hollywood satire, part science fiction, "The Auto-Magic Horse" is a stand-out gem from L. Ron Hubbard. As always I am recommending the superb audio book from Galaxy Press in addition to the paperback. These audio books are the best on the market. The vocal talent includes David Paladino, James King, Jim Meskimen, Tamra Meskimen, Noelle North, Jeff Pomerantz, Phil Proctor, Enn Reitel, Josh R. Thompson and Michael Yurchak. The primary narration is provided by R. F. Daley who has the best voice in the audio book industry.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good set of stories. As a child I enjoyed L. Ron Hubbard's work and reading these returned me to an earlier time. Quite fun reading.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting stories from a dated but historically telling point of view. Not cutting edge anymore, but good classic fun, and with a stylish air. Short book of long stories!I will reiterate the point of earlier reviewers: a biography of Hubbard without a mention of Scientology is questionable.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I have found stories to be somewhat enjoyable, but there's all kinds of issues, like to much insertion of stuff like advertising and rather long "history" attachment for author of books.Ignoring all period problems like light racism and others in stories... Greed is fairly boring read. Second story "Final Enemy" is fairly slow read, but not much of a surprise as the concept were over used by now, but in least it was an okay read. The last story is most enjoyable one of all, with decent characters and story, but at some points it just falls flat.$10 is simply too much for 3 short stories. Its bound in fake hardcover style with flaps, adding nothing but to price. The stories themselves is written in fairly large font to pad book thickness, with additional stuff to pad it out even more. The story preview "Behind all weapons", glossary, rather long "l. Ron Hubbard in the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction", and finally advertising at end of book takes up fully 1/4 of book thickness. Oh that middle of book insert that's permanently part of bind even if I remove it, leaving tiny stub? That's bad...Short story, a clunker of a book with only 3 short stories you can finish in a hour or so that costs $10. Buy some other thicker book that you can take days to read for $8.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A very fast read, and the three short stories that make up the book are imaginative, if compact. You can see how the authors of this pulp genre had to shoehorn a piece into a given space and crank it out as quickly as possible. Make a buck and move on to the next story. The premise that each story is based on is usually making an assumption that reader is going to understand all the "modern science" used in the piece. Not a lot of time or space for scientific fact or character development.An enjoyable read for the most part out on the patio with a glass of wine, and not a lot that you would have to remember as with our current crop of seemingly endlessly sequeled scifi and fantasy grand operas. Go with the times it was written as a mindset and with that little bit of wonder we all started out with, and just enjoy a brief diviersion.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Being moderately familiar with L. Ron Hubbard's public persona but having not read any of his works, I requested this book from the LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. I've read some fine science fiction stories written in the Cambell era (1930's and 40's) and gathered that these stories published by the Astounding Science Fiction magazine during that time might be at least entertaining, if not up to my literary standard of science fiction.
The book "Greed" contains:
An introduction by Kevin J. Anderson that exalts the "Golden Age of Science Fiction" and was successful in hightening my excitement at reading the stories, particularly because he says stories of that time were "drawn by plot and character."
The short story, "Greed" (first appearing in Astounding Science Fiction, April 1950) turns out to be a hackneyed and poorly-flowing plot of a story suggesting that the elimination of culturally different entities by way of greed can be accomplished by one great heroic figure--and that the result is but the greatest reward: the successful expansion of humankind throughout the galaxy. As its premise is ridiculous and the writing of low quality I must give it a half-star rating.
The short story, "The Final Enemy" (first appearing in Super Science Stories, September 1950) improves in plot and the story is moderately engaging and better paced. The ending of the story contains a well-used twist that has been repeated many times since in science fiction, that made me exclaim "ugghh" and "what?" instead of "wow." Rating: two stars.
Neither of these first two short stories contained any scientific speculation or exposition of merit; neither of them were astounding or super by any means. Instead, speculation was rampant throughout to paint "orientals" (asians/russians/soviets) as categorically evil. There is some question whether they were chosen by Hubbard specifically due to the current political situation at the time the story was written or if they as a group were only random victims. The two stories suggest that Hubbard preferred that evil and good were represented as opposing racial and/or political groups.
The longer short story, "The Automagic Horse" (first appearing in Astounding Science Fiction, October 1949) introduces a strong main character, some imaginative gadgets (though without any true scientific exposition), and Hollywood studios as the opposing force. The story is a solid science fantasy (as suggested in the title) and was enjoyable due to some sensawunda. The story is interrupted by an advertising insert for buying into the Galaxy book club. I didn't find the male characters especially appealing, and their misogynist banter with the enemy distanced me. Rating: two stars.
