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Greed

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Is Greed good? The future of Earth and all of mankind may hang on that one question. And George Marquis Lorrilard—a space age ace-pilot, adventurer and fortune-hunter to rival Hans Solo of Star Wars—is just the man to answer it.

The world is divided between Asia and the United Continents—two great super powers locked in eternal warfare. But the balance of power is about to shift in Asia's favor. They have developed a top-secret weapon—the cohesion projector–that could lead to annihilation on an unprecedented scale....

But as far as Lorrilard is concerned, the number one problem with the projector is that it stands in the way of his profits. Can he find a way to subvert the powerful weapon and resume his enterprising exploits through leadership and self deception? For millions of people on Earth survival may ultimately depend on the power of one man's need speed and Greed.

Greed was the last L. Ron Hubbard story published in Astounding Science Fiction in April 1950, marking the end of an era. Over a decade before, he had been a key figure in the opening of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Now, as he turned his attention to other writings, the Golden Age drew to a close. But some three decades after this story appeared, Hubbard would make a triumphant return to the field with the publication of his bestselling novel Battlefield Earth and the extraordinary ten-volume series Mission Earth.

Also includes the science fiction adventures, The Final Enemy, in which Earth discovers it faces a distant, yet devastating new foe, the identity of which is the most shocking blow of all, and The Automagic Horse, the story of a Hollywood special effects wizard who is about to apply his movie magic to a project that is out of this world.

"A wonderfully rich and textured experience, complete with realistic sound effects and moody atmospheric music." —Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award winner for 2008

New York Times Bestselling Author

L. Ron Hubbard Fiction Book

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 4, 2011
      This slim volume of three stories and a novel excerpt from the 1950s is part of an ongoing 80-volume collection of short stories by the prolific and controversial Dianetics guru, L. Ron Hubbard (1911â1986). He had numerous adventures, and the works here all star his avatars: daring, magnetic, flawed personalities who exploit the weaknesses of their opponents against enormous odds. The dated gee-whiz narrative voice falls flat in "Greed" and "The Automagic Horse," achieves terminal pomposity in "Final Enemy," and dominates the four-page snippet of Beyond All Weapons, an account of a Martian colony's revolt against an oppressive Mother Earth. (The whole novel can be ordered, a not-so-discreet footnote announces.) Even a glossary of 1950s catchphrases can't make this highly commercial promo for Galaxy's "Golden Age Book Club" relevant to 21st-century readers.

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2011
      This volume in Galaxy Press ongoing project to revive Hubbard's pulp fiction collects three stories originally published in 1949 and 1950. Greed features an officer in the United Continents Space Navy whose greed for power and conquest winds up benefiting all humanity. A morality tale posing as a war story, it's an uncharacteristically weak effort (sf was usually one of Hubbard's strong suits). Better is Final Enemy, a twist-ending story in which Captain Bristol and the crew of Argonaut VI search for signs of alien invaders, only to find out said aliens are a lot closer to home than anyone had suspected. In The Automagic Horse, a special-effects wizard is handed the tough assignment for his latest movie of building a photorealistic, mechanical horse. But Gadget O'Dowd has a secret assignment as well, one that could catapult him to the stars. Of the three stories, this is the most enjoyable, entertaining, and lightheartedand the least encumbered by moralizing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

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Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:910
  • Text Difficulty:4-5

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