The Great Secret

Written by L. Ron Hubbard

Narrated by Bruce Boxleitner and R.F. Daley

Fanner Marston is on the verge of uncovering the key to gaining absolute control over the universe. The only problem is, he's certifiably insane. Driven by greed and lust for power, all he cares about is reaching the ancient city of Parva — and finding The Great Secret of absolute power. But the writing's on the walls of Parva — and you won't believe what it says. Blast off on a head-trip you'll never forget as the audio version of The Great Secret takes you inside the mind of a man who is crazy with lust for power.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Galaxy Audio
• Release date: Apr 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9781592124558

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.

Reviews for The Great Secret

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Meh. Very few stories and none of them really floated my boat.

[jmourgos · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First Impressions:

Behind a veil of science fiction trappings come four stories from pulp fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, a collection of shorts that originally appeared in various magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, when kids during the Great Depression and WWII took some comfort in these fanciful stories.

I've collected or read these kinds of stories for some time now, and found that both Hubbard's and Heinlein's stories teach us lessons of the human condition, each with its own themes of redemption or honor -- or in some cases defeat!

What's In Here?

« The title story The Great Secret was not super exciting but did give a lot of description of one Fanner Marsten, an amoral thief and adventurer, who apparently has killed for the honor of discovering a lost city on a distant planet. Dying of hunger and thirst, he treks cross desert wastes and finds the ancient city. The city with the great secret.

« The "great secret" is on a huge poster, cut into metal. What it says was quite a surprised to me. And to a greedy bastard like Marsten!


Cute video of the first story, interviewing the main character. Liquor! Women! Power! LOL!

« The second story dealt with a skirmish in a war between Saturn and Earth. Clearly a juvenile story, a captain with a love for his vessel, his pride for it, his grief for the loss of it, and his eventual redemption was interesting, but is the weakest of the four stories. Who the enemy was, why the war, and so on is not covered. What's covered is personality and grit and determination.

« The third story I enjoyed the most of all: The Beast! A cocky hunter on Venus, aka the great white hunter (the natives call him), yet he runs into an impossible animal that fights him at every turn, beats him mercilessly and he barely escapes. The natives stop worshipping him and stop following his commands, as the beast kills men, women and children of the village. Here's a story of what courage is based, and that courage is not based on cocky over-confidence. Interesting twist ending I didn't see coming.

« The last tale is about a subjugated Earth called 'Slaver.' A slave ship lands on Earth and collects many men, women and children -- and an elite man by the name of Kree Lorin. As in the other story, he too was arrogant, proud and self-assured -- and stepping his heel on the lower classes -- until captured by the slaver and found out what it was like to be beaten and ground into the nearest slave hole! Hubbard could have easily made this into a novelette -- such potential at the end to continue Kree's adventure. I was disappointed when it was done.

Throughout these four stories are the themes of overconfidence, fear of losing and eventual or potential salvation of the protagonists.

The stories are typical pulp -- not heavy drawn-out plots, no complex characterization. Great for a quick tale while waiting for a bus or having some time to kill at a doctor's office.

Galaxy Press has reprinted dozens of these -- I'd take advantage.

Other Galaxy Press Books:

The Professor Was a Thief (Stories from the Golden Age)
The Iron Duke (Stories from the Golden Age)

And the Writers of the Future anthology series:

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. 22