There follows a teaser of another story that is published in another Galaxy volume. I didn't read it. I did read the short biography of L. Ron Hubbard following and I have no comment. The last several pages of the book contain the list of all his stories available or to be published by Galaxy Books, whose address suggests it is owned and operated by the Church of Scientology and cement the notion that they will be publishing only Hubbard's "Stories from the Golden Age." I suggest instead stories by A. E van Vogt, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Theodore Sturgeon.
Skip this book. Unless the font is reduced to 6 point (and printed on cheaper paper, as it was originally) it truly isn't worth the paper it's printed on, much less $10. Final rating: one star. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Greed included 3 separate short stories written by L. Ron Hubbard. I enjoyed the first two stories in the collection; Greed and The Final Enemy. The third story I had to drudge my way through. What is great about reading these older science fiction stories is the ability to see the political and social attitudes of the times. With each story you could see how and why the author choose to use the "Asians" as a protagonist if you keep in mind the era the story was written. With that in mind, it also became clear that the stories themselves are outdated and no longer fresh. With the second story, the twist at the end is almost a science fiction cliche now. It was definitely still fun to see it coming but once you saw it you just shrugged your shoulders like you've seen it a million times. As for the last story, I didn't even think it fit well with the preceding stories. It seemed out of place in the collection and also felt like the most out of date story which made it that much more difficult to get into. Anyone who is a science fiction fan, particularly of pulp fiction, will enjoy these short stories.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Greed, published by Galaxy Press, is part of their "Stories from the Golden Age" series, which republishes all of L. Ron Hubbard's old pulp magazine stories in book form. This volume contains three science-fiction stories: the titular "Greed", as well as "Final Enemy" and "The Automagic Horse". I'm always open to trying new authors, but I wasn't about to dive into Hubbard's massive Battlefield: Earth or his Mission Earth dekalogy; Greed gave me a nice entry point. The stories in this volume, however, were fairly lacking.The title story, "Greed", is the most boring of the bunch, and for all of its length there's very little plot. Instead, the story reads much like a historical textbook entry regarding the main character. And where I'm able to (generally) look past the racism inherent in the old pulp stories of H. P. Lovecraft or Robert E. Howard, Hubbard's use of "Asians" as the go-to bad guys really put me off for some reason."Final Enemy" is mildly more successful, owing somewhat to its short length. There's a nice twist at the end, and the Asians are presented in a better light here. It's nice enough, I guess, but not enough on which to recommend the entire book.The longest story by far—running as long as the other two combined—is "The Automagic Horse", and is a vastly different animal. Where the first two are outer-space stories, this one features a group of Hollywood effects people whose special effects studio is a front for building a rocket ship. But the plot revolves around the construction and fate of a mechanical horse. I liked this one for the most part, too, though it turned fairly predictable halfway through. There was one rather sexist line that didn't bug me as much as it probably should :) though it did stick out.There is one aspect about this book that bugged the heck out of me, though I've tried not to let it influence my review, as it has nothing to do with the stories themselves. Rather, it has do with Galaxy Press's presentation of the stories. The book itself is roughly 150 pages long; 100 of that is comprised of the three stories. The rest is basically devoted to praising L. Ron Hubbard and/or pimping the rest of the "Golden Age" series. There's an introduction by Kevin J. Anderson, an absurdly-brief preview of another volume in the series, and a lengthy biography on L. Ron Hubbard. Oh, and did I mention that Galaxy Press is run by the Church of Scientology? According to Wikipedia, many of the "facts" put forth by the Church of Scientology regarding Hubbard's life are either unconfirmed or just plain false, and the biography in this book is ridiculously hyperbolic. In short, the whole endeavor feels like a money-grab, right down to the "subscribe now!" postcard bound into the middle of the book. Preserving Hubbard's old pulp stories in book format is a worthy enterprise, and it's a good-looking little book, but $10 for 100 pages of mediocre story is milking it. (And there are 80 volumes!) Consolidating everything into, say, a dozen $30 hardcovers would seem like a much more honest approach.Overall though, it's just not a strong batch of stories. Certainly not worth the $10 cover price, but this and other volumes might be worth picking up used for a couple bucks if you're interested in pulp-era stories. [2 out of 5 stars]