The Sky-Crasher


Book Description

They don't call him Caution Jones for nothing. An ace pilot, ever since his barnstorming father was killed in an air stunt, Jones has stuck strictly to business—as the no-nonsense general manager of Trans-Continental Airlines. But, like Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper, he's about to find that, sometimes, if you want to get anywhere, you have to throw caution to the wind. The race is on for a monster contract: the U.S. Postal Service. But to get it, Trans-Continental will have to circle the globe and beat its top competitor to the prize. And there's only one pilot with the skill to do it: Caution Jones. He'll have to dust off his wings and soar to heights even his father never dreamed of. The wild blue yonder has never been wilder as Jones discovers that the competition will go to any length to bring his plane down. But an even greater challenge sits in his own cockpit—his co-pilot. She's blonde, she's brazen, and she just might get Caution Jones to take the biggest risk of all. . . . L. Ron Hubbard, the pilot, was a sensation in his flying days. As an article in the July 1934 issue of The Pilot magazine said, "Wherever two or three pilots are gathered together around the Nation's Capital, whether it be a Congressional hearing, or just in the back of some hangar, you'll probably hear the name of Ron Hubbard mentioned . . . for the flaming haired pilot hit the city like a tornado a few years ago and made women scream and strong men weep by his aerial antics. He just dared the ground to come up and hit him." And straight from the cockpit to the typewriter, Hubbard brought all the thrills and chills of his flight experience to his stories. Includes the aviation adventure Boomerang Bomber, in which a former U.S. Army officer undertakes a mission for the Chinese only to end up in the crosshairs of Japan's Imperial military. In a world of double- and triple-crosses, this is one conflict that can only be settled in battle . . . in the sky. “Wild adventure.” —The Midwest Book Review




The Sky-Crasher (Stories from the Golden Age)


Book Description

Caution is a second-generation ace pilot desperately trying to bury his past and the memories of his father? a daredevil barnstormer who perished trying to wow crowds and killed Caution's mother from the shock. Now Caution has worked his way up the ladder as an ultra-efficient, ultra-conservative general manager of a small airline struggling to ...




Sabotage in the Sky


Book Description

Bill Trevillian is as ruggedly handsome as he is bold and brave. Kip Lee is as strikingly beautiful as she is fiery and fearless. And they’ve got something in common. They’re both test pilots . . . for rival aviation companies. Put them together and, like a young Tracy and Hepburn, sparks are bound to fly. The Second World War is raging in Europe, and England and France are looking to America for a fighter plane to match up with the superior Nazi Messerschmitt. The competition between Bill and Kip is fierce, and the stakes are stratospheric. Because there’s an added element in the mix: a deadly saboteur. People say all’s fair in love and war, but when there’s Sabotage in the Sky, the flight path from heated rivalry to heated romance could lead Bill and Kip to crash and burn. “If you crave air adventure written by an airman who knows what a hot plane can do, don’t miss Sabotage in the Sky,” wrote the editor introducing the story in 1940. And Hubbard’s knowledge proved prophetic—unknown to the FBI, the German intelligence service, the Abwehr, was actively gathering intelligence about American military aircraft designs and manufacturing. The author also had personal aviation experience, earning a reputation as a daredevil pilot barnstorming across the United States, landing in farmer’s fields and skimming over the top of telephone wires—experiences he put to good use as a well-known aviation correspondent and one of the most accomplished writers of aviation adventure.




When I Fell From the Sky


Book Description

On Christmas Eve 1971, the packed LANSA flight 508 from Lima to Pucallpa was struck by lightning and went down in dense jungle hundreds of miles from civilization. Of its 93 passengers, only one survived. Juliane Koepcke, the seventeen-year-old child of famous German zoologists. She'd been thrown from the plane two miles above the forest canopy, but had sustained only a broken collarbone and a cut on her leg. With incredible courage, instinct and ingenuity, she survived three weeks in the "green hell" of the Amazon - using the skills she'd learned in assisting her parents on their research trips into the jungle - before coming across a loggers hut, and, with it, safety. Now she tells her fascinating story for the first time, and in doing so tells us about her 'Gerald Durrell' childhood - with a menagerie of wild, exotic and sometimes dangerous pets - about how she learned to survive at her parents ecological station deep in the rainforest and about her present-day commitment to this wildlife as a biologist and dedicated environmentalist.




Unearthly


Book Description

Something in Southern Florida has been killing and mutilating pets, livestock, and now people. Tabloid reporter, Chris Spencer, has been assigned to cover the story. He and his partner, Crasher, have enlisted the aid of two Native American guides to take them into the murky and deadly Florida swamps. One of the guides, Samantha, is as beautiful as she is mysterious and Chris quickly falls for her. He hopes that, with Sam's help, he'll be able to discover what sort of strange and unknown creature makes the desolate woods and marshland its home. Sam is moody and secretive throughout the trip, leaving Chris to wonder whether or not he can trust her. She says she believes that the legendary chupacabra is responsible for the mutilations, while Chris leans more towards the possibility of some other new and deadly species being the cause. Sam knows more than she's telling however, and Chris is about to have the shock of his life because the cause of these mutilations is something he could never have imagined. Something is out there... Something unnatural... Something deadly... Something...unearthly.




The Sky is Yours


Book Description

Navigating their burned-out, futuristic city home under constant threat from a pair of dragons circling the skies, three young people are forced to flee and confront challenges ranging from fire and conspiracies to taboo drugs and dragon-worshippers.




