January 30, 2012
The title story of this Hubbard pulp fiction reissue isn’t actually the most interesting of the three pulse-pounding long short stories in the collection. That distinction goes to “The Squad That Never Came Back,” recounted in flashbacks by an unnamed corporal in the Foreign Legion stationed in Morocco. The opening pulls readers in: “Back in Sidi-bel-Abbès they still think that my squad and I died in a miserable outpost on the northern slope of the High Atlas Mountains.” The narrator reveals that he alone survived to tell the tale, and proceeds to relate how the remains of men dead only two years were found buried in an ancient Roman city after his squad became obsessed with buried treasure. The suspense is markedly more heightened than in “Hell’s Legionnaire,” which almost instantly presents an attractive woman falling into the clutches of a lecherous villain, who literally licks his lips at having her in his power.
February 27, 2012
The pulp fictions of the late Hubbard—who wrote numerous New York Times bestsellers and founded the Church of Scientology—are immeasurably improved for modern audiences in these entertaining full-cast radio dramas, complete with slick production, sound effects, and rousing musical themes straight out of a Saturday serial. In this collection of stories—which includes a bodice-ripper action piece with a stock bad guy and a damsel in distress—the capable cast turns in a series of polished performances. The collection’s high point is “The Squad That Never Came Back,” a gripping story of greed and death narrated by the sole survivor of a Foreign Legion contingent based in Morocco. Fans of radio dramas and the pulp novels of 1930s and 1940s will be delighted. A Galaxy paperback.