Under the Black Ensign


Book Description

Long before Captain Jack Sparrow raised hell with the Pirates of the Caribbean, Tom Bristol sailed to hell and back Under the Black Ensign. That’s where the real adventure begins. Bristol’s had plenty of bad luck in his life. Press-ganged into serving aboard a British vessel, he’s felt the cruel captain’s lash on his back. Then, freed from his servitude by pirates, his good fortune immediately takes a bad turn . . . as the pirates accuse him of murder—and leave him to die on a deserted island. Now all he has left are a few drops of water, a gun, and just enough bullets to put himself out of his misery. But Bristol’s luck is about to change. Finding himself in the unexpected company of a fiery woman and a crafty crew, he unsheathes his sword, raises a pirate flag of his own, and sets off to make love and war on the open seas. In his early twenties, Hubbard led the two-and-a-half-month, five-thousand-mile Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition. He followed that with the West Indies Mineralogical Expedition near San Juan, Puerto Rico, in which he completed the island’s first mineralogical survey as an American territory. It was during these two journeys that Hubbard became an expert on the Caribbean’s colorful history—an expertise he drew on to write stories like Under the Black Ensign. “A riveting tale of sailing ships, piracy and the high seas.” —Midwest Book Review * A National Indie Excellence Award Winner




Mouthpiece


Book Description

Imagine that your father is one of New York City’s top gangsters, and that you want nothing to do with him or his criminal empire. Now imagine he’s been murdered . . . and the only person who gives a damn is you. Meet Mat Lawrence, a stand-up guy—think Gary Cooper—who’s got one thing on his mind: revenge. The last place Mat wants to go is back to New York, but that’s where the killers are, and he won’t stop until they’re dead . . . or he is. And there’s only one man who can help him track them down: his father’s criminal attorney—the Mouthpiece. But there’s more than a desire for revenge at play in this deadly game. When Mat’s old man went down, a million dollars went missing. Put it all together—a cold-blooded murder and a cool million gone—and it’s a pretty good bet that the one thing Mat is sure to find is some serious heat. Mouthpiece was originally published in the September, 1934, edition of Thrilling Detective. That same year, as the youngest writer ever to serve as president of the New York Chapter of the American Fiction Guild, L. Ron Hubbard sought to promote greater accuracy in the writing of detective and mystery stories. To that end he invited the coroner to speak to the Guild members over lunch. He later recounted that “they would go away from the luncheon the weirdest shade of green.” But, we can assume, they also went away better informed. Years later, expanding his studies in the area, Hubbard became a special officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. Also includes the tales of mystery, Flame City, the story of one man’s harrowing attempt to save his father and the city from a serial arsonist; Calling Squad Cars!, in which a police dispatcher goes to extraordinary lengths to bring down a gang of bank robbers after he is accused of working with them; and Grease Spot, the story of a former racecar driver, now the owner of a wrecking company, who plays fast and loose with the police . . . and may have to pay for it. * A Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award Winner




Orders is Orders


Book Description

The doomed Chinese city of Shunkien was being systematically destroyed. Japan’s war machine was pounding wreckage into ashes—wiping out a city that had thrived since the time of Genghis Khan. One of the few buildings still standing is the American consulate where one hundred and sixteen US refugees are facing almost certain death, either from high explosives, the ravages of starvation or Asiatic cholera. Unbeknownst to the refugees, their fate rests in the hands of two US Marines—Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell and Private Spivits—and their ability to negotiate two hundred miles of occupied territory in order to bring desperately needed gold and medicine, while overcoming bullets, dive bombers, butchery and Mitchell's own personal nemesis and deadly vice—alcohol. Add to these seemingly insurmountable odds, a seductive American fan-dancer who hitches along for the ride and saving the lives of the hostages is far from a fait accompli. As a young man, Hubbard visited Manchuria, where his closest friend headed up British intelligence in northern China. Hubbard gained a unique insight into the hostile political climate between China and Japan—a knowledge that informs stories like Orders Is Orders. In addition, he served as a First Sergeant with the 20th United States Marine Corps Reserve—giving him first-hand knowledge of what it means to be a Marine. “Demonstrating his unique ability to relate even to the most complicated story with a keen eye for detail and realism, Hubbard’s stunning writing ability and creative imagination set him apart as one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century.” —Publishers Weekly




Sci-Fi / Fantasy 10th Anniversary Book Collection (One Was Stubborn, The Tramp, If I Were You and The Great Secret)


Book Description

For SF and fantasy enthusiasts who love to escape to unknown worlds. As a master of the art of narrative and one of the leaders in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, L. Ron Hubbard’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories helped reshape the future of speculative fiction. The universe is yours as you explore fabulous worlds of unfolding mystery and unlimited potential. Discover the herald of possibility in these out-of-this-world adventures. The 4-book collection includes 10 short stories along with illustrations from the original publications and glossaries of hard-to-find terms. The titles and short stories in this collection are: The Great Secret (includes: “Space Can,” “The Beast” and “The Slaver”), If I Were You (includes: “The Last Drop”), One Was Stubborn (includes: “A Can of Vacuum” and “240,000 Miles Straight Up”) and The Tramp. “A super-writer of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.” —A. E. van Vogt -- L. Ron Hubbard